AI War 2 v0.523 Released! "Indefensible Interface"

[keith.lamothe]

Release notes here!

This one started with more work on differentiating the planets. In the last release we made it so the AI's controller on each planet can be in different places. Now we've gone the rest of the way with all of the code for determining the position and type of the AI's defensive units. The current set of AIDefensePlacer implementations (which you can mod, or add new ones to the mix) includes ones that split the AI's defenses into two or three distinct locations on the planet.

Next, we've integrated four of the best map types developed by modders in our community. Draco18s's "Density Map" is especially cool: it uses a bitmap to build a spiral galaxy by establishing different planet zones and only connecting planets within a zone (and each zone to each bordering zone).

Along with that, we added the framework community modder BadgerBadger developed for having map-type-specific lobby options, so you can configure how many arms an Octopus map has. This is still in early days, but it's an exciting customization method beyond what AIWC offers.

Finally, we've made some more strides on the still-awful (because still-unfinished) UI: an improved metal display from Badger (along with tooltips up along that top bar), and the ability to color the lines between planets on the galaxy map. AIWC has a similar feature that is very helpful, and AIW2's version of it is very moddable.

Enjoy!
Keith

[BadgerBadger]

The galaxy map looks sooo much better now. I am a big fan of that change. I now really want the planet names to also have colour too, but I don't see any way to do that in external code (if there is a way, point me at it and I'll send you a patch).

Would you care to give some feedback on how I might improve Asteroids and Nebula to get them into the base game ;-)?

[Draco18s]

Next, we've integrated four of the best map types developed by modders in our community. Draco18s's "Density Map" is especially cool: it uses a bitmap to build a spiral galaxy by establishing different planet zones and only connecting planets within a zone (and each zone to each bordering zone).

Woo!

And for reference, the whole bitmap thing is how Endless Space did it. But I wrote all the code myself from the ground up.

[keith.lamothe]

I now really want the planet names to also have colour too, but I don't see any way to do that in external code

Just put that ability into galaxy display modes for the next version

Would you care to give some feedback on how I might improve Asteroids and Nebula to get them into the base game ;-)?

Nebula and Asteroid Belt looked a lot like Clusters, but with some incomplete clusters. They also looked a lot like each other.

I'd rather have Clusters with variant options like you've set up the framework for. Similar with the built-in lattice/grid/crosshatch/maze-A/maze-B/etc map types; all those could fit under Lattice or something like that.

I'd rather have fewer, robust map types than lots where the difference between them is not readily apparent.

Those two map types also had a bunch of one-off dead end planets that just didn't look very nice because of how the game shows them. Similarly I thought your solar-system-lite and Draco's Bubbles looked interesting but the way the game displays them isn't flattering graphically. I don't mind including map types where the topology is the point (rather than the aesthetic) but I figured we'd revisit the idea when we had more people to give feedback.

[BadgerBadger]

Hmm. What if I redid Asteroid Belt as an option for Clusters and made sure it had more completed clusters?

[Draco18s]

Those two map types also had a bunch of one-off dead end planets that just didn't look very nice because of how the game shows them. Similarly I thought your solar-system-lite and Draco's Bubbles looked interesting but the way the game displays them isn't flattering graphically. I don't mind including map types where the topology is the point (rather than the aesthetic) but I figured we'd revisit the idea when we had more people to give feedback.

That's totally fair.

[keith.lamothe]

Hmm. What if I redid Asteroid Belt as an option for Clusters

If you like. But to back up a moment: why does it look like clusters (maybe it normally doesn't and it was just a fluke)? When I think of an asteroid belt I think of a fairly broad ellipse with points all along it (with some dense pockets and some sparse ones).

[BadgerBadger]

Oh, the original name was "ClustersMini". Someone suggested a map that was like Clusters, but with smaller clusters, so I wanted to try it out. I didn't like that name though, so I was looking for something else that sounded nice (and would counterpoint Nebula). The intent behind the name was that the map was a series of small asteroids (each little cluster being an asteroid).