Arcen Games

General Category => AI War II => : x4000 October 07, 2016, 03:15:49 PM

: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: x4000 October 07, 2016, 03:15:49 PM
Original: http://arcengames.com/ai-war-ii-kickstarter-launches-on-monday/

kickstartercoming

We're finally almost there!  If you want a sneak preview of what the campaign looks like (minus some of the graphics and the video), here's a link.  Please feel free to offer us feedback on it, and if you want to be notified when the campaign starts on Monday, you can either click the button right on that page, or you can email us at arcengames at gmail dot com and we'll shoot you an email instead.

If you're in the press and you're going to be writing ONE article about this, please wait until Monday. ;)  Otherwise we're obviously grateful for any coverage we can get.  But we almost didn't post this note today just for fear of that sort of too-early posting.

What else is up?

Well, the AI War II forums continue to be full of awesome discussion.  The design document for the game complete enough for us to have a finalized budget, and for you to make an informed decision, although there are still a few areas that we're going to be polishing into next week.

Talk to you soon!  For now I need to get back to making that video...

Chris
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Tridus October 07, 2016, 03:43:02 PM
Cool!

The old UI is utilitarian and informative at best and hideously ugly at worst. Understanding certain sub-screens takes tens of hours of experience, which was... not a good way to do things.

I'm not sure it's valuable here to be negative about the original game. "utilitarian and informative" gets the point across just fine, while "hideously ugly" is just being negative. You *can* be negative when analyzing your own game's faults, of course, but this is a sales pitch. Play up what people like about AIWC and play up the stuff you're improving, without resorting to bashing it.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Aklyon October 07, 2016, 03:43:17 PM
Private alpha access in January 2016.
Did you mean 2017, or has there been a super secretest alpha going on for 9 months?
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 07, 2016, 03:59:13 PM
Private alpha access in January 2016.
Did you mean 2017, or has there been a super secretest alpha going on for 9 months?

Psh.  The super secret pre-pre-pre alpha has been going on since '15. (j/k)

I couldn't find where you saw that. 

: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Aklyon October 07, 2016, 04:04:24 PM
It was under Budget & Schedule, but I refreshed and its fixed now.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: chemical_art October 07, 2016, 04:06:40 PM
I'm not sure it's valuable here to be negative about the original game. "utilitarian and informative" gets the point across just fine, while "hideously ugly" is just being negative. You *can* be negative when analyzing your own game's faults, of course, but this is a sales pitch. Play up what people like about AIWC and play up the stuff you're improving, without resorting to bashing it.

Unless it is humor. Keith describing how the code is an unsafe lumbermill was very funny
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 07, 2016, 04:07:31 PM
It was under Budget & Schedule, but I refreshed and its fixed now.

It was fixed before I could see it ;)  Though looking for that caught another error.  :)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Aklyon October 07, 2016, 04:18:37 PM
Another minor typo: The rewards image mentions a 'cannon alien race', the rewards mention a canon one. While I'm sure the AI has a Canon Cannon around here somewhere...you probably meant a canon race there, yeah? :)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 07, 2016, 04:40:21 PM
I'll let Blue know :)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Tridus October 07, 2016, 04:51:06 PM
I'm not sure it's valuable here to be negative about the original game. "utilitarian and informative" gets the point across just fine, while "hideously ugly" is just being negative. You *can* be negative when analyzing your own game's faults, of course, but this is a sales pitch. Play up what people like about AIWC and play up the stuff you're improving, without resorting to bashing it.

Unless it is humor. Keith describing how the code is an unsafe lumbermill was very funny

Yes, that was pretty great. This one stood out to me as out of place, however.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Drjones013 October 07, 2016, 05:08:45 PM
Chris,

Wanted to let you know that this is the first product of yours I've been excited about since Valley-- and I'm greatly encouraged by the idea that you want to keep things conservative in the beginning. Looking forward to contributing to the Kickstarter and getting to name a planet something other than Murdoch (which you should definitely keep because it was the only planet that scores of players could pronounce)!

