Random first impressions

[Huw]

I've been playing AI War for a week or so now.  At first I was both underwhelmed by the graphics and overwhelmed by, heh, just about everything else.  All thoughts of the graphics quickly went out of the window though, as I got into the game.  The tutorials are excellent and have really been helping me to learn what's what.  I'm usually adept at figuring out how to play the most complex of games without any help at all but I don't know what I would've done without the tutorials in AI War!

The more I play, the better and deeper it gets.  I was only half an hour into the intermediate tutorial before paying for the full version.  By the way, after a week I'm still playing the intermediate tutorial!  Almost five hours in-game, apparently.  Probably seems crazy to the experts here but I'm really taking my time and having a good nose through the interface, learning keyboard shortcuts, and experimenting with all of the different features.  This game is more feature-rich than all but the deepest strategy titles out there!

x4000, I'll tell you what got me interested in the game, and that's seeing how responsive you are to player feedback and how much time you spend here and elsewhere helping people out with the game.  I really appreciate that in a dev and I'll always support devs like you.

Some random thoughts.  I think someone's played Conquest: Frontier Wars!   It reminds me very much of that old classic, particularly defending wormholes.  And of course Supreme Commander, and I'm sure I'm the hundredth person to say so.  I love the idea of co-op only against the AI.  I haven't really seen how clever the AI can be yet though, since I'm still doing tutorials, but I'm looking forward to it.  There was one thing, I don't know whether it was coincidence, but I had a huge fleet at one of my systems and the enemy had a single cloaked ship.  I had no idea where it was.  It had been there for ages, not doing anything.  Eventually I gave the entire fleet orders to move out, and when they were almost at the wormhole the cloaked ship suddenly started attacking things.  Was he causing a distraction to keep my fleet occupied?

The engineers....ah, my best friends.  Where would we be without them?  Massively helpful, especially in free-roaming mode, although they do sometimes chase my defender fleets around for ages for the sake of repairing a single ship when they could be doing something more useful.

Is there any lore for this game?  I'm thinking about writing a bit of fan fiction, maybe.  I'm really, really ashamed of myself for being initially put off by the graphics.  What a gem I'd have missed out on!  I love AI War and even though I get very little time to play each day, I find myself thinking about it frequently throughout the day.

Is it possible to drop my own music into the music/ingame directory to get it played in-game?

I had a load of other questions which I've forgotten until I start playing again probably.  Anyway, sorry for my rambling.  It's late.   I'm really looking forward to playing some co-op with you guys but I need to complete the intermediate tutorial at the very least before I do.

[Revenantus]

I've been playing AI War for a week or so now.  At first I was both underwhelmed by the graphics and overwhelmed by, heh, just about everything else.  All thoughts of the graphics quickly went out of the window though, as I got into the game.  The tutorials are excellent and have really been helping me to learn what's what.  I'm usually adept at figuring out how to play the most complex of games without any help at all but I don't know what I would've done without the tutorials in AI War!

That's great to hear. As you're probably aware, Arcen's artist, Philippe Chabot, is working on lots of graphical enhancements. In the last week alone we've seen some big changes!

The more I play, the better and deeper it gets.  I was only half an hour into the intermediate tutorial before paying for the full version.  By the way, after a week I'm still playing the intermediate tutorial!  Almost five hours in-game, apparently.  Probably seems crazy to the experts here but I'm really taking my time and having a good nose through the interface, learning keyboard shortcuts, and experimenting with all of the different features.  This game is more feature-rich than all but the deepest strategy titles out there!

Familiarizing yourself with the interface and learning all the shortcuts will definitely pay off in the long term. We can plan on seeing it become even more feature-rich - X is hoping to continue to develop the game via free DLC and expansion packs for years to come.

x4000, I'll tell you what got me interested in the game, and that's seeing how responsive you are to player feedback and how much time you spend here and elsewhere helping people out with the game.  I really appreciate that in a dev and I'll always support devs like you.

I absolutely agree with you.

Some random thoughts.  I think someone's played Conquest: Frontier Wars!   It reminds me very much of that old classic, particularly defending wormholes.  And of course Supreme Commander, and I'm sure I'm the hundredth person to say so.  I love the idea of co-op only against the AI.  I haven't really seen how clever the AI can be yet though, since I'm still doing tutorials, but I'm looking forward to it.  There was one thing, I don't know whether it was coincidence, but I had a huge fleet at one of my systems and the enemy had a single cloaked ship.  I had no idea where it was.  It had been there for ages, not doing anything.  Eventually I gave the entire fleet orders to move out, and when they were almost at the wormhole the cloaked ship suddenly started attacking things.  Was he causing a distraction to keep my fleet occupied?

