AI War:Base "Fleet Command" Game Features

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What exactly are the features in the base game of AI War?

A: This topic is something of a moving target, as new features are added all the time in terms of free DLC, etc. This listing is current as of version 3.120 of the game.

Please bear in mind that this is also not even going to make an attempt to list all of the interface features, all of the facets of the AI, all of the possible activities, etc -- that would be an absolutely gargantuan task, and the rest of the wiki makes that pretty clear. Instead, the idea of this topic is to provide a reference for things like AI types, map styles, ship types, etc, which are easily to enumerate. It thus provides something of a referent point for comparison to expansion additions, for instance, or just serves as a plain old reference if you want to look up certain types of information.

In all, there are currently 293 different ships in the base game of AI War, not counting things like modular components or control nodes.

Please note: This is the full list of ships in the base game, but most of them do not yet have their descriptions filled in. The non-ship sections do have their data all filled in, though.

Basic Ship Classes

These four basic ship classes are available to all players (human and AI alike) in literally every game. Almost all of the bonus ship classes are weak against one or more of these basic ship classes. In total there are 18 ships in the basic ship classes.

  • Fighters (I-IV variants)
  • Bombers (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Frigates (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Scouts (I-IV variants)

Bonus Ship Classes

The base game of AI War includes 27 "bonus" ship classes beyond the base fighter, bomber, frigate, scout quartet (see above) that is in every game. Here is a list of them, along with what makes each one unique. In total there are 117 ships represented between all the bonus ship classes.

  • Bulletproof Fighters (I-IV variants)
  • Tachyon MicroFighters (I-IV variants)
  • Raiders (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Parasites (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Vampire Claws (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Raptors (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Raptors (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Snipers (I-IV variants)
  • Raptors (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Space Tanks (I-IV variants)
  • Electric Shuttles (I-IV variants)
  • Vorticular Cutlasses (I-IV variants)
  • Infiltrators (I-IV variants)
  • Eye Bots (I-IV variants)
  • Spiders (I-IV variants)
  • Laser Gatlings (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Autocannon Minipods (I-IV variants)
  • Deflector Drones (I-IV variants)
  • Space Planes (I-IV and Core variants)
  • EtherJet Tractors (I-IV variants)
  • Force Field Bearers (I-IV variants)
  • Armor Ships (I-IV and Core variants)
  • Anti-Armor Ships (I-IV variants)
  • MLRS (I-IV variants)
  • Munitions Boosters (I-IV variants)
  • Teleport Raiders (I-IV variants)
  • Teleport Battle Stations (I-IV variants)

Starships

Starships are oversized, expensive, powerful vessels for various specialized purposes. Most of them work better on offense, but some of them -- like the Riot Control Starships or Dreadnoughts or Leech Starships -- can be just as effective on defense. Almost all starships are built at the starship constructor after being unlocked via knowledge, except for the few that follow special rules (see below). In all, there are 22 different kinds of starships.

  • Scout Starships
  • Fleet Starships
    • Light Starships
    • Flagships
  • Alien Starships
    • Zenith Starships
    • Spire Starships
    • Core Starships (AI Only)
      • The toughest starship in the game, this relic of the Zenith is a secret controlled only by the AIs. These core starships roam around the core and home planets of the AIs, but tend not to be seen anywhere else.
  • Dreadnoughts (I-III variants)
  • Raid Starships (I-III variants)
  • Leech Starships (I-III variants)
  • Riot Starships (I-III variants)
  • Bomber Starships (I-IV variants)
    • This is an experimental class of starship that is normally only used by the Mad Bomber AI type. There are also Fabricators around the galaxy that allow the human players to build Mark I Bomber Starships.

Directly-Constructed Ships

These different categories of ships represent the different tabs in the command station or mobile builder menus. Rather than being built through a looping queue (as with the military ships and starships noted so far), these ships are directly placed into space and are constructed in-situ. The grand total of these kinds of ships is 83.

Economic Ships

Economic ships are, simply used for maintaining and extending your economy, or for doing engineer-type repair/cleanup/rebuilding duties. There are 14 economic ships in all.

  • Energy Reactors (I-III variants)
  • Harvesters (Metal and Crystal variants)
  • Manufactories (Metal and Crystal variants)
  • Science Labs (I-II variants)
  • Engineers (I-III variants)
  • Remains Rebuilders
  • Cleanup Drones

Command Stations

There are 9 different kinds of command stations in all.

