Holiday Roundup

It's been an incredibly busy time here at Arcen in the last two months, what with Pablo and Chris coming on fulltime and all the paperwork and business stuff that entails, the ongoing development of The Zenith Remnant, our further pre-development of art and design for our next two titles (the first two previews for both of those will be out today), and our ongoing work with publicity, new upcoming digital partners, and our upcoming retail deals. Actually, this has been about as busy as time as we've ever had. So, more than a few things have fallen through the cracks on the announcements front, so our apologies for that. Here's a catchup post with a variety of stuff:

Recent Press
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently featured AI War as their December 18th entry for their "Games of 2009" list.

- Sugar Free Gamer recently selected AI War as the "top indie game that you should play this year."

- A.J. Hess from Diehard GameFAN picks AI War as his #7 game for 2009.

- DIY Gamer gave an honorable mention to AI War was one of the best indie games of 2009.

- Sandy Warnstaff over at Reclaim Your Game recently did a review of AI War: "One of the most methodical, challenging and unrestricted games I have ever played, AI War is the embodiment of nearly everything that can go right in an RTS game with few drawbacks... I've seen some good developer support, but Arcen Games really takes the cake... I hold Arcen Games up as the standard that all developers and publishers should be held to."

Expansion Update
Work on the expansion has been proceeding as we had hoped, and the current prerelease of the game (2.001ZE today) has 117 new ships for the expansion. That's considerably more than we'd been expecting to add (having previously promised "between 80-100" new ships), and there are still about 6 or so more ships that are going to make it into the expansion before our release in the second week of January (which we are presently on schedule for). We also have over 44 minutes of new music so far completed, with more on the way -- it's some really great stuff, and we're holding it until our official release day as something of a surprise. If you liked the soundtrack to the base game, you'll love this one even more.

So, what's not in the expansion yet? Well, the big thing is that there is still a lot of QA work to do, and many of the ships still need balance tweaks or various little fixes to them. There are also still more map styles to be added beyond the two new ones that are already in place, and the new neutral AI is something we're still working with along with the last player-controllable golem. The new expansion-specific achievements also aren't yet in place. And that's about it! This product has come an amazing way since October when we started on it, and honestly I think we're all a bit surprised at just how much we have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. It's shaping up to be a really notable expansion, to be sure.

December/November Free DLC
One other thing that we've learned in the last couple of months is that it's pretty much impossible to release free DLC while we're actively developing an expansion to a game -- at least when the turnaround on the deadline is so short. Make no mistake, we've been absolutely packing the DLC into the beta patches all through November and December, and those are free to anyone who has the base game. However, we didn't do an official release of any of that DLC in November, and now it's become clear that we can't do one in December, either.

There is simply too much risk of introducing bugs into the official release from the beta work when things are changing constantly; generally we prefer to have a week where no major features are added before we do a release, so that that week can be spent on final QA and bugtesting. With the expansion in full swing, we just have not had an opportunity for that sort of downtime. Hopefully that makes sense -- we've promised monthly free DLC, but our first priority is to make sure that we always give you a quality product, not one riddled with bugs (not that the beta versions are riddled with bugs, but there are a lot of outstanding issues that we'd strongly prefer to resolve before making an official release).

But! Don't worry that you're losing out on anything DLC-wise, in the grand scheme of things. Our next DLC release will be by January 8th at the latest, and it will have 3x as much content as a normal one -- basically, all that queued-up content from the betas in November, December, and early January. There's a lot of cool stuff in that one, so it should be very exciting even for those who aren't ready to move up to the expansion just yet. And, if you want it sooner than later, you can always download the beta DLC at any time you please.

Lastly... Happy Holidays!
It's a great time of year to be a gamer, with games of all sorts having come out in the last month or two, and with lots of discounts all over the place. Look for discounts with all of our distribution partners in the coming weeks. Here at Arcen, we're largely going to be out of the office from December 24th through January 3rd, though Chris we'll be around for critical support issues, and probably some smaller balance/bugfix work on the expansion, along with some last work on the neutral AIs, etc, so that we're sure to be on schedule for our release in January. But, we're going to be around a lot less in general during that timeframe, anyway, so that we can spend time with our families and enjoy the holidays. We hope that you have a chance to do the same! It's been a really great year for us, with the company being founded and then amazingly growing large enough to actually support us fulltime, and we owe great thanks to all our fans for making that possible. In more senses than one, we couldn't have done it without you!

Previews Of Upcoming Arcen Titles

Work is still in progress on The Zenith Remnant, AI War's first expansion (due out in the second week of January), but Arcen is finally ready to show some previews of their upcoming projects for 2010.

The first preview is a bit brief, but gives you a sneak peek mainly at the art of the very next Arcen title, a currently-untitled puzzle game (formerly called "Feedback"). The basic premise on this one is that it's a new, as yet undisclosed, block-based mechanic that is fun and easy to pick up; miles away from the glut of match-3 clones. Arcen will have a lot more information on this one starting in January and February, and most likely a playable beta in February or March (demo for free, or full thing for people who preorder, same as with The Zenith Remnant).

The second preview is for Arcen's next next game, a tower defense game called A Valley Without Wind. Even if you turn your nose up at the casualness that is generally the tower defense genre, if you're a fan of Arcen titles this is a preview to check out. True to Arcen's growing reputation, this will be a title that doesn't sit neatly in a single genre, and which pushes the boundaries of what that genre is supposed to be (see preview for details). Most likely development for this title will not begin until somewhere between April and June (right after the puzzle game is released), with a release likely in Q4 of 2010.

As is always the case for Arcen, these titles will include co-op as a primary feature right alongside their single-player experience. The puzzle game will also have competitive multiplayer, a first for Arcen. Compared to AI War, both of these games have a more vastly casual veneer to them in terms of art and how accessible they are on the surface, but they'll also both have the same level of hardcore depth that fans of AI War have come to expect. More information to come on these exciting new games starting in January! And, don't forget -- the second expansion for AI War is still planned for late 2010, and free DLC for AI War is going to continue all throughout the year!

Gaming Dead: Chris Park Talks AI War, Indie Strategy and Post-Launch Support

Gaming Dead: "In a recent interview with Gaming Dead, Arcen Games' Chris Park, developer of the eight player co-op massive RTS title AI War: Fleet Command elaborated on how he's implementing a post-launch support model in the form of free monthly DLC updates in the interest of seeing the game become the largest strategy title out there."

Read The Interview

Gaming Nexus: Chris Park Interviewed About Design And Development of AI War

Gaming Nexus recently conducted an interview with Chris Park about AI War, the Arcen Games design philosophy, and a lot of interesting questions about the development/distribution/support of the game itself.

Read The Interview

Design Mostly Right: Co-Op In New Super Mario Bros. Wii

ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses his reactions to the co-op in the popular NSMBW game, and responds to the co-op review of the game in Co-Optimus.  NSMBW is not without its design flaws as far as co-op goes, but those who write it off too easily are perhaps making a mistake.

Design Mostly Right: Co-Op In New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Encapsulated Businesses For Indie Development

ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses his thoughts on the ideal ecosystem for indie games development -- not for using indie games as a means to launch indie developers into AAA development, but rather to keep them secure and producing innovative, commercially-viable games as independent small businesses.

