Chris here! By any sane metric I can think of, AI War 2 shouldn't exist. And yet it's more than I ever imagined it could be. When we first set out to make this game three years ago, it was far less ambitious. Even that was going to be really hard. Somehow, in the process of falling down the stairs over and over again during this period, we wound up with a game that seems to be superior to the original. This game shouldn't exist, but it does, and I'm both proud and stunned.

The Secret? Community

The intro to this post runs the risk of sounding like I'm tooting my own horn, but it's not actually about me. I'm not capable of making -- even just designing -- this game on my own. I don't think anyone is, really. The fact that this game exists isn't a testament to me having some brilliant insight or a singular vision that I doggedly pursued. The reviews of the game are lovely, but give me entirely too much personal credit. The state of this game is thanks to dozens of people critically thinking about this game -- what this one and the original means to them and to others -- and then a process of relentless, continuous, arduous iteration and improvement.

MVP Award: BadgerBadger

This section is long, and in some ways tangential, but if you read it you'll understand why I've put it here so prominently. You have this guy to thank as much as me or Keith for this game existing. Badger has been involved since the kickstarter, with questions and comments and key insights. For a lot of the first year, he was responsible for something like 80% of the bug reports and feature ideas on our idea tracker. When a lot of other people were just bouncing off the game and waiting around for Keith LaMothe and I to figure things out on our own -- understandable, really -- Badger was there providing really key insight and ideas. But that was barely the start for him. After a while I was essentially like "so, do you just want source code access, given how much you're doing here?" Because he had started doing some mods -- nanocaust and macrophage, at the time, IIRC -- and it was clear he would be less hand-tied if he had more access. What happened next was essentially us getting a developer -- volunteer, no less -- who contributed as much to the design of the game as I did, in my opinion. Not only did he single-handedly conceive of and implement the nanocaust and macrophage, but he also did the dark spire and marauder impelementations, among many, many other things. Some of the most brilliant and devious things that the AI has in this game compared to the first one? Badger. Some of your favorite UI detail screens, like metal flows? Badger. Not to mention all the bugfixes, balance tweaks, and... just oodles more. This game wouldn't exist in anything like the state it does now without Badger. Any credit for my "singular vision" on the game is doing him a major disservice, but he's a quiet sort of guy when it comes to taking credit, so I wanted to take this chance to call him out in particular.

Growing Volunteer Developer Corps

So, Badger is not remotely the only person I need to call out as being absolutely indispensable. RocketAssistedPuffin has also been involved heavily for the last year plus, and has taken over huge numbers of things that I never would have had time for. After I implemented the new tech system one way, he's the one who figured out how to make it substantially more balanced. Most of the voluminous "balance change" sections on the release notes are from him working with other players or just reasoning things out himself. Puffin has also had a ton of ideas on how to make things better in all sorts of sections of the game, and there was a period of about three months late last year where he and Badger were basically doing ALL the development on the game and I just pushed out releases of what they were doing. I was going through a really painful divorce and had a ton of anxiety and couldn't face work, and these two kept things alive and improving. But it never stopped there. Those new tutorials you like? Puffin. I wrote the bulk of the "How To Play" in-game wiki sections, but the most basic and understandable ones for new players were... again, Puffin. I'm excellent at writing encyclopedic entries that fill you in on huge numbers of details, but he's the one who distilled "what's the most central stuff you need to know, as briefly as possible" so that people can actually get into the game in any reasonable timeframe. Compare his work here to the tutorials I did in the original game, and it's night and day. And I'm still selling Puffin short, frankly, because he's done so many things over such a long period that I can't remember it all now. More recently, we've had folks like WeaponMaster and Asteroid joining in and adding lots of bugfixes and quality of life improvements that I never would have had the time to do myself. Things like hovering over galaxy map links to see information on them were Asteroid. Endless tricky bugfixes were WeaponMaster. I'm selling them both short, but the release notes are filled with things that they either implemented or suggested or both. And it doesn't stop there. Quinn stepped in an made a bunch of additions. Keith laid the original groundwork for the entire game simulation and multithreading (he was the main programmer and designer for the first year and a half, and actually on staff during that time). And there were so, so many others. And more each month!

Volunteers Beat Modders, I Think

I'm pretty free with the source code access, because I'd rather have a consolidated community of people helping rather than a bunch of mods that you have to hunt down and find. So a lot of the folks that have turned into volunteers are what would have been modders on most other games. They would have made their own thing that you had to install and then wonder about the cross-compatibility of. This game does have a ton of moddability, and for anyone who wants to "just" be a modder, that's absolutely fine with me. But for a lot of the mods that are getting the most love, I'm happy to share source code access with those folks so that they're in no way hobbled, and so that their work can go out as additional content that every player can find via in-game options without having to hunt through Steam Workshop or whatever else. It's an unorthodox approach, but a lot more team-oriented and lets us do quality control on each others' stuff, "mods" included, which is a big win. If someone wants to steal the source code for this game, they can just decompile it like any other game for the most part. I'd rather put my trust in people and see things flourish rather than retain a stranglehold out of fear or pride.

What Did I Actually Do, Then?

All of this help from others let me focus on some of the really tricky architectural and design problems, which led to things like us even being able to HAVE a simulation of this size, and to have it perform as smoothly as it does. I got to build lots of mechanics that other people then actually turned into specific units. It also gave me time to focus on some really nagging problems that just made the early versions of the game... unpleasant. If I hadn't had the time to think and talk to people about all those things, we never would have seen all the game evolve this way; I would have been mired in content development and other items just to get the basics out for the game. The original design for this was something that Keith and I put together as a pair, but it only worked out so well. It was a good foundation, but needed... a lot of help. We both pushed that forward a lot, until the money situation got to the point where he (and all the other staff, eventually) had to step away, and I carried on "alone" (but with all those volunteers). There came a couple of major turning points where I was reflecting on why I was so unhappy with this game as it existed, and listening to the various gripes that playtesters had, and then I was able to spend a month or three implementing something drastically new. Fleets are the most notable of those, and they were initially met with a lot of mixed feelings and distaste because only part of my idea was there on the first public launch of those. Only in the last month or so has that feature completely come into its own, and that also had a lot to do with continuous feedback from people in early access telling me what they needed and what they did and didn't like. We also had a number of points during development where we just couldn't escape certain performance problems, because there were suddenly battles that were an order of magnitude larger than the first game (which was itself the largest strategy game simulation of individual units that I'm aware of on the market until this sequel). So I got to focus on a whole bunch of crazy improvements and data structure inventions and even GPU shader tricks in order to make all this stuff work. Without the rest of the community helping, there's no way I could have had time to work on all that sort of thing, even in three years of development. A game of this scope shouldn't run this well -- it shouldn't be possible -- but it is because I was given the gift of time by so many others.

