New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Finalizing_Multiplayer#3.102_The_Start_Of_Multiple_Campaign_Types
(Reminder that if you have trouble with the build, you can always go into betas and choose most_recent_stable to go one build back. This is how I sleep at night after making some major changes.)
This one is a pretty huge departure from our recent work! We still have more fixes and tuning that we will be doing (and there is a fair bit of that actually in this build as well), but the major new focus in this release is the START of us having more than one campaign type.
Back when we did the big Paradigm Shift (v2.8) build a few months ago, that made the game vastly more palatable to most players. Speaking for myself, honestly that was the first time where I started truly enjoying the midgame. Before that I just played the early game, and other people's endgames.
However, this broadening of appeal -- as nice as it is -- did make the game notably easier for the players who are a lot more advanced than I am. It also simplified certain aspects of territory control to a degree that, while making for a great first 100 or 200 hours of gameplay, doesn't have true staying power for those people with hundreds of hours in the game. When this was brought to my attention, back a few months ago, my immediate thought was: different campaign types. There's no way to serve all players with one mode.
The modes, in general, are now outlined in the release notes above. I'll write more about them in the future, when they're closer to finished. There's also some excellent pinned posts about them on discord: https://discordapp.com/channels/240637654717300736/851583269682282587/851887957861990410
Plus that's a great spot to discuss the new modes in general.
Balance: lone wolf fleets are no longer a separate category. Fleet bonuses are denied to golems. Stats are more accurate on siege frigates. Other bits.
More to come soon.
Enjoy!