AI War 2:The Arrival of Fleets

Known Issues

• The lobby interface is currently temporary, and undergoing a complete overhaul.
  • It's suggested that you use the quick start option instead.

• Various bugs on mantis: https://bugtracker.arcengames.com/view_all_bug_page.php

• Multiplayer is temporarily disabled while we focus on tightening up the single-player loop.

• There are a variety of ships/units that don't have final graphics at the moment, though they all have their icons.

• We're in progress with a major revamp of some systems based on cumulative feedback in order to push the game even more towards the feel of the original game... despite further divergence from it at a mechanical level.

What's this phase all about?

After 3 months of Early Access and 2+ years of development, we've reached a point where we know what we want the 1.0 version of the game to look like. SO very much about this game already works well, but there are some major deficits coming into this phase when comparing this sequel to the original game. The aim of this phase is to close those gaps and make this clearly the superior product in terms of playability, fun factor, the amount of fun thinking-about-interesting-challenges you do during gameplay, and so on.

There's also of course still more polish and bugfixing that we want to get done, and the lobby redo is still scheduled of course (but quick starts are an awesome alternative, and have helped us to defer a final design for the lobby as we formed up some other bits of the game first), but we're feeling really good about this final sprint toward 1.0. We still do need to also finish some graphics for the existing ships, but they all have their icons.

There is some more content coming as part of this phase, kind of by definition -- fleets as a concept Change Everything in a good way -- but the focus is on taking what is a pretty awesome game with a lot of depth and pushing it to a level that we hope beats the pants off the original, finally. Stay tuned.

Version 0.900

(Not yet released -- we're still working on it!)

We are breaking all the savegames again, sorry about that. This should be the last time for real for real, although we've said that before. It's not our practice to do this sort of thing at all, typically, but this game has been going through a lot more pre-release evolution than most of our titles have. The old savegames won't even make sense in the new version, really.

• AI aggressiveness tweaks.
  • The AI will now be less worried about distant mobile enemy forces.
  • The AI will no longer mistakenly count Guard units as Threat in some code paths
  • Make some improvements to hunter/warden fleet routing logic
    • Thanks to zeusalmighty for the Hunter/Warden save game

• Each AI faction now has its own Hunter/Warden fleets. The units of each Hunter/Warden will just show as "Hunter Fleet" or "Warden Fleet", but there will now be multiple fleets acting independently. The goal of this is to make those fleets much more flexible in how they deal with enemies.
  • Only one Hunter and one Warden are visible in the game lobby. The other hunter/wardens will copy the colours but not the settings of the visible Hunter/Warden.

• Science Labs, Hackers and Scouts are removed. Scout functions of the Sentinel Frigate and Sentry Starship are removed.

• Sentry Starships are now per-planet cap, cannot use wormholes, are built directly (like turrets) and die to remains.
  • They're effectively Decloakers from Classic, but far more convenient.

• Dyson Spheres will remain antagonized much longer after hacks.
  • More hacks against a Dyson Sphere will increase the antagonization time.

• Engineers are per-planet cap, cap reduced significantly and can't use Wormholes.
  • The new Combat Engineers are able to use Wormholes and are a type of Strikecraft instead.

• Mobile Space Dock and Mobile Builder are not unlockable or buildable, and are instead capturables.

• Remains Rebuilders are removed. Command Stations and Mobile Builders do this now.

• Add a highly experimental option to the Game Lobby, "AI Civil War". This will make all of the AI factions hostile to eachother. The Warden and Hunter Fleets are friendly with all the AIs.
  • This is intended for testing purposes and for people who like playing AIW2 as a sandbox simulator

• Gives some units unused voice lines, and the Dyson ships the Zenith voice.
  • Engineers and other similar civilian ships now actually talk!

• The targeting code treats XML-based importances as more important than 'amount of damage I can do'; this makes it less likely for units to ignore Command Stations and other high-value targets in favour of fleetships

Map Changes

• Several map types have been improved by Draco.
  • Thanks Draco!

• Make the Simple and Realistic map types more interesting by fixing a dumb bug in them.

• The Max/Min number of planets in the galaxy is now defined on a per-map type basis rather than a global (since some maps scale up to larger galaxies better than others)
  • Some map types go up as high as 500 planets, others are capped at an AIWC-like 120 planets

Hacking changes

• Science Extraction hacking will now show the total cost for the remaining science on the planet in the tooltip
  • Requested by Ecthelon on Steam
• Hacking has been feeling a bit too easy these days, so include AIP when calculating how strong the hacking response should be for hacks against the AI.
  • The formula is now NewHackingResponse = oldHacking Response + (oldHackingResponse * AIPMultiplier * CurrentAIP)

• Add the Sabotage hack
  • This will kill a random NormalPlanetNastyPick structure on a planet. Many people have asked for this.

