AI War:Destroyer of Worlds

What exactly is added in the Destroyer of Worlds expansion?

A: This expansion focuses on two new optional features. "Nomad Planets" introduces dynamic topology to AI War for the first time, giving the player new challenges and opportunities beyond the previously-static wormhole network. One of the Nomads also holds a secret weapon of truly dire power (that gives the expansion its title, hint hint). The "Exodian Blade" is a powerful alternate way-to-win, but getting there is a multi-stage journey with a great deal of desperate fighting once things get going. Beyond those, this expansion also adds several new AI types, a new map type, new bonus ship types, a couple new AI guardian types, and the new "Preemptive" AI Plot. This expansion is slated for official release in August 2014.

Nomad Planets

In the game lobby (under Minor Factions) you can choose to add 1 to 10 Nomad Planets to the game. These are basically normal AI planets but they will gradually "move" across the map during the game, and periodically "relink" their wormholes to the planets nearest to them at the time. Needless to say this can rather change the defensive game, and also provides new offensive opportunities.

One of the Nomad planets will also seed with the golem-like "Nomad Beacon", which (if you can capture and repair it) can be used to influence the movements of the Nomads.

Exodian Blade

Also enabled in the lobby under Minor Factions, this selects one planet on the map where you can find your potential ally. But you can't see which planet that is, and have to hack into AI command station telemetry archives to get more information on where to look. Once you've found it... well, discovery is part of the fun :) But a titanic death-or-glory battle is involved.

We've had a lot of requests for more lore-laden journal entries like the Fallen Spire progression; there's also a good chunk of that here.

New AI Types

• Easier
  • Cowardly
    • Prefers engagements where it significantly outnumbers human forces, and is much quicker to retreat in other cases.

• Moderate
  • Mime
    • Normally when you lose units in AI territory the "salvage" is put towards a "reprisal" wave composed of normal AI units. The Mime will actually try to use the specific types of units you lost to create that salvage (even if that AI cannot normally put units of that type into a wave). If you use superweapons this can be... very painful.
  • Kite Flier
    • All of its ships "auto kite", maneuvering to stay just barely in firing range of their target.

• Harder
  • Overreactive
    • Sends much larger Reprisal waves when it accumulates sufficient salvage from human ships dying on its planets.
  • Vanguard
    • Uses Guardians instead of fleet ships or starships for most purposes (waves, reinforcements, etc). And Guardians are nasty.
  • Starship Fanatic
    • Goes far beyond the Starfleet Commander, and instead of just getting more starships it uses them instead of fleet ships or guardians for most purposes (waves, reinforcements, etc).
  • Quadratic
    • With every normal wave it sends, it doubles the minimum strength of wave that it is willing to send. This tends to lead to waves that take much longer to "charge" (before being announced), but eventually leads to VERY large waves.

• "Red" Hard
  • Brutal
    • Gets an extra "Brutal" core guard post on each homeworld, and gets another such post on each MkIV planet (that isn't too close to the human homeworlds). Those non-homeworld posts are not protected by the core shield network (if any) but do protect their local command station.

New AI Plot

• Preemption
  • A portion of the AI's defensive reinforcements (higher intensity means a higher portion) are released as threat instead (and can thus go attack you immediately).

New AI Guardians

• Combat Carrier
  • Adapted from Neinzul technology, when threatened this unit deploys Beam, Rail, Spider, and Grav drones.

• Translocator
  • Equipped with multiple medium-ranged railguns that displace targets further away.

• Devastator
  • Based on Zenith technology used for fighting shield-heavy Spire units, this guardian's cannon completely ignores forcefields. However, it cannot target small units.

New Map Style

• Encapsulated
  • Planets are arranged in small and large clusters inside an outer rim. Sometimes the clusters all connect to each other, other times you have to traverse the rim to get to the other clusters.

New Bonus Ship Classes

• Neinzul Combat Carrier
  • Periodically while enemies are present, this ship produces a group of special short-lived "drone" attack ships. Rather than the Enclave Starship's Needler, Laser, MLRS, and Missle drones, the Combat Carrier produces Beam, Rail, Spider, and Grav drones.
  • Beam Drone
    • A small, shortlived drone. Basically just an engine slapped on to a reactor and the main emitter array from a Heavy Beam Cannon. There wasn't room for any of that unimportant stuff like safety equipment, heatsinks, etc. So it generally only gets one or two shots before ceasing to be.
  • Rail Drone
    • A small, shortlived drone equipped with a medium-range railgun.
  • Spider Drone
    • A small, shortlived drone equipped with a medium-range railgun. The shells are weaker than those fired by the Rail Drone, but also cause engine damage.
  • Grav Drone
    • A small, shortlived drone with weak weaponry but also a gravity generator for slowing down enemy ships.

• Lightning Starship
  • A starship-class unit built around an enormous generator that fires electric bolts into up to 200 nearby enemy ships. Can concentrate full power against any group (of eligible targets) larger than 40. Against groups smaller than 40 some of the power is wasted.

• Powerslaver
  • Is initially fairly weak, but can swallow enemy ships whole and uses those to power up its own guns.

• Translocator Starship
  • A starship-class unit equipped with multiple medium-ranged railguns that displace targets further away.

New Music Tracks

28 minutes, 50 seconds of new music by Pablo Vega in all!

• Devastator
• Kite Flier
• Neinzul Reborn
• Nomad Beacon
• Nomad Sunrise
• The Exodian Blade
• The Worm Hole
• Translocator

Other Miscellaneous Additions

28 New Achievements