Perhaps not intentionally, but the AI's many complex behaviours often interact in ways that result in emergent behaviours and the use of strategies that it hasn't been explicitly taught. The cloaked ship was likely looking for an undefended harvester to attack. Note you can use a Tachyon Missile to temporarily reveal cloaked ships in the system.

The engineers....ah, my best friends.  Where would we be without them?  Massively helpful, especially in free-roaming mode, although they do sometimes chase my defender fleets around for ages for the sake of repairing a single ship when they could be doing something more useful.

True, they do occasionally chase ships when it isn't prudent to do so. I particularly like the teleporting mark II engineers, they don't suffer quite as much from this problem.

Is there any lore for this game?  I'm thinking about writing a bit of fan fiction, maybe.  I'm really, really ashamed of myself for being initially put off by the graphics.  What a gem I'd have missed out on!  I love AI War and even though I get very little time to play each day, I find myself thinking about it frequently throughout the day.

Aside from the brief introduction on the title screen there isn't any lore, though there's certainly room on the forum for you to post some fan fiction if you wish.

Is it possible to drop my own music into the music/ingame directory to get it played in-game?

Yes, that is possible, if you truly must replace the game's excellent music score, you can replace the files in there with your own .ogg music files.

DISCLAIMER:
I have tested this briefly and it seems to work, but I can't guarantee that it won't cause any issues with your game, and so I recommend that you back up the original files in case you experience difficulties. Modify those files at your own risk.

I had a load of other questions which I've forgotten until I start playing again probably.  Anyway, sorry for my rambling.  It's late.   I'm really looking forward to playing some co-op with you guys but I need to complete the intermediate tutorial at the very least before I do.

No problem, feel free to post any other questions as they come to you.

Have fun playing AI War!

[Fiskbit]

Regarding the music, as long as it's ogg, the game should play it. There may be some restriction on song length, but I'm not sure; it's possible that may have been the case earlier in development and isn't applicable now. If you want to create your own personal soundtrack for the game, simply add oggs to the Ingame music folder, and to remove songs, you can delete them or (probably a better idea) just move them elsewhere, such as the folder above them. There should be no limit on the number of songs you can add. You can also disable the music in the game's settings and use an external player; I just play songs in Winamp while in-game, which gives me greater control over the songs I'm hearing.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. I hope the upcoming graphic updates make it more aesthetically appealing to you. I'm pretty happy with how the backgrounds are looking recently, myself. The changes they've been getting are great.

[x4000]

Hi Huw,

Thanks very much for the post, and I'm really glad to hear you are getting so into the game!  No worries about the graphics thing, it's hard not to judge books by their covers or games by their graphics.  I find myself doing the same thing with other games, to be perfectly honest, and I have to really catch myself.  But, as Rev said, that's definitely also something we're working on!

I think the tutorials are definitely a must for a game like this, even for experienced players, so you are not alone there.  And there's certainly nothing wrong with spending extra time in the tutorials just exploring around, experimenting, etc.  That's part of why I put in the extra planets and such that are not specifically part of your objective, was so that players could do just that if they find themselves inclined.

Thanks also for the kudos on my level of involvement -- it's my pleasure.  Interacting with the community is really enjoyable for me, even though it's getting to the volume where I can't comment on absolutely everything (but other regulars here, and admins like Fiskbit and especially Revenantus do a super job of filling in).  Players have had so many amazing suggestions, and continue to do so, that the game is growing by leaps and bounds just from that.  I think if more game designers realized what a treasure trove of ideas is out there, they'd be a bit more interactive, too.  Maybe someday!

Actually, I've never played Conquest: Frontier Wars!  I've also never played XCom, which people compare the game to a lot, and I've played only an hour or so of the demo of Sins of a Solar Empire.  I guess there are just only so many things you can do in space, so games start to look a little bit alike from that angle.  Supreme Commander was a huge influence, though, as was the Age of Empires series, Chess, CivIV, Rise of Nations/Legends, the original Empire Earth... there's a long list.  I also really liked Total War and Star Wars: Empire At War, but I wanted to do something that was purely realtime and multiplayer-capable.

Like Rev said, there's no lore for this game, but fan fiction is always welcome.  I'm a writer myself, so it might seem odd that I did not put in more story, but for me RTS games just are all about the strategy.  I have other games planned that will be very story-heavy.

And for the music, yes, any ogg files in the ingame folder will be played.  There's a fuller post about that here:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13.0.html

Thanks again for your support of the game, and we look forward to seeing you around the forums!

[x4000]

Regarding the music, as long as it's ogg, the game should play it. There may be some restriction on song length, but I'm not sure; it's possible that may have been the case earlier in development and isn't applicable now. If you want to create your own personal soundtrack for the game, simply add oggs to the Ingame music folder, and to remove songs, you can delete them or (probably a better idea) just move them elsewhere, such as the folder above them. There should be no limit on the number of songs you can add. You can also disable the music in the game's settings and use an external player; I just play songs in Winamp while in-game, which gives me greater control over the songs I'm hearing.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. I hope the upcoming graphic updates make it more aesthetically appealing to you. I'm pretty happy with how the backgrounds are looking recently, myself. The changes they've been getting are great.