  • Orbital Command Stations (I-III variants)
  • Orbital Command Station - Warp Jammer
  • Home Command Station (Humans)
  • Core Command Station (AIs)
  • Home Command Station - Core (Humans) (I-III variants)

Constructors

There are 6 different kinds of constructors that can be directly built, but there are many other types of constructors that are actually under the Capturables section (Advanced Factories, and many types of Fabricators).

  • Space Docks
  • Mercenary Space Docks
  • Starship Constructors
  • Missile Silos
  • Mobile Builders
  • Colony Ships

Defensive Ships

Defensive ships serve a wide variety of purposes, and some of these are even more useful on offense rather than defense - but they all tend to have a support role of some variety, and more often than not are best either used away from the action on enemy planets, or else in the thick of the action on your own planets. There are 21 ships in all in this category.

  • Rally Posts
  • Advanced Warp Sensors
  • Tachyon Drones
  • Decloakers
  • Mines
  • Mobile Repair Stations
  • Space Tugs (33%, 66%, 100% variants of Normal, Engine, and Starship)

(obsolete)

  • Space tugs removed (3.710) at the same time significant improvements were made to the Mobile Repair Station (MRS)
    • These are built by the mobile repair stations, and quickly ferry target damaged ships out of battle and back to the mobile repair station for healing before going back into the fray.
  • Transports
  • Fortresses
  • Force Field Generators (I-III variants)
  • Harvester Exo-Force Fields

Turrets

Turrets are, in general, much more powerful than their mobile counterparts. The downside of turrets is that they are immobile. They are thus very well suited for defense (and sometimes for offense, either in creating a beachhead or otherwise), but typically work best when either augmented with mobile ships or tractor beams / gravitational turrets. There are 33 turrets in all.

  • Basic Turrets (I-III and Core variants)
  • MLRS Turrets (I-III variants)
  • Missile Turrets (I-III variants)
  • Laser Turrets (I-III variants)
  • Heavy Beam Cannons (I-IV variants)
  • Lightning Turrets (I-III variants)
  • Counter Turrets
    • Counter-Sniper Turrets
    • Counter-Missile Turrets
    • Counter-Dark-Matter Turrets
  • Sniper Turrets
    • Sniper Turrets
    • Spider Turrets
  • Tractor Beam Turrets (I-III variants)
  • Gravitational Turrets (I-III variants)
  • Tachyon Beam Emitters (I-II variants)

Human-Only Ships

These ships represent technologies that the human forces have developed after the AIs took over the galaxy -- and so the AI forces do not yet have access to these tools. This can prove very helpful in counterbalancing all of the new tools that the AI has developed (or bought from alien sources) since humanity was pushed to the brink. Of course, humans have the advantage of being able to steal most all of the different types of AI technology in some fashion or another, but the AIs are unable to steal the human technologies. There are 8 different human-only ships, not counting control nodes, which aren't really ships per se.

Warheads

  • Lightning Warheads
  • Armored Warheads
  • EMPs
  • Nuclear Warheads
  • Tachyon Warheads

Mercenaries

  • Mercenary Fighters
  • Mercenary Bombers
  • Mercenary Frigates

Control Nodes

(obsolete)

Replaced in 4.0 by toggles in the CTRLS tab.

There are currently 23 different types of control nodes, but they are less ships and more behavioral control quasi-interface elements. They are completely invisible and inert as far as the AI is concerned, and only the humans can build them.

Capturables

Except for the cheats-activated ships, all of these capturables tend to be found scattered around the galaxy, waiting for humans to come make use of them. There is a fair amount to capture in the base game, but one major focus of the first expansion to the game was adding many new capturables. In the base game, there is a total of 15 types of capturables, including the cheats-enabled ones.

General

  • Data Centers
    • Destroy to reduce AI Progress (AIP) by 20
  • Advanced Research Stations
    • Capture to unlock a new ship type for your team to build at your docks.
  • Advanced Factories
    • Capture and Hold to be able to construct MkIV ships (you must unlock MkI-III of a particular ship to be able to build Mk IV versions of that ship at an Advanced Factory).
  • Never destroy these!
  • Core(MkV) Fabricators
    • There are 9 types of these in the base game, one for each of the "core" ship types included in the base game. Capturing these is the only way that human players are ever able to build Core/MkV ships. Each fabricator only allows you to build a single type of core ship by controlling it.
  • Starship Fabricators
    • There is only 1 type of these in the base game, allowing you to build Bomber Starship Is.
  • Experimental Fabricators
    • There is only 1 type of these in the base game, allowing you to build Anti Starship Arachnids.

