Author Topic: Updated AI War 4.0 Game Manual -- Feedback ASAP, Please  (Read 1014 times)

Offline x4000

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Updated AI War 4.0 Game Manual -- Feedback ASAP, Please
« on: October 25, 2010, 01:44:17 am »
Hey all,

Sorry for the late notice with this, but if you have time and inclination to look over the revised AI War 4.0 manual, I'd appreciate it.  I've been rushing all weekend to get the manual and the trailers done so that I'd have them in time to get to Valve tomorrow, which they need them by.  Man this was a bigger process than I expected, especially with the trailers (which are still processing on youtube, so I'll post in a while).

Anyway, I'm not looking to add significant sections or anything to the manual, as it's a pretty introductory guide meant to be followed up with the wiki and the in-game tutorials (the wiki is vastly easier to edit, easier for players to search, etc).  But, I'd like to know if there's anything really glaring missing, or any gross factual errors that I missed.  I think I got all of them, but there were a lot of smaller changes, so...

Any help is appreciated!
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Offline Lancefighter

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Re: Updated AI War 4.0 Game Manual -- Feedback ASAP, Please
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2010, 02:13:41 am »
You have the image of a raider on the front still, yet the new icon seems to be of the ... er.. regenerator golem? maybe.. (edit: Botnet golem.)
Just wondering which is supposed to represent AI war nowadays..
(first impressions, will edit/post more later)

edit:
the 'wave monitor' is more of an activity monitor, or significant events monitor - lately its become more than just saying 'waves in 2 minutes! Brace for impact!'
as well, I believe its clickable nowadays, that should be mentioned i think

editsomemore
when your going over unit cap scale, you dont really explain what it does:
"You can change how many ships the players and the AI get to use. Normal is very much
recommended, but High lets you have many more ships -- however, your CPU may not be able to
hold up. If you’re playing on a very low-power computer, then Low might be a good idea."

Id recommend you add something along the lines of

Unit scaling does not influence gameplay very much - as the scale gets higher, the number of units increases, however their attributes are divided accordingly. A full unit cap of fighters on any unit scale will have the same aggregate health and damage as any other scale. As well, certain units, such as starships (discussed below) are not scaled by unit cap

editsomemore+1
at the performance profile, it should also be worth noting that the profile generally has no effect on gameplay, just how much computing power is used

edit of +3 editedness
Does the fluff reguarding ammo types really matter? 'the bomber uses energy bomb ammo, which does stuff'... 'the bomber is effective against heavy stuff'
Perhaps looking at it from an abstract view point of actually playing the game, it doesnt matter so much.. because, well, other than sniper shots(not even called sniper shots anymore, railgun or sentinel's energy wave), dark matter, and missiles (to a lesser extent, shell if bulletproof are on the field), it doesnt matter what ammo is being used

Edit4life
When your talking about frigates, the image says 'cruiser I' below it

edit 5
When talking about bonus ships, you kinda lightly touch that there are a ton of them, and then list two. Id recommend that you have a list, say of a dozen, with little or no description beyond their name, and then a 'and many more' or something
Also, you never seem to explain what an ARS is, or why its important to capture them, except as a fairly minor side note under bonus ships.. yet they are referenced all over the manual

edit 6
what are shield bearers?

edi7
it might also be worth mentioning mobile builders and their role in the constructors section.. they are a major part of beachheads and such after all

edit 8
Perhaps also somewhere mention some ai-only toys? ion cannons being the MAJOR one - they arent even mentioned in the entire thing

9-edit
I think thats it then.. it seems to largely explain what stuff does..
Cant really think of much else, other than perhaps directing players to the forums for any additional questions.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2010, 02:56:17 am by Lancefighter »
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Offline Winter Born

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Re: Updated AI War 4.0 Game Manual -- Feedback ASAP, Please
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2010, 10:47:11 am »

My edits in blue

# OF PLANETS
Here you can choose the number of planets on the game map. You may select anywhere from
10-120 planets, in increments of 5 from 10-30, and 10 from 30-120. A campaign on a 10 planet map
may only last 2 hours, while a 120 map may take more than 20 hours to reach its conclusion. We
recommend an 80 planet map, as this provides the ideal balance of strategic depth and difficulty.
Note: Fewer planets does not mean easier, you will run into the AI home planets faster with less
oportunity to gather knowledge to upgrade your fleet

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MINOR FACTIONS
Here the optional additional minor factions that will exist in the campaign can be configured,
including factions such as Human Resistance Fighters and Zenith Traders (expansion only).
Many additional factions are available as part of the expansions.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AI TYPE
In addition to the difficulty levels, there are also a number of AI Types available. Each type has
distinct tactics, many utilizing unique and specialized units. They are divided into three tiers, Easy,
Medium, and Hard. If you choose a random AI type, and disable reveal random AI type
in game setup,
you will have to discover its type by analyzing its tactics during the campaign.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CLOAKING
Many units, including scouts, have the cloaking ability. Cloaked units cannot be seen or targeted
by most enemies. There are a few specialized "detector" units available to the AI and you.
Units cannot fire whilst cloaked, and won’t be able to recloak for 8 seconds after firing.
A purple circle around a unit indicates that it is cloaked. Unless in Attack-Move mode, cloaked
units will not reveal themselves by automatically firing on enemies that are in range.

Offline x4000

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Re: Updated AI War 4.0 Game Manual -- Feedback ASAP, Please
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2010, 11:46:44 am »
Thanks, guys!  And with that, it's time to get it to Valve now...

Notes:

- Yes, the raider is still part of the logo, just not the game icon.

- Shield Bearers are what Force Field Bearers are renamed to in the next version.

- While I'd like to touch on mobile builders and ion cannons, there's just not space.  Reformatting pages, etc, with indesign is an enormous pain and I'm not very adept at it.  Things don't flow like a word processor.  It talks about guardians and guard posts, though.

Changes:

- Wave monitor updated to be called Alerts monitor, and description updated.

- Extra info added to the unit cap scale.

- Performance profile explanation improved.

- fluff about ammo types removed.

- fixed the frigate label on that image.

- bonus ships have been changed to "And Many More" after the first mention of parasites as a concrete example.

- added section on ARS.

- added links to the wiki and the forums on the end of the credits page.

- redid the part on the # of planets, with the suggested addition there

- updated the minor factions section to make it clearer that the expansiosn add a lot of them.

- added the note about the reveal random AI type in the AI Type section.

- the suggested additions about cloaking have been added.
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