I think what Ai War the game it is, is that the player needs the ability to adapt. Chris stated himself in a very old explanation that AI War originated from him being bored at standard RTS games. Once you found out how the AI worked you had literally the same match over and over. This gave him the idea of an AI that adapts to your playstyle and that you have to adapt in order to beat it.
In AI War it is exactly that. Because there are so many possibilities what you have, what teh AI has, what structures are present on planets, you have to rethink for every single game again instead of having your typical strategy that you simply adjust to the given moment.
Having to adept to situations challenges the player.
That's why Mobas are so popular. While there are always viable builds for a specific hero, the player has to adapt to what heroes the enemy heroes palys and also, what builds they use. That's btw why I hate the Dota Casual scene on lower tiers (where I reside sadly). Players there are dumb as a piece of bread (that got toasted), they have already made up their mind before the match started what items they exactly want to have on their hero. This is most seen on current popular heroes, like for example Phantom Assassin. Every PA player nowadays rushes Battle Fury simply because they think it's a strong item on PA but it isn't, its situational and those people don't even undrstand what "situational" means. They just follow their build and that's why they loose, because the opponent has something that counters their build and they aren't even thinking about doing soemthign different, they walkt the whole road down to hell just because they think their build is awesome.
However, in higher brackets in Dota (and Mobas in general) players think about what to pick at the right time, if your opponent is spell strong, they bick a spell blocker, if your opponent has strong attacks, they get more armor. Having to adapt your build to the situation and to your enemies is part of the fun. It is a mind game with your opponent, who can think of a better build to beat them.
Ai War was always the same for me but instead of an opossing player you have an Ai that throws stuff at you and you have to rethink what to use. I first played AI War like any other RTS, I came up with a strategy, noticed it worked good on some planets and kept using it again. But then you get at the point where your unis are countered by structures or units of the opponent and that's when you learn that you cannot use the same units forever just ecause they are strong.
Another thing I love about Ai War is the attack multiplier system. The thing is briliant designed. Other games don't even bother that units have weaknesses, they just say "Okay, this unit is strong in colse range, so we put in a unit with a high range to counter it. And to coutner his unit we put fast units, that can cross the range real quickly."
AI War however uses this and goes a step further, it also adresses directly what ship is strong against another in terms of multipliers. Ships are more effective against specific types of units, using the right ships at the right moment rewards the player.
This has to be in the sequel, more than anything. Because this is somethign other RTS games don't do, weaknesses.
