The latest prerelease is available at
http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar2001H.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!
8. If you want to update an old savegame to the expansion, simply type "cmd:activate expansion 1" (without quotes). This includes enabling the expansion ship classes, as well as enabling golems and other new capturables, although the population of those capturables is likely to be different from what it would have been if the expansion had been turned on from the start of the campaign given the same seed and other settings. There is no way to disable the expansion for an existing game, however, so be sure not to save over your existing file if you want to go back to the non-expansion version of the game.
What's new since 2.001G:(Cumulative release notes since 2.000 are attached at the bottom)
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-Autocannon Minipods are now a bit more expensive, and they now have an even lower base attack strength, but they now have a 2% cluster attack bonus, which makes them extremely much more powerful in large swarms. Their internal ship bonuses have also been adjusted.
-Human home planet command stations now have "Home" written on their icon, making them easier to identify at a glance compared to other kinds of command stations.
-Major new co-op mechanic: In a multiplayer game, when a human player loses his/her home command station(s), they now will get a new "Orbital Command Station Home Core." which produces more energy and resources than the original orbital command station. These ships are also mobile and can move between planets, and don't have any bearing on capturing planets unlike regular full command stations.
There are three different levels of orbital command station home core, and each produces more resources and has more health. The higher-level cores are granted when the AI tech level is higher (the core that is granted is equal to the highest current tech level of the AIs).
If the core of a player is lost, there is an AI Progress hit that is also larger than the hit from losing the original home command station, but a replacement core is immediately granted. Cores are always created on the safest allied home planet possible.
-Major new co-op mechanic: When a new player is added to an existing co-op game, they will be given an orbital command station home core" right from the start, since they do not have a home planet command station. This gives late-added players a significant resource income right from the start, and makes them no longer completely dependent on gifts of ships from allied players. This gets newly-added players up and running more quickly, and also avoids having the game slow down too much for the short time right after their addition.
-Holding shift while clicking a ship to sub-select in the "Selected ship types" popup listbox now sub-selects the entire ship class (e.g., all fighters), rather than just the individual ship type clicked (e.g., fighters mark II).
-There were previously two spelling errors on the network sync popup tooltip. Fixed.
-Added some minor performance improvements to the target chasing logic and targeting in general, and to speed calculations.
-The MTU of the application networking is now 1400 instead of 1459, which should provide better network performance across some internet connections, and no change to those that were already fine.
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Zenith Mirror (and core). Extraordinarily weak main attack, but has the unique ability to reflect all incoming shots against its attackers. With its shielding, can often deal out significantly more damage that it actually receives in this way. Mirrors are very weak to area-of-effect or melee attacks, however, since those cannot be reflected.
-Ships that damage engines should now do a better job of preferring to target ships whose engines can actually be damaged.
-Ships are now more intelligent about how they will try to autotarget enemy ships that are paralyzed (and thus which temporarily can't shoot back).
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Zenith Paralyzer (and core). Very weak-but-fast attack, but inflicts temporary paralysis against targets it hits. Great when combined with other ship types.
Changes from prior prereleases.
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-Previously, ships with an attack bonus or penalty (sentinels and electric bombers) only had their values updated when attacking. Now it updates those immediately, so that it is less confusion.
-Previously, ships with an attack bonus or penalty (sentinels and electric bombers) calculated their bonuses or penalties for their entire ship class (all mark levels). Now the bonuses and penalties are only based on the individual mark level of each ship.
-Previously, the advanced warp sensor on sentinel frigates was not working properly. Fixed.
