The latest prerelease is available at
http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar2001C.zipThat version is an upgrade from version 2.000, so you have to already have 2.000 (or greater) installed. Just unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else). Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.
F.A.Q. Answers:1. If you have the base game, and install this, you will go into trial mode of the expansion. Feel free to explore the expansion that way, but if you want to go back to full mode without buying the expansion, simply go into Settings, Expansions, and turn off the expansion.
2. All upcoming prereleases for the next few months (until the expansion fully releases) will have a mix of both expansion and non-expansion content. If you just want the latest non-expansion content, see #1.
3. If you want to preorder the expansion (and get your full license key), see
this page. It's $9.99 USD (or equivalent), and requires a valid copy of the base game to play.
4. If you want to know all about the expansion in general, see that same page.
5. This prerelease version is compatible with any other version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.
6. If you use this with your Steam copy of the game, however, you will be asked to enter your AI War CD key (which Steam provides, but normally you do not have to enter), and also the integration with Steamworks leaderboards and achievements may be disabled. So you may want to make a separate install of the preorder version if you use Steam, at least for the moment.
What's new since 2.001B:(Cumulative release notes since 2.000 are attached at the bottom)
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-Golems are now immune to sniper shots and minor electric shots, and can no longer be boosted by munitions boosters.
-Since version 2.0, it was possible to select ships that were not your own (and not belonging to a disabled player) by single-clicking them. Fixed.
-The internals of the wave name logic have been revamped so that they are more consistent and accurate, and so that they are now fully localization-friendly. Additionally, waves now show what tech level they are, since now with the new Raid Engines the tech level of waves can vary by planet. Waves that are incoming to non-visible planets now still show up in the list of incoming warps, but with a destination of "
" Previously, those waves showed up in the wave count, but not in the list of incoming waves.
-New expansion-only Ship: Raid Engine. Launches brutal waves against its own planet or any adjacent planets, if those planets are not controlled by AI players, or if the human players have a significant fleet there. If human players don't have warp sensors on these planets, the waves may well arrive unanncounced. These waves arrive around every four minutes, contain a broad mix of AI ships, and use the tech level of the planet if that is higher than the current wave level for the controlling AI player.
-New expansion-only AI type: Raid Engine. Uses Raid Engines on a huge number of their planets. Makes for very frequent, short-term brutal waves in addition to the normal waves unless players carefully kill these engines.
-New expansion-only Ship: Alarm Post. When an AI Command Station is destroyed on the alarm post's planet, or an adjacent planet, all of the guards at the current planet will desert their posts and go on the attack. If the alarm post itself is attacked and destroyed, there is only a 50% chance of it alerting the guards.
-New expansion-only Ship: Special Forces Alarm Post. When an AI Command Station is destroyed on the alarm post's planet, or an adjacent planet, all of the "special forces" ships in the entire galaxy will turn aggressive and attack the humans. If the alarm post itself is attacked and destroyed, there is only a 50% chance of it alerting the special forces ships.
-New expansion-only AI type: Alarmist. Uses alarm posts (special forces or regular) on all of their planets. Makes for massive cross-planet attacks unless players carefully kill these alarms.
-An icon is now shown for wormholes at far zoom, making them far easier to click (previously players had to zoom all the way in to effectively click them). Holding the Ctrl key now pops the far zoom icon to the front, as well as the text.
-New AI Type: Random Harder Non-Technologist. A random AI type that includes only the higher-difficulty types, but none of the "technologist" types.
-New AI Type: Random All Non-Technologist. A random AI type that includes all types except the technologist types.
-New AI Modifier: Reveal Random AI Types. When a random AI type is chosen, the name of the randomly-selected will be visible to players (normally it would be obscured).
-The range of spire starships has been increased from 3000 to 7000. The speed of the spire starships has also been increased from 18 to 24.
-The display of strong/weak data had some glitches in it previously for turrets and starships. Fixed. Starships were still giving nonuseful data, however, so the algorithm for checking those has been changed to a good degree. Future exports of data for starships, heavy defense, golems, and force fields should be more informative.
-All of the tachyon beam emitters, including the tachyon drone and the decloaker, now have mine avoidance to make them a bit more useful and require less micro.
-New expansion-only Starship: Stealth Leech Starship. Same as the base Leech Starship, but cloaked, with a little more health, and double the firepower.
-Three new expansion-only Starships: Cloaker Starship I-III. Very fast starship that cloaks other ships near it, even if those ships normally do not have cloaking.
Revenantus: Expansion price updated.
