New beta build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Multiplayer_Alpha_And_Beta#Beta_2.748_Defaults_And_Fixes
You need to use the current_beta branch on Steam or GOG to play this one. If you have trouble with it, there is a most_recent_stable_beta, now, too.
This release is not SUPER exciting, but it fixes a few issues with recent betas with exceptions popping up when you started quickstarts in particular. Those were actually a group of cross-threading issues that I introduced when I made the game start having more up to date information on the galaxy map even before the first unpause, so it's nice to have those worked out.
The game also is now able to reset you to the defaults on more settings (selectively, when we need it to) if your game version is older than whatever the current is. We use this sort of feature to make sure that if you were playing, say, a year ago (or even a month ago or a week ago at this point) and you come back, you don't have very stale non-default values for something important. We just get you to the new default, and then you can further tune it to whatever (back to what it was if you prefer), but overall you don't miss an important balance shift because of old savegame or last-lobby-settings data.
Most relevantly this is for the home human settlements and cryo pods. We give you TONS more of those now by default, and that's important to the early economy so that you're not so metal-starved. But a lot of people were going to miss that until we added this.
This release also fixes a typo that had messed up Ambush Turret balance, and restructures the sniper unit group to be more useful to more people. Sniper turrets, etc, are all untouched, and those are far easier to get in the prior-to-beta versions, so if you really liked the old sniper behavior, you should still have ready access to it. But now more people have more options in a variety of ways.
In DLC2 work, chain lightning: https://youtu.be/wVGZhGtxtBM