Messages

1

AI War / Re: Private alpha of Vengeance expansion has started

« on: May 19, 2013, 04:51:22 PM »

I'd love to join, but really don't know if I got any time to provide useful feedback.

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Exodus Of The Machine / Re: Update on Exodus of the Machine timeframe (updated May 1st)

« on: May 07, 2013, 03:47:14 AM »

Depends on your screen resolution!

But yeah, we'll start scaling them down or something I guess.  This year is unusual in that we might do two AI War expansions in one year, with different foci (we haven't done that since 4.0/5.0).

You guys are my heroes when it comes to game development. How many years have AI war been running now? Can't remember off my head, but it still rocks, and each expansion adds so many cool new things.

Looking forward to Exodus as well

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AI War / Re: Gearing up for the next AIW expansion: "Vengeance of the Machine"

« on: May 07, 2013, 03:40:28 AM »

Been a while since I posted, but huzzah for more AI War!

4

AI War / Re: Poll: Should fleet caps be made the same across all marks?

« on: September 03, 2012, 05:39:50 AM »

And just as I voted. I voted yes incidentally

It will making unlocking MK III (and IV) more interesting,a s well as Mk V fabricators worth more.

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AI War / Re: Would you like MK V units to be more "special"

« on: September 01, 2012, 12:22:57 PM »

Mark V's already have a set of special abilities, I don't think they need more because that just reduces the uniqueness of bonus ship types that already get those abilities.  As for Nienzul Vs, I recommend this solution instead.

Elegant solution. You have my support.

Indeed, not a bad idea.


As for Mk V's in general, I think they are mostly OK, they can extend your ship cap past ordinary if you capture a constructor. Maybe a slight stat buff? I dunno. I don't think they should get any special bonuses as such however, rather amplify what they already got, but I don't see any particular issue with them as is either.

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AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.074-5.075 "Focused Forces" Released!

« on: September 01, 2012, 12:19:29 PM »

Loving the new special forces. I actually feel them now. Can't speak much to the new starships, as a Peacemaker and friend with spire mini rams have dictated: no.

Could we have a "special forces" galaxy overlay, similar to the current "Threat" ?

My game is starting to lag because of them

Currently about 10000 units on one of my border planets now. My champion is having them all run in circles after it, but it does make it hard to do anything once that train of death slams into something else

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AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.074-5.075 "Focused Forces" Released!

« on: August 31, 2012, 05:14:20 PM »

If you look at earlier posts in this thread I think that's intended behavior; special forces are supposed to pick a staging ground world and wait there until they get an order to defend an important planet or something. From earlier posts 4000-5000 seems like a plausible number to have. Of course this is a totally new behavior and might need a good deal of rebalancing.

Indeed, still kind of funny though, but quite a large number

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AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.074-5.075 "Focused Forces" Released!

« on: August 31, 2012, 02:39:46 PM »

Well, H/K's are pretty much designed to be the Harbingers of Death™. Quite similar to the Mass Effect Reapers

"Relax, we just want to wipe you out. It's no big deal."

Indeed

Since it was a test game I reloaded and tired again, but this time it spawned something else, and that was easier to handle. I did notice something funny with special forces however, there seem to be roaming ships around now, going here and there. over 4000 of them on one planet currently.

I attached save (planet Arranchr)

Edit: Peaked over 5000 despite the devourer golem thinning out some

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AI War / Re: AI War Beta 5.074-5.075 "Focused Forces" Released!

« on: August 31, 2012, 01:26:13 PM »

Smallish question: how far are we from largest size of champion ships? Or we have all of them already?

There's one more.

I am just on my second one, and think it is pretty badass

Though, that hunter-killer that came with the Exo made short work it it, and everything else really. Including modular fortress, 5 MK III force fields, 80% of all my beam, laster, missile and other turrets at MK II, and I even had armor booster/inhibitor. And, of course, my entire fleet, before my home command blew up

10

AI War / Re: Am I stupid, or unlucky? (Can't find nebulas)

« on: August 30, 2012, 05:21:25 AM »

I'm not trying to argue that the unexplored wormholes thing doesn't work well, just that it's not that obvious for anyone who might be new to the game, and they could end up missing or getting frustrated by a significant part of the new expansion. Though I suppose that a note could be added to the initial journal text regarding the champion about using the unexplored wormholes setting in the galaxy map.