• Allow hacks to be done against planets, not just structures
• Allow hacks to be done without a local hacker on the planet
• Allow the AI to launch an attack against the player after hacking is completed
  • These can be set on any hack with an XML tag. So all the previous hacking mechanics can continue to function as usual, but new options are now available.

Bug Fixes

• Fix a bug in the entity hovering ui where it was incorrectly identifying energy overdrive as an attack penalty
  • Thanks to Democracy for the bug report

• Fix a bug where the Zenith Trader (Traitor!) was allowing the AI to buy way too many goodies
  • Thanks to lots of people for reporting this, including Jannik2099 and Ovalcircle

• Fix a null reference exception when handling GameCommands
  • Thanks to jannik for the bug report

• Fix a problem where v-wings were having damage multipliers based on buildings lack of engines
  • Thanks to weaponmaster for the bug report

• Correctly flag the "Download Dyson Sphere Ship" hack as unavailable after that hack has been completed
  • Thanks to Ecthelon on steam

• Fix a bug where vengeance generators were warping in already vulnerable to damage
  • Thanks to WeaponMaster and zeusalmighty for the reports

• Add an Objective for hacking the Spire Archive
  • Thanks to settemio for the reminder

• Only seed one spire archive per AI
  • Thanks to WeaponMaster for the report

• Spire Archive isn't invulnerable to all damage, meaning it properly dies after being hacked.
  • Thanks to Democracy for reporting.

• Spire Archives now show on the galaxy map.

• The Superterminal now explodes after the hack finishes, instead of using a kludgy and bug prone mechanism to prevent it from being hacked multiple times
  • Thanks to Lifestrider and zeusalmighty for bug reports

Renaming

• Cleaned up all entity names, from in the past when they changed function (i.e LaserTurret to NucleophilicTurret).
• Also cleaned up and standardised all the entity system names, and cleaned out a few that were redundant.
  • This should make it a bit cleaner to work with in future, as there's no weird cases of there being a WidowGuardian, which is really the Paralysis Guardian, but it shows up as the Widow in all the internal files!

• The Widow Mine is now the Paralysis Mine, and the Grenade Launcher fleetship is now Grenade Launcher Corvette - seeing as it has the Corvette icon and all.

• Sentinel Frigates are now Sentinel Gunboats.
  • Anything in future, like Lightning Torpedo Frigate will use the term Gunboat instead.

• Fleetships are now called Strikecraft, and Starships are now called Frigates.

• Space Docks are now simply called Factories, Mobile Space Dock is Mobile Factory, and the Starship Constructor doesn't exist at all now.
  • Both Strikecraft and Frigates come out of the same building.

• Not a rename, but a recolour. Human Resistance Fighters and Marauders have a primary green that shows up better in game, and matches what it is in the lobby.
  • Thanks to TechSY730 for reporting.

Ship Variants

• Adds the "Harasser" variant of the MLRS Corvette.

• Adds the "Porcupine" variant of the Pike Corvette.

• Adds the "Ablative Troll" variant of the Ablative Gatling.

• Adds the "Dagger" variant of the Raider.

• Adds the "Gunbot" variant of the Autocannon Minipod.

• Adds the "Velociraptor" variant of the Raptor.

• Adds the "Stalker" variant of the Eyebot.

• Adds the "Tripper" variant of the Sniper.

• Adds the "Railpod" variant of the Sniper.

• Adds the "Pulsar Punk" variant of the Pulsar Tank.

• Adds the "Aggressor" variant of the Agravic Pod.

• Adds the "Mirage" variant of the Space Plane.

• Adds the "Hydra" variant of the Vanguard.

• Adds the "Zapper" variant of the Inhibiting Tesla Corvette.

• Adds the "Terrier" variant of the Spider.

• Adds the "Molotov" variant of the Grenade Launcher Corvette.

• Adds the "Ranger" variant of the Sentinel Gunboat.

• Adds the "Medic Gunboat" variant of the Sentinel Gunboat.

• Adds the "Absorber" variant of the Vampire Claw.

• Adds the "Thief" variant of the Etherjet.

• Adds the "Paralyser" variant of the Stingray.

• Adds the "Cluster" variant of the Auto Bomb.

• Adds the "Nanoswarm" variant of the Auto Bomb.

• Adds the "Persuader" variant of the Parasite.

Balance Tweaks

• Tesla-class structures (Guardians, turrets, etc) now reduce incoming damage from far away by 99% instead of 100%. This allows the targeting code to identify Tesla units as potential targets (instead of ignoring them as if they were Invulnerable). Units in FRD (and minor factions) should now be able to actually attack Tesla turrets.
  • Many people have complained about this, including TechSY730 and Democracy.

• Ark Energy Overdrive is removed for now. Find another place for it (likely in a changed form).

