Private alpha of Vengeance expansion has started

[keith.lamothe]

FYI, last night I asked some of you if you'd be interested in participating in a private alpha of the next AIW expansion (Vengeance of the Machine) and today I've sent out instructions to those who responded positively (there are those who lack sufficient quantities of this substance known as "time"; I'll take your word for it; I've never had any).

If you didn't get contacted it's not a personal slight or whatever, I was mostly going off the top of my head.  There were also certain Skyward Collapse testers that Chris would kill me if I took them away before SC's release   Also we don't want to wear anyone out and if you're already pouring substantial parts of your days into testing one of our games it might be a bit much to jump right into doing so with another.

Anyway, if you're interested in joining the private alpha please PM me and I'll keep you in mind for the next wave.

It's quite possible that we will skip the public beta phase and just go from private alpha to release (targeting something like June 10th or June 13th for 7.0 and Vengeance's official release), it depends on how stable things seem and such.  This expansion does add some fairly complex new stuff but it's probably easier to test than Fallen Spire or Champions were.  On the other hand we're not 100% decided against a public beta either, it's just a matter of seeing what makes sense.

Those of you in the private alpha, feel free to discuss it with whoever or wherever, just try to be clear if you're talking about something that's expansion-specific so people don't get too confused.

For reference, here's what's been implemented (and in testing) thus far:
- Dual AI Types.  You can give each AI player an additional AI type in the lobby now, if you want to.
- Core Turret Controllers.  Seeded similarly to Fabricators, in all games with this expansion enabled.
- New AI Plot: Hunter
- New AI Plot: Shark
- New Easy AI Type: Chivalric (I know, the adjective form is probably Chivalrous; will deal with that later)
- New Easy AI Type: Bouncer (may not be so easy, we'll see)
- New Medium AI Type: Artillerist
- New Medium AI Type: Exotic
- New Medium AI Type: Reservist
- New Hard AI Type: Vorpal
- New Hard AI Type: Vengeful
- New "Red Hard" AI Type: Vicious Exotic
- New Map Type: Wheel
- New Map Type: Honeycomb

[keith.lamothe]

I should add: if I contacted you and you responded that you wanted in, but I haven't sent you instructions on how to start testing, please PM me again.  I think I got everyone.

[Aklyon]

First! (resolved bug of the expansion)

The vengeful AI is a bit confused right now in the secondary slot, if anyone else tries that.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, apparently it gets a therapist in the secondary slot.  The therapist will be fired in next release.

[Toranth]

The Hunter Plot appears to have issues as well:

Code: [Select]

5/18/2013 2:58:05 PM (6.029) Mem: 166,797,312 Plat:WindowsPlayer
-----------------------------------UnhandledErrors-----------------------------------
5/18/2013 2:58:05 PM (6.029)
-----------------------------------Error-----------------------------------Log String: FixedUpdate: System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Array index is out of range.
  at SpecialForcesLogic.CheckForSpawningHunterUnitsForIntensity (Int32 IntesityToCheck, Int32 ForPlayerNumber, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 CurrentSFUnits, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 ListToPopulate) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SpecialForcesLogic.GetTypesToSpawnForHunterFromPlayer (Int32 specialForcesPostIndex, Int32 hunterPlayerIntensity, Int32 hunterPlayerNumber) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SpecialForcesLogic.PerformPerGameSecondMainThreadLogic () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Game.RunOneCycleOfSimulation () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Game.RunNextCycle (Boolean DoRendering) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Game.RunFrame () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MainCameraLogic.FixedUpdate () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
Stack Trace:   at SpecialForcesLogic.CheckForSpawningHunterUnitsForIntensity (Int32 IntesityToCheck, Int32 ForPlayerNumber, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 CurrentSFUnits, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 ListToPopulate) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SpecialForcesLogic.GetTypesToSpawnForHunterFromPlayer (Int32 specialForcesPostIndex, Int32 hunterPlayerIntensity, Int32 hunterPlayerNumber) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SpecialForcesLogic.PerformPerGameSecondMainThreadLogic () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Game.RunOneCycleOfSimulation () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Game.RunNextCycle (Boolean DoRendering) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Game.RunFrame () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MainCameraLogic.FixedUpdate () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

As an aside, Keith, would you prefer bug reports and feedback to be put here in the forum, in Mantis, or as PMs?