Encapsulated Businesses For Indie Development

DarkZero Review of AI War

My views of indie games have forever been altered. When was the last time you played an indie game that contained the amount of content of several retail games? If you have ever played and enjoyed Sins of a Solar Empire but cried because you couldn’t play it on a laptop or that the scale just wasn’t grand enough for you, then you should pick up AI War – Fleet Command right now.
- Derek Duncan, DarkZero

Thanksgiving Special! 25% Off Arcen Titles

In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, we're having our first multi-product discount sale on our site!   Enter code BLLR0018P to get a 25% discount on all games bought directly from Arcen through 11/30/2009.  This means that you can pick up AI War: Fleet Command for $14.99 USD, and/or preorder AI War: The Zenith Remnant for $7.49 USD!  If you live outside the US, never fear, the discount is equivalent in every currency.  Note:  If you want to buy both together, simply click the purchase link on the first page, then go to the second page and click the purchase link, and both will be in your shopping cart together.

The Zenith Remnant is the first expansion pack to Arcen's hit space-based "grand strategic 4X tower defense RTS" game, and is currently in beta.  The full version of the expansion is expected to be released in the second week of January, but players who who preorder and want early access are free to download the beta from our forums at any time.  Players who want to first try a demo of the expansion beta can also download that from the forums.  The Zenith Remnant will include around 115 new ships, at least four new map styles, a new neutral AI faction (the Zenith aliens), and lots and lots of gameplay-expanding new mechanics and content.

You can also preorder the expansion at Stardock's Impulse, although people who preorder via Impulse will not have access to the beta until next week -- our fault on that, not Stardock's.  Mea culpa!  Preorders are also planned with many of our other distribution partners, but those will mostly not kick off until closer to official release on those platforms (so, early January, most likely).  We are aiming to have a simultaneous official release of the expansion on all outlets that currently carry AI War.

In the coming month, also keep your eyes out for more information, including screenshots and/or concept art, about Arcen's next two titles.  The first is an untitled casual puzzle game with a fresh and fun new mechanic, and the second is a tower defense game called A Valley Without Wind (yes, the tower defense genre is super crowded, but we have our own take on the whole affair that we think you'll find quite different from the glut of others out there -- more info on that within the next month, but it's very exciting!).  For those who have been eagerly awaiting our puzzle/adventure/zombie survival game Alden Ridge, please note that that title is now slated for 2011.  It's still coming, and we're still excited about it, but that one needs more time in the cooker to really do it justice.

Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!

AceGamez Review of AI War

[I]f you love realistic, complex and thorough space-based real time strategies, purchase this game right now as it is an aspiring space commander's dream.
- Tom Clark, AceGamez

The Claw - Google Wave with Chris Park

The Claw has recently conducted a massive Google Wave interview with Chris Park about AI War, other upcoming Arcen titles, Chris's design philosphy and inspirations, and the future for Arcen Games in general.

Read The Interview

Design Right: Demon's Souls

ABSTRACT
AI War designer/programmer Chris Park takes a look at games other than his own in his new feature "Design Right."  The goal of this new feature is not to review games, but rather to look at other game designs and what they do right.  First up is the surprisingly popular PS3 game Demon's Souls.  DS has gotten almost universal praise from reviewers, has sold well and has been popular with a good number of players, and has drawn criticism and disbelief from a smaller group of players.  Chris takes a look at the mechanics to analyze why those people who like it do, since it seems like such an unlikely candidate to be so massively popular on the surface -- brutal difficulty and simple combat do not often a great game make, but there's something special here.

Design Right: Demon's Souls

Gaming Nexus Review of AI War

For me, it’s a rare thing indeed for a game to move from total obscurity to a fixed place on my hard drive in the course of a handful of days... [AI War] is just brimming with innovative twists on the 4X-style RTS.
- Tyler Sager, Gaming Nexus

Three Moves Ahead Episode 37 -- Chris Park and AI War: Fleet Command

Three Moves Ahead is the official podcast of Flash of Steel, and commonly features really high quality discussion of strategy games for hardcore gamers, and interviews with industry giants -- Brad Wardell, Soren Johnson, and others.  Episode 37 features Troy Goodfellow and Tom Chick talking with Chris Park, the lead designer of AI War about the state of the game, how some of its more unique aspects came about, and what is planned for the future.  There's also a fairly good bit of discussion of launching a new indie game and how that went for AI War, in addition to the more design-related discussions.

Listen To the Podcast

Big Download Review of AI War

AI War is, quite simply, the best experience you could have with co-op or single-player real-time strategy in this or any year. It combines grand strategy with emergent AI to form an excellent game perfect for parties and multiplayer. It is easily worth double the price that the developer is selling it at, and anyone with any affinity or taste for strategy games should not miss it. It may be daunting at first, but an excellent tutorial and amazing gameplay mechanics alleviate this into a game that almost anyone can - and should - play.
- James Murff, Big Download

The Zenith Remnant Now Available For Preorder!

Arcen Games is pleased to announce that The Zenith Remnant, the first expansion to its popular space RTS AI War, is now available for preorder.  This expansion is still in the early stages of development, but we're making the alpha/beta versions available to anyone on a trial basis, and in full for anyone who preorders, so that our community can be involved with feedback and ideas as development progresses.  This sort of open development process has been so successful for our 2.0 version that we just couldn't cut our community out of even the earliest stages of our expansion.

Spokes Map

Tree Map

 
What Is Planned For The Final Release?
To some extent, exactly what is planned is a bit uncertain, and for a very good reason -- we plan to rely on community feedback and discussion to help us build the product as we go.  That said, there are a lot of very specific ideas that are now on the schedule for implementation: This is the list of planned features, and you're free to comment on any of them at any time.

As you can see, we actually have over 80% of the planned features somewhat finalized, but then again nothing is finalized until we go live.  If players hate a feature, or a better one surfaces before we get started on one idea, then we're going to adjust our plans accordingly -- that's the uncertainty mentioned above.

In a broad sense, here's what will definitely be in the expansion:
* 80 to 100 new ships, including:
   * At least 12 new ship classes with a variety of abilities.
   * At least 6 massive "Golem" ships.
   * At least 5 new "capturables" other than Golems.
   * Several new ships for allowing players expanded ways to control fleets.
* At least 4 new map styles.
* At least 12 new AI Types.
* A new, neutral minor faction in the galaxy: the Zenith Aliens (NPCs).
* 30-40 minutes of new in-game music tracks.
* At least two universal new AI ship subsystems (like Astro Trains).



Three Upcoming Golems (Shown Actual Size In Window)

AI War 25% Off Sale!

Get AI War on your platform of choice! Direct2Drive (UK link) and Stardock's Impulse have joined Steam in our 25% off promotion, available for a limited time. The Steam and Direct2Drive sales end on the 27th, and the Impulse sale ends on the 26th.

IncGamers AI War Diary

IncGamers has been keeping an AI War co-op diary chronicling some recent games with players who are fresh out of the tutorials.

Read part 1 here
Read part 2 here

Co-Optimus Review of AI War

[AI War] manages to propel the RTS genre forward and beyond its usual trappings with an innovation that is so simple it’s amazing it hasn’t been done previously, while still managing to keep the spirit of those classic RTS games alive.  Best of all, it does so with one key element in mind: co-op is not just a bullet point on a box, but a way of designing, creating, and playing games.
-Jason Love, Co-Optimus

AI War on Fidgit

Just a heads up that Tom Chick has posted a small piece on Fidgit (the SyFy.com gaming blog) noting the new features, and availability via Steam etc.
http://fidgit.com/archives/2009/10/sci-fi_strategy_game_ai_war_ac.php

Well done on getting the game out to Steam and the other digital distributions, I hope the game sells a bundle and the community here expands exponentially. Top work Chris, and all the folks at Arcengames!

