It is already December, with another new version uploaded for the upcoming Zenith Remnants expansion! What is new in this version? Three new units, revert from .NET 3.5 back to .NET 2.0, a font change, various balance revisions, and new planet graphics. Please head on over to the forums because of the character limit Steam imposes on the announcement for more complete information.
Important! This version of the game now uses .NET 2.0 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa731542.aspx) instead of .NET 3.5. Please see http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2541.msg15801.html#msg15801 for more information.
The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar2001P.zip
The topic is available at http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2541.0.html
What's new since 2.001N:
-All remaining usages of LINQ have been replaced with raw list sorts instead, which are faster.
-The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is now used instead of the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Again, please see the corresponding post on why this was done!
-A new font is now used for the game text, giving it a more professional sci-fi look: Gputeks.
-The resource display has been adjusted a bit with how the unused metal/crystal harvester spots and the exhausted science labs show. These should now be easier to see at a glance.
-The function of F1 has been altered somewhat to account for the large amount of new ships in the game:
F1: Cycle through pages of planetary summary help icons.
Shift+F1: Jump back to the non-help view of the planetary summary.
-Planets that are cloaked via a planetary cloaking device now have a special cloaked graphic for the planet itself.
-There are now two different destroyed planet graphics that are used for various destroyed planets.
-Three new general-use planet graphics have been added to the game.
-Previously, damage smoke could give away the position of large damaged ships on planets that a player did not have visibility to. Fixed.
-In the past release, the starting color of players was not being shown correctly in the lobby. Fixed.
-A wide variety of new player colors have been added.
-Previously, non-combat ships were drawing an attack range. Fixed.
-The version number of the game is now shown on the splash screen as the game is loading; this should make it more obvious to players what version they are running when questions come up.
-Mismatched versions now properly indicate to player on joining a lobby that they do not have the same version as the host does (instead of an empty lobby).
-The expansion-related text has been moved into a more final format that will be easier to handle with localization partners.
-The effectiveness of melee ships is no longer decreased by their being under protecting force fields.
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Zenith Viral Shredder. Melee ship that generates build points as it attacks, spawning a free copy of itself when enough are accumulated.
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Impulse Reaction Emitter. Attacks with ammo that reacts with enemy energy sources, doing much higher damage to ships with higher energy usage.
-New Ship Class (expansion only): Acid Sprayer. Fires an acid shot at close range. Excellent at dissolving organic components found in all Zenith ships.
-The metal/crystal costs of core ships normalized to 3x the cost of the mark iv version of its ship type.
-The StrongWeak.xml export now only includes the actual main ship types and bonus ship types once again, as intended.
Changes from prior prereleases.
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-IKP_VulcanDiamond and IKP_RockyDarkMoon have been updated by the author.
-Zenith Mirrors are now unable to reflect missile attacks.
-Cutlasses and Vampires now have a bit of a bonus against Zenith Mirrors.
Updates in version P:
- The description of the Impulse Reaction Emitter has been corrected.
-Players may now customize their in-game font.