AI War:AI War

AI War: Fleet Command is a space-based RTS with incredible AI and the largest number of units (30,000+ in most games) of any game we know of. Up to eight players team up against two deadly AI civilizations in lengthy, multi-session campaigns spanning an 80-120 planet galaxy map. More About AI War

Community Wiki

The primary ArcenWiki is maintained by Arcen Games staff only, since it serves as a manual and a source of official information about the game. However, many of our players expressed a desire to contribute strategies and other play advice, so we have a public Community Wiki set up for those purposes: http://www.arcengames.com/communitywiki/

Starting A New Campaign

• Fast Facts: A Crash Course On AI War
• I'm Just Starting Out -- What Should I Do?
• How Do I Know What Difficulty Level To Play On?
  • Is The Difficulty Really Constant Throughout A Game Of AI War?
• What Difference Does The Map Size Make? (Hint: Tiny Maps Are Harder)
• What are suggestions for a good first AI opponent?
• AI Opponent Type Descriptions
• Video Tutorials (See An Expert Play)

General Gameplay

• How Do I Get More Ships?
• What Do I Do With My Older Ships?
• What Technologies Should I Unlock If I'm New?
• How Do I Use The Priority Buttons In The Galaxy Map?
• Do Shots Miss Sometimes?
• Should I Micromanage Ships In Battle?
• Some Of My Ships Are Extra Slow, Or Won't Move At All. Why?
• Are There Cheats In The Game?
• AI Wave Size Calculation
• When Should I Be Worried About The AI Progress Getting Too High?
• How Do I Minimize Micromanagement?
• Does The AI Progress Go Up When I Lose A Command Station?
• Like Chess, A Game Of AI War Has Three Abstract "Phases"

Multiplayer Co-Op

• What are the differences between solo and multiplayer?
• How To Manage Player Drop-In and Drop-Out In Co-Op?

Expansions

• Expansions Vs Free DLC -- What's The Difference?
• What exactly are the features in the base game of AI War?
• What exactly is added via The Zenith Remnant expansion?
• What exactly is added via the Children of Neinzul micro expansion?
• What exactly is added via the Light of the Spire expansion?
• When will the fourth expansion for AI War be coming out?

Interface

• Keyboard: Where Are The Keyboard Controls For The Game Documented?
• Keyboard: What Exactly Does X + Right Click Do?
• What Does Flashing On The Galaxy Map Indicate?
• How Do the Quick Buttons At The Bottom Of The Screen Work?
• About The Planetary Summary
• Is It Possible To Zoom All The Way Out?
• Why Is Clicking The Minimap Imprecise When I Am Zoomed In?
• Can I Queue Multiple Attack Orders And Movement Orders?
• What Are The Rules For Gifting Ships Between Players?
• Formation: How To Use Formation Move
• Formation: How To Use Arc Move
• How Do I Minimize Micromanagement?
• How To Use Preferred Targets To Make Up For Deficiencies In Your Ship Mix

Defense

• New Counterattack Guard Posts: CounterAttack Guard Posts Can Launch A Wave Almost Anywhere
• How Do I Barricade A Wormhole?
• Gate Raids: How Do I Prevent Enemies From Sending Waves Against A Planet?
• Gate Raids: What Does Gate Raiding Really Accomplish?
• How Do I Defend My Ever-Expanding Fronts?
• Why Would I Unlock Turrets Instead Of Mobile Ships?
• How Do I Secure The Area Around My Planets?
• How Do I Prepare For Cross-Planet Attacks?
• What Is The Risk Of Not Destroying A High-Level AI Planet Next To My Home Planet?
• Why Is There An Exo-Galaxy Wormhole On My Home Planet?
• How Do I Defend Against Astro Trains?
• How Do I Protect Myself While Expanding In The Early Game? (Whipping Boys)
• How Do I Keep The Number Of Ingress Points Into My Territory Low?
• Defending Against Border Aggression

Offense

• How Does Supply Work?
• How Do I Establish A Beachhead?
• What's The Best Way To Handle Scouting?
• Why Does An Enemy Planet Get Reinforcements After Its Warp Gate Is Gone?
• Are The Capturable Enemy Ships Always Away From My Starting Position?
• What Is The Risk Of Taking A Planet Next To High-Level AI Planets?
• How Do I Take A High-Level AI Planet?
• How Fast Should I Be Taking Planets?
• How Do I Protect Myself While Expanding In The Early Game? (Whipping Boys)
• Neutering AI Planets
• Creating False Alarm Distractions On AI Planets
• Why Not To Use FRD Mode Offensively

Economy

• How Do I Get More Knowledge?
• What Do I Do About Reduced Energy Reactor Efficiency?
• Are There Resource Caps? What Happens When I Hit Them?
• What To Do With Too Much Of One Resource, But Not Enough Of The Other?

