Zenith Remnant First Impressions

[Volatar]

I have returned to playing AI War, and my first act on my return was to buy the Zenith Remnant expansion  

So here are my first impressions, typed as I play it for the first time:



I start up the game, and listen to the amazing new menu music all the way through. Then I notice theres yet another beta update. Oh Chris, you crazy man you  

I update, and then listen to the amazing menu music all the way through again. Its just that awesome.

Finally I go to start a new campaign. 80 planets. Map type... WOAH! New map types! AWESOME!

Tree is kinda scary. Spokes even more so    Snake looks awesome but would be a LONG, HARD game. I'll probably try a snake campaign sometime later Vines looks like a cross between Tree and Spokes. Grid is pretty awesome but looks WAY hard (12 wormholes on my home planet? Talk about difficult...)

I settle on Simple, because I like a readable map   A nice little corner with Zenith Beam Frigates (because they sound totally awesome)



Random Easier AI's, one 4 and one 5 (because I have been away from the game for so long, and I suck anyways ) Normal ship types. For once I also leave Astro Trains on, since I want to see all the new types I enable Human Resistance Fighters, as they look to be the safest minor faction to play with. 1 AIP every 30 minutes because I like my games slower. Everything else default.

And then I begin what looks to be a fun game Even before starting the game, I am already greatly impressed.

[keith.lamothe]

Thanks much for your support

Finally I go to start a new campaign. 80 planets. Map type... WOAH! New map types! AWESOME!

Yep, Chris did very well with those   By the way, I just put in the first implementations of the two new map types for the micro-expansion (not yet available to y'all, though), and I think you'll like those too

And yea, Snake is all kinds of brutal

I settle on Simple, because I like a readable map  

Just FYI, in case you didn't know, in the beta versions (which you're playing, I gather), you can rearrange your galaxy map however you please; basic instructions:

1) on galaxy map
2) x+right-click the map to bring up the context menu
3) select "Galaxy Layouts"
4) click "Switch Displayed Layout"
5) click "Switch to My Alternate Layout"
6) you can now shift-left-click-and-drag a planet to move it around, or alt-left-click a planet to have it pull in the connected "chains" (meaning strings of planets with no more than 2 wormholes) into a cluster around the clicked planet

Basically the shift-drag is the main thing, but the alt-click tends to replicate what a lot of people do to make the clusters before separating them, except in one click instead of dozens.

A nice little corner with Zenith Beam Frigates (because they sound totally awesome)

Those are pretty nice, yea, and I hear they eat turrets for breakfast.

Speaking of turrets, though, if you like the beam weapons mechanic you might want to try unlocking some of the new Heavy Beam Cannons on the turret tab.  They use an alternate beam weapon behavior that has pretty extreme attack power but total damage is limited to that power (so a beam might 1-shot 3 bombers on a line, but not damage all the ones behind it), whereas the beam frigates just hit everything on the line with the same (much lower) power.  Both have their uses

And then I begin what looks to be a fun game Even before starting the game, I am already greatly impressed.

Have fun

[Volatar]

Thanks for the reply. You replied while I was writing my continuing post

I always love new map types.   Thanks for the tip on moving stars around! I will play with that.

I saw the Beam turrets and got all kinds of excited  


So I pause as soon as the game begins and- WOAH! Awesome new stations!



Also, cool new atmospheric music playing.

And HOLY MOLY! 11 Objectives!



This is going to be fun

I send out my scouts and start my initial building projects.

Glancing at my research options, I notice that the Raid and Leech Starship lines have been split. Awesome! And there is a couple more starships too! New mines and other fun stuff. Woah! More turrets!

And wow. There are a lot of these new control nodes. Gotta see what they do later...

The planets next door at very lightly defended. I start pumping out my fleet.

WOAH! An advanced research station only 2 hops from my home planet! Sweeeeeeet!

Then I come across a planet with a tech III Zenith Reserve ships cache... and a Planetary Shield Booster AND a Planetary Shield Inhibitor! That one is going to be quite a job to take out.

Then I hit a planet that is a chokepoint I KNOW I need to go through, and see that it has an Ion Cannon, and a Planetary Shield Inhibitor, AND a Fortress AND its Tech III.

Crap.

This is going to be VERY fun  

[keith.lamothe]

Glancing at my research options, I notice that the Raid and Leech Starship lines have been split. Awesome! And there is a couple more starships too! New mines and other fun stuff. Woah! More turrets!