Perhaps it's not my place to say, because there was a time when I definitely felt like a rabid fan, but I've purchased a number of games since Valley because I believe that you and your group (though diminished somewhat) have an impressive track record of keeping up with the fans-- that having been said, giving everyone laser sharks because LASER SHARKS sometimes isn't the best marketing strategy. I'm seriously hoping that this project gets the company back on track and back producing incredible games.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: PokerChen October 07, 2016, 05:14:45 PM
A couple of notes:

- Please try less overuse of "mysterious", and numerously-hyphened phrases. Yes, I'm looking at the Zenith species introduction. The kfinal question also contradicts the expectation that backers should be looking towars playing as different species, and not learning about why/how the Zenith was de-extirpated.

- On modding. I'd suggest not over-selling the fact that you have carrots and onions and courgettes and etc. The point is that you provide XML but not dedicated API (do you?), which are the actual words prospective modders are looking for (or not, if they are DLL masters). Then you can use that to say players can add all these other stuff. Remember, "open and easy to modify" are very relative terms.

- If you plan to do continued reveals throughout the KS period (can you do continued reveals as the pledge climbs?), please note this near the start or end of the KS page. This reminds fence-sitters to come back later.

- Do players get to decide what kind of planet is worthy of their naming rights?
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Draco18s October 07, 2016, 05:22:37 PM
(http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/264/200/acb.jpg)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: kasnavada October 07, 2016, 06:15:49 PM
Modding ain't in the strengths ?

Some remarks:
Typos:
organic development carried out over hal a decade

Wordings:
The old UI is utilitarian and informative at best and hideously ugly at worst.
This part made me feel uneasy. Ugly... I don't think that it is necessary. Actually I'd rework this part below entirely... it's quite negative.

The old UI is utilitarian and informative at best and hideously ugly at worst. Understanding certain sub-screens takes tens of hours of experience, which was... not a good way to do things.
When it comes to the interface itself, we’ve been cleaning that up by eliminating secondary and tertiary information from the first-level screens. The information you need will always be available -- and in very few clicks or button presses -- but it won't take up real estate on your screen until you want or need it.


Font, from that parameter onward the font changed... is that intended ? It looks weird.
Another thing that we want to point out right from the start is that Arcen is a multi-person company, and everybody’s amount of work relating to this project does not take the same amount of time. This is nothing new to us -- typically artists and designers move to a new project while programming, QA, and balance/refinement finish.


Other remarks:
With AI War 2, based on the core 1.0 budget, Blue and Chris (artist and designer/interface) are scheduled to move most of their working hours to a separate, currently-unannounced project a bit after we hit Early Access. They’ll still be part-time on AI War 2 after that point, but in order to keep costs low there’s no point in having people on an individual project for longer than they actually have meaningful work to do. Keith, the lead programmer, will of course be on the project fulltime the entire time.
The takeaway -- and we’ll be super clear about this when it happens -- is that when Blue and Chris start working on that other project alongside AI War after 5-6 months, we don’t want anyone to think we’re using funds from this project to do that. In fact, that’s how we were able to make the core 1.0 costs as low as they are -- Chris spent far more out of his own pocket on various past projects, and it’s dangerous to assume you can raise that much through crowdfunding.

Hu, what ?
This is awkwardly written. I think the points you're trying to make is that the budget for 1.0 ain't enough for 3 people full-time, so you'll have side activities which ain't paid by the kickstarter. Am I right ? Because if so, I think it's better to state it more clearly.


PS:
Looking forward to how it goes =).
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 07, 2016, 06:22:16 PM
Typos:
Code: [Select]

organic development carried out over hal a decade

Fixed :)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cyborg October 07, 2016, 10:06:19 PM
The webpage looks good, but you don't need to explain your studio problems or do anything that might seem like apologizing in the middle of your sales pitch.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 08, 2016, 12:09:58 AM
Noted kasnavada, Cyborg.  ;D
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: kasnavada October 08, 2016, 01:30:02 AM
Sorry the goal ain't to be petty nor anything :o ;). So... other other remarks, after a night's sleep...