Ship-Specific Game Mechanics

• Cloaking: How Does Cloaking Work?
• Cloaking: How Do I Prevent My Cloaked Ships From Auto-Attacking Enemies?
• Cloaking: How Do Cloaking Boosters Work?
• Why Can't I Repair Some Ships (Such As Forts/Warheads)?
• Am I Ever Able To Build Core/Mark V Units?
• Why Do Some Ships (Such As The Fortress) Have Two Range Circles?
• Transports: Why Can't I Unload My Transports?

Ship Strategies & Errata

• Advanced Research Stations: Does Losing One Of These Matter After I've Held It Once?
• Astro Trains: What Do These Do?
• Astro Trains: How Do I Defend Against Astro Trains?
• Captive Human Settlements: Do I Gain Anything From Holding These?
• Command Posts: What Do These Do?
• Counter-Dark-Matter Turrets: What Are These Good For?
• Electric Shuttles: How Do I Effectively Attack Them?
• Engineers: How Can I Best Use These?
• Engineers: What Restrictions Are There On When An Engineer Can Repair Another Ship?
• Force Fields: How Do I Kill Them?
• Force Fields: How Much Of A Ship Needs To Be Covered By A Forcefield To Get Its Protection?
• Force Fields: What Uses Are There For The Mobile Nature Of Force Field Generators?
• Golems: What Are Golems?
• Golems: What Are The Benefits And Risks Of Capturing Golems?
• Golems: Why Is My Golem Out Of Supply?
• Golems: How Do I Kill A Mining Golem?
• Golems: How Do I Work With A Zenith Trader?
• Golems: How Do I Survive A Zenith Devourer?
• Golems: How Do I Interact With A Dyson Sphere?
• Guard Posts: What Do These Do?
• Guardians: What are Guardians?
• Guardians: How does Changing AI Difficulty Affect Guardians?
• Guardians: Types Of Guardians
• Ion Cannons: What Do I Do About Them?
• Lightning Turrets: How Do I Effectively Attack Them?
• Mines: Are Ships Supposed To Be Able To Slip Past Mines?
• Mines: How Do I Clear Enemy Mines?
• Mines: What Is The Best Way To Clear The Remains Of Enemy Mines?
• Mines: How To Kill PermaMines?
• Missile Frigates: Are These Overpowered?
• Orbital Mass Drivers: What Are Orbital Mass Drivers?
• Parasites: What's The Best Way To Use Them?
• Raid Engines: What Do These Do?
• Special Forces Alarm Posts: What Do These Do?
• Special Forces Guard Posts: What Do These Do?
• Special Forces Guard Posts: How Do I Destroy Them?
• Spiders And Weak Ships: What Are These(And Other Weaker Ships) Good For?
• Starships: How Do I Best Use Them?
• Starships: What Are Scout Starships Good For?
• Starships: How Do I Use Riot Starships?
• SuperFortresses: What Do I Do About Them?
• Tachyon Beams: Why Do Yellow Beams Come Out Of Nowhere And Hit My Ships?
• The Eye: What does the AI Eye do?
• Warheads: How Do I Get EMPs, Nukes, And Other Warheads?
• Warheads: How Do I Use Nukes?
• Warheads: How Do I Use EMPs?
• Warheads: How Do I Use Lightning Warheads?
• Warheads: How Do I Use Armored Warheads?
• Warp Gates: How Does A Warp Gate Work?

AI

• AI Story: How Does The AI Think?
• AI Story: What Does AI Progress Really Represent?
• AI Story: Why Does The AI Progress Go Up When The AI Destroys Key Structures Of Mine?
• AI Tech: At What AI Progress Does The AI Tech Level Increase?
• AI Tech: What Does The Roman Numeral In Parentheses Next To The AI Progress Mean?
• AI Tech: What Bonus Ship Types Does The AI Get?
• AI Ship Behaviors: What Are The General Behaviors That AI Ships Can Have?
• AI Reinforcements: How Do Basic AI Reinforcements Work?
• AI Reinforcements: What Causes An AI Planet To Go On Alert?
• AI Reinforcements: How Does The AI Alert Level Affect Where The AI Reinforces?
• AI Reinforcements: How Do AI Reinforcements Work At An Individual Planet?
• AI Reinforcements: How Do Reinforcements Work After All The Planets "Fill Up?"
• AI Waves: How Are Wave Sizes Calculated?
• AI Progress: What Happens If The AI Progress Is Lowered After Passing A Tech-Up Threshold?
• AI Progress: When Should I Be Worried About The AI Progress Getting Too High?
• AI Progress: What Causes AI Progress Changes?
• AI Progress: Does The AI Progress Go Up When I Lose A Command Station?
• Cross-Planet Attacks: How Do Cross-Planet Attacks Work?
• Border Aggression: How Does Border Aggression Work?
• AI Minor Factions: What Are Minor Factions?
• AI Design: What Makes The Design Of This AI Unique From An Under-The-Hood Perspective?

