AI War 2 News

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.722_AI_Wave_Balance

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

This one has a few last performance improvements (this time just for when you are showing ship ranges), and it also includes some mod updates and a few fixes like not letting you go into negative hacking points anymore (thanks, Dominus!).

The star of the show with this one is definitely the faster, stronger waves from the AI. As documented in the release notes at some length, waves were incredibly underpowered before to the point that they were all but a non-presence in the game. This version changes that, substantially, so that waves are now actually a factor and you have more than the Hunter to worry about when it comes to defending border worlds. I experimented with a number of other changes, such as more aggressive mark-leveling for the AI, but backed off of those. I did give the player more forcefields on their homeworld, though -- that is needed in the case of early bomber assault waves.

Overall there's a huge amount of extra danger in the game now, from different angles of attack than we've been seeing for a while. Given the insane boosts to the players' power, particularly in the early game, this should hopefully balance that out a bit AND make waves an interesting part of the game again. There has been talk of also increasing the number of guardians the AI gets, but that feels like overkill to me at this particular moment.

I'll be very curious to hear how balance feels, in a broad sense, to folks who play at different difficulty levels. This beta branch is not intended to make the game harder (per se), but is intended to make more strategies viable, more techs viable, and have more varied games as a whole. How's it feeling this build?

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.721_Histiocytes_And_Circles

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

This one fixes a major performance problem that has crept in for some graphics cards, for some OSes, on the latest driver versions. Essentially, the selection circles around ships were stupidly bad performing lately. They now perform vastly better, and also look way more modern and clean. Other things like the range circles still need to be updated, but it's been a lot of work to get the framework in general here.

Also, there's a lot of updates to game balance. Turrets in particular got some love from ArnaudB, who helped make the new turret balance make more sense and be more consistent. NR SirLimbo and CRC Gamer also updated their mods.

StarKelp also has an entirely new mod available, called Macrophage Histiocytes, which basically greatly extends the base-game Macrophage faction and gives them a ton of new options and powers. As friends or foes, this is a pretty cool new item to be able to play with!

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.719_Unity_2019.4.2C_And_Performance

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.

This one fixes a couple of bugs related to viral shredders, but then beyond that it's all about an upgrade of the unity enginge. It looks like the download size is about 1.6GB at least on OSX, so that's what's up with that -- lots of file format changes in the internal databases.

As part of the upgrade, there were some really notable performance improvements here, most specifically around the drawing of thousands of icons on the galaxy map or planet view. There's more I need to do still relating to the drawing of lines and circles when you have tons of ships selected, but I plan to tackle that tomorrow.

OSX, Windows, and Linux should all see a big surge in compatibility, particularly Vulkan on Linux and Metal on OSX. No native support for the new Mac Silicon chips yet, but unity has that in a beta build and that's probably inevitable in a year or two if they either backport it or get the related version suitably bug-free. This version is a major jump forward in unity build numbers, well over a year, largely because we needed the new version to be rock solid and actually give some tangible benefits. We're finally at that point, knock on wood, so here we are!

Please note the made with unity splash screen is annoying and temporary. It will be gone in tomorrow's release.

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.718_Tutorial_And_Tech_Fixes

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam to play this one.

This one refines a lot of things from the non-beta branch (fixes to tutorials and the stale text bug), and also refines the techs interface a lot so that you see very accurately what you are getting, and more easily see color coding for upgrades at a glance. The starting support fleets also get more engineers.

The AI still needs some buffs in the beta branch right now, but so far things seem to be feeling good on the player end, so I'm really happy about that.

Rather than doing adaptive unlocks in the coming weeks, there's a new plan I have in mind for some new hacks that will give you more control over the RNG without giving you COMPLETE control over it. Basically this disrupts the existing game flow less, and because of how much more widely people are unlocking techs as it is with the new balance curves, adaptive unlocks would likely have just led to too-few metas for playing the game.

My two goals have been to increase the number of viable metas, and to prevent you from getting hosed by the RNG. The balance curves took us farther on the second goal than I expected, so I'm adapting my plans based on feedback. Thanks to everyone playing the beta branch!

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.717_Tuning_And_Optional_Capture

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam to play this one. This one makes a number of refinements to the last version, which had things like broken GCAs, etc. One reason among several that we went to the beta branch over the weekend.

The game is indeed far too easy right now, but the frigates are no longer so ridiculously overpowered as they were in the prior beta build. We need to do a few things to make the AI a bit more beefed-out to match all the large power improvements that players got in the last build, but we'll take this a few steps at a time.

We also fixed a number of bugs, a number of mods were updated by their authors, and capturing things like golems and arks can now be paused or even halted entire -- that's a pretty handy new power! You also no longer have to worry about Poltergeists in most games unless you get into a mega faction like the Fallen Spire.

Next build, expect further refinements and bugfixes, but also some notable buffs to the AI forces to give them a fighting chance against yours -- particularly in the early game. It's not super clear to me yet whether the new balance is still too strong in your favor in the late game, but in the early game it's no contest in favor of players. This is why we do a beta for a bit!