AI War 2 News

Very similarly to the prior release, it's been 24 days since the last writeup (and in this case, the last non-beta build). This new version is only the fifth public build since then, though most of them were hefty and were in beta. Full notes here.

What's new?

• First up, there is a brand new "journal" concept, which lets us put in a whole bunch of new thematic or useful text that you can find. And of course it can be used in mods. I don't personally plan to use it a whole lot, but I know some mod authors and some folks wanting to volunteer some minor lore writing have been waiting for this.
  
• Chat, as used for multiplayer and for the AI talking to you, has been revamped a fair bit, since the journal-like things are no longer a part of that. It's now more efficient, and has a few new capabilities, like...
  
• Cheat codes and debug commands issued via chat have been added! Am I strange for feeling like cheat codes are anachronistic in the current market? Sigh. Anyway, I've always liked having those for folks.
  
• Fleet EXP has been removed, and we're no longer planning on doing the "perks" system that we've been talking about for about 2 years. Basically it was always something that could cause you to have to grind, and there are simply better ways to let you upgrade fleets and make them how you want them.
  
• Speaking of, all fleets (or their flagships at very minimum) can now be upgraded directly by science. There have been some science costs rejiggered based on this, and a lot of interface additions to make this really smooth in the most recent version in particular. This basically gives you a cheap way to have the same-ish experience, but without the ability/requirement to grind for levels.
  
• There's a big new "hooks" framework for mods, which we can use to talk to mods in an indirect way when they want to do something right before, during, or after key events.
  
• There's an interesting new debug setting that you can enable to test some new mechanics: "Enable Astro Train Power Increase"
  
• Drones of all sorts now get upgraded based on their spawner being upgraded, so they are far more dangerous than before.
  
• The dyson sphere voice lines should now be played properly.
  
• Cloaked and agile transports are both something you can now find in the wild in new campaigns.
  
• Lots and lots of bugfixes!
  

More to come soon!
[h3]Please Do Report Any Issues![/h3]

If you run into any bugs, we'd definitely like to hear about those.

The release of this game has been going well so far, and I think that the reviews that folks have been leaving for the game have been a big help for anyone passing by who's on the fence. For a good while we were sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive on the Recent Reviews breakdown, but there have been a lot fewer reviews lately and so that has definitely had a material negative effect. Go figure. Having a running selection of recent reviews definitely is helpful, but at least we have a pretty healthy set of long-term reviews. If you've been playing the game and enjoying it, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd drop by and leave your own thoughts, too.

More to come soon. Enjoy!
[h3]Problem With The Latest Build?[/h3]

If you right-click the game in Steam and choose properties, then go to the Betas tab of the window that pops up, you'll see a variety of options. You can always choose most_recent_stable from that build to get what is essentially one-build-back. Or two builds back if the last build had a known problem, etc. Essentially it's a way to keep yourself off the very bleeding edge of updates, if you so desire.
[h3]The Usual Reminders[/h3]

Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page. If you follow us there, you'll be notified about any game releases we do.

Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games? It doesn't have to super detailed, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that's how you make it happen. Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support.

Enjoy!

Chris

The last release I did a writeup on was 25 days ago, an eternity. This new version marks the twelfth public build since then, although the most recent stretch were in beta. Full notes here.

What's new?

• First up, we got GOG Galaxy support fully working, and also improved some of our Steamworks integration. Both of these are in preparation for multiplayer over (and potentially between) those two platforms. Overall we are having three options for how you can connect with people for multiplayer, and those were the two I'm least familiar with.
  
• As part of this, we also finally fully got the support for achievements in GOG Galaxy in there.
  
• As part of THAT, we also improved the performance of some of the achievement checks on Steam, and made it so that your offline achievements are properly stored no matter how you play.
  
• The Scourge got some minor buffs.
  
• The AI Reserves now announce themselves for a moment before attacking, versus just showing up out of the blue.
  
• The pathfinding between planets is now smarter when you are ordering your ships around, and there are three modes you can swap your ships between (Default, Safest, or Shortest).
  
• Non-scourge factions that use fireteams are now better about stacking their units (across fireteams, often), which helps enormously with performance in certain late-game situations.
  
• A whole heap of quality of life improvements to the text chat window (for upcoming multiplayer), including some new UI framework bits under the hood to make that possible.
  
• Techs that have already been fully unlocked now continue to show up on the tech sidebar, since having those disappear was freaking confusing.
  