AI War 2.0 (Achievements, Leaderboards, Steam and Direct2Drive!)

Arcen Games is very pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 2.0, which marks the culmination of our long-running post-release overhaul. To see just how epic this journey has been, take a look at this: AI War 2.0 vs. 1.0, A Retrospective. The cumulative post-release notes, included near the end, are literally novella-length (46,573 words). That's how much has changed in the since our initial release.
You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  

Achievements

High Scores

AI War Comes To Steam and Direct2Drive!
Direct2Drive and Steam join Impulse and GamersGate in offering AI War-- be sure to check them out! The Steam version includes online leaderboards and Steam achievements (other versions are all local-only for those features). If you've previously purchased your copy of AI War from another platform and would like to activate it on Steam to get those features, you will be able to do so in the near future. In celebration of the release of 2.0, AI War is also going to be 25% off at Steam through Oct. 27th -- and look for similar sales at other partners very soon.
   
Many Updates:
- New local high scoreboards for everyone, and online high scoreboards through Steam.
- 129 Achievements, which can be logged locally and/or through Steam.
- Player ships can now be assigned preferred target types, which greatly increases tactical control.
- A number of co-op-related interface improvements: see allied resources, more informative gifting lists, etc.
- Several new visual effects: smoke trails and sparking for damaged ships, etc.
- Much improved (or entirely replaced) graphics for over 50 different ships.
- Ships now accelerate and decelerate when moving, making them much more graceful.
- New Collision Priorities make placement of larger/fixed ships in a group of smaller mobile ships much easier.
- Players can now select multiple AI Modifiers at once in the lobby. Turrets have been rebalanced and made more distinct and interesting.
- Custom planet name lists can now be used for those who don't like the random names.
- Networking improvmeents.
- Many other bugfixes and balance tweaks.
The above list is just a sampling of what has changed since 1.301, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything. And remember, to see everything since 1.0, see this: AI War 2.0 vs. 1.0, A Retrospective.

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As an added note, if you are a player who is is unable to install patches for whatever reason (this is usually a windows issue), you can download the patch files through the following link: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1000To2000.zip

Then unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else).  Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.  This is a cumulative update, so as long as you have at least version 1.000 of the game installed, this will update you to the latest version (2.000) without any issues.

This update now available for Impulse customers.

For existing GamersGate customers, you can always upgrade your copy from the "Check For Updates" link in the game just like customers from our direct site can.  The latest version of the installer will also be coming to GamersGate, but that will affect new customers only.

Co-Optimus Interview With Chris Park About AI War

Co-Optimus interviews Chris Park, the developer of AI War, about the game in general but of course the co-op aspects in particular.  Park is a huge proponent of co-op in general in gaming, so was very excited to have an interview that focused so heavily on those aspects, which are often just a minor bullet point in a long list of other topics discussed.

Read The Interview

Article in The Herald-Sun About Pablo Vega, AI War's Composer

The Herald-Sun recently did an article about Pablo Vega, Arcen Games' composer.  Pablo has a lot of exciting things going on his life (local TV pilot, concert with his friend Anoop), and AI War is just one of them.  To read more about him, including is prodigious start as a musician, click over to the Herald-Sun!

Read The Article

Free Graphics For Indie Developers!

ABSTRACT
AI War was made possible in large part thanks to some art that Daniel Cook released for indie developers to use for free, even in commercial games.  A lot of that art (as people have noticed) is from the classic shooter Tyrian.  Now that Arcen is successful enough to have its own artist on staff, we're happy to pay it forward by releasing the AI War 2.0 art for others to make use of.  The hope is to help bootstrap another indie developer the way that Daniel Cook bootstrapped us.

Free Graphics For Indie Developers!

Diehard GameFAN Review of AI War

Sure, the genres are different, and the settings couldn’t be more varied, but here we go. A.I. War: Fleet Command is more addictive than Diablo II. ... A.I. War: Fleet Command is the rare game that comes along out of nowhere and makes you pay attention. ... It won’t break the bank, you don’t need a brand new gaming rig to enjoy it, you can lose yourself in the story, and you can keep playing it for hours. Fans of space battles should do themselves a favor and pick this game up as soon as possible.
- A.J. Hess, Diehard GameFAN

Cheat Code Central Review of AI War

AI War: Fleet Command provides the kind of gameplay depth rarely seen in today's mainstream RTS offerings, and it does so with one dimension tied behind its back.
- Derek Hidey, Cheat Code Central

Gamer Limit Review of AI War

While the casual gamer will find the sheer volume of this game very intimidating, AIW:CF will undoubtedly have a strong draw to the RTS enthusiast. Because of its support for a vast number of units, and exploration of a seemingly endless planetary system, it will leave gamers playing the same map for hours on end.
- Curtis Takaichi, Gamer Limit

AI War Trailer 3

View On Youtube - Download Full Quality Version

AI War: Fleet Command is one of the surprise indie hits of 2009. One of the most popular indie titles on Stardock's Impulse, AI War is coming to Steam in October 2009 with online leaderboards and achievements, as well as the huge 2.0 graphical and gameplay enhancements that will be available to all existing customers (through Impulse, GamersGate, or our website) for free! This trailer shows you what all the fuss is about.

The Reticule Interviews Chris Park About AI War, Part Two

The Reticule concludes the interview Chris Park, the developer of AI War. Topics in this part range from 2D games, why many indies smartly avoid DRM, the future of AI War, other upcoming Arcen titles, and our upcoming release on Steam.

Read The Interview

The Reticule Interviews Chris Park About AI War, Part One

The Reticule interviews Chris Park, the developer of AI War, about a variety of subjects: the game's AI, co-op features, and how we managed to get such massive unit counts, amongst others.  Check back tomorrow for part two!

Read The Interview

Boomtown Review of AI War

It's a powerful experience when a game's less frenetic moments are just as absorbing as its action, and AI War manages to engross from all available angles, challenging the player with strategically demanding scenarios and framing it all in brilliant 2D visuals that provide ample visual stimuli but maintain easy access to statistics. Expertly crafted resourcing and development tools prevent stagnation of the game's simple conquest objective, and the sheer scope of ships, maps and difficulty levels – not to mention co-op – is likely to keep this gem afloat for some time. RTS fans rejoice.
- Adam Hall, Boomtown

Iterative Game Design The Right Way

ABSTRACT
AI War designer/programmer Chris Park is accustomed to using iterative design methods from his business programming background, and carries this over to game design.  Iterative methods are often scoffed at, usually because the scoffer does not actually understand what iterative design is, but these methods carry some unique benefits when used in a disciplined way.  AI War is discussed as a case example of this.

Iterative Game Design The Right Way

AI War: Fleet Command - One Minute Pitch Video

View On Youtube - Download High Quality (1024x768) Version

Want to get up to speed on the basics of AI War in a jiffy? This one-minute video does a lightning walkthrough of the basics of what most makes the game unique.

PC Gamer UK Review of AI War

AI War breaks most of the genre’s rules. Which is precisely why it’s incredible... This out-of-the-blue one-man passion project is one of this year’s finest strategy games.
- PC Gamer UK Review, November 2009

Designing Emergent AI, Part 5: Don't Squeeze a Handful of Sand

ABSTRACT
Transcript of a discussion from these forums, in which Chris explains in greater detail the desirability of slightly-nonideal emergent decisions versus too-predictable "perfect" decisions.

