Messages

1

AVWW Technical Support / Re: Latest comes up with black screen except menu GUI

« on: April 22, 2012, 11:00:01 AM »

Hi, thought you should know I had exactly the same problem with my update to 1.0, totally black screen except for menus. I purchased and downloaded from Gamersgate today and applied the latest update from the game menu.

As suggested I uninstalled and re-installed with the 1.0 version from the Arcen site and all is now OK.  I guess it's not an issue after Monday though if the new 1.0 is going up on Gamersgate?

No issues during either install process other than Avast Free AV's new AutoSandbox setting terminating both the install and the uninstall in the first 20 seconds as it thinks your installer .exe has 'low prevalence/reputation is low'. until I turned it off completely in the AV settings.  I mention it just in case, but I'm doubting that was anything to do with it though, as it did that again on my first go at the fresh 1.0 install file from Arcen until I turned AutoSandbox off again. but the game looked fine afterward. This is a new thing in Avast 2012 that I've not seen being set off before. As I say, may just be an AV quirk and nothing to do with it....

2

AI War / Re: A few suggestions for new "Sound system" in this game

« on: February 28, 2011, 09:09:27 AM »

"Frakking toasters" is the taunt most thrown at my screen. And not so forum-friendly variations of that...

3

AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Like Chess, A Game Of AI War Has Three Abstract "Phases"

« on: February 27, 2011, 11:45:14 AM »

I was thinking about X's chess analogy last night when I conceded a game at early to middle phase because the AI had effectively 'pinned' all my key pieces like a good chess player and more or less shut down my ability to develop my position.

The map - and my inexperience - meant that I'd allowed too many bordering worlds to reinforce too much, split my forces on too many fronts and got myself pinned down everywhere. If I moved ships in to try to neuter one of the key threat planets, it left one of my planets at reduced strength and created so much aggro I immediately got rushed by the AI from another direction - and on they rolled to my homeworld.

Tough map and good learning experience - I had a few Captive Human Settlements (Entrenched Homeworlder) and tough nut MkIII AI Eye / Ion Cannoned planets a couple of steps from my homeworld and I didn't manage my early expansion smartly enough around them. Tag Teamer on worlds with 1000+ Threat build up didn't help either 

I'm learning.  Brilliant game.

4

Off Topic / This is how it starts. Robots to get their own internet.

« on: February 25, 2011, 02:27:21 PM »

I meant to post this when I saw it on BBC News a couple of weeks ago.

Counterattacks should be directed here Roboearth

....but it's probably too late already.

5

AI War / Re: New Player - Raid engine help / clarification

« on: February 25, 2011, 01:14:25 PM »

Found this on a forum search as I had a similar query to the OP. A couple of supplementary questions to understand Raid Engines, I just encountered my first one early in a campaign. Diff 7 and about 150 AIP. I sent in one Mark 1 Raid Starship and killed it, crossing one alerted neighbouring AI planet to get there. This triggered a wave of about 200 Mk1 fleet ships to ? (not specified).

 - On what basis is the raid engine's counter attack wave calculated - presumably it's the firepower of my ships entering the system?

- Why did I get no warning of the destination of the incoming wave - when all my planets have either a Warp Detector or a Military Command station? I'm guessing it's because the Raid Engine sent it to the neighbouring AI-held planet that I first crossed and not to one of my worlds? I am guessing this is why because the wave didn't ever materialise on any of my planets (after a minute clicking around my worlds in a panic....)

I sent the Raid Starship through in Low Power mode but I guess this just got detected and aggroed the Raid Engine straight away. These guys are ultra-sensitive and extremely bad tempered it would appear.

6

AI War Strategy Discussion / Re: Do the AIs Share Warp Gates?

« on: February 19, 2011, 06:57:21 AM »

I should have paid attention to the color of the ships to see which AI they actually belonged to

So that's two useful things I learned from this thread

How the heck did I never notice that before
[facepalm]

7

AI War / Re: AI War: The Light of the Spire Expansion Now Available as Game Hits Version 5.0

« on: February 15, 2011, 12:14:03 PM »

Received a 13.5MB update that got pushed on Steam about 5 mins ago, so panic over I guess 

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After Action Reports / Re: Biggest attack ever

« on: February 10, 2011, 05:23:09 AM »

I was actually thinking of a more recent case.

Was it perhaps this one?