• When viewing the tooltip for a unit, it now shows how many upgrades have happened out of how many upgrades for each tech line that benefits the unit.
  
• Lots of changes to how planets are stored and iterated-over, some of which are building toward some future DLC content as well as some future content for late-adding extra players to multiplayer games.
  
• Various minor UI improvements.
  
• Three new options for turning off beams of certain types under the Performance tab of Personal Settings. In certain super-lategame battles, turning off tachyon beam visuals can be an incredible performance boost. It may be to the point that we advise just turning those off in general.
  
• There's a new Journal tab, but it doesn't do anything yet. Coming soon!
  
• Command stations that die now come back still with any upgraded levels that you bought with science for their specific planet. It was an error that that was not already the case!
  
• Ships that you have not fully claimed yet, like golems, no longer charge you energy.
  
• In the escape/system menu, there is now a View/Edit Factions option that brings you into a new screen. This screen lets you edit the colors for any faction (even zombies and outguard, which never have been editable before).
  
• The V/E Factions screen also lets you edit any of the settings for Discoverable factions, up until you hack their beacon. This is incredibly helpful if you decide a bit of a way into the game that you'd like a really specifically-configured enemy or allied faction of whatever sort to come in... now you can configure that rather than just getting the faction defaults when hacking them to bring them in.
  
• Lots and lots of bugfixes!
  

More to come soon!
[h3]Please Do Report Any Issues![/h3]

If you run into any bugs, we'd definitely like to hear about those.

The release of this game has been going well so far, and I think that the reviews that folks have been leaving for the game have been a big help for anyone passing by who's on the fence. For a good while we were sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive on the Recent Reviews breakdown, but there have been a lot fewer reviews lately and so that has definitely had a material negative effect. Go figure. Having a running selection of recent reviews definitely is helpful, but at least we have a pretty healthy set of long-term reviews. If you've been playing the game and enjoying it, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd drop by and leave your own thoughts, too.

More to come soon. Enjoy!
[h3]Problem With The Latest Build?[/h3]

If you right-click the game in Steam and choose properties, then go to the Betas tab of the window that pops up, you'll see a variety of options. You can always choose most_recent_stable from that build to get what is essentially one-build-back. Or two builds back if the last build had a known problem, etc. Essentially it's a way to keep yourself off the very bleeding edge of updates, if you so desire.
[h3]The Usual Reminders[/h3]

Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page. If you follow us there, you'll be notified about any game releases we do.

Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games? It doesn't have to super detailed, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that's how you make it happen. Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support.

Enjoy!

Chris

Wowzers. This one has been a marathon, even though it hasn't been that many days since the last release. Notes here.

A ton of under-the-hood bits have been overhauled for how to load savegames and the lobby, and everything moves a lot more smoothly now. Specifically:

• The functionality for loading an existing savegame or quick start into the lobby for further editing is now fully functional in all respects.
  
• When you leave the lobby and come back, it now remembers your last settings.
  
• When you start a game from the lobby it remembers your last settings.
  
• There is a button in the lobby that now lets you reset everything to the defaults.
  
• You don't run into problems with stale visual data in the lobby anymore (several bugs in this area).
  
• You can load quickstarts that were saved with an expansion enabled even if you don't have that expansion. Expansion content will be omitted. Should also work for quickstarts created with mods.
  
• And yes, this does have direct benefits to multiplayer work, as well, it's worth noting!
  

There are also some other bugfixes, and two new giant Extragalactic units, one of which is called the Thunderchild. After wrestling with this release for the better part of a week, the name was just too perfect for this build as a whole. ;)

More to come soon!
[h3]Please Do Report Any Issues![/h3]

If you run into any bugs, we'd definitely like to hear about those.

The release of this game has been going well so far, and I think that the reviews that folks have been leaving for the game have been a big help for anyone passing by who's on the fence. For a good while we were sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive on the Recent Reviews breakdown, but there have been a lot fewer reviews lately and so that has definitely had a material negative effect. Go figure. Having a running selection of recent reviews definitely is helpful, but at least we have a pretty healthy set of long-term reviews. If you've been playing the game and enjoying it, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd drop by and leave your own thoughts, too.

More to come soon. Enjoy!
[h3]Problem With The Latest Build?[/h3]

If you right-click the game in Steam and choose properties, then go to the Betas tab of the window that pops up, you'll see a variety of options. You can always choose most_recent_stable from that build to get what is essentially one-build-back. Or two builds back if the last build had a known problem, etc. Essentially it's a way to keep yourself off the very bleeding edge of updates, if you so desire.
[h3]The Usual Reminders[/h3]

Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page. If you follow us there, you'll be notified about any game releases we do.

Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games? It doesn't have to super detailed, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that's how you make it happen. Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support.

Enjoy!

Chris

It's been 17 days since the last build, but there's a whole lot of goodness in this new one. Release notes here.

Also: I got married last week! It was supposed to be next month, but on account of pandemic we had to adjust our plans. My wife is a physician, and in the spirit of family unity I suggested we both add to our last names rather than it just being her; so I'm now Chris McElligott Park, not Chris Park.

As to the actual build, there's a ton of stuff:

• Lobby improvements, and better stuff with loading saves into the lobby.
  
• Bunches of bugfixes.
  
• The ability to see and switch music tracks via the debug screen.
  
• Settings and profiles being forward-compatible in case you need to roll back your game version without losing those things.
  
• Bunches of improvements and tweaks to the scourge, and other Spire Rises content.
  
• A bunch of improvements to the Macrophage in the base game, allowing for multiple versions of their faction, among other things.
  
• TONS of balance tweaks, including a lot more AI ship groups for more variety, etc.
  
• And a whole lot of other things.
  

More to come soon!
[h3]Please Do Report Any Issues![/h3]

If you run into any bugs, we'd definitely like to hear about those.

The release of this game has been going well so far, and I think that the reviews that folks have been leaving for the game have been a big help for anyone passing by who's on the fence. For a good while we were sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive on the Recent Reviews breakdown, but there have been a lot fewer reviews lately and so that has definitely had a material negative effect. Go figure. Having a running selection of recent reviews definitely is helpful, but at least we have a pretty healthy set of long-term reviews. If you've been playing the game and enjoying it, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd drop by and leave your own thoughts, too.

More to come soon. Enjoy!
[h3]Problem With The Latest Build?[/h3]

If you right-click the game in Steam and choose properties, then go to the Betas tab of the window that pops up, you'll see a variety of options. You can always choose most_recent_stable from that build to get what is essentially one-build-back. Or two builds back if the last build had a known problem, etc. Essentially it's a way to keep yourself off the very bleeding edge of updates, if you so desire.
[h3]The Usual Reminders[/h3]

Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page. If you follow us there, you'll be notified about any game releases we do.

Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games? It doesn't have to super detailed, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that's how you make it happen. Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support.

Enjoy!

Chris

We had one smaller hotfix, and then now this bigger one.

• The first hotfix corrected a bug that was happening with transports in the prior version with all the performance updates.
  
• There are a variety of general fixes and tweaks in both releases.
  
• The new release makes sure that you can always see your cripple transports/flagships no matter what, as they come home. Very helpful!
  
• The Dyson Antagonizer has gotten some balance changes to make them less frustrating to deal with.
  
• The Marauders got several fixes and adjustments, which makes them more interesting but is also a net nerf to them.
  
• A variety of fixes and improvements for The Spire Rises (first DLC), including some tooltip clarity as well as giving the Scourge the ability to guard their stuff a bit more.
  

More to come soon!
[h3]Please Do Report Any Issues![/h3]

If you run into any bugs, we'd definitely like to hear about those.

The release of this game has been going well so far, and I think that the reviews that folks have been leaving for the game have been a big help for anyone passing by who's on the fence. For a good while we were sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive on the Recent Reviews breakdown, but there have been a lot fewer reviews lately and so that has definitely had a material negative effect. Go figure. Having a running selection of recent reviews definitely is helpful, but at least we have a pretty healthy set of long-term reviews. If you've been playing the game and enjoying it, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd drop by and leave your own thoughts, too.

More to come soon. Enjoy!
[h3]Problem With The Latest Build?[/h3]

If you right-click the game in Steam and choose properties, then go to the Betas tab of the window that pops up, you'll see a variety of options. You can always choose most_recent_stable from that build to get what is essentially one-build-back. Or two builds back if the last build had a known problem, etc. Essentially it's a way to keep yourself off the very bleeding edge of updates, if you so desire.
[h3]The Usual Reminders[/h3]

Quick reminder of our new Steam Developer Page. If you follow us there, you'll be notified about any game releases we do.

Also: Would you mind leaving a Steam review for some/any of our games? It doesn't have to super detailed, but if you like a game we made and want more people to find it, that's how you make it happen. Reviews make a material difference, and like most indies, we could really use the support.

Enjoy!

Chris