AI War: Fleet Command

AFK_Matrix said:
Hi,
Been playing the tutorial campaign for a bit and am loving it, I love games where there is tons to learn and you find out new tricks all the time.

I upgraded to the 1.201E beta btw.
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Great to hear! The official version of 1.201 will be coming out today.

AFK_Matrix said:
I do have 2 comments/suggestions and if they are in the proper real game ignore me as I haven't gotten to that bit as i am still on tutorials. I play on 2 x 24" 1920x1200 resolution and its great but the minimap is tiny in the upper left, it would be awesome to have a larger one. Also it would be great to have the galaxy map on my second screen, but this is a wish more than anything and not a big thing.
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Both of those are actually on the future DLC list -- having a minimap that can be sized upwards, and having second monitor support. The first is obviously a lot smaller of a thing than the second, but both are planned for hopefully within the next month or so. I also have a dual monitor setup, so I know what you mean.

AFK_Matrix said:
Also when an enemy is attacking one of your planets you get the flashing warning at the bottom of the screen, it would be awesome if you could right click or something and be taken to the planet that is being attacked. If there are multiple planets then you could right click and be given a list of the planets and then left click the one u want to go to.
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In the later 1.201 versions, that little flashing warning at the bottom of the screen has actually been removed because it was redundant with the new and more informative "Threat Meter" at the top right of the screen. However, there is a quick-button for command stations at the bottom of the screen, and you can quickly click that and then all of the entries in that list show really clearly-delineated text for how many enemy ships are in each system. Just left-click whichever one, and you're good to go. The galaxy map also shows little enemy counts in red, which makes it easy to switch to that and see what all is going on there across all your planets (where the biggest threats are, etc).

AFK_Matrix said:
EDIT: Also just remembered when I am fully zoomed out it is very hard to see what units are selected or if you are trying to group ships together you can not see what you are selecting. I am sure in the original game you could see what you were selecting when zoomed all the way out.
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Another player actually brought this up recently -- if you upgrade to a later version of 1.201, you'll see that now in the icon view of further zooms, instead of putting a selection circle around ships it lightens the color of them. That makes it so much easier to tell which are selected when you are selecting a bunch that are all overlapping -- you are quite right that it could get pretty hard to tell before if they were all in a mass. Out of curiosity, what did you mean by "I am sure in the original game you could see what you were selecting when zoomed all the way out?"

Thanks for the notes!
 
Great can't wait for the 1.201 release, is that the J version? As i am on E at the moment and yeah i did see the Threat meter but it didn't quite sink in how it worked. And yeah will try the buttons at the bottom. And all I meant with regard to select is when i first installed the game when i zoomed out I am pretty sure the ships had circles or something around them when i zoomed out and there not there now in the E version.

And can't wait for the resizable mini map :) As i said the dual screen isn't a biggy for me.
 
AFK_Matrix said:
Great can't wait for the 1.201 release, is that the J version? As i am on E at the moment and yeah i did see the Threat meter but it didn't quite sink in how it worked. And yeah will try the buttons at the bottom.
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Yes, the 1.201J version is almost final 1.201. There are a couple of last bugfixes in the official 1.201 that will be coming out before very long. I think since the E version, tooltips have been added to the threat meter to hopefully better explain what is going on with that.

AFK_Matrix said:
And all I meant with regard to select is when i first installed the game when i zoomed out I am pretty sure the ships had circles or something around them when i zoomed out and there not there now in the E version.
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Ah, I see what you mean now -- yes, the selection circles have been replaced with the colorization. The colorization shift should generally be easier to see if you know what you are looking for, especially when you are trying to select part of a group of 4,000+ ships or similar. :)

AFK_Matrix said:
And can't wait for the resizable mini map :) As i said the dual screen isn't a biggy for me.
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It's coming! Our artist has moved past the planets and backgrounds and is now focused on the HUD, so that is definitely one item on the list!
 
Newversion out 1.201 out

I really wanted to post the release notes in full but they literally are huge - puts aaa titles to shame.