Designing Emergent AI, Part 5: Don't Squeeze a Handful of Sand

AI War 1.301 (Co-Op Enhancements, UDP Networking, Supply)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.301. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
Many Updates:
- 4 new ships: Decloaker, and three levels of a new Gravitational Turret.
- Major visual improvements -- the HUD, the galaxy map, menus, and ship icons have all been revamped.  We have updated our screenshots, which gives a nice before/after contrast.
- Co-op Enhancements -- players can drop in and out of games if needed, and all ships can be swapped around between players much better now.
- New "Supply" game mechanic augments the military importance of captured planets.
- Several AI improvements to add better tactical intelligence in a number of different scenarios.
- New UDP-based network code performs vastly better in high-latency or high-packet-loss environments.
- New render caching performance improvement reduces GPU load in large battles by 1/2 to 2/3.
- More updated battle sound effects, and an updated battle sound effect engine, makes the sounds of battles much better.
- Resizable minimap -- helpful in particular for larger monitors, there are now 3 minimap sizes.
- Force Fields controlled by players are now damaged by shots fired out from under them, but FFs can all now be moved and repaired.
- Many other balance tweaks, ship logic improvements, and other enhancements and bugfixes.
The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (all 4,800 words worth included in the next post in this topic). This DLC release is not quite as large as the last one (which took a full month to make), but the visual improvements alone make this version feel almost like a whole new game.  Expect our next DLC release within a month or less, but the exact timing is going to be dependent on how much testing is ultimately needed for new features -- the next release is going to be the highly anticipated 2.0 version!  You can always get the latest public prerelease beta versions from our forums if you'd like to see what's coming down the pike.  Lots more exciting updates are on the way!

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As an added note, if you are a player who is is unable to install patches for whatever reason (this is usually a windows issue), you can download the patch files through the following link: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1000To1301.zip

Then unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else).  Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.  This is a cumulative update, so as long as you have at least version 1.000 of the game installed, this will update you to the latest version (1.301) without any issues.

This update also now available for Impulse customers.

For existing GamersGate customers, you can always upgrade your copy from the "Check For Updates" link in the game just like customers from our direct site can.  The latest version of the installer will also be coming to GamersGate, but that will affect new customers only.

Monday Depression In A Job You Love

ABSTRACT
Like most people, game designer Chris Park is not immune to the effects of the Monday morning blues.  What gives?  If you love your job, shouldn't this not happen to you?  He posits this is some sort of nearly-universal human process that occurs in most people no matter how much they love their job.  The trick is to find ways to move past it quickly and not let it interfere with productivity, since few companies can afford to lose 1/5 of the work week to something like this.

Monday Depression In A Job You Love

Why Rebalance A Released Game?

ABSTRACT
AI War has seen more than its fair share of rebalancing compared to most other RTS games.  Why is this?  Is this indicative of some sort of overall failing of the core design, or is this indicative of a doggedly hobbyist attitude on the part of the creators?  The creators would like to think neither of the above is true, but rather that they are laying the groundwork for an exceptional new long-form type of RTS (via expansions), rather than your typical quickly-forgotten entry that spawns a lot of sequels.

Why Rebalance A Released Game?

Preparation and Luck: Marketing Your Indie Game

ABSTRACT
Discussion of lessons learned from marketing AI War.  Nothing overly surprising, but useful for those who wish to enter the indie market but don't know much about what to expect.  Short answer:  expect to do a lot of work.

Preparation and Luck: Marketing Your Indie Game

On Writing For Games

ABSTRACT
Originally starting as a post on these forums, this post details my thoughts on writing for games, and why I believe that sometimes Less is More.  AI War has exactly 15 lines of story, and that's something you wouldn't expect from someone like me, who is also an aspiring novelist.  Was this sloth?  Oversight?  This article explains why it was an intentional design decision.

On Writing For Games

AI War 1.201 (Major Economic, AI, and Graphical update with 16 new ship types)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.201. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
Huge Updates:
- 16 new ships: 1 new energy reactor, 3 new starships, 8 new turrets, new mercenary space dock with 3 new mercenary ships.
- Major visual improvements -- planets and backgrounds, some effects, parts of the HUD, and a few ship classes.
- Massively updated economy that is easier to manage and which scales better to very long games.
- New Energy model that provides more incentive for expansion while also fitting within the updated economy.
- Faster Starts:  The repetitive activities from the first 5 or so minutes of a new campaign have now been automated to let players get right to the real game.
- Several major AI improvements: tactical retreats, better aggression against key targets, better tactical intelligence in a number of different scenarios.
- Revamped cross-planet attacks that are better balanced for players.
- A good number of performance improvements make giant battles perform better than ever.
- Network latency settings allow players to tune their game for high-latency networks.
- Improvements to the interface in general, most notably the planetary summary upgrades and the addition of the Threat Meter at the top of the screen.
- Drag-building of ships is now possible, and placement is even easier with Ctrl and Alt hotkeys while placing ships.
- Some updated battle sound effects.
- New "Energy Storm" music track replaces older "Thor" track.
- Many smaller balance tweaks, ship logic improvements, and other minor enhancements and bugfixes.
The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (included in the next post in this topic). This DLC release was so massive that it was a month in the making.  Expect our next DLC release to come sooner than that, but the exact timing is going to be dependent on how much testing is ultimately needed for new features.  You can always get the latest public prerelease beta versions from our forums if you'd like to see what's coming down the pike.  Lots more exciting updates are on the way!

---

As an added note, if you are a player who is is unable to install patches for whatever reason (this is usually a windows issue), you can download the patch files through the following link: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1000To1201.zip

Then unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else).  Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.  This is a cumulative update, so as long as you have at least version 1.000 of the game installed, this will update you to the latest version (1.201) without any issues.

This update is also available directly through Stardock's Impulse for customers purchasing the game through that platform.

For existing GamersGate customers, you can always upgrade your copy from the "Check For Updates" link in the game just like customers from our direct site can.  The latest version of the installer will also be coming to GamersGate, but that will affect new customers only.

Independent Gaming Article At Gaming Daily

David from Gaming Daily has written a nice article about the state of independent gaming. The discussion is on how and why indie games differ from their AAA counterparts, and cites AI War as an example in several spots: Independent Gaming

AI War Versus RPS Part 1

The folks over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have been having a go in three player co-op against the AI in AI War. This is part one of a series in which they try to kick a level 7 AI off of a 15-planet map: Officially Unintelligent: AI War Versus RPS Part 1

GamersGate Games of the Weekend: 30% Off On AI War!

This weekend (the 27th through the 30th), you can get AI War: Fleet Command for 30% off the regular price at the GamersGate store. AI War is already an incredible value, but this is a great chance to get it at an even lower price ($13.95 instead of the usual $19.99). Don't forget to rate us up if you buy the game through GamersGate and like it!

Delegation In Game Design

ABSTRACT
Transcript from a discussion on these forums, where a discussion about the relative complexity of economic management turned into a discussion of delegation and automation as a means to enable players to effectively manage games the size and scope of AI War -- without feeling like they are giving up fine control when they want it.

Delegation In Game Design

Advice For Aspiring Indie Game Developers

ABSTRACT
Chris isn't super excited about giving out advice, given that he's still learning the ropes himself, but since this is a question that keeps coming up -- and since he has had some measure of success already -- here are at least some observations and tips that might help aspiring indie developers.

Advice For Aspiring Indie Game Developers

Weekend Impulse Buy: 25% Off On AI War!

