Arcen Games

General Category => AI War Classic => : x4000 August 25, 2010, 10:51:25 PM

: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 August 25, 2010, 10:51:25 PM
This gets asked every so often, so I wanted to make clear.  As recently noted, the porting of AI War to Unity 3D (http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2010/08/ai-war-prerelease-3189-porting-to-unity.html) is now under way, and most new additions to the game are a bit on hold until we get the first beta versions of the Unity-ported AI War out publicly.  Please see that other post for the (many) details you might want on that score.

To answer the core question that is the subject of this post, though, I should note that there are three upcoming phases coming up:

Phase I: AI War Unity in Private Alpha, AI War 3.189 or Later as Latest Stable Beta, AI War 3.120 as Official
Phase II: AI War Unity in Early/Semi-Stable Public Beta, AI War 3.189 or Later as Latest Stable Beta, AI War 3.120 as Official
Phase III: AI War Unity in Beta, AI War 3.120 as Official
Phase IV: AI War Unity as Official

Phase I
At the time of this writing, we're currently in phase I.  During this phase, we're doing very few updates to the 3.189 SlimDX-based versions of AI War, but if we run into any critical bugs or critical balance issues, we'll release small fixes as patches.  Most people will either be playing the 3.189-ish SlimDX versions, or the 3.120 Official version, depending on their preferences, and the Unity version is unavailable to the public.

During this time, most of our work will be on private updates to the AI War Unity Alpha, to all be cumulatively released at the end of this phase.  This phase ends when the first public beta of AI War Unity comes out.

Phase II
We hope to hit this phase by mid-September, but we'll just see how it really goes.  The AI War Unity beta will be installable via an all-new installer, and won't include any music whatsoever, but will include everything else for both expansions and the base game.

During this phase, we'll keep doing any critical bug or balance fixes in patches for the SlimDX version, as we expect that many people will want to keep their SlimDX-based beta versions installed as a safety measure for when they run into potential showstoppers in the early Unity versions.  But we hope many people will also play with the Unity betas to help us get rid of those early issues.  We'll also be packing in more new goodies during this phase, as we have been in the last few weeks, but only in the AI War Unity version, so there's going to be a double incentive there. ;)

During this time, most of our work will be on public updates to the AI War Unity Public Betas, to be released several times a week (occasionally several times a day, I'm sure) via a brand-new Tidalis-like updater process.  This phase ends when the AI War Unity version has been demonstrated as being so stable that there's not any more point to having split beta versions.  Hopefully within about two weeks after the first public beta of AI War Unity.

Phase III
We hope to hit this phase by the start of October, but we'll just see.  During this phase, which will last at least two weeks (but longer if it has to), we won't be supporting the SlimDX betas at all.  You can still use them if you like, but most bug reports or technical support requests will be first answered with "have you updated to the AI War Unity beta?"  Not in a mean way, that's just where all the latest updates are, and any line numbers from bug reports from the SlimDX versions won't be of any use to us any longer, unfortunately, because the platforms are so different.

During this phase we won't be doing many content updates to the game, because we're going to be aiming simply to get the stability and balance as perfect as we reasonably can, so that we can do the official AI War 4.0 release.  This is basically the "polish" phase.

Phase IV
We hope to hit this phase by the middle of October, but once again, we'll see.  This will mark the official launch of AI War on Mac OSX, of Children of Neinzul in general, and of AI War 4.0 in general.  After this release, all support for all of the prior SlimDX-based versions of AI War will be ending.  You're free to use them if you're inclined to, but any bug reports from them will be completely useless, and our first suggestion if you have a problem will be to upgrade to AI War 4.0 or greater (it's a free upgrade for all customers of the base game, just to be clear!).

At the time that AI War 4.0 comes out, that's when the soundtrack for CoN will finally be released, and when the remastered soundtracks for AI War and TZR will also be coming out.

After that release, then of course the regular beta/official cycle will continue, but just purely on the Unity 3D platform, and using the new Tidalis-style updater process.



Hope that clears up any questions, but if there are more, please let us know!
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Giegue August 27, 2010, 04:43:19 PM
I think maybe you guys should release an official version newer the 3.120... also: what IS unity? I know what it does, but not what it is...
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 August 27, 2010, 04:44:48 PM
I think maybe you guys should release an official version newer the 3.120...

Definitely not in the cards.

also: what IS unity? I know what it does, but not what it is...

http://unity3d.com/

It's a cross-platform game development platform, like Unreal Engine, Torque, or one of those.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: rubikscube August 27, 2010, 10:28:06 PM
Awesome, middle of october, that's like 1 month left for the ideal ai war version for a long time which does not need to be updated for at least 6 months
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: RCIX August 27, 2010, 10:47:42 PM
Awesome, middle of october, that's like 1 month left for the ideal ai war version for a long time which does not need to be updated for at least 6 months
You kidding? AI war still needs a kitchen sink! and a few more i am spam... ;)
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Spikey00 August 27, 2010, 11:17:17 PM
Some stuff may needed to be updated, but in overall I actually agree that this is actually quite a stable release.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 October 14, 2010, 01:24:50 AM
We're now well into Phase III, at any rate, and about a week and a half out from Phase IV, so the SlimDX version is basically dead.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Giegue October 14, 2010, 01:41:49 AM
even though I already own the game, I'm still looking forward to the trailer. they are just so... interesting. (I'm kind of out of it at the moment, might not be the right word)
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Arcain_One October 14, 2010, 09:25:48 PM
I enjoy seeing this kind of update: it lets us see the light at the end of the tunnel  :D
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Mánagarmr October 15, 2010, 09:01:09 AM
I'm curious how the update will work for existing (non beta-chasing) customers. Will they recieve an email "Hey download this and uninstall the old one!" or will the in-game updater in the Slim-DX version handle this?

What about Steam owners? Will Steam be able to cleanly remove the old version, install the new version and successfully port savegames and settings?
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 October 15, 2010, 11:27:28 AM
I'm curious how the update will work for existing (non beta-chasing) customers. Will they recieve an email "Hey download this and uninstall the old one!" or will the in-game updater in the Slim-DX version handle this?

What about Steam owners? Will Steam be able to cleanly remove the old version, install the new version and successfully port savegames and settings?

Yep, you got it ok both points.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Mánagarmr October 15, 2010, 11:33:41 AM
Except my first was actually a "this way or that way" question :D.

Slim-DX updater fixes it, or you recieve an email?
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 October 15, 2010, 11:56:57 AM
Sorry. There will be one last update to slimdx, which will have a message about the update and a download link. It won't install the new version directly, but it will let people know it exists.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Mánagarmr October 15, 2010, 12:34:23 PM
Ah, okay. Yeah, makes sense I guess. Having an in-game updater do a complete overhaul is probably problematic at best :P
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 October 15, 2010, 12:48:00 PM
Yeah, and the bandwidth costs on that would be hundreds of dollars at least for us, too.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Arcain_One October 15, 2010, 02:38:06 PM
Makes me certainly glad I bought the Steam version.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: x4000 October 15, 2010, 02:39:54 PM
It's not going to be particularly difficult either way, we've done this sort of thing before when changing updaters, for instance.
: Re: What happens to the current version of AI War after the porting is done?
: Mánagarmr October 15, 2010, 02:54:10 PM
Urgh, yeah didn't think of that.