AI War 2 News

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!

New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.716_The_Great_Balance_Curve

You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam to play this one. This one has a TON of balance changes, mostly in the favor of players. Hopefully we have not made things too easy, but we can dial up enemies as-needed.

The overarching goal of this new balance is to make it so that most of your ships get stronger, faster, at lower mark levels, and then get diminishing returns at higher mark levels. Enemy ships largely still get stronger in a roughly linear fashion. This keeps the progressive linear challenge of enemies, while giving you the freedom to invest more widely in techs than you could before.

Frigates also got a number of really major buffs, and should be a lot more viable. Units like turrets, minefields, station-keepers, and other planetary defenses now start with much larger ship caps and then only grow in power -- not ship cap -- as they mark up. No more paucity of turret coverage in the early game, or touring back around your planets to place turrets every time you mark up.

There are a lot of quality of life improvements in general, mostly aimed at informing you better on tech upgrades, and also for purposes of making for a wider variety of playstyles. More balance tuning is expected soon (based on feedback, mainly), but we also have a number of other exciting QoL additions and game-flow improvements planned. This version already makes you a bit less at the mercy of the RNG at high levels of play, but we're going to be doing even more in that area very soon.

New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Version_2.715_Unload_Queuing

This one has a number of bugfixes, and then the major new addition is a QoL feature: the ability to queue turning on/off pursuit and attack-move modes, and transport unloads. So you can queue a transport to fly across the galaxy, get into position, and unload in pursuit mode if you wish, now. It doesn't support queuing load commands (waiting for all the other ships to get there is an interesting proposition, particularly when you figure common use cases and how those work), but the current additions cut down on what is hopefully the vast majority of the extra babysitting you might do. (Personally, I am not one for starting a fight on a remote planet until I can actually watch the initial disposition of units, but I do understand that others have different views, and especially for soft targets -- or defense -- that makes sense.)

New build: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Version_2.714_Frigate_Surge_And_CSGs

This one makes frigates WAY more powerful and plentiful (mostly in fresh campaigns only, but the energy cost reductions apply to existing games also). This is quite exciting! There are several mods that have been updated to be in line with this change, or to otherwise include a few fixes and tweaks. On the subject of fixes and tweaks, the tutorial will no longer wreck you if you push a bit too far (recent Praetorian Guard change is great for the main game, but not tutorial). And last but definitely not least, there's another new player-created mod that is now included with the game. This one is called AI Shield Generators, and is basically like the older "Core Shield Generators" (CSGs) concept from the first AI War. Modder cml made them configurable and much cooler this time, from what I can tell. It's nice to see that feature again!

Happy new year! New build: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Version_2.713_Marauding_Again

This one is entirely focused on fixes to some of the included mods, most notably the Kaizer's Marauders. I was on a short trip for the new year with my family, and now I'm getting back into things this week to finish up the last of multiplayer, work on base game refinements, and push into work on DLC2. Fingers crossed, but 2021 should be a very exciting time for AI War 2! Heck, even just the first quarter or two should be pretty epic, knock on wood.