Excitement

[Mánagarmr]

I must admit. Seeing this forum makes me more excited than it should. I haven't played AI: War in over a year and I still love the everliving crap out of that game. It's way  up there among my top 5 strategy games of all time, it's just that I don't have the time anymore to commit to it. That coupled with my descent into madness (long story) and severely degrading mental health has left me rather brittle and having trouble to focus, so AI: War is a bit off the scope at the moment.

But. I have yet to uninstall it. I have a very firm descision to get back to it eventually.

[Kahuna]

I've been on a break from AI War for a while as well. Even though I'm now about to start my engineering studies and will keep going to the gym as often as reasonable (gotta be and stay Super Cat in real life too), I'll be sure to make some time for AI War 2 as well. Having interesting, fun and challenging things (playing AI War, studying and running half marathons, etc.) to focus on certainly helped me when I was going through some difficult times a couple of years ago. If AI War 2 stays true to it's origins and becomes something like an upgraded version of the classic it can only be a great addition to the "list of things to do when I have ("too" much) time". I'm certainly very excited as well. I don't think I've uninstalled AI War even once.

[Aklyon]

I must admit. Seeing this forum makes me more excited than it should. I haven't played AI: War in over a year and I still love the everliving crap out of that game.

But. I have yet to uninstall it. I have a very firm descision to get back to it eventually.

Same here, except for the unquoted part. Its even got a pretty good subtitle.

[mrhanman]

I haven't played AI War since the last expansion came out, but the excitement over the sequel has prompted me to fire it back up again.  I really can't wait to get my hands on AIW2!

[x4000]

Awesome!

[Cyborg]

I think it's really cool that this forum is hopping. I know I'm spreading the word that AI War is back.

[x4000]

Thank you!  Definitely get folks to either pop by the forums, or if they want to be notified when the kickstarter goes live, then they can email arcengames at gmail dot com to make sure they don't miss out.  Frankly, anyone here can do that, too.

I've been working on the design document, as well as talking with Keith a lot about various things, and I'm going to have some stuff to share with you all soon on that front.  I'll definitely want feedback to make sure that this feels sound to you.

There are a whole lot of balance details that can be completely ignored until during the actual pre-EA period since players will be able to rebalance at will, so that part isn't even on my radar right now.  It's more about mechanics and setting things up for maximum flexibility both at launch and for down the road.  There are a few changes I'm proposing that might sound dramatic at first glance, but which would pave the way for some reaaally cool things.  I'm not married to any of those ideas, though, so it will be really good to talk to folks here about those and see how the reception is for them.

[Misery]

I think it's really cool that this forum is hopping. I know I'm spreading the word that AI War is back.

Same here.   It's really nice to see this happening here.


My only concern is the kickstarter itself.  I just... I dunno, I never trust the whole process.  What happens if it doesn't hit the required amount?  All of this will be for naught. 

[Aklyon]

There are crowdfunding platforms that have an option for 'The money will go through regardless' setups, although KS is the most well known of the crowdfunding sites and does not have that last I checked.

[Billick]

Half Life 3 AI War 2 confirmed.

[Tridus]

There are crowdfunding platforms that have an option for 'The money will go through regardless' setups, although KS is the most well known of the crowdfunding sites and does not have that last I checked.

That's a good thing. KS is a favourite over a lot of other sites in part because you won't have money taken out if the project only gets halfway to its goal and is thus not happening (or not happening in the form it was envisioned). That assurance is valuable in getting backers.


Incidentally - getting the message out is hugely important. I didn't even know the Raptor game existed until the Kotaku article about it going F2P came out, and I own multiple Arcen games. I'm not sure how I missed it, but I did. Only coming here to see what was up with that (and SBR) is what caused me to notice the AI War 2 forum. Now I'm excited, but it was entirely accidental.

If you're doing AI War 2, it'd be worth more aggressively trying to reach people who played AI War to get the word out.

[kasnavada]

I think it's really cool that this forum is hopping. I know I'm spreading the word that AI War is back.

Same here.   It's really nice to see this happening here.
My only concern is the kickstarter itself.  I just... I dunno, I never trust the whole process.  What happens if it doesn't hit the required amount?  All of this will be for naught.

Then, probably, Chris & Keith stops there, find new jobs, probably updating a few bugs on their free time remembering good old times, and don't spend the next 10 years of their lives miserable and paying debts (or more). Because, if the kickstarter fails, there was high chances that AI war 2 would have failed too.

Ok, I hope it's not that bad even if it does not work. Still. I don't think a kickstarter will be for nothing.

[crazyroosterman]

I think it's really cool that this forum is hopping. I know I'm spreading the word that AI War is back.

Same here.   It's really nice to see this happening here.
My only concern is the kickstarter itself.  I just... I dunno, I never trust the whole process.  What happens if it doesn't hit the required amount?  All of this will be for naught.

Then, probably, Chris & Keith stops there, find new jobs, probably updating a few bugs on their free time remembering good old times, and don't spend the next 10 years of their lives miserable and paying debts (or more). Because, if the kickstarter fails, there was high chances that AI war 2 would have failed too.

Ok, I hope it's not that bad even if it does not work. Still. I don't think a kickstarter will be for nothing.

so this is something that's brewing away in my mind for a while(since the star ward rogue sadness thread) and that is does this forum cost money to operate? I think it does and doesn't that mean it'll go of line if Chris has to leave game development?.
now you could get around this by having a service charge for users.
id be fine with that really since this forums like my 2nd home away from home in a lot of ways.

edit, I know this is going of topic a bit but its something which has worried me for a while and it seems like an appropriate time to bring this.

[kasnavada]

(being depressive again, sorry).
@crazyroosterman
If the company went "dead", the costs to operate a forum like this would dwindle to something basically anyone could pay.
Given the dedication that Chris gave to the customers, I think he'd like this forum still alive for a bit. And / or someone from the forum cold take over.

That said, probably he's got plans if the kickstarter fails too. Dunno, I'm not him.

(back on subject ?)

[x4000]

If the kickstarter fails, then Keith would need at least part-time work elsewhere.  Blue would probably have to be let go.  I would potentially need to find part-time work, at least for a while.  The forums and so forth would not remotely go dead.

The news media is bonkers these days in terms of being overburdened.  Please feel free to go ahead and push the message out that this game is coming, and that people who want to weigh in on the design can come here NOW, if that's their bag.  Anyone who wants news of when the kickstarter launches (between 2-4 weeks from now) can email arcengames at gmail dot com.

We'll be doing our best to get the news out as well, but a HUGE amount of the word of mouth for AI War 1 was through other communities and forums.  Bay 2 Games, Gamers With Jobs, Wargamer.net, Space Game Junkie, and many others.  In a huge number of those cases it was other people spreading the word (and me coming behind and answering questions) that made such a big difference.