A Decade In The Making

It has been 10 years to the day since the first AI War came to Steam, and it's been 3 years of developing this sequel. We didn't do any work on any AI War games from late 2014 through late 2016, but the rest of that time has been spent at least partly working on the original game or this sequel. From version 5.0 of the original game through version 8.0, Keith was pretty much the sole developer on that while I focused on other things. He built out a ton of creative and clever things that made a return in this game, and also pushed the concept of what the AI could be -- adding in some traditional decision-tree style logic in places in addition to the more decentralized-style AI that I had come up with back in 2009. That one that originally made waves on slashdot and reddit and hackernews and so on. I've worked as the producer and design lead on this sequel, among my many other roles, and so the fact that there seems to be a "singular vision" is hopefully a sign that I did a good job in that role. But the degree to which this is a product of dozens of people's work, over an extremely long period of time, really can't be understated. That's what I meant all the way back at the start. This sort of thing shouldn't have happened. It's just so... unlikely. A ton of people came together over a decade and helped make something unlike anything else on the market. That's before even getting into other major (former) staff contributors like Daniette "Blue" Shinkle doing the vast majority of the art and coming up with the way-prettier style of ship that evolved AFTER the kickstarter, the awesome score by Pablo Vega, and 25 voice actors who did a fantastic job as various humans and the AI. And good grief, I'd be remiss not to mention Erik and Craig and all the other folks at Indie Bros, who helped manage so many aspects of this game, as well as often doing work like helping clean up voice lines, etc.

A Few Common Questions

If you're interested in what is coming in the very short term, there's a post for that. Similar if you want to know what the plan is for multiplayer. For kickstarter backers (or anyone else who is curious), there's an FAQ as well as roadmap of stuff for the next few quarters relating to kickstarter stretch goals. And I just have to once-again plug this awesome After Action Report by zeusalmighty.

My Deepest Thanks

I never wanted to make this game, because I didn't think I could. The original AI War seemed to be the high water mark of my career, and I spent a lot of time trying to make peace with that. But when the market shifted in 2015 and 2016 and finances started getting tight, it became clear that returning to the game that started it all was what made the most sense. Thanks to all of the kickstarter backers for believing that we even COULD build this game. Keith and I felt like we could do something that would make you happy, but probably not something that would top the original. It took two extra years of development and an enormous village of people to make THAT a reality. So thanks to everyone for their patience and support during that time. I also want to say a big thanks to everyone for their understanding during my divorce, which happened shortly after entering Early Access for this game. That made everything so much harder, and took me out of commission for a full three months or so where I just couldn't work much. I had to learn how to be me again, and come to terms with being a dad with shared custody rather than a full-time father, and all of that was incredibly hard. But the good news is that, as has happened with this game itself, a lot of things in my personal life have turned out unexpectedly, improbably well in the last year. After deciding to date again (after 18 years off the market, wow), I wound up meeting the woman who is now my fiance surprisingly quickly (all things considered). Kara and her daughter have made my entire world so much richer than I realized it could be, and my son finally has the sister he's wanted for so much of his life. I feel incredibly fortunate, and a lot of my ability to get back to work and not crumble under the weight of anxiety and expectations for this game were thanks to Kara's support and presence. The reality of her life as a doctor and surgeon also helps to kind of put my own work into perspective, sometimes, in the best way. However this turns out financially, and despite my anxieties about my future as a game developer, I'm incredibly proud of what we've all created together, and I feel surrounded by all the right people both at work and outside of work. This has been the hardest three year period of my life, but the end result has all been worth it. Thanks to everyone, and I hope you enjoy the game -- both what it is now, and what's to come. Very Best, Chris

[ 2019-10-22 20:15:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

After Two Long Years, AI War 2 Hits Early Access!

It's been quite a saga, if you've followed along all this time. All that extra time paid off! At this point we have what fans have nearly-universally hailed as a worthy successor to the original classic. We still have plenty more to do prior to 1.0 in Q2 of 2019, but the game is ready to play now and we hope you'll come enjoy it and give us further feedback. Pick up the game now for 10% off!

New To AI War?

The original AI War is widely considered one of the top strategy games of all time, with a central mechanic that no other title has replicated. Humanity has already lost the war, and now you command the last remnants in a desperate campaign to take back the galaxy. More than most strategy games, your actions have consequences: taking every minor outpost you see is a surefire way to alert the enemy and spell your own doom. Strike smart, capture new technology, and bring down a foe that overmatches you in every way.

What's New In 2?

The sequel improves the UI, the graphics, the audio, and many of the core mechanics. It's an across-the-board upgrade. But even more than that, it brings in new friends and foes alike -- large factions are now possible, with their own sophisticated AI, economies, and rules. Marauders are now able to conquer territory, and build up their own bases if left un-checked. The nanocaust feeds on the strength of those around it, while the macrophage happily grows in the background, sending out spores... Enjoy the classic human vs AI cage match, or expand to a much wider living galaxy.

25% off Loyalty Coupon!

If you own the original AI War, or The Last Federation, or Bionic Dues -- check your inventory on Steam! You may need to restart it, or log out and back in. Inside, you'll find a coupon for 25% off on top of the launch 10% discount. Both are only valid this week, so hopefully this isn't sitting in your inbox too long!

[ 2018-10-18 00:03:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Yet More Massive Updates To AI War 2!

Be sure to stop by and wishlist AI War 2 to be notified when it launches into Early Access. You can read about the most recent update, plus a lot of planned upcoming updates, here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/573410/announcements/detail/1732082664630714967 Hopefully now you can see why we haven't pushed this game into Early Access yet. We're really wanting this to come out of the gate as something that we can be proud of and that you can be excited about, without us needing to go through a lot of revisions to basic mechanics after that point. It should be all content additions and bugfixing and refinement after we hit Early Access, hopefully. At any rate, it's been a really fun ride recently with out kickstarter backers, who have their hands on the game already (they sure ought to -- it's been almost two years!). Despite the long road, this is really coming together. Thanks for reading! Chris

[ 2018-07-26 16:33:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Massive update to AI War 2: "A Pivot And A Leap Forward"

You can read all about that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/573410/announcements/detail/1699429118241526351 Be sure to pop by and wishlist the game, too!

[ 2018-06-28 01:46:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Classic Sale Celebrating AI War 2 Teaser Trailer Coming Soon Page

There's a sequel on the way! You can wishlist it here to be notified when it arrives in Early Access in July.
We've uploaded a teaser trailer and listed a coming soon store page for AI War 2 (don't forget to wishlist)! To celebrate, all AI War classic products are on sale with deep discounts -- get AI War's base game or Collection bundle for 80% off, plus individual DLC for $1 each through May 5th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iyi-ZEiPow This project has been in the works since 2016, and thanks to a kickstarter and a ton of support from all those alpha and beta testers, we're finally closing in on that ever-elusive Early Access point. After we hit EA in July, we hope to have an even wider array of testers, and then we'll be ready for a highly-polished 1.0 in October of this year. Be sure to go in and wishlist it (and get anyone you know to do the same) if you have any interest in this, because otherwise you might miss those two release notifications when they do arrive. We can't wait to see you in there -- and for now, the massive original game, which we now refer to as AI War Classic, has hundreds of hours waiting for you. :)

[ 2018-04-26 17:04:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Starward Rogue Expansion Launch and AI War 2 News!

