New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.722_AI_Wave_Balance
You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.
This one has a few last performance improvements (this time just for when you are showing ship ranges), and it also includes some mod updates and a few fixes like not letting you go into negative hacking points anymore (thanks, Dominus!).
The star of the show with this one is definitely the faster, stronger waves from the AI. As documented in the release notes at some length, waves were incredibly underpowered before to the point that they were all but a non-presence in the game. This version changes that, substantially, so that waves are now actually a factor and you have more than the Hunter to worry about when it comes to defending border worlds. I experimented with a number of other changes, such as more aggressive mark-leveling for the AI, but backed off of those. I did give the player more forcefields on their homeworld, though -- that is needed in the case of early bomber assault waves.
Overall there's a huge amount of extra danger in the game now, from different angles of attack than we've been seeing for a while. Given the insane boosts to the players' power, particularly in the early game, this should hopefully balance that out a bit AND make waves an interesting part of the game again. There has been talk of also increasing the number of guardians the AI gets, but that feels like overkill to me at this particular moment.
I'll be very curious to hear how balance feels, in a broad sense, to folks who play at different difficulty levels. This beta branch is not intended to make the game harder (per se), but is intended to make more strategies viable, more techs viable, and have more varied games as a whole. How's it feeling this build?