Cheats-Activated

  • Omega Drive
    • This ship is only available via the "Activate The Omega" cheat. It is severely unbalanced and just for fun or testing.

AI-Only Ships

In the time since the AIs took over the galaxy from the humans, they have been hard at work developing new and stronger technologies as well as buying technologies from aliens the next galaxy over. In many of the ship categories above, from the bonus ship types to the starships to the turrets, there are some ships that are typically only available to the AIs unless the humans capture the technology (and a few of which are technologies that cannot be captured). That pattern holds in this section, but this section lists the more unusual ships -- including special weapons -- that are AI-only (though a number of the weapons in particular can be captured for human use). In all, there are 30 ships in this section, counting the ships that are specific to minor factions (third party AIs).

Guard Posts

  • Guard Posts (Normal, Stealth, Core, and Core Stealth variants)
  • Wormhole Guard Posts
  • Special Forces Guard Posts

Misc AI Ships

  • AI Force Field Generators (I-III and Core variants)
  • Warp Gates
  • Exo-Galaxy Wormholes
  • Anti-Starship Arachnids

Astro Trains

  • Astro Train Stations
  • Astro Trains (I-III variants)

Special AI Weapons

  • Ion Cannons (I-II variants)
  • AI Troop Accelerators
  • Counter Spies
  • SuperFortresses
  • Avengers
    • This ship only comes into play as part of the Avenger AI Plot.
  • Planetary Cloakers
  • Attrition Emitters

Minor Faction Ships

  • Rebelling Human Colonies
  • Marauder Buzz Bombs
  • Marauder Dagger Frigates
  • Resistance Fighter/Bombers
  • Resistance Frigates

AI Types

The following 26 AI types are included in the base game.

Easier

  • Entrenched Homeworlder
    • Planets are heavily defended, and they do moderate attacks on the players.
    • Unique Units: Captive Human Settlements
  • Fortress Baron
    • Planets are mostly moderately defended, but the core planets are incredibly heavily defended, and they do moderate attacks on the players.
    • Unique Units: SuperFortress
  • Sledge Hammer
    • Waves slam into one player planet after another, with potentially fatal effect.
  • Turtle
    • Planets are all very-to-incredibly heavily defended, but they do no waves against the players (Cross Planet Attacks and border aggression still happen).
  • Train Master
    • Uses many, many astro trains.
    • Extra Units: Double the normal number of astro trains.
  • Mine Enthusiast
    • Planets are all moderately defended, but are heavily booby-trapped with mines.
  • The Tank
    • Planets are all lightly defended, and they do slightly heavier-than-average attacks on the players.
    • Extra Units: Has tanks and armor ships from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.

Moderate

  • Vicious Raider
    • Planets are all moderately defended, and they do heavy attacks on the players.
    • Extra Units: Has raider ships from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • Mad Bomber
    • Non-core planets are all very lightly defended, but does extremely brutal attacks on the players.
    • Unique Units: Bomber Starships
  • Feeding Parasite
    • Uses parasite raids almost exclusively (which can be highly damaging).
    • Extra Units: Has all parasite ships from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • Stealth Master
    • Uses stealth raids almost exclusively (which can be highly disconcerting).
    • Extra Units: Has all ships with cloaking from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • Counter Spy
    • Planets are heavily defended, and advanced scouting is almost impossible because of the counter spy defenses on each planet, which insta-kill all cloaked ships.
    • Unique Units: Counter Spy
  • Teleporter Turtle
    • Planets are all very-to-incredibly heavily defended, but they do no waves against the players (Cross Planet Attacks and border aggression still happen). Specializes in teleporting ships, which are particularly powerful in defensive postures.
    • Extra Units: Has all ships with teleportation from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • Backdoor Hacker
    • Planets are all moderately defended, and they have a permanent path into each player's home planet (so creating the usual defensive perimeters won't work).
    • Extra Units: Has a permanent Exo-Galaxy Wormhole on each player's home planet.
  • Assassin
    • Planets are all moderately defended, and they harass the strongest player with prejudice.
  • Bully
    • Planets are all moderately defended, and they harass the weakest player with prejudice.

Harder

  • Attritioner
    • Planets are all moderately defended, except that each one has an Attrition Emitter, which drains the health of any human ships in the system. Does heavy attacks on the players.
    • Unique Units: Attrition Emitter
  • Scorched Earth
    • Heavily defended planets. Whenever it loses control of a planet, it destroys that planet and all the resources there. Ships will survive.
  • Shadow Master
    • Like the Stealth Master, except every planet is equipped with a powerful device that keeps all ships permanently cloaked, even when firing, even if they wouldn't normally have cloaking. The only sign of this enemy is the device itself, which can be difficult to reach what with all the invisible enemies firing at you from the nether.
    • Unique Units: Planetary Cloaker
    • Extra Units: Has all ships with cloaking from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • Special Forces Captain
    • Only has special forces guard posts -- no regular guard posts. This makes for a tremendous number of ships patrolling around the map at any given time.