• Sniper damage bonus requirement reduced from speed 1200 to 1000.

• Sniper: Starting bonus multiplier 5x -> 8x.

• Space Plane gets the damage resistance to anything beyond range 4600 instead of 5600 now.
  • Basically you have to be closer to it to do full damage. Also means that when using Pursuit, they try to stay beyond that.

• MLRS units have half the shots per salvo, but reload in half the time.
  • Helps them retarget more often.

• MLRS units get their damage bonus at 30% enemy hull remaining, instead of only 20%.

• Vanguard, Pulsar Tank: Albedo 0.7 -> 0.3.

• Vanguard, Pulsar Tank, Inhibiting Tesla Corvette, Grenade Launcher Corvette: Mass 0.21x -> 0.3x.

• Vanguard: EngineGx 8 -> 7.

• Raptors, Autocannon Minipods, Space Planes, Agravic Pods, Vampire Claw, Raid Frigate, Warbird Frigate, Eyebot, Stealth Guardian: Albedeo increased to 0.7.

• Concussion Corvette, Sentinel Gunboats, Snipers, Siege Frigate, Tritium Frigate, Warbird Frigate, Tritium Guardian, Concussion Guardian, Plasma Guardian: Armour reduced to 40.

• Concussion Corvette: Shields 2,800 -> 1,800, EngineGx 8 -> 14.

• Vampire Claw: Armour 40 -> 70, Life Leech reduced from 1.5x to 1x.

• Raptor: EngineGx 7 -> 10.

• Raptor Hull: 2900 -> 1900.

• Stingray, Etherjet, Metabolizing Gangsaw: EngineGx 7 -> 14.

• Inhibiting Tesla Corvette only applies reload penalty to armour below 60.

• Siege Frigate: Damage 2500 -> 25,000, spreads it among targets instead of hitting 10 for full damage, range 10,100 -> 12,000.

• Grenade Launcher Corvette, Vanguard, Pulsar Tank (main gun only): Range changed to 4200.

• Grenade Launcher Corvette, Vanguard: Speed reduced to 400.

• Grenade Launcher Corvette: Hull 1,000 -> 1,400, shields 1,000 -> 1,600, EngineGx 8 -> 7.

• Grenade Launcher Corvette, Inhibiting Tesla Corvette: Armour increased to 110.

• Inhibiting Tesla Corvette: Shields 2,000 -> 3,000.

• Etherjet: Damage 30 -> 20.

• Fortified Tesla Turrets have a similar damage bonus to Ablative Gatlings now.
  • Makes them a bit more interesting, and also some room for other changes.

• V-Wing: Hull/Shields changed from 500/3500 to 2000/2000.

• Pike Corvette: Armour 50 -> 70, range 8,000 -> 6,000, shields 200 -> 800, speed 700 -> 500.

• Eyebot: Hull/Shields 1,000/1,000 -> 800/800, armour 50 -> 60.

• Agravic Pod: Armour 50 -> 70.

• Dark Spire get a bit less energy if they're the ones that killed something.

• Nucleophilic Guardian: Armour 90 -> 50, albedo 0.7 -> 0.3.

• Concussion Guardian: Hull/Shields changed from 20,000/20,000 to 10,000/30,000, EngineGx 12 -> 14.

• Spider Guardian, Paralysis Guardian: Speed 1,400 -> 400.

• Spider Guardian: Range 15,000 -> 8,000, Armour 90 -> 40.

• Paralysis Guardian: EngineGx 13 -> 7, Armour 90 -> 110, range 8,000 -> 5,000.

• Grenade Launcher Guardian: Albedo 0.4 -> 0.3, EngineGx 14 -> 7.

• Pike Guardian: Armour 50 -> 70, EngineGx 14 -> 7, range 8,000 -> 6,000.

• Tractor Guardian: Albedo 0.7 -> 0.3.

• Gravity Guardian: Albedo 0.7 -> 0.4.

• Reintroduce the Plasma Turret.
  • Closer to Heavy Beams than the rest.

• All Turrets except Beam and Plasma have 10% lower health, but 15% greater damage in exchange.
  • Turrets felt like they slap the enemy to death slowly while outlasting everything. This is minor, but speeds it up a tad.

• Slow the increase in cost for Science hacking multiple planets
  • Thanks to Ecthelon on Steam for the suggestion

Achievements

• Add Achievements for winning a game with each AI type enabled
• Add Achievements for winning a game with some of the Minor factions enabled
• Add Achievements for winning a game with various galaxy sizes
• Add Achievements for controlling a given number of planets in a game
  • Note that the above types of Achievements can be added to the game with only XML changes
  • TODO: Add a UI to show the player which Achievements have been earned

Prior Release Notes

AI War 2: Early Access Starts!