AI War 2 News

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!

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.