The latest prerelease is available at
http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar2001F.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.
7. PLEASE NOTE: The new ships for the expansion are extremely preliminary at this stage. They are fully functional when added, but they are not well balanced at all just yet. The balance takes time, playtesting, and a fuller view of more of the ships. So certain expansion ships are currently underpowered, while others are overpowered. Your feedback on this is extremely valuable, as this is something we are adjusting at present based on community feedback as well as our own testing, but we don't expect to have things even close to perfectly tuned until sometime in December. Our first priority is to get everything working and implemented, while honing the balance as much as possible, then to really heavily polish the balance once all the ships are in place. Just FYI!
What's new since 2.001D:(Cumulative release notes since 2.000 are attached at the bottom)
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-Harvester Exo-Shields can no longer be paused, as previously this encouraged too much micromanagement.
-The time limit on campaigns in the trial of the game and expansion is now 3 hours instead of 1 hour. This is something that has been requested by players as a way to really get a better feel for the game than can be had in a single hour. It's still not enough time to finish even a short campaign, however, so it's not "giving away the farm."
-In previous versions of the game, there was an exceptionally rare bug where players who were fast-clickers in above-averge-lag situations could cause invalid planetary travel paths for ships. Fixed.
-Attrition emitters are now capturable.
-Previously, when ships had queued waypoints for movement, they would decelerate and re-accelerate at each waypoint. Now they don't lose speed when turning.
-There is now a new unified command queue for attack, move, go-through-wormhole, get-in-transport, and assist/repair commands. Previously, there were separate queues for attack, move, and go-through-wormhole commands, but they could not be comingled with one another or with the queue-less commands. Now they can all be comingled as needed, so that a player can (for instance) queue up a series of attacks and then also the escape, without having to micromanage the entire process as it goes to pull something like that off.
-Player-held Attrition Emitters no longer give a bonus to incoming AI waves.
-The attack power of space planes has been increased 5x. They still die extremely quickly, but they now also do a ton more damage to their opponents.
-Laser gatlings have had their attack power reduced by 1/4, as they were previously more than a bit overpowered.
-Vampires have had their health increased 3x, making them much more formidable and able to maintain their attack longer. They are also now immune to sniper shots and missiles, making them able to close distance on most units more effectively.
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Zenith Electric Bomber (and core). Expensive bomber that delivers a tremendous payload, but loses attack power due to interference when too many are on the same planet. Most efficient in groups of 5 or less.
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Sentinel Frigate (and core). Very powerful and expensive frigate with sniper-style shots, that loses attack power due to interference when too many are on the same planet. Most efficient in groups of 2 or less. Also includes an onboard advanced warp sensor.
Changes from prior prereleases.
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-Black Widow Golems and artillery golems now have a 6000 shield rating instead of 0.
-Black Widow Golems now also have 100 tractor beams that reach out and grab nearby units. They also now have 10x more health. They also now cost less AI Progress to repair and rebuild.
-Artillery Golems now have 50 million health instead of 15 million.
EDIT: I realized that the release notes omitted the two new ship classes. Those have been added above to the list, but those are not in the attached release notes or the downloaded release notes for this version. Whoops! Will be in the next one.
EDIT 2: I have added a 2.001F update, now, with the following fixes:- In E, the wormhole commands were always handled as additive in the new unified command queue. Fixed.
- In E, there was a crash bug when certain kinds of wormhole commands were issued. Fixed.
Both of these were basically "stomach transplant" bugs resulting from the new unified command queue.
