Prerelease 1.202P (Supply, Starship/Cutlass/FF balance updates, icon upgrades)

[x4000]

The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1202P.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.201, so you have to already have 1.201 (or greater) installed. Just unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else). Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.

What's new since 1.202O:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.201 are attached at the bottom)

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-Bomber starships are no longer strong against turrets, instead now having a minor penalty against them.

-No starships other than bomber starships are now strong against forcefields.

-Cutlasses and teleport raiders are now weak against turrets instead of strong against them.

-Fighters are now 12x stronger against cutlasses, and bombers and cruisers are now 50% weaker against them.

-The force fields used by the AI are now different from those used by the human players.  They now have a gold hue to them, and they work as forcefields previously did -- they are not repairable, and they are not damaged by ships shooting out from under them.  They are otherwise identical to their player-controlled counterparts.

-Engineers, Mobile Repair Stations, Mobile Builders, Space Docks and other Constructors, Resource Ships, Force Fields, and Turrets, all now require supply.  This means that they will only function if they are within 1 hop of a player-controlled planet.  
    Thus players can still act as raiders, but they do so without the aid of supply-type ships to keep their raiding self sustainable without reinforcements (in other words, without being able to seed docks and engineers all around the galaxy).  Thus an important new addendum to existing offensive strategies is picking planets that will grant tactical advantages such as supply for offensive turrets or engineers.  
    Supply is also needed for science labs and energy reactors, so this also means that players will need to take well-connected planets in many cases to do knowledge raiding.  Knowledge raiding is still an important part of gameplay, as is raiding, but the strategy required for both is now a bit more complex.

NEW ART - Philippe Chabot
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Updated Icons For Most Ships

[RCIX]

Downloading as i type, i'll try it soon! some of the changes certainly sound interesting. I just hope i can still find an application for cutlasses...

[Valarauka]

-Engineers, Mobile Repair Stations, Mobile Builders, Space Docks and other Constructors, Resource Ships, Force Fields, and Turrets, all now require supply.  This means that they will only function if they are within 1 hop of a player-controlled planet.  
    Thus players can still act as raiders, but they do so without the aid of supply-type ships to keep their raiding self sustainable without reinforcements (in other words, without being able to seed docks and engineers all around the galaxy).  Thus an important new addendum to existing offensive strategies is picking planets that will grant tactical advantages such as supply for offensive turrets or engineers.  
    Supply is also needed for science labs and energy reactors, so this also means that players will need to take well-connected planets in many cases to do knowledge raiding.  Knowledge raiding is still an important part of gameplay, as is raiding, but the strategy required for both is now a bit more complex.

Wow, so you were reading that thread - absolutely HUGE change, but I like the sound of it. This really changes tactics drastically... will have to start a new campaign to check it out.

[Urufu]

I can understand engineers and other things needing supply but, i think that now knowledge raiding is basically dead... unless u get like epic hub planets, but then u sacrifice safety of a planet for knowledge.. hmm i don't know it will be interesting how this plays out...

[Echo35]

-Engineers, Mobile Repair Stations, Mobile Builders, Space Docks and other Constructors, Resource Ships, Force Fields, and Turrets, all now require supply.  This means that they will only function if they are within 1 hop of a player-controlled planet.  
    Thus players can still act as raiders, but they do so without the aid of supply-type ships to keep their raiding self sustainable without reinforcements (in other words, without being able to seed docks and engineers all around the galaxy).  Thus an important new addendum to existing offensive strategies is picking planets that will grant tactical advantages such as supply for offensive turrets or engineers.  
    Supply is also needed for science labs and energy reactors, so this also means that players will need to take well-connected planets in many cases to do knowledge raiding.  Knowledge raiding is still an important part of gameplay, as is raiding, but the strategy required for both is now a bit more complex.

Don't know how I feel about this. A lot of the time I would skip over worthless planets to avoid the +10 AI Progress and go right for the important ones, so a lot of my games involved disconnected networks of planets...

[darke]

Don't know how I feel about this. A lot of the time I would skip over worthless planets to avoid the +10 AI Progress and go right for the important ones, so a lot of my games involved disconnected networks of planets...

It's not stopping you from doing this, since you can still build a colony ship and carry it with you, it's just making it harder do to this essentially continually like He Who Must Not Be Named keeps doing to keep his AI progress exceptionally low.

[Haagenti]

Well...this will put rather a dent in my current AI-8 game. Not at all sure if its winnable now
But there lies a challenge....

I do think that a supply range of 1 is *very* low, and forces a rather basic strategy. Perhaps 2 would work better.

At least I get to modify my .signature once again.

 --- The Nameless One

[Warnstaff]

But... this'll kill my primary strategy of the self-sustaining raiders! I don't know if I should be happy or sad!

[Haagenti]

Join me in playing the AI War Meta-Game.

The goal is to find a winning strategy (preferably very abusive and patently unfair), and get it nerfed.

[Volatar]

  I don't think I like the supply changes (the cutlass changes I like  ) I think that we need the supply range boosted some. I also think that knowledge raiding should be possible without taking planets. Or some sort of supply ship, that does not require the taking of planets, be created.

[darke]

Maybe allow Science Lab II to still acquire knowledge when away from the supply lines?

This way it has a bit more of a use then "won't be killed by ion cannons", since for the most part I just use the MkI ones. Plus they're slow moving which slows down the speed at which you can do the raiding, thus giving more incentive not to deep-knowledge-raid, but still allowing it if the player is persistant enough.

[liq3]

Maybe allow Science Lab II to still acquire knowledge when away from the supply lines?

This way it has a bit more of a use then "won't be killed by ion cannons", since for the most part I just use the MkI ones. Plus they're slow moving which slows down the speed at which you can do the raiding, thus giving more incentive not to deep-knowledge-raid, but still allowing it if the player is persistant enough.

I like this idea. Could even increase their power cost to make it really costly to use them. :]

[Valarauka]

I actually agree that 2 supply range sounds like it'll allow a lot more interesting strategic options while still effectively shutting down "independent" raiding fleets. 1 is kind of a really short leash..

[Echo35]

Maybe allow Science Lab II to still acquire knowledge when away from the supply lines?

This way it has a bit more of a use then "won't be killed by ion cannons", since for the most part I just use the MkI ones. Plus they're slow moving which slows down the speed at which you can do the raiding, thus giving more incentive not to deep-knowledge-raid, but still allowing it if the player is persistant enough.

This I like, along with the 2 planet range instead of 1. Mk. II Science Labs arent too terribly useful with the current rules, but allowing them to gain Knowledge at a distance would make them very desirable.

[x4000]

Take a look at this thread, in which I lay out some pretty concrete examples of what you can do with the "short leash" of 1 supply range.  I really don't see any reason to increase it, rather it would make these changes all but pointless if it was even two range instead of one.

The current method allows you to project your force in a very interesting way, and allows for planet hopping and knowledge raiding and so forth to a very high degree still.  And deep raiding is just as necessary as ever.

The bulk of my explanations are at the other link, so for here I'll leave it at that.  I understand where you guys are coming from with your concerns, but I don't think they actually are as big of issues as you imagine in practice.