Chris here! Quick announcement about another title, but lots of AI War 2 notes further down, so read on! AI War 2 is coming together nicely to launch early this year, but we've also had a "volunteer brigade" working on something on the side: the first expansion pack for our rogue-lite shooter Starward Rogue -- Starward Rogue: AuGMENTED.
Developed by the "Arcen Extended" team, which is comprised of former contractors and modders from the community, the expansion has been nearly 2 years in the making, and adds a boatload of new content, including new mechs, new enemies, new items, new bosses and much more. These folks have absolutely been pouring time and love into this project, but it hasn't been a diversion from AI War 2 for Keith, Blue, or me.
Its probably one of the biggest expansions we have ever released for any title, and something we are very proud of. The base game of Starward Rogue was something that people always loved to play, but got lost in the shuffle of the early 2016 market. This expansion hopefully gets 2018 off on the right foot for Arcen as we lead into our big project for the year AI War 2! With that in mind

Hey, AI War 2!

The AI War 2 project has been an excellent example of "no plan survives contact with the enemy." Visualization has required more engine work and re-work than we anticipated, and thats one of a few factors that have slowed our schedule. On the other hand, the actual game simulation is far more moddable than anticipated -- modders can create practically anything: new Units (with just a bit of XML); new Galaxy map types (with just a bit of C#); tweak existing factions, or create new factions that can completely change the gameplay; you can change the AI behaviour or add new AI types. All of that alongside more obvious things like adding new units or visuals or sounds or similar. In any event, the game itself has come a long way and we're narrowing down the list of things that need to be done before beta. Weve just released new builds with updated graphics, UI updates, balance tweaks, the first of the voice acting, and a whole lot more. Theres more of that sort of thing to come, and were working on a graduated beta release schedule at the moment in preparation for an April 1.0 official release.

Whats a graduated beta release schedule?

Well, before we sound the everyone come for final polish testing! klaxon, there are a number of issues that wed like help on from smaller groups of people who choose to come in and help with testing, feedback, or even direct modding/art/code as the case may be.
One of those areas, probably the biggest, is our AI War 2 GUI focus group, which wed love to have as many people a part of as possible.
We also have quite a lively discussion on our NAT Punchthrough discussion thread, although we now have a volunteer network expert (thanks, Admiral!) who is directly getting involved in this bit.
And there will be other things as well, which well be announcing through the forums and on kickstarter. We wont bother you with each of those through the newsletter, so be sure to follow us in one of those other locations if you want to stay in the know on these last pre-beta days.
Speaking of, heres what weve been up to lately. Although that doesnt tell the full story of some of the things that are in progress but not yet implemented.

One Last Note About Starward Rogue

We also wanted to make a special thanks to Windless Zephyr for inspiring the Zephyr mech, and also for providing us with so many episodes of your long-running Starward Rogue series! :)

[ 2018-01-24 18:09:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Starward Rogue Expansion Launch and AI War 2 News!

Chris here! Quick announcement about another title, but lots of AI War 2 notes further down, so read on! AI War 2 is coming together nicely to launch early this year, but we've also had a "volunteer brigade" working on something on the side: the first expansion pack for our rogue-lite shooter Starward Rogue -- Starward Rogue: AuGMENTED.
Developed by the "Arcen Extended" team, which is comprised of former contractors and modders from the community, the expansion has been nearly 2 years in the making, and adds a boatload of new content, including new mechs, new enemies, new items, new bosses and much more. These folks have absolutely been pouring time and love into this project, but it hasn't been a diversion from AI War 2 for Keith, Blue, or me.
It’s probably one of the biggest expansions we have ever released for any title, and something we are very proud of. The base game of Starward Rogue was something that people always loved to play, but got lost in the shuffle of the early 2016 market. This expansion hopefully gets 2018 off on the right foot for Arcen as we lead into our big project for the year – AI War 2! With that in mind…

Hey, AI War 2!

The AI War 2 project has been an excellent example of "no plan survives contact with the enemy." Visualization has required more engine work and re-work than we anticipated, and that’s one of a few factors that have slowed our schedule. On the other hand, the actual game simulation is far more moddable than anticipated -- modders can create practically anything: new Units (with just a bit of XML); new Galaxy map types (with just a bit of C#); tweak existing factions, or create new factions that can completely change the gameplay; you can change the AI behaviour or add new AI types. All of that alongside more obvious things like adding new units or visuals or sounds or similar. In any event, the game itself has come a long way and we're narrowing down the list of things that need to be done before beta. We’ve just released new builds with updated graphics, UI updates, balance tweaks, the first of the voice acting, and a whole lot more. There’s more of that sort of thing to come, and we’re working on a “graduated beta release schedule” at the moment in preparation for an April 1.0 official release.

What’s a “graduated beta release schedule?”

Well, before we sound the “everyone come for final polish testing!” klaxon, there are a number of issues that we’d like help on from smaller groups of people who choose to come in and help with testing, feedback, or even direct modding/art/code as the case may be.
One of those areas, probably the biggest, is our AI War 2 GUI focus group, which we’d love to have as many people a part of as possible.
We also have quite a lively discussion on our NAT Punchthrough discussion thread, although we now have a volunteer network expert (thanks, Admiral!) who is directly getting involved in this bit.
And there will be other things as well, which we’ll be announcing through the forums and on kickstarter. We won’t bother you with each of those through the newsletter, so be sure to follow us in one of those other locations if you want to stay in the know on these last pre-beta days.
Speaking of, here’s what we’ve been up to lately. Although that doesn’t tell the full story of some of the things that are in progress but not yet implemented.

One Last Note About Starward Rogue

We also wanted to make a special thanks to Windless Zephyr for inspiring the Zephyr mech, and also for providing us with so many episodes of your long-running Starward Rogue series! :)

[ 2018-01-24 18:09:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 2 Kickstarter re-launch hits goal in 22 hours! Plus new video.

Um... wow? Folks are absolutely amazing in their support, and I'm just agog at this. I'm going to be out most of the weekend, but I just wanted to say thanks in advance if we hit any stretch goals before Monday. At the moment we seem likely to hit the stretch goal for new music sooner than later. So, other stuff -- first I'd like to share one new video with you: So just what is this "AI War" thing, and why should you be excited about it? Hopefully the kickstarter campaign page answers that question, in a general sense at least. ;) But prior to launching this campaign I was working on this video, and I finally finished editing it today (with Pablo's help cleaning up some unfortunately peaky audio because my mic gain was off), so I thought I'd share it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IluP7KEx0xk If you're wanting to explain to someone first what this game is, then why it's frickin awesome, maybe this video will help. Or maybe I'm just longwinded -- 9 minutes is pretty concise for a game like this, though. :) First Stretch Goal: Soundtrack! So... right! We're funded. :) Now we're working on the first stretch goal off our list:
Up Next Next week I expect to release a video actually showing combat, and some other cool visual effects, and we'll show you more of the GUI, and Pablo has a video for you, and Keith has some written updates... Busy times, in the best sense. :) I'm personally not going to be around much this weekend because I'm both trying to have a better work/life balance in general and also we're celebrating my mom's birthday, but I'll be back in force on Monday. I'll peek in some over the weekend, of course, and I imagine Keith will be around some Saturday off and on. But just so you don't wonder where we are if we're quieter than usual. Thanks again for all your support! Best, Chris

[ 2016-11-19 02:06:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 2 Kickstarter re-launch hits goal in 22 hours! Plus new video.

[ 2016-11-19 02:06:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 2 Kickstarter re-launches... 50% funded in 4 hours!