Most of the article's fine, but there is a few words which I think non-native speakers will have no clue what they mean. "takeaway, gangbusters, skimp"... a few others. I don't really know how much of Arcen's fans ain't natives, but I'd consider simplifying if possible.


We have two more secret weapons. If something in AIW2 isn’t working, we have AI War Classic to look to for inspiration: if our brand new idea fails, we can just go back to doing it how we did in the past. In the unlikely case that fails, our extraordinary community, the largest force behind AI War’s evolution over the years, has always been a source of ideas and creative solutions to problems.
If nothing else? If things go wrong we’ll let you know. We have reputation for speaking with our fans, and for listening. You’ll know what we’re doing, what our challenges are, and what we’re doing to overcome them. We’ll go into excruciating detail (after telling you to expect "a brief update" or "a quick video,"), just like always. It’ll be great.
I find this part awkward too, because the "if nothing else" and changing paragraph looks like you're repeating the same thing twice (to me, at least).


Last, stance against translating ? I don't think I saw that in the document, and not sure that anyone brought it up. I don't think it's worth adding that you'll make a English only game if you do. But, if it allows "easy" translations, translating the KS could be wise.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 08, 2016, 03:23:05 AM
Sorry the goal ain't to be petty nor anything :o ;). So... other other remarks, after a night's sleep...

Most of the article's fine, but there is a few words which I think non-native speakers will have no clue what they mean. "takeaway, gangbusters, skimp"... a few others. I don't really know how much of Arcen's fans ain't natives, but I'd consider simplifying if possible.
Hey, no worries! I'm writing most of this on my own since Chris is so busy, having other people look over it before it goes live is a relief. It probably helps that you've caught more of Chris's mistakes than mine.  >D (But seriously I appreciate the help).

I like a lot of English colloquialisms are well known internationally, at least among the internet savvy crowd likely to hear about this project. You're right that we should do better though, if nothing else it helps keep the tone consistent. Editing this for tense agreement is next on the list.

We have two more secret weapons. If something in AIW2 isn’t working, we have AI War Classic to look to for inspiration: if our brand new idea fails, we can just go back to doing it how we did in the past. In the unlikely case that fails, our extraordinary community, the largest force behind AI War’s evolution over the years, has always been a source of ideas and creative solutions to problems.
If nothing else? If things go wrong we’ll let you know. We have reputation for speaking with our fans, and for listening. You’ll know what we’re doing, what our challenges are, and what we’re doing to overcome them. We’ll go into excruciating detail (after telling you to expect "a brief update" or "a quick video,"), just like always. It’ll be great.
I find this part awkward too, because the "if nothing else" and changing paragraph looks like you're repeating the same thing twice (to me, at least).
Augh, that bit's been driving me crazy, but I haven't been able to think of a better way to get the idea across. I'm just going to lead off with "If things go wrong" like I should have from the beginning.

Last, stance against translating ? I don't think I saw that in the document, and not sure that anyone brought it up. I don't think it's worth adding that you'll make a English only game if you do. But, if it allows "easy" translations, translating the KS could be wise.

Translating the KS pitch into other languages?  :o Oh snap, hadn't thought of that. Don't think Chris did either. I'd be nervous about doing an automated translation for fear of a Google Translate disaster, and I don't think we have the buypower for professional translators or enough reach/time to get volunteer translators and foreign language editors we'd need to ensure quality. It's out of scope at this point, I think. Something to keep in mind if we ever do this again for sure.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: kasnavada October 08, 2016, 03:38:31 AM
I can do French if needed, being French and having translated websites for major corporation at work. Pumpkin may be interested in this too I think, and if so, he could be diverted a bit if asked to help / proofread. Well, it's a bit late. But really the main point I wanted to address is if the game will have translations. AFAIK, AI war classic's text was mostly hard-coded. As enabling translations have additional costs (coding-wise, mostly, I don't think that you'll be able to hire pro translators, so fan-based translations it is) I've no clue if it's worth it, and haven't seen it discussed. In any case if its a feature, it should be advertised (from "fan translation possible" to "X languages will be there at start").