Yep, that's it

My laptop CPU still hasn't forgiven me for that.

9

AI War / Re: Suggested Progression into new Material?

« on: February 07, 2011, 11:54:19 AM »

Astrotrains are a minor annoyance and little else. I've no idea why they'd terrify anyone, to be honest, they're just sort of a landscape feature.

Well, having a speed booster train on one of your planets when a big attack hits it can be more than an annoyance, but yea.

Thanks for the clarification guys.

So I am now thoroughly persuaded that Astro Trains and Avenger mode are not as bad as I'd built them up to be and so will be trying them in my next few games.  Gotcha.

I should probably stop coming here, before a Dev comes along again and persuades me 'no really, you should totally turn that on, it's really FUN....'    

10

AI War / Re: AI War on sale at Impulse!

« on: February 06, 2011, 05:35:56 PM »

If you are buying from Impulse there's a 10% discount code 'Survey2010'. Still valid at the moment, I used it today on a purchase. Unlimited uses, I got it from filling out a user survey on Stardock but also widely posted on savygamer.co.uk and other places.

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AI War / Re: Suggested Progression into new Material?

« on: February 06, 2011, 05:31:25 PM »

My thoughts on the matter:
....

Wow, thank you for all that, much appreciated, the advice here would keep me going for my next year of game play at the rate I get through campaigns!

Interesting what you say about turning off CoN until you get more acquainted with the core game. I was already thinking of switching if off for my next couple of campaigns as this stage I've been struggling to work out how to make good use (indeed any effective use...) of the Neinzul ships and want to focus on learning with a smaller range of basic ships...and I probably need to get to grips with some more of the core game AI types first too.

Stage One: Vanilla - turn on Astrotrains? Seriously? The reputation of Astrotrains preceeds them - from reading the forum this is one of the options I'm most apprehensive of. I'm game for anything as a good learning experience though, as long as it's fun....

12

AI War / Re: Suggested Progression into new Material?

« on: February 03, 2011, 04:49:54 PM »

I'm liking the sound of Avenger for added fun - and the part about the Fallen Spire giving you the fire power to deal with it. May give it a go, perhaps not for my first time at Diff 7 though...

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AI War / Re: AI War: The Light of the Spire Expansion Now Available as Game Hits Version 5.0

« on: February 03, 2011, 02:15:11 PM »

Any idea when Spire is hitting Steam?

Yes -- I have heard back from them now. Looks like LotS and 5.0 will be coming on the 14th to steam. It's a ways off, I know, but at least it's a concrete date now!

We must remember too that Steam is run by Valve, who operate on Valve Time 

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AI War / Re: Suggested Progression into new Material?

« on: February 03, 2011, 01:15:59 PM »

Good stuff guys, really helpful to read the advice in this thread as I am in exactly the same position as people here. Just starting out properly into the game at a 'real' difficulty level. I dipped in and out of the tutorial then several half-finished campaigns over many months then finally focussed on it properly and finished my first campaign at Level 5, which I won too easily (the Turtle AI was a total walkover at this difficulty, but I digress). My first Diff 7 campaign will be the Light of the Spire plot as I'm excited to see what that's all about, but if I wasn't focussing on LotS I must admit I'd be looking through the wiki at all the options and scratching my head wondering how 'vanilla' or not I should I should make my first big campaign.

What I think the Wiki would really benefit from is a section with a similar title to this thread....How to approach and progress into games options for AI types, AI Plots, Minor Factions, AI modifiers (map styles maybe too....). These options are good for starting or intermediate players looking to mix it up a bit. Some people like to use these options as standard. These options are more for the hardcore, approach with care. Try this if you want a change of pace from what you may be used to. 

I know bits of this are in the wiki pages already (it takes some digging and is split across different sections on different expansions). But this aspect of the game can be overwhelming for beginners.

A specific question - how punishing is the Avenger AI plot? Do people use it much? Thinking about a Diff 6 game with it turned on when I get done with LotS...

15

AI War / Re: Golems and Engineers

« on: February 02, 2011, 07:11:06 PM »

There's no bug, it's that golems take passive damage every second (it's the Attrition ability).  So, as soon as they take this damage, the engineers flit over to repair that marginal amount of damage, then run off, then run back, etc..  If you don't want this to happen, put the golem in Low Power mode, it won't take attrition damage when in low power.

That makes sense, thanks. Good to know