To be fair, it did take me a few minutes to really figure it out myself, and I have been playing AI War for 2.5 years

11

AI War / Re: Poll: What should be done with special forces?

« on: August 30, 2012, 02:53:20 AM »

Crossposting from the (still in progress) release notes, since they're basically a response to this thread:

* AI Special Forces:
** Now get periodic extra spawns (in addition to the usual trickle from reinforcements) if under a "special forces population cap" determined by difficulty, AIP, etc.
*** If you're curious about the math, etc, turn on Advanced Logging and check SpecialForcesLogicLog.txt in your RuntimeData directory after the game has run for a bit.  There's some minor spoilers in there about what ships each AI has, but nothing you probably won't find out looking at a few AI planets anyway.
** Will now rally to defend an AI planet that is under significant attack and at least mildly important (AI Homeworld, core world, or a planet with a CSG, ARS, Advanced Factory, Super Terminal, or Broken Golem on it, giving priority to HWs/core-worlds).
*** Note that once a special forces ship encounters the enemy it loses the special forces flag and acts like a normal threat ship from there on.
** When not rallying to defend a planet, will select a staging planet about 3 hops deep into AI territory and rally there until an eligible AI planet is attacked.
** To prevent a player's first attack from running into several hundred AI ships out for blood, as entertaining as it was during testing, special forces ships are no longer seeded during the initial map seeding.

Cool! Looking forward to testing

12

AI War / Re: Somewhat silly question for old timers..

« on: August 30, 2012, 02:22:47 AM »

How often do you find yourself coming back to Aiwar, and deciding the entire game needs to be rebalanced somehow?
I feel like I have done it at least three times now..

I noticed when I came back a lot of threads questioning old content - I myself recently started a starship rebalance discussion, where someone else started a triangle discussion. Ive definitely seen others too. There is apparently great talk about reworking the entire armor system about too.. Its definitely been a few times me or others have shown up and discussed how weak or strong they felt certain ships are (I think I complained a lot about spire minirams for a while.. I saw them in a game a few days ago and ran for the hills >_> ).

And at keith/chris - How much of what we say do you actually agree with? Do you/other primary playtesters notice these issues we bring up, or mostly just tend to acknowledge that we have them? Not really meant to be a accusatory question or something silly (i dont even know where im going with this), but how much of the game do you feel is shaped by the few vocal of us that repeatedly show up and say something needs to be changed? How often do you think we are just rofltastically wrong, and make token adjustments to make us be quiet?

edit; Content for new people too now!
How do you see us old people returning? When you see some of us show up and almost demand a complete rework of mechanics that have been in the game since you started playing, what really goes through your mind?

Not often I do it, I might try and give my input on some small things, but generally someone else beats me to "rebalanced everything"

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AI War / Re: Am I stupid, or unlucky? (Can't find nebulas)

« on: August 29, 2012, 04:51:29 PM »

I have wormholes display on the galaxy map

http://i.imgur.com/mOv1F.jpg

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AI War / Re: My thoughts on current balance

« on: August 29, 2012, 07:58:44 AM »

I do think starships are somewhat weak now as well, but I notice it mostly in games with larger fleet caps. I used my travel computer with very low feet caps, and then statships shine a lot more.

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AI War / Re: Poll: What should be done with special forces?

« on: August 29, 2012, 06:53:11 AM »

One thing I think might need some change is to make the special forces command posts to be more beefy. Now they are rather push over tbh. Used to be I had to dedicate missile cruisers to them since I would loose my ships if I just sent them randomly into it. Or send a bigger fleet But now I can easily handle them without much thought.

Maybe something modular about them too? Same basic model and unit, but a few modules randomly to make them a bit different every time?

As I see special forces, they are supposed to be somewhat "separate" to the main AI. And having some more beefy command posts that spawn more/better units, and then they can roam between them (or do something in addition) would be good. Then you might actually consider raiding a close by special forces guard posts, while leaving the rest of the planet more or less intact.

I am not a fan of making them 'wave like' like the main AI force, CPA and Exos since that we already have. I like them working more in the background, and every now and then come into your territory. More fun imo to expand on that difference rather than making them more similar