Good grief! People are awesome. I didn't mean to update folks here "late," but the new campaign for AI War 2has already reached half of its (admittedly much more modest) funding goal. https://youtu.be/CPrhD-_SNpo I've already written a first update post that has a large Q&A based on early questions. Apologies that the video above is just a teaser-style one, but one of the Q&A topics (way at the bottom) touches on the reasons for that. Basically perfectionism on my part, I guess. This is a very different project from the one that we were pitching in the first kickstarter, but I'm really excited about it. Keith has written up a new design documentthat explains what is planned. There's another document that compares the new vision for the sequel to the original AI War, for those wanting to see that comparison. One of the last updates to the original campaign does probably the most concise job of outlining the differences between the two campaigns, the changing roles of Keith and myself, and the current configuration (so to speak) of Arcen. Anyhow! Hope to see you around soon. :) Best, Chris

[ 2016-11-18 03:04:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 2 Kickstarter re-launches... 50% funded in 4 hours!

Good grief! People are awesome. I didn't mean to update folks here "late," but the new campaign for AI War 2 has already reached half of its (admittedly much more modest) funding goal. https://youtu.be/CPrhD-_SNpo I've already written a first update post that has a large Q&A based on early questions. Apologies that the video above is just a teaser-style one, but one of the Q&A topics (way at the bottom) touches on the reasons for that. Basically perfectionism on my part, I guess. This is a very different project from the one that we were pitching in the first kickstarter, but I'm really excited about it. Keith has written up a new design document that explains what is planned. There's another document that compares the new vision for the sequel to the original AI War, for those wanting to see that comparison. One of the last updates to the original campaign does probably the most concise job of outlining the differences between the two campaigns, the changing roles of Keith and myself, and the current configuration (so to speak) of Arcen. Anyhow! Hope to see you around soon. :) Best, Chris

[ 2016-11-18 03:04:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 2 on Kickstarter NOW!

FINALLY a sequel. Please stop by our kickstarter campaign -- we're counting on folks like you to make this bigger, better, clearer sequel a reality. You might hate kickstarter, and I hate preorders, but I hope you'll love this project on its own merits. The original AI War is something that RPS called one of the best strategy games ever made, and which is widely regarded as having some of the best and most interesting AI ever seen in a game.

Why a sequel?

The original was designed in a different time, under completely different design goals. We're finally creating a sequel that is being rebuilt from the ground up using a whole bunch of new tricks and tech that we've acquired over the last few years. The trickiest core technical improvements -- ranging from highly efficient 3D graphics to a multithreaded main-simulation to mod support -- are already complete.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtDdZRq4Bk

Why trust us?

We’re not kidding around in our approach to this: we’ve made a massive 160+ page design document, because it was basically the only way we were comfortable doing a kickstarter campaign for this sequel. We can't stand vague or overblown promises, so our goal has been to be as explicit and clear as possible. We did a massive AMA on reddit where we wrote more than 50 pages of responses, and we're happy to answer even more questions. That said, this project is huge, and we've been having a rough time in the crowded New Steam Market (so to speak). Please consider backing the project if you can! It's very hard to reach customers nowadays, and we don't have a good way to fund this without your help. There are a few alternatives to kickstarter that we've worked out, but none of them give us the full creative freedom that working directly with our fans does. Improvements at a glance:

GUI Clarity and usability!
Sane learning curve.
Better graphics.
Better performance.
Moddability.
More varied strategic landscape.
Streamlined out repetitive tasks.
Way, way more.

Even if you can't or don't want to back, please spread the word!

Whether or not you're able and willing to personally back the project, please consider forwarding this campaign's link to any friends (Steam or otherwise) that might have an interest in this sort of thing. If you personally want to take a "wait and see" attitude toward this project, we totally respect that. But we are having trouble reaching our own existing customers, and so any help you can give us in spreading the word we would be incredibly grateful for.

[ 2016-10-25 16:37:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 2 on Kickstarter NOW!

Why a sequel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtDdZRq4Bk

Why trust us?

Were not kidding around in our approach to this: weve made a massive 160+ page design document, because it was basically the only way we were comfortable doing a kickstarter campaign for this sequel. We can't stand vague or overblown promises, so our goal has been to be as explicit and clear as possible. We did a massive AMA on reddit where we wrote more than 50 pages of responses, and we're happy to answer even more questions. That said, this project is huge, and we've been having a rough time in the crowded New Steam Market (so to speak). Please consider backing the project if you can! It's very hard to reach customers nowadays, and we don't have a good way to fund this without your help. There are a few alternatives to kickstarter that we've worked out, but none of them give us the full creative freedom that working directly with our fans does. Improvements at a glance:

GUI Clarity and usability!
Sane learning curve.
Better graphics.
Better performance.
Moddability.
More varied strategic landscape.
Streamlined out repetitive tasks.
Way, way more.

Even if you can't or don't want to back, please spread the word!

[ 2016-10-25 16:14:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Headtalker! Please sign up. Plus more "Reverse AI War" tidbits.

Chris here. I'm going to keep this brief and try not to be annoying! First up: if you didn't already know, we're running a kickstarter for the sequel to AI War, and that's a pretty big deal to us. If you have not already, please consider signing up for the Headtalker campaign for AI War II. The true power of this thing has only really become apparent to me today, and it's pretty awesome. Briefly:

If 500 people sign up -- and there are 71 on there as of the time of this writing, including myself -- then a big social media blast goes out. I guess kind of like a Thunderclap?
It tracks the amount of reach that we have on social media based on this, and basically it can be a way to get in front of a LOT of people. Out of just 71 people signed up so far, that gives us a potential reach of 960 thousand people.
Bearing in mind that a ton of those people will have zero interest in this, it's still a lot more targeted than advertising in some ways, and it's also not costing us anything (or you much time).
Given our current backer counts, less than a third of you would need to help out with this for a big blast to go out.
And actually you can recruit other people as well if you like who are not backers of the project -- you never know if your friend's friends are strategy enthusiasts, even if that friend is not.
As with this kickstarter campaign itself, if the target is not hit, nothing happens. So if we don't get 500 people signed up, then the whole thing doesn't happen. Even if you have a small twitter following or just a few facebook friends or a small group on linkedin or whatever else, that still is valuable in that it helps us reach that count of 500 people.

Thank you for reading!

That was annoying, and I apologize for that. To make it up to you, I'll give a few more tidbits about Reverse AI War, which I teased in update #8. Basically:

It's a much smaller and shorter game, and made for serial replayability. Ideally games are 5-25 minutes long, depending on the complexity of the scenario you set up. I'd estimate 15 or 20 minutes on average.
I doubt it would be multiplayer, but who knows. Probably that would just be irritating to play with others, though, to be honest.
The game is set in the Arcenverse, in the timeline after Bionic Dues and Release Raptor, but long before AI War, The Last Federation, Stars Beyond Reach, or Starward Rogue.
You play as the AI at the end of Earth's history in this game. You may remember from the lore of Raptor that basically some humans got left behind on Earth while the rich and the upper classes fled to the stars.
The AI eventually chases the humans out into the galaxy, as we clearly see in the first AI War. However, before it can comfortably do that, it needs to take care of the planet that we both came from.
The overall idea here is thus that you're trying to kill the last of the humans remaining on earth. It really gives you a perspective of the sort of vaguely Risk-like experience that the AI has in AI War, but on territories on earth instead of planets and solar systems in space.
As with AI War, the AI (you, this time) have vastly superior resources to your foes, but also some weak spots. This game is also a David and Goliath simulator... but this time you're Goliath tasked with destroying David?
If that sounds easy, then you're forgetting the core weakness of the AI: blindness. You don't know WHERE all those pesky humans are. You thus want to do various things to draw them out, including letting them take some territory from you in order to expose themselves. Mwa ha ha, they think they're so sneaky...
...of course, the more you do that, the more you actually do risk that they pop up in surprising force and destroy your quantum computer, thus ending you. The other risk is that they escape into space, meaning that you've failed in your chief objective.