Higher Difficulties Only

• How Do I Defend Against The AI Destroying All My Resources?
• Why Are Waves Coming In Without Warning?
• How Do I Keep Astro Trains Off My Planets?
• Why Do The Enemy Waves Get So Large So Fast?

Design Philosophy

• Why The Complex Interrelation Of Ship Damage Mechanisms?
• Why Does The Game Force Variety On The Player?
• Why Doesn't The Game Automate Scouting or Reactor Management?
• Why The Emphasis On Taking Many Planets?
• Why Are Ships Not Upgradeable?
• What Makes The Design Of This AI Unique From An Under-The-Hood Perspective?
• How Does The Game Minimize Micromanagement?
• Why Does The Human Player Always Have The "Tempo?"

Story

• What Is My Overall Mission?
• How Does The AI Think?
• Who Are The Zenith Aliens?

Settings

• What Is TBS-Friendly Pause?
• How Do I Use altplanetnames.txt?
• How Do I Use disabledaitypes.txt?

Release History

Please note that there are generally prerelease beta versions available at any given time of the year, and there have been literally hundreds of those in between all of the official releases noted below.

• Upcoming: Current Post-4.000 Beta
• October 28, 2010: 4.021
• October 26, 2010: 4.000 (First Official Release Of Children of Neinzul, First Unity Release)
• May 6, 2010: 3.120
• March 9, 2010: 3.060
• January 12, 2010: 3.000 (First Official Release Of The Zenith Remnant)
• October 20, 2009: 2.000 (First Release On Steam/Direct2Drive)
• September 18, 2009: 1.301
• September 1, 2009: 1.201
• August 6, 2009: 1.013
• August 1, 2009: 1.012
• July 31, 2009: 1.011
• July 16, 2009: 1.010
• July 8, 2009: 1.009
• June 29, 2009: 1.008 (First Release On GamersGate)
• June 24, 2009: 1.007
• June 17, 2009: 1.006
• June 10, 2009: 1.005
• June 1, 2009: 1.004
• May 23, 2009: 1.003 (First Release On Impulse)
• May 19, 2009: 1.002
• May 14, 2009: 1.001
• May 14, 2009: 1.000 (First Official Release)
• May 13, 2009: 0.940 (First Public Prerelease)

What's New In 4.0

Brace yourself: but the entire combat, repair, economic, and construction models have been almost completely rewritten. To the novice player these changes are subtle enough that it feels like basically the same game. To the more experienced player, these changes are a dream come true, shaving off rough edges left and right and leaving something simpler and more elegant in its place. We had a corps of 95 community members giving us feedback, after all, so there's been a lot of vetting of this from both newer and experienced players. The main benefits of these particular changes are simplicity, transparency-to-the-player, and internal accuracy in outlier situations. •As part of the new combat model, the old concept of "shields" (as distinct from "force fields") has been removed, and the random-hit-chance and range-related components of the hit chance calculations are gone. In place of this is a new, simpler, and far better "armor" system that affects damage output instead of hit chance. •One key simplification in this new version is the removal of all the internal ship-specific damage multipliers. In their place, we now have a small number of new "hull types" and ships get visible bonuses against them. This also removes the "Strong Vs and Weak Vs" display in favor of both the raw hull attack multipliers display and a new Reference tab when really detailed data is needed (presumably not often). •Following on with those massive changes, every last ship in the game has been rebalanced to a heavy degree, sometimes pretty much completely

• Combat System Overview
• Economic System Overview
• End Game - AI Home World Assault Changes
• My Home World has a lot of New Structures - What do they do?
• The MiniMap Grows Up
• The "STATS" Button -- What is Inside?
  • What Happened To The Missions List?
• The "CTRLS" Button - Tame your engineers and ships.
  • I can't find the control nodes

• New Enemy Units
• Guardians: What are Guardians?
• The Eye: What does the AI Eye do?
• Counterattack Guard Posts: Counterattack Guard Posts Can Launch A Wave Almost Anywhere
• AI Core Planet Unique Features/Units
• Ai Core Guardians
• AI Core Guard Posts
• AI Core Shield Generators

• The complete 4.00 release notes

Technical Support

• Bug Reporting and Suggestion Tracking using the new Mantis software

• Technical Support Forums
• System Requirements
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Not Installing?
• Optimizing Performance In Multiplayer
• Desync in multiplayer? Check this first.
• Trouble applying the latest patch?
• FIREWALLS - Configure, or use VPN
• VOICE SUPPORT - Use Skype, Teamspeak, etc.