Technologist

  • Technologist Homeworlder
    • Like the Entrenched Homeworlder, except the enemy uses only the highest-technologies right from the start (these are quite a formidable foe).
    • Unique Units: Captive Human Settlements
  • Technologist Raider
    • Like the Vicious Raider, except the enemy uses only the highest-technologies right from the start (these are quite a formidable foe).
    • Extra Units: Has raider ships from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • Technologist Sledge
    • Like the Sledge Hammer, except the enemy uses only the highest-technologies right from the start (these are quite a formidable foe).
  • Technologist Turtle
    • Like the Turtle, except the enemy uses only the highest-technolgies right from the start (these are quite a formidable foe).
  • Technologist Parasite
    • Like the Feeding Parasite, except the enemy uses only the highest-technologies right from the start (these are quite a formidable foe).
    • Extra Units: Has all parasite ships from the start, as well as whatever other ships they might unlock.
  • The Core
    • Planets are all lightly defended in terms of the number of ships at each, but all ships of this AI are deadly Mark V/Core ships.

Randoms

Normally when you choose a random AI type you cannot see which type was actually chosen until the game ends. However, there is an AI Modifier in the lobby that allows you to make them visible from the start, but still chosen at random. You can also use the disabledaitypes.txt? file to exclude specific AI types from being chosen (if you've already played them, say, and are trying to work your way at random through the whole list -- or if you simply don't like a specific type of AI).

  • Random Easier
    • Chooses one of the easier AI types at random.
  • Random Moderate
    • Chooses one of the moderate AI types at random.
  • Random Moderate/Easier
    • Chooses one of the easier or moderate AI types at random.
  • Random Harder
    • Chooses one of the harder AI types at random (technologist AI types are all considered harder, so this includes them).
  • Random Harder Non-Technologist
    • Chooses one of the harder AI types at random, but specifically excluding any of the technologist types.
  • Random All
    • Chooses one of AI types at random.
  • Random All Non-Technologist
    • Chooses one of AI types at random, but specifically excluding any of the technologist types.

Minor Factions

Minor Factions are a pretty hefty topic, so they are covered in way more depth on the Minor Factions wiki page. Here's a list of the ones added as part of the base game, though:

  • Human Resistance Fighters, which occasionally show up to help the player against AI planets.
  • Human Marauders, which occasionally show up at player or AI planets during large fights to attack both parties.
  • Human Rebelling Colonies, which occasionally call for aid -- rewarding the human players with income and new ships if they answer, or causing an AI Progress increase if the rebel colony perishes.

AI Plots

AI plots can be enabled through the lobby, and provide varied endgame scenarios.

  • Avenger
    • An avenger space station spawns on the death of the core command station of the AI with the avenger plot turned on. The Avenger is incredibly powerful, and will go straight for human home command stations.

Map Styles

The following map styles are included in the base game:

  • Realistic
    • Connections between planets are much more complex, as real wormhole networks would more likely be.
      • This mode tends to create more interesting maps, but the visual complexity of them can be intimidating to new players.
  • Realistic - Hubs
    • Connections between planets are complex and plentiful.
  • Simple
    • Connections between planets are simpler and easier to see.
      • This is the recommended mode for new players, but it will result in fewer unique maps.
  • Simple - Hubs
    • Connections between planets are simpler and easier to see, but very plentiful.

Music Tracks

In all, there is over 50 minutes of music in the base game. The specific tracks are:

  • Special Tracks
    • Title Theme
    • Victory
    • Defeat
  • During-play tracks:
    • Energy Storm
    • Intro
    • Marisa
    • Metal
    • Odyssey
    • Smooth
    • Spike
    • Thor Variation
    • Thor
      • Thor is currently replaced by Energy Storm -- will be making a remastered reappearance in the future.
    • Variation 1
    • Warp

Miscellaneous

  • There are a goodly number of cheats, enumerated on the cheats page.
  • Local high scoreboards, or Steam leaderboards if you're using the Steam version of the game.
  • 132 achievements, either for local use or for via Steam if you're using the Steam version of the game.

AI_War:Fleet_Command

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