New build! https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=AI_War_2:Post_Completion#5.008_Xenophiles_And_Outguard
v5.008 includes the fix to the lobby bug in the prior build, and thus also all the other improvements are back from the prior build. Big thanks to Tom Prince for finding that one-character bug of mine.
But also in this build are just piles and piles of new goodies. In no particular order:
Lots of DLC3 updates, many of them Necromancer-related, ranging from balancing tuning from Zeus to quality of life and bugfixes from Tom Prince.
The Skirmisher AI has been heavily nerfed after player feedback, thanks to CRCGamer.
SirLimbo has more updates on the new prototype version of the tooltips (there's a personal settings option to preview it if you want), and Tom Prince also had some new additions there.
Brutal Guardians in DLC3 now have a lot better options for configuring them, thanks for SirLimbo (their original creator).
And then holy cow, there's a whole "Xenophile" update, mostly to the base game, thanks to Arnaud B, a longtime contributor. This has a few bugfixes, but mainly a giant list of balance updates to everything from the Zenith Dyson Sphere (to bring it up to interestingness levels along the lines of the Spire Spheres), the Dyson Ships, the Dark Spire, and Risk Analyzers. He ran these changes by me first, and it's the sort of thing that looks to really enhance the existing factions versus making them fundamentally different, so that was an easy thumbs up from me.
Then we have a new mod called Outguard Party, from first-time modder, long-time tester, Dismiss. This basically makes the Outguard almost-free to acquire, so that it's a lot more fun/interesting to experiment with them. I'd always avoided doing something like this for fear of balance implications, but as a mod this is a really great way to allow more experimentation in that area... and it may not have as notable of balance effects as I had always worried.
More to come soon.
Enjoy!