This weekend, you can get AI War: Fleet Command for 25% off the regular price at Stardock's Impulse store. AI War is already an incredible value, but this is a great chance to get it at an even lower price ($14.99 instead of the usual $19.99).

AI War on Rock, Paper Shotgun

It’s a Sins of the Solar Empire meets Supreme Commander meets Simply Nothing Else, and I think a lot of you will find this very intriguing.
- Kieron Gillen, Rock, Paper Shotgun

Reviewing A Bad Review

ABSTRACT
If you're an indie developer, not everyone is going to love your game.  It is a fact.  It is also a fact that something is going to be wrong with your game, like every other game in existence.  And reviewers and players will comment on these things, so that hopefully you can address them.  But what happens when you receive a review that is simply bad, with false information, a clear lack of actual play of the game, and/or other problems?  Well, if you're me, you write a snarky blog post analyzing all the points, which ones are valid and which are not, and what makes the original review so poor.  All reviews, like all things being reviewed, are not created equal.

Reviewing A Bad Review

Game Vortex Review of AI War

If it hadn't been brought to my attention through an email, I probably would have never heard of AI War: Fleet Command. This would be a shame because it turned out to be one of the more entertaining games I've played recently. It isn't something for everyone, but fans of well-thought-out strategy games will want to download the game and give it a try.
- Ricky Tucker, Game Vortex

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog Interview with Chris Park about AI War

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog interviews Chris Park, the developer of AI War, about inspirations for the game, Chris's experiences as an indie game developer, and upcoming titles from Arcen Games.

Read The Interview

Crispy Gamer Article About AI War

I think I've stumbled across this year's Really New Thing. There's a lot of 2009 to go, but I'll be surprised if anyone else twists the RTS formula this dramatically and this effectively. And I'm hoping it'll be the Next Big Thing, because it's big, different, entirely unprecedented and an exciting way to play an RTS.
- Rush, Boom, Turtle: And Now for Something Completely Different, by Tom Chick

AI War Trailer 2

AI War: Fleet Command Trailer 2 - Download High Quality Trailer 2
We've created a new trailer that does a better job of showcasing the game in general, and which also features the new art from recent releases.

Recent Arcen Games Team Additions

This is a bit belated in several cases, but we'd like to officially announce the latest team members to Arcen Games.  Our team has definitely been growing!

Lars Bull, or Fiskbit as he is known on the forums, has been helping out with design advice and QA testing for Arcen titles long before Arcen actually existed.  Now he's officially joined the team to collaborate on developing his concept for "Feedback," a puzzle game that we aim to release later this year.

Philippe Chabot is the artist responsible for many of the graphical upgrades you have seen in recent weeks.  There's tons more planned, so you can be sure that Phil is going to help us transform AI War into an ever-more-polished-looking affair.

Calvin Southwood, or Revenantus as he is known on the forums, has been helping out for some time now with player questions, the printable hotkey reference, the wiki-based unit strength guides, and more.  All of this was on a volunteer basis, which we very much appreciated, but now he's joined the team to become a full moderator for the forums as well as authoring a printable manual for the game.

Welcome to the team, guys!

PC Games and Reviews - AI War Review

I've played quite a few space RTS and empire builder type games in my time, but AI War feels like it's on a different scale ... one of the more epic tactical RTS games I think I’ve seen to date. If you’re an RTS nut this is not one to pass over!
- Andy Yates, PC Games and Reviews

AI War 1.013 (Free DLC, Player Suggestions, And Major Graphics Update)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.013. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
More Free DLC:
- Major improvements to all special effects, including shots, explosions, and other ship-to-ship effects.
- Major improvements to all star backgrounds, especially on high resolutions.
- Major improvements to about half of the planet graphics.
- Faster starts:  Players now start with 20,000 each of metal and crystal, and 10,000 knowledge.
- No more planetary boundary -- ships can go out as far as they like, though fixed-position ships can only be built the same distance from the planet area center as before.
- Yet more efficiency improvements for graphics and the simulation.
- Ion cannons are much more deadly.
- New visual zoom indicator shows zoom level as "letterbox" black bars at the top and bottom of the view.
- Some of the battle sound upgrades (more are coming).
- Several AI tweaks and ship balance adjustments.
- Several fixes to the tutorials to update them to the latest gameplay.
- Various other bugfixes.
The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post). More free DLC to hit in a week or so. Feel free to check out our updated screenshots gallery for a better look at our new visuals (of which lots more is scheduled for the upcoming months)!

AI War 1.012 Hotfix Released

If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  This hotfix corrects an issue in the official 1.011 release.

-Fixed a bug with AI ships not properly guarding the command posts they are supposed to reinforce, instead attacking player planets too much.
-AI was getting too many engineer drones in some reinforcements.
-Planets that are on alert now appear with a yellow border instead of a crimson one.
-Planets that have incoming waves now flash their borders black and red.

The above list is the entirety of this hotfix.  We do our best to insure a high degree of quality in every official release we make, but in this case one rather critical issue slipped through.  The best we can do in these circumstances is issue an official hotfix as soon as possible, but of course with our normal QA testing and the testing of those players who opt to download our prerelease versions, we try very hard to make sure the inconvenience of hotfixes like this does not arise.  Thanks for your patience!

Regional Pricing Adjusted For AI War

Our goal is always to charge a fair and equivalent price to customers in all countries, but apparently at GamersGate and our own website's ecommerce partner, prices for Euros and GBP were set higher than the USD prices.  Thanks to a regular in our forums for alerting us to this.  The price for AI War has now been adjusted to be €13.99, £11.79, and $19.99 USD.

We may need to shift this over time as exchange rates fluctuate, since these prices are now manually set rather than calculated through our partners' sites (except at Impulse, which already handles this), but our goal is to basically have a price point equivalency of  $19.99 USD regardless of what country you are purchasing the game from.  If the pricing seems off from that in your country, please let us know and we'll do our best to adjust it!

AI War 1.011 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.011. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
More Free DLC:
- Several art upgrades -- much more to come in future releases.
- Starships now have various bonuses against force fields, and have munitions booster ability.
- AI wave logic updated: the relative size of the wave now depends partly on the time since the last wave.
- AI players now periodically send devastating cross-planet attacks on difficulty 5 and up.
- All turret health has been greatly increased.
- The network command logic has been completely redone, and is now significantly more efficient.
- Collision logic improved and sped up, and ships no longer bunch up so much when moving in large groups.
- Greatly improved ship types: eyebots, shield bearers, deflector drones, anti-armor ships.
- The build buttons and tech buttons are now organized into columns as well as rows, making for much easier management.
- AI reinforcement and tactical logic has been made more intelligent in several ways.
- Force fields are now larger, but shrink in size as they take damage.
- The minimum system requirements have been lowered thanks to all the recent performance improvements.
- Fixed issue with the AI thread stalling out in some very specific late-game circumstances.
- Various other bugfixes.

The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post). More free DLC to hit in a week or so. Enjoy!

AI War Comes To GamersGate!

AI War is now available for purchase through the GamersGate platform. Here is the direct link to the game. GamersGate is a leading digital distribution platform, with great features such as user reviews and ratings of games, and no DRM or outside software required. Be sure to check them out!

Thoughts on Piracy and DRM

ABSTRACT
DRM stinks, but so does piracy.  This article was sparked by a (thankfully fraudulent) report that AI War was being massively pirated, and it's a thoughtful look at issues of both piracy and DRM, and why the latter isn't the answer to the former.