Ah, you beat me to it.   You reminded me about the old song length limitation, which was still noted in that other post I linked to.  I've updated it now to reflect the post-1.006 fact of no more limitations on song length.

[Huw]

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

True, they do occasionally chase ships when it isn't prudent to do so. I particularly like the teleporting mark II engineers, they don't suffer quite as much from this problem.

Teleporting engineers, eh?  That sounds fantastically useful!

Yes, that is possible, if you truly must replace the game's excellent music score, you can replace the files in there with your own .ogg music files.

No, not replace!  I just wanted to drop a couple of ambient tracks into the mix.   Nice to know it can be done.

No worries about the graphics thing, it's hard not to judge books by their covers or games by their graphics.  I find myself doing the same thing with other games, to be perfectly honest, and I have to really catch myself.  But, as Rev said, that's definitely also something we're working on!

Well, like I said, I'm really ashamed of myself for almost overlooking AI Wars because of it.  I didn't think I was that much of a graphics whore.  I think that in this day and age it's just too easy to get accustomed to the insane capabilities of modern hardware.

Actually, I've never played Conquest: Frontier Wars!

Really!  It's the first game that came to mind when I started playing AI Wars.  Defending wormholes was a major part of C:FW.  I think it was something of an overlooked gem.  I rarely meet anyone who played it, but it got decent scores from the media.  For years it was my most-played strategy game.  May it rest in peace.

Like Rev said, there's no lore for this game, but fan fiction is always welcome.  I'm a writer myself, so it might seem odd that I did not put in more story, but for me RTS games just are all about the strategy.  I have other games planned that will be very story-heavy.

Cool, I might do that at some point then.  I very, very rarely write fan fiction but, well, I'm very rarely gripped by a game as much as I have been by AI Wars.

[Huw]

Ah, I've just remembered the other reason that this game reminds me of Conquest: Frontier Wars.  Ion cannons!  C:FW had them and they were just as important.  Expensive to deploy but one shot kills anything and range is unlimited.  They didn't fire as often but typical fleets in C:FW were only a few dozen ships so the effect was the same.

[x4000]

Ah, I've just remembered the other reason that this game reminds me of Conquest: Frontier Wars.  Ion cannons!  C:FW had them and they were just as important.  Expensive to deploy but one shot kills anything and range is unlimited.  They didn't fire as often but typical fleets in C:FW were only a few dozen ships so the effect was the same.

Ha, that's a funny connection between the games!  I had the basic idea from other more recent space games, but maybe some of them were inspired by C:FW.

[Echo35]

x4000, I'll tell you what got me interested in the game, and that's seeing how responsive you are to player feedback and how much time you spend here and elsewhere helping people out with the game.  I really appreciate that in a dev and I'll always support devs like you.

Absolutely. Being able to come to a forum, make suggestions and discuss game play, and actually seeing it show up in the game is something special that you really don't get from many other games. I appreciate all the hard work!

Oh, and to the comment of the graphics. I was never really too unhappy with the graphics, even when I started the game back in 1.08, and they're WAY better now! There's absolutely nothing wrong with 2D games, and quite honestly, I'm sad more game developers don't use it anymore. I'd rather have a game with 2D graphics thats fun than a game with super sexy bleeding edge graphics that sucks. Not that AI War's 2D isn't pretty or anything 

[Admiral]

I'll be honest... I didn't notice the graphics in 1.05 and I haven't noticed them in the latest 1.14 pre-releases. I in fact turned off all the graphics when the options became available until I realized I didn't like playing with a black background.

It's like dating... You notice the woman's the first date (or maybe month). Then, after that, if you still like her, she's hot no matter what. Looks are only important enough to get you interested.

Then again, as I age, I have found more and more different looks attractive in different ways. Maybe it's an aging thing.

[x4000]

[Echo35]

I'll be honest... I didn't notice the graphics in 1.05 and I haven't noticed them in the latest 1.14 pre-releases. I in fact turned off all the graphics when the options became available until I realized I didn't like playing with a black background.

It's like dating... You notice the woman's the first date (or maybe month). Then, after that, if you still like her, she's hot no matter what. Looks are only important enough to get you interested.

Then again, as I age, I have found more and more different looks attractive in different ways. Maybe it's an aging thing.

Kids these days and  their ambient occlusion and high poly counts and depth of field! Why back in my day, we had to live with text and 8 bits of color and WE LIKED IT! Get the hell off my lawn!

[x4000]

The first game I ever coded was actually a text-based adventure game.  Then I got all fancy and actually had some DOS-based lineart in there, which I was all excited about.  Ah, the good old days.