If I may, then, I'll suggest to start from something like this:
We have two more secret weapons : we have AI War Classic to look to for inspiration, and our outstanding community, which has always been a source of ideas and creative solutions to problems.  We have reputation for speaking with our fans, and for listening. You’ll know what we’re doing, what our challenges are, and what we’re doing to overcome them. We’ll go into excruciating detail (after telling you to expect "a brief update" or "a quick video,"), just like always. It’ll be great.

I'm not for writing anything negative, so basically I removed that part  ;D. It could use more fluff probably.

Hey, no worries! I'm writing most of this on my own since Chris is so busy, having other people look over it before it goes live is a relief. It probably helps that you've caught more of Chris's mistakes than mine.  >D (But seriously I appreciate the help).
Thanks =).
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 08, 2016, 04:20:23 AM
I can do French if needed, being French and having translated websites for major corporation at work. Pumpkin may be interested in this too I think, and if so, he could be diverted a bit if asked to help / proofread. Well, it's a bit late. But really the main point I wanted to address is if the game will have translations. AFAIK, AI war classic's text was mostly hard-coded. As enabling translations have additional costs (coding-wise, mostly, I don't think that you'll be able to hire pro translators, so fan-based translations it is) I've no clue if it's worth it, and haven't seen it discussed. In any case if its a feature, it should be advertised (from "fan translation possible" to "X languages will be there at start").
Oh, for the game! Yes that is a bigger concern. I think this is a question for Chris and Keith.  :)

If I may, then, I'll suggest to start from something like this:
We have two more secret weapons : we have AI War Classic to look to for inspiration, and our outstanding community, which has always been a source of ideas and creative solutions to problems.  We have reputation for speaking with our fans, and for listening. You’ll know what we’re doing, what our challenges are, and what we’re doing to overcome them. We’ll go into excruciating detail (after telling you to expect "a brief update" or "a quick video,"), just like always. It’ll be great.

I'm not for writing anything negative, so basically I removed that part  ;D. It could use more fluff probably.
Ctrl+C Ctrl+V.  ;)

Hey, no worries! I'm writing most of this on my own since Chris is so busy, having other people look over it before it goes live is a relief. It probably helps that you've caught more of Chris's mistakes than mine.  >D (But seriously I appreciate the help).
Thanks =).
No, thank you.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: garion333 October 08, 2016, 10:31:28 AM
Our first order of business in AI War 2 was cleaning up the most obtuse bits. Our forum community was an invaluable resource this quest, pointing out too-similar mechanics wherever they were to be found and suggesting alterations to complicated processes to make them simple actions. The final results make you a more efficient commander.

Bold bit doesn't make sense. Maybe "resource in this quest" or "with this quest"?
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: garion333 October 08, 2016, 10:41:34 AM
You keep referring to "1.0" which is the release build of AI War 2, but sounds an awful like you're talking about AI War 1. If change that so you're saying AI War 2 version 1.0 or something about the release instead of using 1.0 as short hand it wouldn't be as confusing. You guys are devs and 1.0 might be common parlance for programmers, but it's not for me. That and it's super easy to confuse 1.0 with meaning the first game.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 08, 2016, 11:58:35 AM
Quote from: kasnavada on Today at 12:38:31 AM

    I can do French if needed, being French and having translated websites for major corporation at work. Pumpkin may be interested in this too I think, and if so, he could be diverted a bit if asked to help / proofread. Well, it's a bit late. But really the main point I wanted to address is if the game will have translations. AFAIK, AI war classic's text was mostly hard-coded. As enabling translations have additional costs (coding-wise, mostly, I don't think that you'll be able to hire pro translators, so fan-based translations it is) I've no clue if it's worth it, and haven't seen it discussed. In any case if its a feature, it should be advertised (from "fan translation possible" to "X languages will be there at start").

