Chris,
Long time board lurker - rare postings. (only registered a little less than 2 years ago) but have played and watched Arcen for much longer. I really appreciate the approach you have as a dev and being reasonably open with the community and discussing possibilities and thoughts (which of course they/we take as gospel). I think your post is very timely.
I love AI War, and was just thinking about asking about the thoughts and or status of AI War 2 or The Next Generation, or whatever it gets called. In my honest opinion the game is your Magnum Opus and while its frustrating for some to not be able to move beyond that, I think its good to embrace it, and own the fact that Arcen is known for this, and as a side effect people find your other games that are interesting and varied because of AI War.
I think expanding and upgrading the engine, visuals, mods, etc as all have mentioned are great, and will positively effect not only the revenue of course for the game you are most known for, but will also generate additional revenue on the other games (and potential upgrades and other new game releases in the future).
I am a Linux developer (and maintain my own distribution) and hope that Linux/Steam stays in the dev path going forward and will be happy to help when/if that eventuality arises. I want to share AI War with my now teenage son and tell others about it whenever the topic comes up, and of course being a Linux guy I use it as an example.
Keep up the good work and love watching the dialog and am hopeful for future developments of AI War as I was afraid it may end sooner than I wanted
biff