Thoughts on Piracy and DRM

On Goals: For Love or For Money

ABSTRACT
So why does this Chris Park guy make games, anyway?  A lot of people have recently been making comments to the effect that "it's clearly a labor of love, he's not expecting to get rich off of this."  So this sparked an article exploring the various motivations of love and money, and why one is so closely related to the other in many cases.

On Goals: For Love or For Money

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog: First Thoughts On AI War

If you've been looking for a challenging, detailed RTS that will fill your strategy needs for a long time, and particularly if you have a few friends who would want to join you in your battle against the AI, then this could very well be what you've been looking for.
- CaptainD, CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog: First Thoughts

The Wargamer Review of AI War

 On the surface, AI War seems to be a traditional real-time strategy, not unlike its similar space-based cousin, Sins of a Solar Empire, with large numbers of units across huge, mostly empty, maps. However, this assumption would largely be inaccurate. Instead, AI War is a rather novel blend of RTS, tower defense, grand strategy, and, strangely Warcraft III “creep crawling.”

- Christopher Beck, The Wargamer

UK Gamer Interview with Chris Park about AI War

UK Gamer interviews Chris Park, the developer of AI War, about design decisions made in the game, promotion methods for indie developers, and the future of AI War and Arcen Games.

Read The Interview

Designing Emergent AI, Part 4: Asymmetrical Goals

ABSTRACT
Continuing the series of articles about the AI in AI War.  Discusses the controversial asymmetrical nature of the AI goals versus the player goals.  Discusses the drawbacks, compares this approach to the approaches used in other games, and looks at why this approach is viewed as being semantically "fair" by most players.

Designing Emergent AI, Part 4: Asymmetrical Goals

techZing 10 - AI War

"Justin and Jason talk with Christopher Park, founder of Arcen Games and developer of a space-based RTS game called AI War: Fleet Command, about how he was able to release a sophisticated computer game in under seven months and create a formidable artificial intelligence in only a matter of weeks. The discussion also covers the marketing of an independent game, cooperative game play, multi-threading, optimizing .NET, LINQ, GPUs, SlimDX and the future of artificial intelligence."

Listen to this podcast on techZing!

AI War 1.010 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.010. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
More Free DLC: Two new ships, the MLRS Turret III (shown right), and the Tachyon Missile, have been added. The new turret provides new high-level defensive options, while the missile reveals for 30 seconds all ships on the planet at which it detonates.


This release also contains another large batch of improvements, tweaks, and extensions based on player suggestions.  Here are some of the highlights:
- Players can now select more than one home planet when starting the game.
- Energy Reactor efficiency now drops if you cluster too many of them on the same planet.
- Missile Silos and Missiles are now much less expensive, but missile detonation always comes with at least a minor AI Progress increase.
- Screen position, unit selection, and zoom are now remembered when switching back and forth between planets.
- Right-clicking the planetary summary now cycles through ships, making them easier to find.
- Most ships that are non-repairable now have a self-regen ability (including force fields and fortresses).
- Munitions Booster range has been increased, but they now only work while not moving.
- The attack range of Spiders has been greatly increased, making them more dangerous.
- The protection range of all force fields is now larger.
- Teleporting ships can now travel through wormholes, but certain ships are now immune to their attacks.
- Fighters are now more resistant to cruiser shots, making them much more formidable.
- Mark III Engineers now have teleporting in addition to their existing other abilities.
- Several new hotkeys, including "Stop Units" (End) and several unit selection filters (N+0-5, N+8, N+9) .
- Fixed a bug relating to all AI planets on every map having Mark III force fields, rather than variable levels.
- Several bugfixes relating to space tugs.
- Various other bugfixes.
The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post). It's vacation season around here, so the next batch of free DLC won't be hitting for another two or three weeks -- but we've got some great stuff planned, so stay tuned. After that break, we'll be back to our regular weekly schedule. Enjoy!

AI War 1.009 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.009. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.
 
More Free DLC: In addition to a new Mark III engineer being added, mobile repair station can now build five different variants of space tug, which are very fast ships with tractor beams that can automatically bring ships back to the nearest mobile repair station for healing, then send the ships back into the fray.

This release also contains another large batch of improvements, tweaks, and extensions based on player suggestions.  Here are some of the highlights:
- New ship counts when dragging selection boxes over ship.
- New Team Income display in Galaxy Map Intel Summary.
- New Z+A key combo allows seeing selected ship ranges at mouse cursor.
- F1 key now shows all ship types in planetary summary.
- There is now a visual and auditory warning when any of your command stations are attacked.
- The game now supports cheats.  See the ArcenWiki for a full listing.
- The AI is much more deadly with how it sends its freed ships through wormholes.
- Health bars are now colorized, and now there is an option to show them even in far zoom.
- New ship:  Mark III engineers
- New ships: Mobile Repair Stations can now build 5 different kinds of Space Tug for combat repairs.
- Several efficiency improvements have been added for how the host deals with the AI thread.
- It is now possible to keep playing after a victory/loss, just without score increases.
- If a music stream gets corrupted, it will no longer crash the game.
- Fixed a bug in the prior release with long-range shots aimed at force fields missing.
- The last uses of floating point math have been removed, which helps to avoid desyncs.
- Various other bugfixes.

The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post).  More free DLC will be heading your way next week. Enjoy!

AI War 1.008 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.008. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
More Free DLC: The primary upgrade in this release is improvements to the AI and how the players can interact with them.  Planets on the galaxy map now show up as red (as seen below left) when the AI is likely to reinforce at them.  This helps the human players avoid tipping their hand too soon and causing key AI planets to reinforce too heavily.

Additionally, AI players will now reinforce their wormholes much like the human players tend to do.  This makes deep raiding much more difficult and interesting, and requires many new tactics.  In response to this, the human scouts are now much upgraded -- they all now include Cloaking, and most also now have a Cloaking Booster ability (as seen below right) that makes them even more effective in groups.

 

In addition to the above, this release also contains another large batch of improvements, tweaks, and extensions based on player suggestions.  Here are some of the highlights:
- Capturable ships now are now only captured after a command station is finished being built.
- Parasite costs have increased.
- Waypoints can now be queued in conjunction with wormhole-movement commands.
- Ships can now move between planets in attack-move or free-roaming defender modes.
- Repair Stations and Mark II Engineers have had a range upgrade.
- Cloaked ships will no longer auto-fire at enemy ships unless in attack-move/free-roaming mode.  This helps them maintain invisibility on longer raids.
- New Ship: Wormhole Command Posts are a perma-cloaked ship used by AIs to reinforce their wormholes. Kill the command station to kill these.
- Scouts and EyeBots have been heavily upgraded to deal with the newer wormhole threats; they now all have cloaking, and most have a new Cloaking Booster ability.
- Control group icons are now included in the planetary summary.
- Mark II Science Labs and Missile Silos are now less expensive.
- The range of all tachyon beam emitters is now higher.
- The way the AI reinforces is now tech-level dependent (higher techs get fewer reinforcements).
- Lightning Missiles have been made a bit more durable.
- A new "AI Alert Level" is now shown on the galaxy map intel summaries, showing at which planets the AI is likely to do reinforcements.
- Fixed several fairly rare bugs, including a multiplayer desync relating to attacking forcefields.
- Fixed Astro Trains just hanging out at their stations.
- Fixed a bug with AI players getting new ship types at too fast a rate.
- Fixed a 1.007 bug where too many Advanced Research Stations and Data Centers were being created on maps 80 planets and up.

The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post).  More free DLC will be heading your way next week. Enjoy!

AI War Soundtrack Now Available Through iTunes!