Oh, for the game! Yes that is a bigger concern. I think this is a question for Chris and Keith.  :)
Translations for the game itself would likely be way beyond the scope of 1.0.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: kasnavada October 08, 2016, 12:06:50 PM
Translations for the game itself would likely be way beyond the scope of 1.0.

I thought as much. If so I think translating the KS is counter-productive, it would build the expectation that the game is going to be translated.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 08, 2016, 12:14:42 PM
I thought as much. If so I think translating the KS is counter-productive, it would build the expectation that the game is going to be translated.

I'm pretty much going off of what has been said in the past about these things.

: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Tridus October 08, 2016, 12:47:59 PM
Quote from: kasnavada on Today at 12:38:31 AM

    I can do French if needed, being French and having translated websites for major corporation at work. Pumpkin may be interested in this too I think, and if so, he could be diverted a bit if asked to help / proofread. Well, it's a bit late. But really the main point I wanted to address is if the game will have translations. AFAIK, AI war classic's text was mostly hard-coded. As enabling translations have additional costs (coding-wise, mostly, I don't think that you'll be able to hire pro translators, so fan-based translations it is) I've no clue if it's worth it, and haven't seen it discussed. In any case if its a feature, it should be advertised (from "fan translation possible" to "X languages will be there at start").

Oh, for the game! Yes that is a bigger concern. I think this is a question for Chris and Keith.  :)
Translations for the game itself would likely be way beyond the scope of 1.0.

But building the game to be translatesble wouldn't be. You very much want to do that as early as possible, because it gets much more expensive to do it later.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 08, 2016, 01:45:00 PM
But building the game to be translatesble wouldn't be. You very much want to do that as early as possible, because it gets much more expensive to do it later.

I'm not saying it isn't possible, I don't know the specifics of what Keith has going on.  I don't know if something like this would impact his workflow, which would impact how his parts are budgeted.  At this point, all of that is pretty much set and not likely to change much in any direction.  Of course, I could be wrong. 
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: PokerChen October 09, 2016, 05:03:26 AM
On the subject of translations, making the game translatable by modders would be preferable to promising anything in the KS, I think. Language mods are one of the default popular mods in games like Banished and Civ, which aren't promised but naturally arise given enough interest.

It's a point to raise with Keith to just minimise hard coded text.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 09, 2016, 06:39:33 AM
Okay, I've made some pretty major changes to, uh... everything. I'm not sorry.  :D

Could folks take a look, especially at the opening and closing paragraphs? I have a short list of additions (forum quotes and reward information) but this is basically final barring any more disastrous holes.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: kasnavada October 09, 2016, 07:53:03 AM
Could folks take a look, especially at the opening and closing paragraphs? I have a short list of additions (forum quotes and reward information) but this is basically final barring any more disastrous holes.
Ok =).

What is AI War 2?
I don't like the first paragraph, it mixes the game's story with a sales pitch and technical presentation of the game. I suggest moving the storyline in its own section. In a storyline section possibly.

Dozens of ship types ranging from fightercraft
Hundreds ? Not sure. Cinth knows that I think.

Cleaning the mechanics up for AI War 2
I get what you mean by "cleaning"... but it's not "only" a clean-up, since a lot of things were reworked / added too. I'm not sure of what could give the sense of that though.

The UI is especially improved. Take tooltips, which are now much shorter but can be locked in place. Mouse over a locked tooltip and another tooltip pops out!
This sounds like the game's done already. Shouldn't that be future tense (will be improved) ?

