AI War 2 News

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.733_Arks.2C_Reprogramming.2C_And_FRS

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.

Right... so I'm still plugging away at the hacking overhaul work and related balance. It's taking longer than expected, but the results are, frankly, pretty glorious.

Last build, golems got the ability to be buffed by you hacking them to give them much more hull durability. This build, arks join in the fun. Some can get buffs to their shields in the same way, while others get firepower buffs. You can really beef out these ships if you want to, now.

On the other hand, competing for your hacking points, you can now "reprogram enemy units." There were previously some one-off "hack ion cannon" and mass driver hacks, but this is a more generalized version of the same thing (capture an enemy unit and bring it to your side). It scales how much it costs by what the unit is and how high a mark it is. You can capture the ion cannons and mass drivers, are well as black hole machines, magnifiers, fortresses, and superfortresses. Or you can sabotage them for less HaP, or you can just fight them.

The FRS structure has had a HUGE revamp in its units. They are all marks 5-6 now from the get-go, and are very powerful just as regular ships; basically the experimental fabricator from the first AI War. These cost far less AIP to take, so are actually viable. Their fleet-wide bonuses are still there, but only work on very small fleets now. It says the size of the fleet for each one, and what units are good to pair with them. If you like to main frigates, a couple of formerly "useless" FRS ships are now a goldmine for a small fleet like that.

Most of the hacks that allow you to get science via odd ways are gone (spire archive aside). Bad balance. More hacks will be added tomorrow!

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.732_Recon.2C_Golem_Buffs.2C_And_Sabotage

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.

Okay, whew, this is lasting a bit longer in beta than intended. But I still hope to escape this week. There is a TON going on in this one.

Essentially, there have been a lot of major upgrades to the hacking mechanics under the hood, and also to how it works for you in the interface. This paves the way for a lot of more additions and updates in the next two days, too.

New in this version are some hacks that allow you to greatly improve the recon range of specific logistical or military command stations... at quite a hefty hacking point cost. But the power of this can be pretty insane, if used at the right time.

Also new is the ability to hack your own golems and majorly increase their durability (regardless of their mark level). The hacking cost here isn't too extreme, but it's the sort of thing that is now competing for your hacking points with other things.

The sabotage hack has been upgraded massively so that you can now select the target from a list rather than it being a fiddly "the thing you are closest to" mechanic. It also now has variable hacking point costs depending on the target, rather than always being a flat 15 HaP. This allows for us to make certain other targets sabotage-able, such as... warp gates! This is a new interesting way to dodge AIP, but it comes at the cost of HaP that you may prefer to use elsewhere.

Distribution nodes now give you 80 HaP rather than 20, so those are suddenly extremely valuable and exciting. Turret ranges are a bit higher at mark 1 for you, but no longer increase with higher marks. Some lobby options have been removed that now have equivalent hacks in-game.

Things are shaping up well!

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.730_Spies.2C_Early_Officers.2C_And_Randomness_Options

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.

Lots of cool new stuff in this one!

First of all, when you start new games, you'll notice one of the less-powerful golems or arks is available at a planet near you. That gives some interesting early game options, and helps make those units more useful since they have less purpose in the late game than their counterparts.

Next up, there's a new unit: spies! There's even a new galaxy map mode related to them. And some upgrades to the recon abilities of logistical and military command stations. Economic command stations have been dominating people's desires for a lot of this beta, but now the other two are rallying with major buffs to situational awareness in their area.

The Galaxy Options screen also looks very different now -- much better organized, with subcategories and all those sorts of things like the settings have. There are also a variety of new mapgen-related options that allow you to make for far-more-random distributions of capturables. There's a chance now of mid-mark-level planets right by your homeworld, too. But you can either up or down that chance with these new settings.

The tech vault has seen more balance go into it (no more hull techs, and far fewer tech vaults in general in the galaxy), and science refunds now cost more hacking points.

There is a tug of war between "play it as you find it" and "design your empire" as the two ethos of the game, and I'm trying to make sure that neither gets in the way of the other unduly. The last bit of this beta period is pretty much entirely focused on that specific issue, and maximizing player choice through gameplay rather than lobby options where possible.

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.729_Tech_Vaults.2C_Bugfixes.2C_And_Major_AMU_Updates

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.

We're getting very close to coming back out of the beta branch! The largest remaining piece of technical work was a new way to allow for hacks to give you various arbitrary options that programmers can define. NR SirLimbo was needing that for one of his mods, and I also wanted to be able to do this sort of thing as part of my Tech Vault overhaul. So that's now done!

The tech vaults in general are WAY more powerful and interesting now. You can't convert them into science anymore, but now they give you four options instead of just one, and they adapt automatically to exclude any techs you've already maxed out. They now also are more than just weapon techs. They now give 2 weapon tech options, 1 hull, and 1 "special" option. This last one could even be a command station class! It's almost a certainty that something in there will be useful to you, and if not the reroll will give you four new options.

NR SirLimbo kindly fixed a number of bugs that he found in the main game, and I got a few others. He also majorly updated his AMU mod to no longer error with the latest beta, as well as to add a lot of other new functionality (things like major brownouts, and a bunch (43!?) of core game settings that you can now alter through this mod.

One major theme from the last month is killing the entire concept of getting "screwed by the RNG." Randomness is great, but when you are not precognizant, we don't want you to get backed into a corner or have no good options. So a lot of the recent changes are aimed in that direction, while still maintaining the need to think ahead and play smart.

Maybe two or three more days before we come back out of beta.

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.728_Full_Multiplayer_Beta

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.

Hey! This is a pretty huge milestone release... except it's on the beta branch right now, so it only semi-counts. We'll be coming off the beta branch next week sometime, and make bigger announcement posts then.

What's the milestone? FULL multiplayer beta! There are still known bugs that need fixing, but all of the features for multiplayer are now in place. This new build not only gives you the ability to gift metal in lump sums and ongoing flows, but it also allows you to provide energy to your ally empires, and even swap hacking points around.

The balance for hacking points is also adjusted in general, so that everyone gets a bit less in multi-faction multiplayer now. You take so many planets in multi-faction MP that you have hacking points coming out your ears, otherwise.

This release also is a big deal in terms of convenience with hackers even in single player. Essentially the game no longer tries to "guess" which hacker you want to use when multiple are available. It uses a better algorithm to find what you mean, and otherwise asks you to clarify.

You can also nickname any faction! Many players are already planning to have the Zenith Trader running around as Tradey Boi, apparently. Human Resistance Fighters got a few buffs, and there's a new Expatriate hull tech that works for them like the Alien tech works elsewhere.

The tech refund screen and related from last build also got some refinement and tuning. There's still a few more features relating to hacking and new hacks for you that I have planned before we come out of the beta branch. But we're getting darn close now! If you're not already playing on the beta branch, please consider doing so. We'd love feedback.