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 3.152:(Cumulative release notes since 3.120 are here
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Beta)
-------------------
* added parameterized version of knowledge cheat: "Give Me K,x" (where x is an integer >= -50000 and <= 50000) changes using player's knowledge by x.
* added parameterized version of ai progress cheat: "Get Angry,x" (where x is an integer >= -2000 and <= 2000) changes AIP by x.
* Previously engine-damage-focused units would not sustain fire properly on engine-dead targets if there were only engine-dead targets left. Fixed so that they should keep firing in that case.
* Previously holding shift to place multiple copies of the same construction template did not work well with the snap-to-wormhole feature. Fixed.
* Fixed a bug where the predicted path of ships on the galaxy map (shown when hovering the mouse over another planet) was different from the path actually executed by issuing a move order via right-clicking the target planet.
* Fixed some potential desyncs for cases where a player played a game, quit it without quitting the application, and joined a multiplayer game.
* The amount of available knowledge per planet has been increased from 2,000 to 2,500 to account for the influx of all the cool new technologies that people are able to play with. This also rebalances the game a bit in light of recent difficulty increases, and further marginalizes the need for knowledge raiding on any sort of regular basis.
* Science Lab MkIII AI reinforcement bonuses no longer stack.
* Fixed a bug in game-loading code that was confusing the values of CloakingPartialCount and CloakingRechargeCount.
* Made a rather notable performance improvement to ship explosions (which are just visual, not part of the simulation itself):
o Explosions on other planets or otherwise out of your view no longer actually happen, thus saving a goodly amount of sim CPU load when taken in aggregate.
o When in far zoom, the little debris is too small to see with explosions anyway, so it now doesn't render that, either. That only happens on larger ships anyway, but this saves the GPU and CPU load of both generating and then rendering this. A much more minor update than the first, but still notable.
* Transports are now such a core part of the game that they are something to always unlock. Thus that was simply a penalty of 1000 knowledge that always had to be incurred. Transports no longer have to be unlocked.
* Mobile Repair Stations are far more powerful than they once were; their knowledge cost has been increased from 2,000 to 4,000. Their metal and crystal costs have also been tripled, to 18,000 and 9,000, respectively. Their health has also been reduced from 390k to 300k. This encourages players to not lose them, and keep them near but not right on top of the front lines, which thus makes them not so overpowered.
* The knowledge costs of engineer drones mark II and III have now been reduced by 1,000 each.
* Mobile builders now use 0 energy instead of 1500. Cleanup Drones now use 0 energy instead of 150, and Remains Rebuilders now use 0 energy instead of 1500. Engineer drones now use 1000, 500, and 250 energy for marks I-III instead of 4000, 2000, and 1000. The experimental engineer now uses 4000 energy instead of 12000.
o These changes all make it more effective to keep a larger fleet of the various sorts of engineers around, whereas before there was too much incentive to need to micro them when energy was low.
* The energy cost of the missile silo has been increased from 40k to 80k.
* The energy cost of all the starship lines has been doubled, except for the raid and leech starship lines.
* The attack power of the fortress has been halved, but the number of shots it gets has been quadrupled.
* The number of shots that the superfortress gets has been doubled.
* The knowledge cost of unlocking the flagship has been reduced from 2000 to 1000.
* The knowledge cost of unlocking the spire starship has been increased from 4000 to 6000.
* The knowledge cost of unlocking the Mark I dreadnought has been increased from 1000 to 1500.
* The knowledge cost of unlocking the Riot Control Starships have been increased from 1500, 2250, and 3250 for Marks I-III to 2500, 3500, a 4500.
* The knowledge costs of Tractor Beam II and III turrets have been increased from 1000 and 2000 respectively to 2000 and 4000.
* The knowledge costs of Gravitational Turrets III and III have been reduced from 4000 and 6000 to 3000 and 4000.
* The knowledge costs of Laser Turret II and III have been increased from 2000 and 3000 to 2500 and 3500.
* The knowledge costs of MLRS Turrets II and III have been reduced from 2500 and 3500 to 2000 and 3000.
* The knowledge cost of the Counter-Missile Turret has been increased from 2250 to 4000. The effective range of counter-missile turrets has been increased from 1400 to 6000.
* The effective range of Counter-Dark-Matter Turrets has been increased from 1400 to 8000, and the effective range of Counter-Sniper Turrets has been increased from 1400 to 4000.
* The metal/crystal costs of all the Counter turrets has been quadrupled, and the energy use of them has all been doubled.
* The health of Mark II Leech Starships has been increased from 160k to 320k, and the health of Mark III Leech Starships has been increased from 160k to 480k.
* The following munitions boosting range changes have been made:
o Light Starship from 900 to 3000.
o Flagship from 1100 to 4000.
o Zenith Starship from 1200 to 5000.
o Spire Starship from 1400 to 6000.
o Core Starship from 1600 to 8000.
o Mark I Munitions Boosters from 1200 to 5000.
o Mark II Munitions Boosters from 1400 to 6000.
o Mark III Munitions Boosters from 1600 to 7000.
o Mark IV Munitions Boosters from 1800 to 8000.
* The munitions boosters are only able to boost a certain number of ships based on the "circular area" of those ships compared to the range of the munitions booster. By increasing the ranges so much, that would therefore have made munitions boosters vastly more powerful.
o Instead, the circular area that is actually allowed has now been divided by 6.
o This actually weakens the lower-end munitions boosters by a bit (in terms of how many ships they can boost), but at the same time their vastly increased range makes it so that (such) precision placement of them is no longer needed for the optimal effect on a fleet, and the highest-tier munitions boosters are actually stronger than they were before.
o The overall effect is thus to make these far easier to use effectively, and to create more of a power gradation between the lower-tier ones and the higher-tier ones.
* The following shield boosting range changes have been made:
o Mark I Shield Boosters from 600 to 3000.
o Mark II Shield Boosters from 800 to 4000.
o Mark III Shield Boosters from 1000 to 5000.
o Mark IV Shield Boosters from 1200 to 6000.
* Previously, shield boosters did not have any limits on how many shields they could boost; they were simply limited by their incredibly small boosting ranges. Now they follow a "circular area" limitation that is exactly like that of the munitions boosters.