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!
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Notes are here

http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,1130.0.html

I get a mention :)

-Thanks to tals for reporting the issue with the chat log in the galaxy map getting cut off at the bottom.
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:)
 
Little update:

Definitely a no-no for netbooks I think. It runs fine, but the extra screen size is really needed. Was worth a shot though :p

Got my main pc working now, so will hopefully be playing it a bit more when I get chance!
 
apeZ said:
Little update:

Definitely a no-no for netbooks I think. It runs fine, but the extra screen size is really needed. Was worth a shot though :p

Got my main pc working now, so will hopefully be playing it a bit more when I get chance!
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Thanks for the update. I'm amazed that it at least runs on a netbook, that's pretty cool. I can imagine the screen size would be a problem, though, but I suppose if one had an external monitor and no other options, that makes netbooks quasi-viable (do netbooks have HD15 ports on the back?). Well, glad you got your main PC working anyway, that's definitely the preferred route I'm sure!
 
AFK_Matrix said:
Great can't wait for the 1.201 release, is that the J version? As i am on E at the moment and yeah i did see the Threat meter but it didn't quite sink in how it worked. And yeah will try the buttons at the bottom. And all I meant with regard to select is when i first installed the game when i zoomed out I am pretty sure the ships had circles or something around them when i zoomed out and there not there now in the E version.

And can't wait for the resizable mini map :) As i said the dual screen isn't a biggy for me.
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Not tried it yet but Chris is onto his next release :)

http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1176

-The quick-buttons at the bottom of the screen are now shown in the galaxy map.

-The Lidgren Network library is now used for networking; this makes the game use UDP rather than TCP, and should hopefully help performance for players in high latency/ high packet loss areas.


NEW ART - Philippe Chabot
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Updated Planetary Summary Box
Button - Minimap Display Mode
Minimap (In Three Sizes)
New Build Button Style
New Tech Button Style
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Really looking forward to trying these out.

Tals
 
Hmmm I don't quite know weather I like the look of this or not yet, I think I do, I have played Sins of a Solar Empire a huge amount it's one of my favourite games, it's the only game launched since Supreme Commander that I really, really enjoy playing for long hours.

This looks to be on a bit too large of a scale with too many different ship types for my tastes, I prefer stricter control of a smaller amount of stuff. I must say the graphics don't look quite as good as Sins from the videos I have watched either. I love zooming in and watching the action up close, explosions ripping across hulls, energy beams on shields and general Babylon 5-esque CGI carnage :) ...for me at least Sins got the balance in the amount of units/size of fleets just about right.

This game certainly looks like it's worth a shot though at the price, the theme and genre are right up my alley, I'm just not sure about the execution yet.

Anyway, I better actually play it before I decide anything.
 
If you do make sure you grab the latest version and i'd even suggest grabbing the beta from the link I posted (it will work on the demo) as the graphics improvements keep on coming :)

If my memory serves the developer has said Supreme commander was one of his inspirations.

Regarding the ship types, one of the things I really like is the ship display says what the ship is good and bad against and that really makes a difference, so a fighter decimates cruisers whereas cruisers against cruisers is much more attrition. I haven't yet thought he has to many as a lot of the types are improvements on the previous eg Cruisers you have level 1,2,3 and 4 - research is instant as opposed to having to wait for it to occur - if you have the necessary knowledge points.

Tals
 
Been a bit quiet lately but only because myself, Huw (from another forum) and Vince have been playing through a 3 player coop and we're almost at end game scenario :)

However whereas previously players would have start a game when the game started - Chris put in an amendment yesterday which changes all of that :) The host can now open up further slots in the game for players to join. New players get a new ship type and not a lot else. Either they can spectate or the existing players can give either command stations/ships or whatever. from what I can see this looks like it has been done very well. This ability also exists in an SP game so if you fancy a buddy(s) half way through the game you can now do this :)

Anyway if anyone does fancy joining us and they have experienced the game - i.e they have either played the campaign tutorial or a reasonable amount of a normal campaign then you're very welcome. Just send me an email in trust. You will need vent - although whether you have a mic isn't so necessary.

Our game tonight should be around 9.30 start and go to midnight when hopefully we get to take on the AI's home world :)

Tals

p.s anyone joining us would need latest beta http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1284.msg8295
 
First game finished - very enjoyable, although I think the amendments to AI meant that level 5 really is easy now so we will try 7 or 8 next time for more of a challenge. Certainly when we were going for both homeworlds we expected more of a reaction but just managed to knock the 2 down within an hour.

Tonight Huw and I should be moving our 2 player game forward - possibly to completion. Aim is to continue it at 9.30/10 as before if anyone is playing the game and interested in seeing coop in play then shoot me a trust email and you can either come in just for the session or join it. How much you get involved is up to you from spectating to taking part in our grand plan to conquer the universe :)

Tals

p.s would also allow us to test this manage players option :)
 
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