Overall I think it's a really fun concept, and it's simple and short and yet has good strategy to it. As I mentioned before, I hope to have a WebGL online demo you can play by the end of November. Depending on how things progress with this kickstarter, I might be convinced to give out copies of this to all backers above some certain tier... ;) That's all for now! Sorry for being annoying about the Headtalker thing, but if you can help out with it it is definitely appreciated. And hopefully the Reverse AI War details make up for it. Cheers! Chris

Addendum!

There have been a number of objections to the Reverse AI War thing being talked about on our forums, and I felt like those are things that I wanted to address here, too. Here's the original thread: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,19276.msg209980.html#msg209980 The TLDR is that basically, no, that doesn't mean that we're giving up on this campaign. It doesn't indicate a lack of interest on my part in AI War II, either. It is an attempt to be honest and clear with you despite the fact that it may be mildly stupid from a PR standpoint, but I think that honesty tends to beat "smooth talking" in situations like this. If you still have reservations, the post there is worth a read. I suppose the other biggest point is that we're neither just sitting here and hoping things improve (we're both making contingencies and actively trying to improve things at the same time). A lot of kickstarters do this thing where they seem to just be blindly trucking along, and anyone who looks at them goes "that's not going to fund," but they seem oblivious. I hate that so much. I doubt the people are oblivious, but I guess they don't want to show a lack of confidence and so they sure seem oblivious. I'd rather tell you as much as I can about what we're trying to do to make things better, instead.

[ 2016-10-20 17:44:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Headtalker! Please sign up. Plus more "Reverse AI War" tidbits.

If 500 people sign up -- and there are 71 on there as of the time of this writing, including myself -- then a big social media blast goes out. I guess kind of like a Thunderclap?
It tracks the amount of reach that we have on social media based on this, and basically it can be a way to get in front of a LOT of people. Out of just 71 people signed up so far, that gives us a potential reach of 960 thousand people.
Bearing in mind that a ton of those people will have zero interest in this, it's still a lot more targeted than advertising in some ways, and it's also not costing us anything (or you much time).
Given our current backer counts, less than a third of you would need to help out with this for a big blast to go out.
And actually you can recruit other people as well if you like who are not backers of the project -- you never know if your friend's friends are strategy enthusiasts, even if that friend is not.
As with this kickstarter campaign itself, if the target is not hit, nothing happens. So if we don't get 500 people signed up, then the whole thing doesn't happen. Even if you have a small twitter following or just a few facebook friends or a small group on linkedin or whatever else, that still is valuable in that it helps us reach that count of 500 people.

Thank you for reading!

That was annoying, and I apologize for that. To make it up to you, I'll give a few more tidbits about Reverse AI War, which I teased in update #8. Basically:

It's a much smaller and shorter game, and made for serial replayability. Ideally games are 5-25 minutes long, depending on the complexity of the scenario you set up. I'd estimate 15 or 20 minutes on average.
I doubt it would be multiplayer, but who knows. Probably that would just be irritating to play with others, though, to be honest.
The game is set in the Arcenverse, in the timeline after Bionic Dues and Release Raptor, but long before AI War, The Last Federation, Stars Beyond Reach, or Starward Rogue.
You play as the AI at the end of Earth's history in this game. You may remember from the lore of Raptor that basically some humans got left behind on Earth while the rich and the upper classes fled to the stars.
The AI eventually chases the humans out into the galaxy, as we clearly see in the first AI War. However, before it can comfortably do that, it needs to take care of the planet that we both came from.
The overall idea here is thus that you're trying to kill the last of the humans remaining on earth. It really gives you a perspective of the sort of vaguely Risk-like experience that the AI has in AI War, but on territories on earth instead of planets and solar systems in space.
As with AI War, the AI (you, this time) have vastly superior resources to your foes, but also some weak spots. This game is also a David and Goliath simulator... but this time you're Goliath tasked with destroying David?
If that sounds easy, then you're forgetting the core weakness of the AI: blindness. You don't know WHERE all those pesky humans are. You thus want to do various things to draw them out, including letting them take some territory from you in order to expose themselves. Mwa ha ha, they think they're so sneaky...
...of course, the more you do that, the more you actually do risk that they pop up in surprising force and destroy your quantum computer, thus ending you. The other risk is that they escape into space, meaning that you've failed in your chief objective.

Addendum!

[ 2016-10-20 17:44:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Classic Official 8.024 Patch Released!

Bugfixes and an AI War II kickstarter notice on the main menu. The release notes cover the details, and we hope that you enjoy those fixes. :) We also hope you'll stop by the campaign for AI War II and see if you think it's worth your time and/or money. We are having an exceedingly hard time reaching our existing players for AI War Classic -- of which we need only about 3% to actually back the kickstarter -- and as such, our kickstarter is stalling. We have a variety of ways in which we're working on pulling out of the stall, but by far the best option is getting the message out to people who would directly be interested. Hopefully that includes you if you're reading this, but please also spread the word to other players you know who might have missed this! Best, Chris Park Founder and Lead Designer, Arcen Games

[ 2016-10-18 17:00:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Reddit /r/Games AMA with us starting now!

Just a very quick note to point you to this link. We won't normally bug you with every little thing, but we wanted to give you a chance to get in any questions you might have if reddit is your bag. Obviously you can ask us anything in general, but it's nice to have an event for it, too!

[ 2016-10-12 14:52:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War II Kickstarter: SPACE ARCHAEOLOGIST tier live, OST now available in select tiers, and 10% funded in 30 hours!

