AI War 2 News

The full notes are here. Everything in this build is courtesy of long-timer Dismiss and newcomer Erenussocrates.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
The prior build had an off-by-one error that was giving free first hacks on ARSes. That has been rectified!

There are a few other formatting improvements and things, but that's the main item on fixes.

There are also a number of other improvements to existing mods -- worth taking a look!

[h2]More Additions For Coders[/h2]

If you're a volunteer or mod coder for the game, there are more additions here. In particular Dismiss added a number of things to make hooking in via Harmony (a C# modding tool, basically) a lot easier.

[h2]Three New Mods By Erenussocrates![/h2]

Visible CPA Bunkers is a simple one that lets you keep track of CPA bunkers, since they can be hard to find.

Exodian Blade is notably more involved, and brings back a feature from the original AI War that Badger, Puffin, Zeus, StarKelp, and I had opted not to touch. The Exodian Blade was always an AIWC feature that had stirred mixed feelings in player. A very powerful ship that you can lose permanently? Count a lot of people out. But for people who are into that sort of thing, this mod finally brings that sort of flavor to this sequel. Erenussocrates created it in a way that ties it to the Fallen Spire campaign, which is quite smart, as it probably makes the idea more palatable for more people, and it also gives more variety to the Fallen Spire campaign in the process. Very clever way to get around how naturally risk-averse some folks can be!

AIP for ExoWar Units is kind of a nightmare situation in terms of kicking you when you're already down, but it's likely to make really galaxy-ending conflicts even more exciting. I expect this one will be just something that catches on with advanced players, but the concept is really cool.

[h2]Heart of the Machine[/h2]
Heart of the Machine is actually on sale at the moment as part of LudoNarraCon! If you haven't grabbed it yet, now is an excellent time. The massive Update 15 is currently in beta, and should be coming to the main branch of the game late this week.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

The full notes are here. Everything in this build is courtesy of Dismiss.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
This includes a fix to the "prior" button not actually working properly in the prior build. It now does.

A couple of tooltips have seen some improvements, and there's protection against a couple of possible errors.

[h2]Mods[/h2]
The NecroParty mod has had a lot of balance updates and corrections to how well it gives you a starting spot.

The Generator mod now makes better choices for AI homeworlds.

The Reclaimers mod has had a few balance tweaks.

[h2]More Additions For Coders[/h2]

If you're a volunteer or mod coder for the game, there are a number of additions to make life easier to you.

[h2]Heart of the Machine[/h2]
Heart of the Machine just passed 700 reviews by players! Exciting milestone. The game continues to grow, with a lot of exciting things in work for the next couple of months. April is me reworking the prologue and chapter one a lot, and then May will be a focus on tier one and two goals in chapter 2+.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

The full notes are here.

[h2]Multiplayer[/h2]
The first thing that I should note is that Steam multiplayer should now be a lot more reliable. It seems that I did not have the flags for that set up correctly, based on the documentation provided by Steam. This is something discovered by long-time contributor Dismiss, and it probably explains a huge amount about reliability problems with the Steam networking. If it seemed like some messages were just disappearing into the ether, it's because they were, because of the way that Steam was set up to send.

On the other hand, LiteNetLib and GOG networking were set up properly, and so never had these problems. But some of the problems that were reported were originally reported on both LiteNetLib and Steam, which is a bit confusing for me. It's possible that there were originally problems that were more at the application layer, and we all cumulatively fixed all of those. If that's the case, then my and Badger's ongoing feeling that this was transport-layer-agnostic may have been out of date. This would be fantastic news if true, because if that's true then it should mean that they all just work fine now. Fingers crossed.

The issues that were reported would fit the solution that Dismiss found, though, so there's that. It's a truly huge find if it's truly what it is. Not that I'm doubtful, but just... well, I'm a certain amount cynical after chasing multiplayer with this game for so long for so many years. Again, fingers majorly crossed, and giant thanks to Dismiss either way.

[h2]Other Main Game Stuff[/h2]
There's a long list of fixes in the link above.

Several of them are performance fixes, like to the Human Resistance Fighters warping in pre-stacked to avoid a hit from them spawning a ton of things and then despawning them to stack.

Some flickering ui was fixed.

Some ui elements that were not shown for all clients in multiplayer now are.

Formatted tooltips (which are optional, and another of the many things by Dismiss) have gotten a wide variety of fixes.

Both the lobby and encyclopedia have gotten a slate of fixes.

Two new personal settings have been added, and one galaxy setting is now changeable during the game rather than being marked as a cheat if you were to change it.

There is then a really long list of nice things for coders, either volunteers or modders, included in this build.

[h2]Existing Mods[/h2]
The Generator mod now works with Sidekick players.

The Sidekicks mod has a nerf to one enemy unit's resource yield, and a fix to another pair of structures not being buildable by a certain kind of player.

The Points of Interest mod has had a lot of rebalancing.

