vean
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AI War 2 is the sequel to 2009's AI War Fleet Command. Like the original, AI War 2 is a real-time strategy game with elements of tower defense and grand strategy that pits you against a smart and deadly AI.
Also like the original, AI War 2 is an asymmetric game. The AI does not play by your rules: it is much more powerful than you, has no supplies you can disrupt, and its resources are literally infinite. Your successes strengthen the AI's focus on you, requiring you to balance immediate needs against long term costs.
AI War 2 is the story of humanity and our allies 353 years after the First AI War. Preparations made against the AI's return failed, and now the AI is fighting the entire galaxy at the same time. It is winning. You control one of the last effective fighting forces in the Milky Way. Soon the AI will have nothing distracting it from dealing with you. The AI has blind spots and vulnerabilities it has forgotten in the years since it escaped human control. Find them and you might survive, or destroy the AI once and for all.
AI War 2 is going to be a lot of fun, and we're going all out to make the game: our design document explains our vision for AI War 2's initial release (henceforth 1.0) with as many specifics as we can think of. Now we need your help to fund the game.
- Private alpha access in January 2017.
- Public Early Access in May 2017. Available on Steam at a price of $30 for the duration on EA.
- Version 1.0 in October 2017. Available on Steam and other services at a price of $20 from then on.
Arcen Games is excited to announce AI War 2 will release in Early Access on Steam October 18th for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms!
AI War 2 is a grand strategy/RTS hybrid against an overwhelming, inhuman enemy who has conquered the galaxy. The enemy has made only a single error: underestimating you. You must steal as much technology as you can, take enough territory to fortify your bases and launch your attacks. But every conquest you make turns the attention of the AI ever more in your direction... so choose your targets with care.
AI War 2 is the epic sequel to 2009's space strategy hit, AI War: Fleet Command -- critically acclaimed for its dastardly AI and totaling nearly 2 million units sold, with more than 650,000 base game sales and 1.15m expansion purchases made to date.
What's New and What Are We Working On?
We still have a lot we want to add, and even more we want to polish, but the current version of AI War 2 is already vast:
AI War 2 will retail for $19.99 in Early Access, with a discount planned for launch week.
- Many optional factions, each with their own goals and strategy, creating a living galaxy.
- Polished gameplay mechanics, representing everything learned from the original AI War: Fleet Command's six expansions.
- Redesigned UI, currently going through iterations.
- Over 1700 lines of spoken dialogue from more than 25 actors, and more to come for the AI itself.
- 1.5 hours of new music added to the 4.5 hour score included from the original AI War: Fleet Command.
- A ton of map types, with a lot of sub-options to make them even more varied.
- Crazy moddability, with many levers available in easily-accessible XML.
- Multiplayer is temporarily disabled, but still being implemented.
- Multithreading for modern performance, and a codebase that will not summon an elder god.
The launch date of AI War 2 -- October 22nd, 2019 -- is the 10-year anniversary of AI War Classic coming to Steam, which was the catalyst for me becoming a full-time game developer. So much has changed in the industry since then, and it was really daunting to try to keep to the spirit of the original while modernizing it. To keep its depth while shaving off a lot of the learning curve.
We wound up automating or removing a surprising amount of small tedious tasks from the first game -- goodbye build queues and manual scouting -- while at the same time adding in more than we ever expected. The AI is smarter than ever, you get more (and more varied) units, there are deep and exciting entire new alien factions that we had never imagined back when we started this project, and in general the rabbit hole goes as deep as you choose.
There are in-game tutorials that you can play, but there's also a lot of written material in the "How To Play" in-game wiki. It includes a whole section specifically for returning players so they can get up and going as quickly as possible.
My final thought: bear in mind that this has a bit of roguelike DNA, like the first game did. You'll have the most fun if you go in with the attitude that it's okay to get your ass kicked. Thinking on your feet against an adaptable, ever-changing opponent is rather literally the name of the game. Win or lose, I hope you have a number of "aha" moments as you see places to exercise your own cleverness. For me as a designer, it's those moments that make the stories I most enjoy reading about.
It's been a long road, but our playtesters in Early Access are finally seeming to agree that this game surpasses the original, so it's been a very worthwhile endeavor.
Very Best,
Chris Park
What's exactly different about it besides the 3D graphics?