The soundtrack from AI War has been widely praised, and with good reason. If you can't get enough of the music while playing the game, or you love the music but RTS games just aren't your thing, you're in luck: iTunes is now carrying the original soundtrack (OST) for the game!

 

In the iTunes store, just do a search for either "Pablo Vega" or "AI War: Fleet Command." All of the proceeds from iTunes sales go directly to the composer. He did an awesome job, above and beyond the call of duty for any contractor, and we're really looking forward to bringing him on board as a fulltime staff member if AI War sales continue to be as great as they recently have been. In the meantime, we've left the rights for OST sales with him so that he can promote his incredible work beyond just the gaming community -- we're thrilled to see it now appearing on iTunes.

Weekend Impulse Buy: 25% Off On AI War!

This weekend only, you can get AI War: Fleet Command for 25% off the regular price at Stardock's Impulse store. AI War is already an incredible value, but this is a great chance to get it at an even lower price ($14.99 instead of the usual $19.99).

AI War 1.007 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.007. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
More Free DLC: A new transport ship (shown below) can now be unlocked from the DEF tab of your command stations.  This transport is hugely useful for ferrying your weaker ships past heavy enemy defenses (across minefields, past ion cannons, etc).  Transports can also be used for ferrying teleporting ships between planets (very useful, since teleporting ships were previously locked to their current planet).



In addition to the new ships, this release also contains another large batch of improvements, tweaks, and extensions based on player suggestions.  Here are some of the highlights:
- Music streaming has been improved, which speeds up loading savegames and the game itself.
- Suggested paths between planets are now much better.
- Several AI enhancements.
- Harvester ExoShields have been made more useful.
- Fighters have been rebalanced, making them more useful.
- Several new graph options are now available.
- Overzoom is now an option.
- Efficiency of drawing hundreds or thousands of ship attack ranges is now much better.
- Multiple constructors can now be managed at once (space docks, missile silos, etc).
- It is now possible to issue commands to ships still being built (which they will execute after completion).
- Galaxy maps as small as 10 planets are now supported.
- A new Auto AI Progress option has been added, allowing game pacing to be greatly adjusted.
- Performance in very active games with more than 80,000 ships has been greatly improved.
- Trial players can now play with full retail players for the trial duration (1 hour).
- Waypoints now work better with attack-move mode.

The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post).  More free DLC will be heading your way next week. Enjoy!

Bytten And Out Of Eight Reviews of AI War

Two new reviews of AI War have now come out. Be sure to click the links to read the full reviews, if you're interested! We've also now set up a Press & Player Reactions page to aggregate reviews and player reactions all in one place.

I can't recommend it any more highly to strategy fans and fans of space games in general. Innovative, absorbing and most importantly a hell of a lot of fun to play, AI War is the best indie game I've got my hands on so far in 2009.
- Bytten Review
 
Challenging and multifaceted AI that increases in difficulty as you become more powerful, extremely large battles with lots of varied units that promote strategic variety, ample interface designed to handle a large scale.
- Out Of Eight PC Game Review

Designing Emergent AI, Part 3: Limitations

ABSTRACT
Continuing the series of articles about the AI in AI War.  Takes a look at some of the limitations of emergent-style AI, and how those limitations can be overcome by combining the techniques proposed here with other styles of AI.  Explores the heavily hybridized nature of the AI in AI War itself, and how AI for games in other genres might utilize some of the hybridized approaches -- but more importantly, where the boundaries of usefulness are for this approach (it isn't appropriate for racing or puzzle games, for instance).

Designing Emergent AI, Part 3: Limitations

AI War 1.006 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.006. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.  
Note:  some people were having some trouble with the 1.005 installer, but that should be resolved with this release without the need for any external workarounds.  Thanks to everyone affected for their patience with that issue.
 
More Free DLC: Four new ships are now available for your use: Engineer II, and three new kinds of Orbital Command Stations: Mark II, Mark III, and Warp Jammer.  These four new ship types greatly expand the economic options for players who want to customize their civilizations in that direction.  The higher-level command stations provide extra resources, while the Warp Jammer command station provides a way to prevent all enemy warps into a few select systems (but at a steep ongoing resource cost).

In addition to the new ships, this release also contains even more dozens of improvements, tweaks, and extensions based on player suggestions. This week's offering exceeds even last week's, we think.  Thanks again to everyone who took the time to offer feedback -- and as a reminder for everyone whose suggestion made it onto the official to-be-done-in-DLC list, but didn't make it into this release, you should be seeing your ideas in play over the coming weeks.

Here are some of the highlights:
- New graphs in the scores display shows player progress on a number of metrics over time.
- The online mini strategy guide has become a more comprehensive wiki.
- Various improvements to the score screen display.
- Tooltips for starting ship types in the lobby, and other minor lobby enhancements.
- Even more galaxy map display modes, filters, and control options.
- Holding the I key now shows the Hit Percent and Damage for all selected ships.
- Savegame performance improved 5x for large games (60,000+ ships) in particular.
- AI Progress now uses a scale 10x higher than it was previously, and Astro Train Station and Special Forces Command Post destruction now has a minor increase to AI Progress.
- Several AI behaviorlets have been added for making it more intelligent in a few specific cases.
- Several improvements have been made to make the game more friendly to Turn-Based Strategy (TBS) players.
- Dozens more smaller improvements, tweaks, and extensions suggested by players.  See full release notes for details.

The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post).  More free DLC will be heading your way next week. Enjoy!

Choosing a DirectX Platform In C#

ABSTRACT
Discusses the developer's experiences in MDX, XNA, and SlimDX, and why SlimDX was ultimately picked over the other options for AI War and all other planned Arcen Games titles.

Choosing a DirectX Platform In C#

Designing Emergent AI, Part 2: Queries and Code

ABSTRACT
Continuing the series of articles about the AI in AI War.  Takes a look at some of the actual LINQ queries used by the game, and addresses a few common criticisms that came up to the first article.  This article is intended more for programmers or AI enthusiasts, whereas the first article was multi-audience.

Designing Emergent AI, Part 2: Queries and Code

AI War 1.005 Released (Free DLC & Player Suggestions)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.005. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.


More Free DLC: Three new ships are now available for your use:  Science Lab II, Mobile Repair Stations, and Counter-Negative-Energy Turrets.  Each provides interesting new strategic capabilities.  As helpful as these new ships are, however, they almost pale in comparison to the vast number of other updates and enhancements in this release.  This release contains dozens of improvements, tweaks, and extensions based on suggestions from over ten players.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to offer feedback so far -- and for everyone whose suggestion made it onto the official to-be-done-in-DLC list, but didn't make it into this release, you should be seeing your ideas in play over the coming weeks.


Here are some of the highlights:
- The game now supports smaller galaxy maps in addition to the existing sizes.
- Enhancements to zoom.
- Many new settings options, including better support for windowed modes.
- Many, many new display modes available in galaxy view.
- Ship borders now flash in far zoom when they take damage.
- Minimap enhancements, including minimap display modes.
- Icons for important enemy ships are now shown in the Intel Summary of the galaxy map.
- Minor planetary summary (the palette on the right side of the screen) improvements.
- Ship autotargeting is now much improved.  Overkill is a thing of the past.
- The AI now acts a little bit smarter at guard posts, retreating more often when needed.

The above list is just a sampling, however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see everything (attached at the end of this post).  More free DLC will be heading your way next week. Enjoy!

AI War on Co-Optimus.