Wow what a whirlwind of a few days! If I haven't responded to your message yet, I really apologize and will do so as soon as possible. I'm caught up on the kickstarter messages and comments themselves, but I'm behind on Steam and the Arcen forums. Funding Is Starting Strong! Our kickstarter for AI War II has now passed 10% funding within its first 30 hours, which seems like it bodes well. But the graph for every game is different, and so we're not going to sit idle just because of a strong start. We can still use all the help that we can get in spreading the word on social media, other sites that would be interested in this sort of game, and of course via gaming news. Reddit AMA Tomorrow Speaking of! Tomorrow we're going to be doing another AMA on /r/Games/. It will start at 11am EST, but if you're going to be late feel free to still ask questions -- I'm on reddit every day anyway (not during work!). So what else is new? Well, we've updated the video for the kickstarter to be a little better (it was already pretty killer). If you've already seen it, it mainly just adds a bit of extra visual and sound effect punch and clarity in a few places, and then a bit of extra music at the end (sneak peek of a vocal track from Stars Beyond Reach, actually). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtDdZRq4Bk New Backer Tier! Our $100 and $300 tiers sold out incredibly quickly, and we're trying to figure out how to handle that -- providing rewards at those levels that you folks will enjoy, but that don't break us in the implementation/fulfillment phases. Thanks for bearing with us! In the meantime, we've added a new $400 tier: SPACE ARCHAEOLOGIST. As a Space Archaeologist you get the following benefits shared by all Neinzul Backers: - Named prominently in the credits as a Neinzul Backer - Neinzul Backer badge on Arcen forums. - 5 backer-exclusive AI War II digital wallpapers - Write your own “message in a bottle” that will be discoverable in-game (subject to approval) - Two copies of the game in private alpha - Name an in-game planet n addition, and EXCLUSIVE to the Space Archaeologist, you get to: -Work with Blue to design a mysterious alien artifact, then collaborate with Jack to write what we know about them (subject to approval) Initially controlled by the AI, alien artifacts are variants on the resource-generating derelicts scattered across the galaxy. Capturing an artifact earns you a one time Science bonus, and ongoing attempts to study them sometimes "glitch out", and generate allied ships! These ships aren't pushovers, and while you can't control them, you don't have to pay for them either. The AI won't be happy about losing the artifacts however, and will destroy them rather than let you keep them. Space Archaeologists will individually work with Blue to design their own artifact, and then work with Jack to explain what we know about it. That might be where it's from or how it was found, secrets of its construction or how it's been used. With this tier you'll be adding one more secret to the Arcenverse, so don't explain too much! Soundtrack Now Included In All $100+ Tiers! So many of you asked for this that we worked it out and are now going to be providing high-quality mp3, FLAC, and wav file versions of the AI War II OST for anyone who pledges at least $100. This will include the entire soundtrack, including any stretch goals or other bonus tracks commissioned, so when exactly you get each piece may be staggered a bit. This was a belated addition due to popular demand, and kickstarter doesn't allow us to change the description of backer tiers after someone has pledged at that level (definitely for the best as a general policy), so we've had to make note of it in the campaign FAQ and in the rewards section (not the sidebar). If you've read this far, here's a special reward. ;) This is Pablo's reorchestrated and remastered version of the original AI War title theme. Just like Arcen itself, he's come a really long way since 2009, and I continue to be really stunned and impressed with the work he's doing lately. https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/287038354 Other Changes To The Campaign! People have been making all sorts of great suggestions.

We now have a new $40 tier that simply gives you two v1.0 copies of the game (so it's just like getting the $20 tier twice).
We've added two new videos down in the body of the campaign that show off the far zoom mechanics for the new game as well as the last trailer for the first game.
Down at the bottom there are now a number of charts detailing our work status on all the major 1.0 features. We're further along on a number of them than folks might have realized, massive design document aside.

That's all for now! I'll have more updates coming up soon, as will other members of the team. Thanks again for all your support, enthusiasm -- and let's not forget trust. With a campaign like this you're trusting that we'll follow through for you, and we have absolutely no intention of letting you down. Very Best, Chris Park Founder and Lead Designer, Arcen Games

[ 2016-10-11 22:14:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!

We're finally almost there! If you want a sneak preview of what the campaign looks like (minus some of the graphics and the video), here's a link. Please feel free to offer us feedback on it, and if you want to be notified when the campaign starts on Monday, you can either click the button right on that page, or you can email us at arcengames at gmail dot com and we'll shoot you an email instead. If you're in the press and you're going to be writing ONE article about this, please wait until Monday. ;) Otherwise we're obviously grateful for any coverage we can get. But we almost didn't post this note today just for fear of that sort of too-early posting. What else is up? Well, the AI War II forums continue to be full of awesome discussion. The design document for the game complete enough for us to have a finalized budget, and for you to make an informed decision, although there are still a few areas that we're going to be polishing into next week. Talk to you soon! For now I need to get back to making that video... Chris Click here for the official forum topic on this post.

[ 2016-10-07 19:17:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War II - Far Zoom First Look

Lots of stuff has been happening on the AI War II forums in general, and a lot of news in the dev diary section in particular. Once the kickstarter for the game launches -- later this week -- we'll be sharing more through our blog and social media. It's been an intensive process so far in the forums, though, with folks contributing 2,470 post on 180 topics in a matter of just a couple of weeks. Here's the first video of the game: https://youtu.be/uLtDdZRq4Bk The kickstarter for AI War II is coming up in the next week! If you want to be notified of it by email, please send a note to arcengames at gmail dot com and we'll be happy to. Our forums have a ton of information about what's going on and how you can contribute (non-financially) prior to the kickstarter if you wish to. And our public design document is huge and still growing. The latter will be finished up (for purposes of v1.0 specs) within the next 3 days. I'll be around on the forums plenty in the coming days, or I'll hopefully catch you later this week when we launch the Kickstarter! -Chris

[ 2016-10-02 19:09:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War II Music Theme Teaser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNXmzaUAQsU Pablo getting prepped for the newly reorchestrated AI War II theme. The kickstarter for this sequel to AI War Classic is launching in the next 1-3 weeks.

Email arcengames at gmail dot com if you want to be notified when it goes live.
If you want to participate in discussions about the growing design document for the game, please visit our forums and join in!

Lots of stuff is happening fast, and we'll have more to share with you soon! Best, Chris

[ 2016-09-07 20:32:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War II: Design Document First Unveiling Is Now!

This is only the beginning. The first 36 pages of the AI War II design document are in place. I'm sure that folks on the forums will have a lot of commentary already about this. I'm going to be out over the weekend, just to warn you, but I wanted to leave this with you to peruse before I left. The largest segment so far is detailing the technical advancements of the sequel (most of which are already in place). It's actually kind of insane to see how far things have come from where we left AI War "Classic" in 2014. It was already quite long in the tooth by our standards then, being very rooted in a 2009-based code architecture that had been remodeled enough times that we couldn't really go further with that.
Squads This document does start by going into the rationale behind ship squads, which are a change with major performance-boosting ramifications and that should be able to yield an increased feeling of giant space battles more along the lines of the pre-Unity battles in AI War Classic. Feelings in this particular area may run a little strong since it is a pretty big shift (although familiar to many RTS games), so there's a lot of math and explanations there to hopefully make it clear just how freaking awesome this change is and why you should be happy about it. The TLDR is that it will make your game run more smoothly even while we are able to do more complex things. Multi-Part, But Not Modular Ships This is the first example of something that is being changed that will have an impact on a lot of units in the game. Based on discussions with players on the forum, we should basically have the best of what modular ships offered before (the multi-part bit), but without the fiddly interface for customizing them during the game. Of course, given the moddable nature of the new game, you can customize ships to your heart's content anyway. And there are space platforms that are a thing that have been designed but not yet written up, and those will also scratch that same itch... Other Bits There are a lot of other sections of the document that are just stubs for now, and they will be filled in next week. First of all focusing on the largest structural changes, since those require the most discussion with players. Then moving into smaller and smaller topics until we have a document that we feel is complete and correct. Kickstarter Depending on how long it takes us to reach that "complete and correct" status with the design document, and how long some of our prototypes for a few things in the new game take, we will be heading to kickstarter with this in 2-4 weeks. The game already has a remarkably complete base in terms of the multithreading, the networking (minus transport layer), and so on. The status of items are noted in the document above, and quite a lot of the trickiest things are already in the "complete" camp. That said, there's still a ton to do, so it's not like the game is going to be rolling into early access tomorrow. But the goal is for us to be able to show you the vision for what this is (visually and otherwise), concretely show you what is planned (design document), and give you an accurate timeline for completion (with appropriate buffer). If you're interested in hearing about the kickstarter when it goes live, you can always email us at arcengames at gmail dot com. I'll see you all Monday! Chris Click here for the official forum thread on this post.

