Prerelease 3.150 (Knowledge/Lab Changes)

[x4000]

Note: as of version 3.145, these betas contain BOTH new networking code as well as arithmetic overflow checking.  See that link for the possible consequences to both.  We really appreciate any errors you report on these, as they are both notable changes, but the intent is for them both to lead to long-term better performance and fewer errors in a few niche areas in general.  Already that seems to be the case, but as with any major change of this sort, there is some risk of making things worse for a brief time before they get better. 

If you're worried about it, best thing to do is back up your copy of AIWar.exe and AIWar.pdb from 3.144 or 3.120 or whatever before you upgrade to 3.145.  That way if you do run into a show-stopper, you can always report it, revert to the older build, and keep playing.  Hopefully there will be no showstoppers, but there you go.

The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.060 or greater of the game.  Just open the game and you can quickly download the prerelease through the updates tab.  If you don't yet have 3.060 or greater, you can download 3.060 here.  This prerelease version is compatible with any vendor's version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.

Note:  If you have bug reports related to this release, please log them in the bug reports subforum with one bug per topic.  It makes things infinitely easier for us.  Thanks!

Looking for a Patch That Can Be Manually-Installed?
Because of the time involved in creating multiple versions of each patch, we only create manually-installable patches for official versions of the game, not each beta prerelease.  But you can easily create your own manually-installable beta patch!  Please note that current betas can only be successfully applied to version 3.060 of the game or later (if you later wish to revert to the official version for any reason, you can download the full raw files from the above link to do so).

To create your own manual beta patch, simply download these two files:
1. Current Beta Director Xml File.
2. Current Beta Zip File.

If you try to open that zip file, it will say it's corrupt -- that's okay, it's not really a zip file.  Finally, create a new zip file on your computer, and put both the director and the fake-zip-file inside it.  Call your outer zip file something that starts with Beta and ends with an extension of .zip.  Beta.zip will work just fine, or you can name it after the specific version number if you want to hang onto it.  And that's it!  Now you have your very own manually-installable package of the AI War beta version of your choice, which you can install by simply selecting via your Updates window in the game.  Please note that "Beta" in the filename is case-sensitive.

What's new since 3.149:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.120 are here http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Beta)

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    *  Fixed bug where crystal harvesters were not properly auto-rebuilding if there were no _metal_ harvest points eligible for auto-rebuilding.

    * Added "Auto Gather Knowledge (Science Only)" to the context menu. When executed, selected science ships will be automatically issued the following orders:
          o if not on friendly planet, no orders
          o else if on friendly planet but there's knowledge left to get, and not under a strong forcefield:
                + if command station is under strong forcefield, set destination to that forcefield
                + else if there are allied forcefields on the planet, set destination for the one nearest to the command station
                + else set destination for the command station
          o else if there's a planet I can reach through a friendly-planet-only path that has knowledge left to get, set destination to the nearest one (if there are more than one equidistant it picks the first one in the list every time, no random, so groups on one planet will all go to the same other planet).
          o else no orders (but periodically check again)
          o (note: friendly planet is defined as a planet with an orbital command station owned by a player on the same team as the science ship's owner)

    * Added "Snap To Wormhole" toggle to the "Build From Construction Template" context menu.
          o If this on while you are placing a construction template it will snap the cursor to the closest wormhole within 2000 range units (if any).

    * Science Lab MkI, MkII and Advanced Research Stations now all cause 1 AIP on death.

[WinterBorn]

Can science labs be scrapped w/o AIP increase??

[Fleet]

This would seem to make getting knowledge against the one-way doormaster AI type an AIP-heavy task. Either you send multiple in and take the extra AIP, or send one in but with a bunch of military ships that will guard it, and then go on a suicide mission, or at most clear the system. Should this just be considered an extra hazard of playing against this AI type, cause if it is I'm all for it.

I'm afraid of the effect this will have on traditional knowledge raids.

[Buttons840]

Alas, I did shoot myself in the foot.  I complained about knowledge raiding requiring to much attention and now I'll have to pay even closer attention.

[rubikscube]

Awesome Fix and i like how started a new thread instead of changing the 3.145 thread though waiting for the science lab to go to friendly planet sounds kind of slow, and can't prioritize planets, but all planets are the same! cool fix and more attention when raiding, though still cloakable i assume so 

[Ozymandiaz]

Not sure I like AIP loss on labs, I generally loose labs every now and again when I have them with me into hostile planets.