The Necro Party mod has had a really major update. Please try out this rework of the Necromancer faction, with a focus so far on rebalancing of rift hacks to make each galaxy feel more unique, make planets have strategic value, and rebalance costs to make more lines/flagships useful. Come to the discord to offer your thoughts and ideas.

[h2]New Mods! All Three By Erenussocrates[/h2]

[h3]Fuel Rebalance[/h3]
This rebalances the Logistician campaign type and the games that have the Fuel setting enabled, by making the regular forcefields, tractor arrays, tachyon arrays, most minefields and some of the basic turrets cost no Radon at all. Most turrets will cost around 450 Radon, and the sniper turrets will cost 1800 Radon. Anything that costs above 10k Radon and the station keepers are unchanged.

In Fallen Spire campaigns, the player will be able to build a Spire version of the fuel stations on planets with a mark 7 Spire city. These fuel stations also have a strict per-planet and per-galaxy limit.

Zenith Traders will also be able to sell Minor Fuel Stations, a previously deprecated item in the base game. These also have a per-galaxy limit.

In exchange of this, all fuel stations have a 60k energy consumption to maintain. That also makes them more realistic too.

This rebalances the game in a way that if the player loses a Radon station, they don't insta-lose the game, or that it makes it possible to grab an expansion even if you have no Radon available, since only the awesome turrets are expensive now.
It would also be close to impossible to play a Fuel game together with Fallen Spire campaign without a rebalance, since the Spire City buildings also cost Radon, and a lot of Radon, mind you.

Keep in mind that if there are new turrets that are added by another mod, this mod might not make any changes to them.

[h3]Dyson Sphere Leech[/h3]
It always bothered me how the player couldn't gain anything from holding a system with a Dyson Sphere in it, even though it's supposed to be a structure that is so potent that it creates nearly limitless energy.
With this mod, the player will be able to draw 2m power from a Dyson Sphere for as long as they can hold a Command Station on the same planet.

[h3]Biblical Angel Names for ExoWar Units[/h3]
This mod just changes the names of 40+ Exogalactic War Front units into biblically accurate angel and demon names, it's just for cosmetic flair.

Maybe the humanity wanted to name their strongest previously-thought-to-be-allies after their biblical protectors before they decided to turn their weapons on their own masters?

Maybe the AI has a god complex and that's why they named their most powerful minions after the angels?

Or maybe you are a Neon Genesis Evangelion fan, and really like the idea of potentially world-ending AI agents named after the angels.

In any case, be prepared to feel the fear of seeing something unfamiliar and scary, all over again.

If you have the mod "ExoWar Overhaul" by Lord of Nothing enabled, this mod will also rename the newly introduced exowar units by that mod too.

[h2]Heart of the Machine[/h2]
Heart of the Machine just passed 700 reviews by players! Exciting milestone. The game continues to grow, with a lot of exciting things in work for the next couple of months. April is me reworking the prologue and chapter one a lot, and then May will be a focus on tier one and two goals in chapter 2+.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070/Heart_of_the_Machine/

This build has a number of updates to quickstarts in general, and to the Sidekicks mod, and a few generalized fixes.

On the quickstarts side of things, Dismiss has fixed up a number of the descriptions, and has added a new "Full Campaign Start" type of save. This is a very interesting way for players to provide really hyper-specific scenarios (down to the seed and all the other bits) for others to try and play.

There's also a new community quickstart, called the Marshal Plan, by Corpserule. This is the first of those new kinds of full campaign quickstarts.

Badger has been hard at work on his sidekicks mod, and has a number of balance changes and improvements relating to the Dyson Empire, Scourge Infused Empire, and more. He also updated the player type descriptions in the game to make those a lot more informative in general.

There are a handful of other minor tweaks and fixes to the main game from both Dismiss and Badger.

Full release notes here: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Post_Completion_Part_II#5.618_More_Quickstarts_And_Sidekicks


[h3]Other News[/h3]
Heart of the Machine has been in Early Access for slightly over a month now! Big thank-you to everyone for all of the support and the excellent reviews.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070#app_reviews_hash?snr=1_5_100010__global-header

Here is a link to prior recent HotM updates in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/524210308312468720
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/530965072572320673
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/530965072572317985

This build updates the scourge infused empire so that they can now summon their scourge minions to join in a particular fight, which helps to set them aside from regular scourge allies. This is with the Sidekicks mod, which is free and totally something you should try if you still haven't! It's by one of the devs of the game (Badger), and is basically an unofficial and free DLC4.

In other areas, there are a number of more bugfixes and tweaks in here. Big thanks to both Badger and Dismiss for those.

Back in the Sidekicks mod, there are also another two new custom AI difficulties, to go with the two that were added last update. Shark and Lumbering Badger are both very amusing and intriguing.

Full release notes here: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Post_Completion_Part_II#5.617_Minions_And_Fixes

[h3]Other News[/h3]

Heart of the Machine released into Early Access a few weeks ago! Big thank-you to everyone for all of the support and the excellent reviews.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070#app_reviews_hash?snr=1_5_100010__global-header

Here is a link to prior recent HotM updates in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/530965072572317964
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/578252481832681480