The Riot Control Starships are worth a look, when you have the knowledge

And wow. There are a lot of these new control nodes. Gotta see what they do later...

Yea, we've added tons of those over the past months.  I find particular use for the two focus-fire nodes, as I prefer my ships to really try to optimize stuff dying fast, etc.  I also tend to play with snipers, so...  anyway, the engineers prefer-non-military is also pretty nice utility, and the single-planet engineer and rebuilder nodes are quite helpful.

While I'm on the topic of helpful features, just in case you haven't seen the various options on the context menu (they are kind of buried right now, that's new to this dev cycle and is thus a lot in flux) I highly recommend arc-place and construction templates for building defenses and whatnot.  Also paint attack is a great alternative to attack-move for certain types of fleet action (I tend to send my fighters and bombers together on attack move, and the cruisers separately with paint-attack), and there are a variety of tools for efficient splitting of selections into control groups, etc.  I find I can often take a system without actually selecting or targeting individual ships anymore   Oh, there's also auto-explore and auto-gather-knowledge for cutting out a bit of micro.

This is going to be VERY fun  

[Volatar]

Glancing at my research options, I notice that the Raid and Leech Starship lines have been split. Awesome! And there is a couple more starships too! New mines and other fun stuff. Woah! More turrets!

The Riot Control Starships are worth a look, when you have the knowledge

  Woah. Just. Woah. Those look REALLY awesome!
Theres so many things to choose from! Now I see why the knowledge-raiding nerf was really needed: to really make people have to choose between all these!

While I'm on the topic of helpful features, just in case you haven't seen the various options on the context menu (they are kind of buried right now, that's new to this dev cycle and is thus a lot in flux) I highly recommend arc-place and construction templates for building defenses and whatnot.  Also paint attack is a great alternative to attack-move for certain types of fleet action (I tend to send my fighters and bombers together on attack move, and the cruisers separately with paint-attack), and there are a variety of tools for efficient splitting of selections into control groups, etc.  I find I can often take a system without actually selecting or targeting individual ships anymore   Oh, there's also auto-explore and auto-gather-knowledge for cutting out a bit of micro.

Oh WOW! This is some huge stuff here!

I think I am in love.

[x4000]

Definitely lots of good stuff these days, it's like coming back to a whole new game, eh?  A lot of the things you were noticing are actually free DLC (well, the control nodes, riot starships, beam turrets, some of the new objectives, the fortresses, new context menu and control options, new graphics for command stations, etc).  Of course, the rest is from TZR as you suspected (map types, Z reserves and other Z stuff, a goodly number of those new objectives, about half the minor factions in there, etc).  Glad it's a hit!

[Volatar]

Yeah, I guess the title is a bit misleading. This is more my first impressions after returning from a several month absence and seeing the expansion and all the changes.

I just encountered EMP mines. Ouch  Those are going to be tough to take out.

[rubikscube]

it's like learning the game all over again (do i sense a need of an ingame tutorial for expansion?)

[Volatar]

(do i sense a need of an ingame tutorial for expansion?)

That would be a really good idea to be honest.

[x4000]

Just a matter of time limitations, honestly.  We've updated the tutorials to cover most of the new stuff, but there's definitely more we could do.  I imagine we will, but these next 2-3 months are just absolutely slammed, and I feel like once folks are into the basics of the game, the tooltips and the wiki provide any added info they need.  That may not be 100% ideal, but I feel like there are bigger fish to fry in the meantime, so to speak.  I'm sure there will be more tutorials coming in the next half year to year, though.

[Signata]

I saw talk of a scenario editor/builder? That might be a better thing to throw your energy at as an indirect way of fixing up the tutorial. With a helpful community like you have, I bet some community built tutorials surface, and out of that one or two worth putting in the release.

[x4000]

Yeah, that's a larger undertaking, though, and is something planned for the third expansion.

[rubikscube]

I don't mean anything bad, but I'm definetly ok with a "big" remake of all the tool tips , videos and wiki

[rubikscube]

right after 4.0 of course

[x4000]

I don't mean anything bad, but I'm definetly ok with a "big" remake of all the tool tips , videos and wiki

I'll be sure to do that in all my spare time.  Seriously, you bring this up every couple of days.  Stop. it. now.  I get it.