2543 commanders purchased the game as of this writing ːsteamhappyː
The road to v1.0 is looking good!
New Skirmish AI
Skirmish has been one of the most complained about features. Therefore, it has been wiped off the face of the earth, and I implemented a new version from scratch. This version is more future-proof and I am 100% confident I will be able to tweak it to perfection.
For now, the AI has no ability to cheat, as it is limited by its resources, and can't access resource fields that it hasn't organically explored. This also applies to enemy buildings which remain unaccessible unless explored. The difficulty is handled by tweaking army drafts and attack frequency.
Disaster recovery
The new AI is much better at recovering from catastrophe. It will try to keep protective forces in all its bases, and anything that is destroyed will be rebuilt. It also has the capacity to defend using turrets, so it's much harder to surprise attack it with few units.
Expansion
It finally supports expansion in all possible scenarios. Not only when it finds a new resource field, but also if one of the existing fields is depleted. And it will take care of its expansions properly, by parking defensive forces and building turrets.
Persistence
The AI is useless if you can't save the game and resume at any point. So the new system is save-game compatible. HOWEVER, I still didn't implement some serialization hooks, so for the next couple of days you will still see some issues when saving a skirmish game. They will definitely be fixed by next week.
New Skirmish Maps (6 Players)
Alex has completed making the first set of 6 Player maps. These are not in the game yet, but should be in over the next couple of days. After this, he will start thinking about the campaign in a way that comprehensively takes the player feedback into account.
Version 0.2.44
show construction radius when deploying a base (and on selected bases)
show buildings and units attack ranges
make resource field indicators more subtle
add Load Last Save button to in-game menu
New Terrain Engine
I am experimenting with a new terrain system which should dramatically improve the visual quality of the game, without losing the uniqueness and colorfulness of the style. We will have more natural looking cliffs and way more natural elements diversity.
Gamescom
Alex will be at Gamescom, so if you are there, it would be cool to get togheter IRL. I will watch it from afar, as I have been to the Montreal comicon last month and I consider that I had my dose of conferences until further notice ːsteamhappyː (Join the discord if you want to talk to any of us!)
See you soon Commanders!
-Amine