[ 2016-09-02 21:29:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

BundleStars: $3 USD for complete AI War bundle

[url=http://www.arcengames.com/aiwar_features.php]
AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar It has been a long while since the last update, as the developers have been fully focused on pushing Stars Beyond Reach to release for July, but there's a bundle for the AI War collection over at BundleStars that includes the following: - Base game Expansions: - Zenith Remnant - Children of Neinzul - Light of the Spire - Ancient Machines - Vengeance of the Machine - Destroyer of Worlds The sale lasts for a little over seven days from this posting, and for only $2.99 USD. ːKissAssː The Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2015-05-23 01:02:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

ArcenGames Sale on GamersGate - Up to 80% off Through Jan 11th

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar Most of Arcen's titles are on promotion over at GamersGate with heavy discounts; you can find them all with this search term! GamersGate does provide serials that can be registered on the Steam platform too, and as usual with games by Arcen, they can also be ran standalone. Thanks to Vivisector 9999 for the heads up. ː8bitheartː AI War 2014 Collection (up to Vengeance of the Machine): $3.40 USD AI War: $2.00 Any single expansion: $1.00 Children of Neinzul: $0.40 Skyward Collapse Collection: $1.40 Bionic Dues: $2.00 Shattered Haven: $2.00 A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 and soundtrack: $4.00 The *NEW* Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2015-01-07 06:37:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Official 8.020-8.021 - fatal error in gc fix

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar Changelog may be found here This update fixes the "fatal error in gc" problem introduced from last night's 8.020 update which implemented asynchronous disk calls for users with multiple network adapters afflicted with slow loading speed. The *NEW* Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2015-01-06 20:34:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Arcen Games sale on Games Republic, up to 90% off

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar Games Republic has various discounts on our games. I believe it's only for today! AI War Collection 2014: $3.39 USD Skyward Collapse Complete: $1.39 BIonic Dues: $2.49 The Last Federation: $6.79 A Valley Without Wind 1&2: $3.74 Tidalis: $1.24 Shattered Haven: $2.49 Sea worms are the best! The *NEW* Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2014-12-22 23:31:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Winter 2014 partner-finding topic

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar The old Winter 2013 topic was due for a refresh, so a new bulletin topic for finding others to play with has been create. Leave a post with the required information, and add those who've already posted to hopefully get a game going. The *NEW* Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2014-12-04 02:50:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Green Light Arcen Bundle - Six Arcen Games for $2.49 USD

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Tidalis Facebook page A Valley Without Wind Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar Bringing you brief news on a new Green Light bundle that contains AI War Fleet Command, Bionic Dues, Skyward Collapse, Tidalis, A Valley Without Wind, and A Valley Without Wind 2. All for $2.49 USD; please note that it only provides the base game for AI War.

[ 2014-12-04 02:31:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Arcen Titles Hit IndieGameStand, Up To 85% Off This Week

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Tidalis Facebook page A Valley Without Wind Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar Please see the original post here Wanted to drop a quick note that all of our releases are now available on the IndieGameStand storefront. To celebrate, we’re running a week-long promotion with the site carrying the following discounts: * AI War Collection (2014) — 75% off, $4.25 USD * Tidalis — 80% off, $0.99 USD * A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 Dual Pack — 80% off, $2.99 USD * Shattered Haven — 85% off, $1.49 USD * Skyward Collapse Complete Edition — 80% off, $1.39 USD * Bionic Dues — 80% off, $1.99 USD * The Last Federation — 50% off, $9.99 USD Sale ends Tuesday, November 4th. Shattered Haven is also available as part of BundleStars’ Halloween-themed Carnage Bundle — offering 10 horror/zombie Steam games for $2.99. The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2014-10-28 20:14:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Collection 2014 - $3.40 USD, DLC $1.00 on GamersGate for 16 hours

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Tidalis Facebook page A Valley Without Wind Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar GamersGate is currently having an 80% off sale for AI War and all its DLCs; the entire pack is only $3.30 USD, whereas individual DLCs are at $1.00 (Neinzul is $0.40). Cheapest it has been for a long while, so be sure to seize it before it ends in 16 hours. All keys are compatible with Steam. The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2014-10-18 18:55:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Official 8.017 "Boost THIS!" Released!

This one is another performance update, this time on the CPU and RAM sides. The munitions boosters were the big culprit here, but there are other more minor effects beyond that. Enjoy! This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here. Click here for the official forum thread for this update.

[ 2014-10-08 21:03:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Official 8.015 "Flicker Factor" Released!

This one is relatively small update with a couple of bugfixes. The main thing here is some fixes to flickering in the far zoom icon display that people were noticing in recent versions, as well as what is likely a performance improvement for most people on that front, too. Enjoy! This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here. Click here for the official forum thread for this update.

[ 2014-10-07 00:25:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Official 8.007-8.014 "Now With Moar" Released!

This one is the culmination of a couple of weeks of no-joke improvements to performance. Not only is the underlying timing for frames completely rewritten and improved, but the all-new sprite batching for our engine's render pipeline is now in place, too. Just what does this mean to you, as a player? Well, even on fast machines there were previously some times where you'd get stuttering and slowness that wasn't warranted, based on heavy CPU load. That is now pretty much a thing of the past, and even really large battles run much faster. Additionally, really huge battles would previously tank pretty much everyone's graphics cards because it was just trying to render so darn much. Now it's incredibly efficient by comparison! This is something that I've been wanting for a long time, so seeing how awesome the game runs now is really very satisfying. Enjoy! This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here. Click here for the official forum thread for this update.

[ 2014-09-16 21:17:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Official 8.002-8.003 "Lock And Load " Released!

This one is our second post-8.0 update. It's another intentionally small one, as we're trying to wait and see if there are any serious things that crop up before going through other kinds of bugfixing or balancing. In this particular case, some people experience slow loading times per image on their specific machine setup. This is apparently something to do with the WWW class in the unity engine, and strikes only some machines for the people that even experience (aka their high-powered desktop suffers from it, but their lesser laptop runs like a dream). In order to mitigate/remove the effect of this, there are some new options and default behaviors that help with loading concurrency. That way you don't wind up having to wait for things to load sequentially, all that time gets set next to itself. It's an unfortunate bug in the underlying unity engine, but this should really help to keep the problem to an absolute minimum impact for those few who are affected. Update: 8.003 fixes a bug preventing the display of shots and explosions in the prior version, as well as making the max loading threads slider clearer and easier to use. Enjoy! This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

[ 2014-08-25 14:18:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Official 8.001 "Oiling The Engine" Released!