To me this means I must neuter the entire planet I want knowledge from to safeguard the labs (more so when capturing ARS planets), since I do not want any more AIP then I absolutly need, and probartly still have lots of cloaking starships with them for good measure. Or just use 1 lab and wait it out.

Kind of seems I need to micro the labs a lot more then I used to.


Now, I have not tested it yet, so this is only my initial thoughts on AIP loss on labs. I will test it with my current game later on, maybe it will work out.

(I was one of the guys who voted for "knowledge gathering is just fine ;P)

[Ktoff]

Alas, I did shoot myself in the foot.  I complained about knowledge raiding requiring to much attention and now I'll have to pay even closer attention.

:-D And so it goes...

Sooner or later, the whole mechanism will probably be revamped anyways...

[superking]

*now* we need that tough as nails MKIII science vessel 

[keith.lamothe]

The scrapping part seems ok to me, but the one-way-doormaster case is more of a problem, thanks for pointing that out.  Could get around that by making science ships immune to black hole machines, though may just revert the AIP thing back until we figure out what (if anything) to do in general.  Problem there is no matter what solution is proposed for k-raiding (including leaving it as-is), someone dissents (which is fine) or even gets upset about it (which is frustrating), so we developers may wind up doing some lateral thinking on that and mess with y'all in general

But yea, maybe we could have a mkIII science ship that's basically a fortress with the science ship fins on the bottom

[Aegis]

An actual fortress.. with SMARTS! Aegis Approved!

[Fleet]

Immunity to black hole machines is a nice fix.

Perhaps, only MkI sci vessels / ARS should cause the ai progress increase? Mk II sci vessels could then be a knowledge-unlock, or 0k but heavy on energy/mineral/crystal, the benefit of which you don't have to worry about AIP-on-death.

[Winter Born]

Well this is a quick 1st pass - the thread was 7 pages long

Knowledge is probably the single most important asset in the game as most good things need to be unlocked with it, all improvements (Mk2-4) are bought with it, and you can't get more of it by waiting - you have to go get it.

Most of my mid-game strategy is based on taking key planets that are bases for getting more Kn from "raiding" adjacent planets.
Once my base planet is established it is a rinse-and-repeat operation to gather Kn from the surrounding planets. I am guaranteed to get the Kn just by getting sci-labs onto the target planet (even if I have to do it over and over and over getting a few hundred Kn at a time). The method is personal taste (cloaking, WH turret ball FF combo, etc). The result is guaranteed with persistence, and that may be the core issue.

   If the knowledge available from a system is at risk of being destroyed then getting that Kn becomes uncertain. Uncertainty, risk, loss all make things interesting imo.

Consider the idea posted of Kn caches. The structure (cache) holding the systems Kn could be something you could choose to retrieve to a safe system (raid) or could empty with sci-labs at a distance (current mechanic). To make retrieval more desirable Sci-labs at a distance would gather knowledge at a declining rate down to a floor rate of 10% as the systems remaining Kn gets smaller (slow but certain method). Or perhaps sci-labs at a distance can only ever gather 75% of a systems knowledge (you have to cap the system or successfully cap the cache to get the remaining 100%).

 Possibly a few "bonus caches" could be scattered around like the zenith resource caches are scattered around - you don't know what is inside and it may be negative (releases a horde of AI core ships) , and it costs AIP to open.

Anyway to restate: The certainty of getting all 2000 Kn thru persistence with little to no risk may be the core issue with the current system.

[keith.lamothe]

Some sort of risk-based system would be interesting.  But there are a lot of players who want less trouble from getting knowledge, not more, so still sorting through all that.  I think something could be worked out that would simply be more _fun_, and hopefully the must-have-automated-k-raiding crowd could be talked off the ledge fast enough

And to the specific question of a risk-based system, I'd say that would be something to look in later, rather than make that drastic of a shift as a first try.  But it is interesting.

[Adetia]

Idea: Knowledge Cache- Causes X AIP increase but gives 10% of all unobtained knowledge in the galaxy to all players.

So I have 40 Planets I haven't gathered knowledge from: blowing it up gives AIP progress but gives all players 8k knowledge and sets all of those planets to 1800 knowledge.

Thoughts?

[x4000]

We've got a very new knowledge-raiding mechanic coming in the next prerelease, stay tuned for that.   More details in a while!