AI War 2 News

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.815_Polishing_And_Bugfixing

We are back from beta, and this new version includes a lot of polishing and bugfixing, improvements to the bastille turret, and many various items for our DLC2 testers to bang on. This also has another raft of multiplayer fixes, although thankfully the number of those required is going down quite a lot. We seem to have slain both ghosts as well as the creeping command lag, and the new MP issues reported were actually all related to DLC2! So that's a nice thing to be whittling down so far.

During this beta period, we've increased energy requirements quite a bit for superweapons, and also scaled back the number of ship lines you have access to. Officer fleets no longer come with free ship lines, but also now cost much less AIP to capture. ARSes and similar have slightly fewer choices, but the ODSS in particular now has a better balance of choices rather than giving you too many redundant ones. There's a Goldilocks Zone of "just enough choice but not too much" that we're trying to hit, and we seem to be quite close, if not there.

As part of the beta process, the AI got some new anti-spy buildings for its highest-mark planets, so you can't just spy on them with impunity in those areas. We also took away the mechanic that caused the AI to automatically mark up to mark 3 by the time you attack their homeworld; if you want to run a low-AIP game, you can now do that. The mechanic still remains on difficulty 10, but we decided it was needlessly punitive (not the original intent at all) on lower difficulties than that.

There are a number of new hotkeys that are default-unbound that you can use for things like selecting-only-turrets or for placing half or a third of a cap when you click. Thanks to donblas on those.

AI homeworlds and bastion planets now have special icons and styling that make them easier to spot.

Enjoy!

One more beta for the road! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#Beta_2.814_Hotfix_For_Murder-By-Powerup

This is just a hotfix. You know, for... keeping you from getting murdered by your own collectible powerups.

Assuming there are no other major issues, we're done with this beta phase, but (cough) let's let this one get tested a bit before I pull that trigger.

Enjoy!

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#Beta_2.813_Golem_Relations

You need to use the current_beta build on Steam or GOG to see it. Assuming that all seems sane with this build, this is the end of the current beta period.

What's new in this one? There are a few bugfixes and QoL improvements (thanks to donblas for several of those). There's a new anti-spy system and some improved spy balance, courtesy of CRCGamer.

The Arks and Golems have all been made cheaper in AIP to capture, cost WAY more energy to run (they were stupidly undercosted in energy), and no longer come with any ships when you capture them. You just get them for themselves, not for the fleet they're toting along. Thanks to Strategic Sage for the suggestion about the energy costs, as well as a raft of related items.

Existing savegames that would be thrown into negative energy by balance changes now automatically get a free energy handicap that keeps that from happening, which gives us a freer hand to make large energy usage changes like this without breaking anyone's campaign.

You get one more choice again from the TSS, bringing that back into middle-balance. The Reprocessors by CRZgatecrusher has been updated to the latest code standard, and Civilian Industry has been updated to have better late game performance by ArnaudB.

I put in a ton of fixes to multiplayer, and this time I think all the last of the ghosts are gone. Thanks to Bummeri, greyhoundgames, KaleR, and Jusa for the great reports in that area.

There's some new stuff I'm planning for post-DLC2 with alternative game modes, but it will have to wait a few weeks at the moment. You can read the current iteration of that design here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PkSQoFIYZDN42jaYvjQ_pLGGWYJrYq4mfhFZvfJjNyk/ It's open for public comment.

For the next couple of weeks, I intend to focus just on bugfixing, MP, and DLC2 icons and art. Then on to game modes, etc, after DLC2.

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#Beta_2.811_Brief_Beta_For_Balance

So you do need to use the current_beta build on Steam or GOG to see it.

(I see your eye twitch! Don't worry, this won't be a beta that lasts for months.)

At the moment, we're in the middle of rebalancing a few things (as much as possible in a way to not mess with existing saves/campaigns) to allow for more valid styles of play. We may be adding a few lobby options in pursuit of that, but as much as possible I'm hoping to have a unified experience that is less power fantasy and more guerrilla warfare like the game's roots have always been. (I mean, Fallen Spire exists for the power fantasy already).

Anyhow, since we're in the middle of doing that, plus adding a bunch of mechanics and things for DLC2, there's a greater than average risk of bugs, and we also don't want the average player to get caught in the crossfire of discussion back and forth on what makes for the most wide array of ways to play. So we'll take a few days in beta to get that stuff sorted, and then pop back to the main channel again.

There's some really excellent stuff Zeus is working on mainly for DLC2 right now, so those who are testing that please do direct your attention to the Zenith Architrave. That got a major bunch of additions in this build. And it's his birthday!

CRCGamer and Strategic Sage and I, among others, are looking at a couple of axes of balance in the base game, and trying to make sure that remains as engaging as possible. The low-AIP style of play has been stifled recently, so I'm working to make that more viable, among other things. It's all this-week stuff. Hopefully mostly tomorrow-stuff.

Enjoy!

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#2.810_Hotfix_for_Death

Would that it was so straightforward to hotfix actual death, yeah? At any rate, there was a bug in the prior version (resulting from some fixes to ghosts on MP clients) that was... so thorough that it was ghostbusting some living things. Sorry about that!