Thanks to fixing up the usability issues described above, AI War 2 is well placed to deal with Classic’s second major issue: the killer learning curve. AI War is meant to be a hard but fair game, and the start menu should not defeat new players.
This part has smaller font. Doesn't look right.

Originally AI War's story was confined to its opening crawl: the AI rose up, ending an 800 year long human civil war and nearly driving humanity to extinction
Ah, here is the story part. 353 years above, 800 here... something's not right =). I know its 2 different things, but that's the 2 numbers we get. Someone reading fast will get confused.

AI War Classic's code is not mod friendly, given its huge complexity and need for simulation-concurrency. That legacy stuck with our games until this year's Starward Rogue, our first significantly moddable title.
I don't think this is useful. I don't care if "game I don't buy does not have features". I'd suggest removing it.


Arcen & AI War section should probably reference Keith, no ?


Otherwise, it's missing images ;D and the video ;D
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: PokerChen October 09, 2016, 06:08:03 PM
I did not find any disastrous holes.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 09, 2016, 06:27:46 PM
I did not find any disastrous holes.
That's good, because I just ADDED a giant hole in the rewards section that I'll be filling up over the next few hours. Then there's combing over the actual description of the rewards and... actually wait that might be it.  :o
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: kasnavada October 10, 2016, 02:05:36 AM
I did not find any disastrous holes.
That's good, because I just ADDED a giant hole in the rewards section that I'll be filling up over the next few hours. Then there's combing over the actual description of the rewards and... actually wait that might be it.  :o

Ummm. The section with rewards is still empty.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 10, 2016, 02:27:27 AM
I did not find any disastrous holes.
That's good, because I just ADDED a giant hole in the rewards section that I'll be filling up over the next few hours. Then there's combing over the actual description of the rewards and... actually wait that might be it.  :o

Ummm. The section with rewards is still empty.
Yup! Working on it on a different page.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Tridus October 10, 2016, 07:22:50 AM
The 40/50 tiers say "get the game in private alpha, estimated delivery January 2017".

The 65/80 tiers say "get the game in private alpha, estimated delivery May 2017".

edit - Every tier from 300 and up also says May 2017 for private alpha.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Admiral October 10, 2016, 11:25:24 AM
Congratulations Chris and the Arcen team. I am so excited to see Arcen score a major success that will power all the other million creative ideas that Chris constantly comes up with long into the future.

Now, I have to go learn how to design space stations... LOL
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: garion333 October 10, 2016, 11:35:40 AM
One thing I am afraid of is that the KS is too heavily dependent on AI War 1 knowledge. It'll look better! It'll be in 3D and run better! Play as the Zenith! Most of that stuff sounds good to someone who has played the first game but other people are likely to shrug.

I feel like "Arcen and AI War" should be moved to the top of the campaign page (after What is AI War II). Those bits feel the most hyped parts of the campaign. The AI War 2 pitch outside of that almost feels like an apology for the bad parts of the first game. Marketing is tough and I'm sure it's too late for my comment to matter. ;)

Anyway, good luck to you guys, you deserve to find success.

Edit: Fwiw, I feel like "Name an in-game planet" and the "message in the bottle" stuff should be offered earlier. Getting Early Access is cool and all, but it's even cooler to be able to put stuff in the game. Can make "Name an in-game planet " tier up (two planets, three planets, etc.). I feel like giving $15/$25 is cool as an early bird backer, but alpha access AND a planet at $40? I'm in! Just alpha access and “message in a bottle” (whatever that is) for $40? I'll sit at $15/$25.

Seriously, what is “message in a bottle” and how is it discoverable and why do I care?

Okay, that's all from me, enjoy my too late comments. ;)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 10, 2016, 12:45:35 PM
The 40/50 tiers say "get the game in private alpha, estimated delivery January 2017".

The 65/80 tiers say "get the game in private alpha, estimated delivery May 2017".

edit - Every tier from 300 and up also says May 2017 for private alpha.