From the post:

I checked out the demo last week and came away surprised just how deep this game is.  The game isn't for the faint of heart when it comes to strategy.  Thankfully there's a full tutorial available to walk you through the game.  The cooperative mode feels very robust, but you'll definitely want to use some sort of voice chat software because there's so much stuff to communicate.

Head over to Co-Optimus for the full post.

AI War Comes To GameTrove!

AI War is now on GameTrove, an indie-focused game site!

Designing Emergent AI, Part 1: An Introduction

ABSTRACT
Takes a look at the design philosophy behind the AI in AI War, and looks at ways in which emergent behavior and other modern AI techniques can be used instead of traditional decision trees.  If you're wondering how we made such an intelligent AI, this provides a good overview.

Designing Emergent AI, Part 1: An Introduction

AI War 1.004 Released (Free DLC & Several Fixes)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.004. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

More Free DLC: Two new ships are now out in the galaxy for you to encounter.  Both of these ships are quite challenging to deal with, so only show up on the advanced difficulty levels.  Next week's DLC will have ships for everyone, never fear -- but other major features for everyone in this week's DLC include a variety of control enhancements, and a new "No Enemy Waves" AI Modifier.


There are also a couple of bugfixes: if you were having trouble loading savegames in the trial version of the game, or if you had a larger screen resolution and game fonts looked chunky or fuzzy, this version fixes those issues.

The first new unit, shown right, is PermaMines.  These mines work like regular mines, except that they cannot be destroyed by being shot or by being collided-with (though they will kill that which collides with them).  These mines also don't have cloaking, and you will only occasionally run into these on the higher difficulties on AI planets.  These mines create some interesting strategic challenges , as you can only get past them with EMPs, luck (sometimes ships don't set off mines they pass -- the smaller and faster the ship, the more likely it is to slip past), ships with Mine Avoidance (builders, engineers, raiders, etc), or by going around the PermaMined wormhole.

The second new ship is the Core Starship, a terrifying haunt of some core and home AI planets on the "HARDER" AI styles (so, regardless of what AI difficulty you play on, AIs like Technologist Homeworlders and Backdoor Hackers will have a chance of having Core Starships.  These starships have a lot more health than any other starships, and a powerful primary attack.  The best strategy with them is perhaps avoidance -- you can set up decoys and distractions to keep them busy while you complete your real objectives.  Of course, you could opt for a full-on assault against them, too, but just be prepared for a long and difficult battle unless you bring along something like Mobile Force Field Generators to protect your units.  There are other strategies that work, too -- experiment and see what fits for you!

There are three key control/interface enhancements included in this week's release, all suggested by canny player Maxim Kuschpel.  They are: group move, free-roaming defender mode, and the ability to press the L key and divide your selected forces in half (by numbers of selected ship types).  You can read more on these new features in the controls document -- press escape and then hit View Controls from the in-game menu while you are playing.

In a nutshell, Group Move lets you move a batch of selected ships which may have differing speeds all at the same speed (the slowest speed).  This is great for having fighters, bombers, and cruisers all reach an attack target at once, or for having faster ships guard a smaller, weaker, ship such as a Science Lab or Colony Ship that is on the move. To put ships into this mode, either hold the G key while giving them movement orders, or use the new button at the bottom of the HUD (Lone vs Group movement style toggle).  They will show up with a turquoise border in far zoom while in this mode.

Free-Roaming Defender Mode lets you easily defend your planets.  In past versions, if a couple of small ships got past your wormhole defenses, you'd have no choice but to hunt those down manually, which required more micromanagement than was always pleasant (that really emphasized wormhole defense, but perfection is not always possible).  By holding V and right-clicking anywhere, you can put your ships into the new Free-Roaming Defender mode, which gives them a pink border in far zoom, and makes them chase and attack any enemy ships on the current planet.  Setting some of your ships in this mode is great for letting them take care of any stragglers that slip through your defenses, without you having to manage it.

More free DLC will be heading your way next week. Enjoy!

UKGamer Review of AI War

From the review:

Since you specify the parameters of the Universe you play in, there are a lot of replay opportunities and the degrees of AI difficulty and play style will also further add to that, so you're getting a lot of indie-fuelled strategic play for your $20. But you are also encouraged to become part of the AI War community, and participate in its future evolution and development. With DLC already being rolled out regularly, and a planned expansion in the works, you too could be a part of its emergence.

Head over to UKGamer for the full review.

Optimizing 30,000+ Ships In Realtime In C#

ABSTRACT
Primarily a technical article, discusses the methods by which such huge unit counts and such intensive AI were achieved.  Especially notable since the game is coded in C#, rather than C++.

Optimizing 30,000+ Ships In Realtime In C#

Games As Art... Or Not

ABSTRACT
Primarily discusses the games Passage, Gravitation, Braid, Portal, Mario Kart 64, and Silent Hill 2 as being varying degrees of art.  Includes links to other commentary on several of these games, and discusses why it's okay that some games are art, and others are not.  AI War is noted as falling into the not-art category, the same as Chess and most other strategy games, but there are different reasons these games are valuable.  Concludes that some games are art, most are not, and while it would be nice to see more artistic games, there is still very much a place for the styles of games that are currently predominant.

Games As Art... Or Not

The Case For Co-Op Games

ABSTRACT
Discusses co-op games, why they are needed, and some of the ancillary design benefits that were found by making AI War co-op only.  The chief argument is that many gamers are getting married and starting families, and that co-op games helps to make gaming a family experience instead of a solitary one.  Based on observation and intuition, this seems to be an important emerging market that will only grow during the coming years.

The Case For Co-Op Games

AI War 1.003 Released (Free DLC)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.003. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

More Free DLC:  Two new missiles are now available at your Missile Silos.  The Lightning Missile (shown right) is a comparably inexpensive missile that heavily damages all nearby ships when detonated.  Sending a swarm of three or four of these is a great way to take out a large group of tough enemy ships (even core or starships).

The second new unit is the Armored Missile, now the most expensive unit in the game.  It basically works like a Lightning Missile except that it has a smaller area of effect, and it is so heavily armored as to be all but indestructible.  This allows you to do precision strikes deep into enemy territory -- if your gate-raids have been failing on a planet, an Armored Missile might be your one chance for success.

There are also a few other small tweaks, and a fix to a crash bug that was affecting some users in the prior version (the crash occurred when starting new campaigns on a subset of maps, with certain AI types and Simple ship types selected).  Most users were not affected by this issue, but we're happy to have this fix out and be back to zero known issues with the game. More free DLC will be heading your way next week (including something other than missiles this time). Enjoy!

AI War Comes To Stardock's Impulse!

AI War is now available for purchase through Stardock's Impulse platform. Here is the direct link to the game. Impulse is one of the premiere digital distribution platforms for PC games, and working with the Stardock staff to get AI War on their system has been a really great experience. What a dedicated group of people. Be sure to check them out!

AI War 1.002 Released (Free DLC)

Arcen Games is pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet Command version 1.002. You can download a trial version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the latest patch.

More Free DLC:  A new unit is now available in the CONST tab of your Command Stations! Missile Silos are an expensive new constructor that can build powerful missiles.  The first two missiles are the Nuclear Missile (shown left) and the EMP.  Each add powerful new strategic options for players, but there is a lot of risk involved with using nukes in particular (see in-game explanation for details).

In addition, there are a couple of performance improvements that should help with lower-end graphics cards and hard drives, and the usual milieu of balance tweaks and small bugfixes. More free DLC will be heading your way next week (including at least one new missile type). Enjoy!

More About Missiles...