I hope so too!
I bought a second copy as a gift to my daughter. I really loved AI War, so I hope this one is good as well.
We do think alike! “Just in case” was exactly what went on in my mind!
Having a blast with this game, it’s really clicking for me. I didn’t play the first game enough to remember why I bounced off it (eight years ago), but it was always a series I wanted to get back to, and this seemed like the perfect time with the sequel.
Although this game has a billion options you can tinker with in the options menu, I think this particular one is worth pointing out. This option is found in the Audio section of the settings menu:
Although the music in the sequel is great, after 300 hours with it I’m sure this other 4.5 hours of additional music will be quite welcome for any of us (that aren’t already rocking out to the soothing space sounds of Dying Fetus or Britney Spears).
Did the previous iteration have ‘stacks’ of units, or is that a limitation of the move to 3d?
For example, instead of drawing three units, it draws one unit with a little ‘3’ icon on it.
The original game had 2D art at a close-up zoom and individual ship icons at a farther out (practical) zoom level. Ships came in “mark” levels (fighter Mk II, fighter Mk IV etc) which was indicated on the icon. It ended up looking like this in a big (in this case game-ending) fight:
Isn’t that the hotkey for the unit? I’ve only futzed with the first few tutorials, so I might be wrong.
-Tom
The Flagships will have a large hotkey number on them, but if you zoom in you can also see the number of units stowed in them as well. So you might see a giant 4 on its thorax and a smaller 100+ trailing out its butt.
I think you only see the subscript when the units are being transported by (ie inside) another unit. Which was also true in the first game.
Definitely. Note the 0/200’s on all the transports in that screenshot.
You need a transport to hold all your transports.
Nah that’s the flagship, I’m talking about all the little ships in a mobile fleet. Some will be ‘stacked’ together and show a little number, which is also detailed in the tooltip.
This game has ‘mark’ levels on the icon as well, that’s not what I’m referring to.
I found a post on it. Apparently it’s a big performance optimisation:
https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:The_Era_of_Discovery#Version_0.775_Unit_Stacking
The purpose of stacks is performance and visual decluttering.
It says decluttering but I noticed it during the tutorials with low ship count. And you still only see 1 ship when you zoom right in.
I was wondering how they could translate the insane number of 2D units over to a 3D engine. I guess this is the secret.
Hehe. In fairness, half of those are my ally’s transports but yes, by endgame on a standard map in AI War 1 I tended to be rolling with the full cap of transports.
A new ‘getting started’ has been added to the wiki.
I don’t play many RTS games, but I loved AI War – 170 hours, a lot for me. So the sequel is an auto-buy for me. I’ve been playing through the tutorials, and I like what I see so far.
Ok I’m sure I’m completely missing something but how the #&*$!@#$^ do I capture a transport ship? Do I need to completely capture and own the planet first? I’ve moved my mobile strike fleet into a planet space with the AI that happens to have a nice transport ship sitting there disabled, ready to be filled with humans. And I can’t figure out what the #$!&(@#$ to do with it. Google is not helpful - every damn tip seems to be telling me I should go capture this. But HOW?! I can’t find that anywhere. Do I need special ships to go capture it? Or is the fact I haven’t taken over the planet? Please help!
In the tutorial, it gets you to build a Command Station to capture/claim a transport ship.
You have to take over the planet. Then you will automatically capture the fleet after a few moments.
Getting new fleets is one of the main reasons to take over a planet instead of just raiding or hacking it.
I only ever beat AI War by summoning the Spire fleet. It turns the game into more of a defensive tower defense with strategic planet capture to create a series of highly defensible choke points. I recall almost losing with less than 10 seconds left before the fleet arrived as the AI waves actually got to and damaged my home command center.