AI War 2 News

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:The_Great_Refactor#Beta_3.802_New_Challengers_Approach

This is another big one. First off, it has a ton of bugfixes, including substantial improvements to multiplayer yet again.

The encyclopedia has seen a first round of updates, but there's more that needs doing. You'll notice some empty dropdowns and textboxes along the bottom, which I'll be filling in tomorrow or soon.

Challenger mode (the mode that is a step down from Expert but a step up from Humanity Ascendant) has seen a lot of updates, and all three of the new modes are now pretty close to final. Challenger is probably going to be my preferred way of playing now, personally, although the advanced players I expect will mostly live on Expert. And of course there's Strategic Sage cackling away over on Deathwish. The tooltips for these all do a better job of explaining what they are now, but expect more changes in that area soon.

If you're a DLC3 tester, you'll find a new faction in there which is actually from DLC1, but temporarily locked to the DLC3 testers until we get a bit more testing done on it, and the art. Expect a wider release to everyone who has DLC1 later this week, with details coming then. But if you have a DLC3 test key, please do give us feedback!

More to come soon.
Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:The_Great_Refactor#Beta_3.801_Load_Estimates_And_Unit_Encyclopedia

Another really huge one!

There's a new unit called the Ultimate Fortress that you'll run into out in the galaxy if you have the galaxy option turned on, are playing on difficulty 8 or higher, or are playing on expert mode. Zeus outdid himself with this terrifying thing, which also shows off some features from DLC3 (this is a base game unit).

In the lobby, and in the escape menu, there is now a "CPU load estimator" that gives you an estimate of how heavy the game you are running (or planning to run) will be. This lets you tailor your scenario to the sort of computer you have, and since it breaks down why it is heavier or lighter, and updates as you make changes, you can also tune your scenario to get the load that fits your machine while still having the maximum number of features and factions that you want. There are many more details on this in the release notes, but this is a really exciting thing.

Another exciting item is the new Unit Encyclopedia -- folks have been asking for this for ages, and it's finally here! It needs a bit more work right now with some of the categorization of some units, and it doesn't have any lore entries yet, but the vast majority of it is there and is working great. One cool thing is that this automatically adapts to mods, and modders can even extend it, so this isn't just an official-content feature.

Lastly, a number of bugs were fixed, as usual.

More to come soon.
Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:The_Great_Refactor#Beta_3.800_That_Expert_Has_A_Deathwish.21

This one is huge, considering it's the second one of the day. And the first one had the giant Spire Infused Empire in it!

This one doesn't quite complete Expert Mode, but it's getting darn close at the point. Other than some UI bits, and some stuff for the fallen spire / spire infused route, this handles all of the wishlist items for that mode, although there is more testing and I'm sure discussion needed.

This also includes some deathwish items, although they also may need testing and/or revisions. Deathwish is the extra-expert mode specifically for Strategic Sage and whoever he can convince to jump down that dark hole with him. :)

DLC3 continues to get more balance adjustments, and the Necromancer flagships now have far cooler names.

Oh, and bugfixes! Wow, there's a lot of good ones in here. The sidebar and the galaxy map should both now behave fully, and the galaxy map performs a ton better, too. The "Find Unit" mechanic was entirely busted since I added time-slicing to the galaxy map, and I have a feeling that wasn't all. At any rate, it's all good now, as I switched to multithreading instead of time-slicing.

And a few exceptions are solved, among a few other glitches. Definitely an exciting time, and it feels like we're quite close to exiting beta finally, though I don't want to jinx it.

More to come soon.
Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:The_Great_Refactor#Beta_3.799_Spire_Infusion

On the one hand, this is a hotfix because it fixes a stupid bug of mine that broke map generation in the last build (my bad).

On the other hand, this is a pretty exciting build, because it adds the final planned player type to the game: the Spire Infused Empire, part of DLC1. Essentially, a number of people have wanted to play the Fallen Spire campaign, but not have all that business with chasing relics and such. The general feedback is simply wanting to control the big spire ships and do the big battles in more open war, but minus the questing and story bits. That's what the Spire-Infused Empire provides: a spire city right from the start, and the ability to build more simply by taking certain numbers of planets.

It's a way to quickly and dramatically get into open war with the AI, and it pairs well with a lot of other factions. You can't use it and Fallen Spire at the same time (as they are two twists on the exact same thing), but you can pair it with necromancers in DLC3, or giant Zenith factions in DLC2, or scary bois like the Dark Spire in the base game. Major thank-you to Badger for taking this off my plate and implementing it.

More to come soon.
Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:The_Great_Refactor#Beta_3.798_Reliability

This one is all about the bugfixes, for the most part. The most serious issues that exist should be resolved now. Hopefully this makes multiplayer even more playable.

This also includes some new features for DLC1, although they are only behind a cheat code right now. Those will be coming out in actual direct gameplay over the next week or so. What's the feature? Why, the return of warheads! A fan favorite from the first game.

Lost Humans also got some updates, and there is a balance update that should make macrophage a lot more active.

More to come soon.
Enjoy!