AI War 2 News

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!

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.)