Delivery date estimates are based on the total contents of the reward tier.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Tridus October 10, 2016, 12:47:16 PM
Chris explained it on the KS page. Thanks :)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Cinth October 10, 2016, 12:50:01 PM
Chris explained it on the KS page. Thanks :)
I haven't gotten to all those comments yet u.u   #Leftcoasttime
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 10, 2016, 02:14:59 PM
I feel like "Arcen and AI War" should be moved to the top of the campaign page (after What is AI War II). Those bits feel the most hyped parts of the campaign. The AI War 2 pitch outside of that almost feels like an apology for the bad parts of the first game. Marketing is tough and I'm sure it's too late for my comment to matter. ;)
I originally had that section there. Turns out that explaining who you are and the premise of your project doesn't noticeably impact KS backing, while explaining what's in the project does. So we moved things to their current configuration.

Edit: Fwiw, I feel like "Name an in-game planet" and the "message in the bottle" stuff should be offered earlier.
Changes to the reward tiers aren't possible after the Kickstarter goes live.  ;) (Though, I'd agree, much less work involved)

Seriously, what is “message in a bottle” and how is it discoverable and why do I care?
Is this a serious question or a theoretical question asked by a would-be backer?
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Draco18s October 10, 2016, 03:45:36 PM
Changes to the reward tiers aren't possible after the Kickstarter goes live.  ;) (Though, I'd agree, much less work involved)

Not technically true.  You can add, remove, and edit reward tiers all you want.....as long as that tier has 0 backers. ;)
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Captain Jack October 10, 2016, 04:16:24 PM
Changes to the reward tiers aren't possible after the Kickstarter goes live.  ;) (Though, I'd agree, much less work involved)

Not technically true.  You can add, remove, and edit reward tiers all you want.....as long as that tier has 0 backers. ;)
Touché.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Draco18s October 10, 2016, 06:32:19 PM
You can also resize (increase, decrease, add/remove) the number of limited slots at any time.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: PokerChen October 11, 2016, 06:58:47 AM
Seriously, what is “message in a bottle” and how is it discoverable and why do I care?
One cares, if they want to contribute to the background lore. Resource mechanics in this sequel relies upon salvaging derelicts and wrecks, so along with finding R&D stuff that helps you to advance your own technology you'll also sometimes find logs, data caches, etc. that was on the derelict. The backer messages go here.

And you're right, it's not fully explained on the KS page last time I read it.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: Spore18 October 11, 2016, 11:29:58 PM
AI War 2 is the story of humanity and our allies 353 years after the First AI War. Preparations made against the AI's return failed, and now the AI is fighting the entire galaxy at the same time. It is winning. You control one of the last effective fighting forces in the Milky Way. Soon the AI will have nothing distracting it from dealing with you. The AI has blind spots and vulnerabilities it has forgotten in the years since it escaped human control. Find them and you might survive, or destroy the AI once and for all.

I feel like this paragraph as a whole needs a rework; it feels way too clunky for the paragraph that explains the whole premise of the game. Combine some of those sentences, add some commas, do something to make it feel less choppy. Perhaps:

AI War 2 is the story of humanity and our allies 353 years after the First AI War. Preparations that were made against the AI's return failed, and now the AI is fighting the entire galaxy at the same time. It is winning. (Maybe add something with a bit more oomph to this line to really stress how powerful the AI is?) You control one of the last effective fighting forces in the Milky Way, however, soon the AI will have nothing distracting it from dealing with you. Fortunately, the AI has blind spots and vulnerabilities it has forgotten in the years since it escaped human control. Find them and you might survive, or even destroy the AI once and for all.
: Re: AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
: orzelek October 24, 2016, 06:48:22 PM
Soo things are happening I see :D

Thanks for sending forum mail or I would have missed this one.
Added and pledged... waiting with impatientce for numbers to go up :D