AI War 2 News

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.901_AIP_Reduction_Clarity

First up: a reminder that if you have trouble with the most recent build, you can always go into betas and choose most_recent_stable to go one build back (or more if there was a problem build). This is how I sleep easily at night after making some major changes.

The changes in this one aren't too major overall, aside from some fixes to multiplayer that needed to happen, and that don't seem to affect single player negatively in my testing.

When AIP is reduced really early in the game (lucky datacenter find) and your AIP floor is hit, it's now much more clear about what is happening and why.

A handful of small bugfixes and DLC2 tweaks are in this one as well.

There is currently a known issue that some of the starting turret counts and similar are a bit off. We're looking into that, but will do another update in the morning once we've figured out what exactly the intent is there. Too many cooks, sometimes, and we don't want to just change that repeatedly.

In the main, things are looking quite smooth, which is good!

Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.900_First_Press_Build

This one is the first to be available to press for looking at the upcoming Zenith Onslaught DLC (launches May 18th). I still have a lot of art to finish before launch (but all the icons are done!), and there are some remaining MP issues that need attention, but this is getting extremely solid.

This particular build also solves a couple of different ways that could let you accidentally get killed during tutorials. I still haven't been able to reproduce it other than wandering into the wrong planet, but I can see some ways in which it could come about. The tutorial now keeps the AI from moving between planets, and also keeps you from going into planets that would kill you in the earliest tutorials in particular.

Badger also made a lot of quality of life updates that should be helpful for both experienced players and new ones. And then of course lots of behind the scenes goodness from Zeus, CRCGamer, and ArnaudB on actual DLC2.

This version includes some notable updates to turret balance to make them simpler to use while still keeping their essence. And the More System Defenders mod got a few upates.

And lastly, the "Next Steps" journal has a great selection of actual useful advice now, thanks to Strategic Sage.

So many folks helping this come together cleanly. Thank you to everyone! There will likely be another release later today with more tweaks. And lots more over the next two weeks with art drops, balance tuning from our beta testers, and more MP fixes.

Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.899_Almost_Press_Build

We're a day out from sending press copies of Zenith Onslaught out, so that's very exciting. You can see some of the very first graphics related to DLC2 in this update, even in the base game, since the Zenith Trader got a facelift to match the new Zenith theming. Other base game Zenith units will be getting that sort of treatment in the coming weeks, though not all of them before ZO actually launches.

This version also relaxes some of the restrictions on how many helpful buildings can seed around the galaxy. Basically, you can make it easier by having more things to capture. We're going to be working on some post-DLC2 content that involves Game Modes that are more restrictive versus more freeform, and for the default mode that we have right now (which will be called Humanity Ascendant), we may as well lean into being more permissive and freeform. The more hardcore modes will not allow such luxuries, but that's the nature of having two modes: two different audiences. We don't want folks to feel like we only cater to the really expert players.

There's a bunch of little UI updates in QoL features in this build, most of them kind of random but definitely very handy. Badger did a lot of those. For modders, you might be interested to know that the Test Chamber now works again, and has a number of helpful utility methods with it. That makes it way easier to test out new units for the main game or DLC or a mod, if you're designing them visually in particualr.

Couple of bugfixes in here, but not much. I'm aware of some other outstanding multiplayer issues that I need to resolve in the morning, and a couple of things that could be more clear, and apparently the tutorial can still kill you if you take your time reading. So those things are for the morning for me. If you see anything else, please let us know.

Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.850_Icons.2C_Targeting.2C_And_ODSS

Wow, I feel like I've been down a really deep hole for a few days. I've been deliberately ignoring almost all emails, though you could catch me on the watch_chris_art discord section all through this time.

It's been icon-finalization time for the new DLC that's coming up, and that was a hefty bit of work. It surprises me just how many icons there are for the new DLC -- way more than for the first game, and in general increasing the total count for the game by 50%. That includes the first DLC, the base game, and a variety of icons that I put in there that are unused but are present for mods to make use of.

Anyhow, now that that insanely tedious but important task is done, I can come up for air, fix the handful of MP errors that I'm aware of, and then mostly get back to working on art (but it's the more satisfying type of art, at least to me). I won't have a need to lock myself in isolation for two days to do the other art, which is nice. And these were long freaking days, 12 and 14 hours or so, I think it was. All told it was vaguely around 170 icons, depending on how you count them. I also updated some icons in the base game that you'll probably appreciate having an improved look. Oh, and some Scourge stuff for DLC1 got major facelifts.

Other stuff also happened! Lots of DLC2 stuff, but that doesn't go in these release notes. SirLimbo made some fixes and improvements to various shot-hitting logic to make the math more accurate in all cases. Badger added a new tip of the day. ArnaudB extended the ODSS to three hacks instead of two. Waves against marauders won't be so high anymore. AI attacks against Civvies will be lower. AMU got some notable updates.

More soon. Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.816_Frigate_Icons_And_Tuning

This cleans up a few bugs, including some with Kaizer's Marauders and another cross-threading bug in general that could get tripped on AMD machines. This also rebalances the anti-spy stuff to be less harsh.

And there's new icons for frigates! Part of the icon work going into DLC2 in general, though obviously that also affects the base game and DLC1. Now light, medium, and heavy frigates all have slightly different icons, and none of them look like boats.

Enjoy!