[keith.lamothe]

As an aside, Keith, would you prefer bug reports and feedback to be put here in the forum, in Mantis, or as PMs?

Just like any other bug/feedback really:

- Bugs in mantis (with saves if possible, like in your case with the Hunter error I probably really need a save) and if they're serious and/or related to recent changes (anything expansion-5 is recent) also a link to said mantis in the release thread (or here, for expansion stuff).

- Feedback in the forum unless there's a specific change suggestion in it, where that should go in mantis with a link to it from whatever forum thread you're talking about it in.

[Toranth]

As an aside, Keith, would you prefer bug reports and feedback to be put here in the forum, in Mantis, or as PMs?

Just like any other bug/feedback really:

- Bugs in mantis (with saves if possible, like in your case with the Hunter error I probably really need a save) and if they're serious and/or related to recent changes (anything expansion-5 is recent) also a link to said mantis in the release thread (or here, for expansion stuff).

- Feedback in the forum unless there's a specific change suggestion in it, where that should go in mantis with a link to it from whatever forum thread you're talking about it in.

Very well, then.  Here's the Mantis for the Hunter Plot issue.

[chemical_art]

I already sent you into the logs Keith, but when starting a game at 8/8 with shark and hunter at 10 / 10 with bouncer / chiv ai and reservists / chiv ai I immediately get unhandled errors. They start immediately upon starting the game and continue to occur intermittently.

[keith.lamothe]

I already sent you into the logs Keith, but when starting a game at 8/8 with shark and hunter at 10 / 10 with bouncer / chiv ai and reservists / chiv ai I immediately get unhandled errors. They start immediately upon starting the game and continue to occur intermittently.

Thanks, will try that setup myself then

[Tridus]

Here's a mantis for the core turret controller ship cap display bug I emailed you about. I experimented a bit more and the cap itself appears to be working correctly at 24 per planet, it's just the ship cap tooltip that is wrong. It's both s howing an incorrect cap of 1, and counting the galaxy wide turret count instead of per planet, so you can get stuff like "26 out of 1 in service" even on a planet where you have 0 and can build 24.

Very early balance feedback on the Spider V at least would be that 24 per planet is a very large cap (normal cap sizes) considering the comparatively massive firepower this thing brings over the normal Spider (along with the engine damage), combined with the per-planet cap. Personally I tend to spread Spiders around on several worlds and having this many available everywhere would be huge since there's never enough to go around.

It does make the fab a VERY desirable capturable, though. And that's good. I love the concept of a turret fab.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I haven't noticed anything broken yet. Been playing with mine enthusiasts as secondary AIs because I hate life.

[keith.lamothe]

I haven't noticed anything broken yet.

Clearly I'm not trying hard enough

Been playing with mine enthusiasts as secondary AIs because I hate life.

The mines will all too happy to deprive your units of that which you hate.

[keith.lamothe]

I already sent you into the logs Keith, but when starting a game at 8/8 with shark and hunter at 10 / 10 with bouncer / chiv ai and reservists / chiv ai I immediately get unhandled errors. They start immediately upon starting the game and continue to occur intermittently.

Ok, I just tried this exact setup myself and no errors.  Could you post a save where you're getting errors?  Thanks

[keith.lamothe]

Very well, then.  Here's the Mantis for the Hunter Plot issue.

Fixed it, thanks

[keith.lamothe]

Just got 6.030 out, with fixes to all the major expansion issues I'm aware of other than the exceptions chemical_art was seeing (since they won't happen for me).  It also has the rest of the Shark plot implementation, which I hadn't realized wasn't fully in 6.029. 

Let me know if you run into anything else