This one is our first post-8.0 update. It's an intentionally small one, as we're trying to wait and see if there are any serious things that crop up before going through other kinds of bugfixing or balancing. In this particular case, some of the Unity 3D engine upgrades that we did between versions 7.0 and 8.0 may have led to some incompatibility with certain older drivers or graphics cards, thanks to the game erroneously trying to force 2X antialiasing on. The way that fullscreen mode was working on OSX was also incorrect, but now all of the above match how our other later games (The Last Federation, etc) work. There were some people who strangely could run TLF but could not run AI War, while running on the same engine version, so hopefully this fixes that for them. It's tricky, though, because it's an incredibly minor subset of people on some very specific older hardware. Fingers crossed for them! Enjoy! This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you are using Steam, you can simply restart Steam in order to force it to update immediately.

[ 2014-08-21 00:19:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War 8.0 Launches alongside Expansion 6: Destroyer of Worlds (and Linux Support!)

AI War's run from 7.0 to 8.0 took a long break during our development of The Last Federation, but still contained over 60 new releases in 425 days. Thanks to player feedback (some new, some from years ago) the game is now better than ever. Biggest on the radar is the addition of the new "hacking" mechanic which gives the player several abilities which can be extremely useful but also quite risky. Hack wisely, and you can turn defeat into victory. Hack foolishly, and you can turn humanity into hamburger. The idea came out of long discussions with players on improving the relationship between metal and crystal. Those two mechanics had become far too similar, and ultimately the idea of merging them in favor a new radically-different mechanic found a lot of support from the community. "Salvage" is another major new mechanic based on years of community feedback. Basically if you lost your whole fleet in an attack it could take a long time to rebuild but often there wasn't much actual danger. In a game where 8 hours is a "short" campaign, players don't want to be stuck spending real "wall-clock" time without much actual "game" happening. So salvage allows the AI to harvest the remains of your ships lost in its territory to build a "reprisal" force that threatens you after a fleet-wipe, and allows you to harvest the remains of AI ships lost in your territory to accelerate your rebuilding. This led to a somewhat bumpy ride balance-wise but it's shaken out pretty well by now and has significantly improved enjoyment of the game. Champions have also been the subject of quite a bit of player feedback since they were introduced in the fourth expansion. Some people really liked them, some people really did not. One of the biggest issues was how the nebula scenarios (the main way you could improve champions) were so disconnected from the rest of the game. So we've added an optional alternate way to improve your Champion units that's much more aligned with playing normally. There's probably more to be done on this topic, but what's been done thus far has helped. "If anyone beats difficulty 10, that's a bug" is one of our old jokes with the community. Actually, we laugh when we say it but we're not joking. Several players have managed to beat Diff 10 over the years and the refinements to prevent this (without being too heavy-handed) have continued. Several AI improvements were made for 8.0, especially it's pushing an advantage during a large-scale attack. Balance dials have also been cranked to even-more-painful levels, and as of this writing there are no confirmed reports of a "normal" diff 10 win since the last round of related changes. The gauntlet's right there on the ground, folks. Player feedback (and our own devious minds) prompted tons of other changes in 8.0 (counter-attack posts being made optional comes to mind, and many turret caps becoming per-planet), but this account has to stop somewhere. Oh, and let's not forget the engine upgrade and the addition of linux support :) Have fun! (Here's the discussion on the official forums, by the way.) Also, check out our awesome new trailer for version 8.0!

[ 2014-08-18 17:14:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War: Fleet Command 8.0 Trailer

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Tidalis Facebook page A Valley Without Wind Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar AI War 8.0 and its sixth expansion Destroyer of Worlds arrive August 18th on PC, Mac and Linux. Check out the new trailer we've put together to mark the announcement. Since there seems to be no way to embed videos in announcement posts anymore, view the beautiful trailer here! [img=http://www.chatslang.com/images/shortcuts/twitch/admins/kreygasm.png][/img] The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.

[ 2014-08-06 22:29:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War Beta 7.048-7.052 - Native-Linux support, tutorial revised for new mechanics, and bugfixes and balance changes

AI War Facebook page Arcen Games' Facebook page Tidalis Facebook page A Valley Without Wind Facebook page Our community forums Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar Please see the original post here Changelog may be found here This one is a break from your (ir)regularly-scheduled bugfixes and polish to bring you a large engine upgrade and native-linux support. NOTE: as of this writing distribution of the linux build is still being worked out. We’d been planning to release 8.0/DoW during the week of August 4th and then wait until a week or so after 8.0 to start the beta cycle on that upgrade, but the engine-upgrade/linux-porting has gone better and faster than expected for our other titles (including older ones like Tidalis and AVWW1). So instead we’re bumping the release to the week of August 18th to allow a couple weeks of extra testing. If you survive the bugs, please report them :) By the way, this includes our new cross-platform updater (the old one did not support linux), so the update process will look somewhat different after this particular version. It will be faster, too. The new ships from Destroyer of Worlds have had their far-zoom icons updated, thanks to community member HitmanN. The tutorial’s been updated for 8.0, and now includes a section on Hacking. And there’s also a goodly chunk of balance changes and bugfixes. Including actually getting Line Place working correctly. Really! I think. Update: 7.049 to fix a bug where the music would play one track and stop. Update: 7.050 to fix several issues with sounds playing very loudly and distortedly and with images not loading on linux. Update: 7.051 to fix an issue in the prior version that prevented OSX from loading the game. Update: 7.052 to make the textboxes work, and improve the sound effects stacking issue even further. The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players. This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.

[ 2014-08-01 18:06:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

AI War: Fleet Command

Arcen Games, LLC Developer

Arcen Games, LLC Publisher

2009-10-21 Release

Strategy Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop Tags

Game News Posts: 38

🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse

Very Positive (979 reviews)

http://arcengames.com/ai-war/

Steam Store

The Game includes VR Support

Public Linux Depots:

AI War: Linux [110.7 M]

Available DLCs:

AI War: The Zenith Remnant
AI War: Children of Neinzul
AI War: Light of the Spire
AI War: Ancient Shadows
AI War: Vengeance Of The Machine
AI War: Destroyer of Worlds

"You are outgunned. You are massively outnumbered. You must win." These are your orders.

Humanity has already fought its war against the machines -- and lost. AI death squads stand watch over every planet and every wormhole, the few remaining human settlements are held captive in orbiting bubbles, and the AIs have turned their attention outward, away from the galaxy, to alien threats or opportunities unknown.

This inattention is our only hope: a small resistance, too insignificant even to be noticed by the AI central command, has survived. These are the forces you will command. The AI subcommanders will fight you to the death when they see you -- but your glimmer of opportunity comes from quietly subduing those subcommanders without alerting central processing to the danger until it's too late.

You do have a few things going in your favor. Your ships are much faster. You have safe AI routines to automate defenses and mining outposts. You have production techniques that can churn out fully-outfitted unmanned fighters in seconds. There will never be more than a few thousand of your ships versus tens of thousands of theirs, but through careful strategy you must somehow reach and destroy the heavily-guarded AI cores.

Go forth into the galaxy, steal AI technology, recapture those planets you must in order to achieve your ends, and save what remains of humanity. But draw too much attention to yourself, and the full might of the AI overlords will come crashing down.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 10.10 or later. although other unsupported distros may very well work
Processor: 1.6Ghz CPU (2.4 Ghz recommended. Dual Core strongly recommended for Host)Memory: 2 GB RAM
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card must support 1024x1024 textures (most 32MB and up graphics cards do). 1024x768 or greater (32 bit color recommended)Hard Drive: 300MB         Multiplayer: Broadband Internet Connection or LAN required for multiplayer.

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