The other huge thing in 2011 that made it an unusually record-breaking year was the Daily Deal slot in the Steam Summer Sale. Holy smokes, we made around $136,000.00 in 24 hours with that. Never before or since have we made that much in that short of a period of time. That was averaging $94 per minute for 24 hours, which is just crazy.
The other huge thing in 2011 that made it an unusually record-breaking year was the Daily Deal slot in the Steam Summer Sale. Holy smokes, we made around $136,000.00 in 24 hours with that. Never before or since have we made that much in that short of a period of time. That was averaging $94 per minute for 24 hours, which is just crazy.
Must, resist, urge, to post, loadsamoney video.
Also I'm Royal Canterlot Voice on steam if anyone is playing this. I don't really understand it but I'll happily be that inept commander you all curse ever being put incharge of anything come co-op time.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
That's pretty much everybody in a coop game. I have yet to play a coop session where commanders weren't running around at cross purposes, alarming the hell out of the AI and thus creating doomtastic situations for everyone. Pretty fun stuff!
The other huge thing in 2011 that made it an unusually record-breaking year was the Daily Deal slot in the Steam Summer Sale. Holy smokes, we made around $136,000.00 in 24 hours with that. Never before or since have we made that much in that short of a period of time. That was averaging $94 per minute for 24 hours, which is just crazy.
That has got to be one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time about a indie studio.
Thanks.
Origin: Broncbuster
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
The only other development team that I know of that's as forthcoming and transparent about the business side of what they do is Hitbox, the Dustforce devs. It's pretty refreshing stuff and at the same time breathtaking in the risks that these guys have to take to do what they love.
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
The AI has reached new heights of villainy!
4 Warp Counterattack guard posts
2 Spire Shield guard posts
4 Forcefield generators
All on top of an attackboosting command center
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
Haha wow.
Two Spire Shield Gens and all those Guardians. Looks like a job for Plasma Siege Starships and Bomber Starships backed up with a whole bunch of fleet ships.
Man... two Spire Shield Gens... dick move man. Dick move.
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
I ended up dropping an EMP missile III in the system, was able to clear out all the bubbles before it wore off.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
Yeah, I can see campaigns with VotM active being a bit more happy on the Warhead side of things. The AIP associated with their use usually makes me wary of them unless I'm really stumped on something.
Those AI Subcommander worlds look like prime candidates for getting hit with the big weapons.
Yeah, I adore Arcen. Their games are so weird and so creative and stupidly complex I can't help it. I literally buy everything they release sight unseen.
I have all their games, including Skyward Collapse. And in all of the except A Valley Without Wind, I uniformly play for about 1/2 an hour, hit info overload at the sheer amount of stuff, and quit.
AI War is the worst offender. I can see there's a great game here it just doesn't click for me.
I don't think I can invite people to the Steam group. Only NEO can.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
I'm pretty sure I set the group so that all members can invite. If trying to invite Docken is failing, that may be because I already sent him an invite.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
edited June 2013
Just spotted another new toy the AI gets.
You know those AI Eyes some systems have, where if you outnumber the local forces by more than 2:1, it turns on and starts doing shit? There's a nuke version.
:edit: and just spotted a version that launches an attack wave, too.
NEO|Phyte on
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
I'd take an invite to the steam group if someone has the time. My steam link is my sig, I'll accept it when I get home from work.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Progress on ending the AI menace:
Overall progress has been slow of late, due to my not wanting to claim strategically valuable systems until I'm at a point where I can advance my bulwark to properly protect them. I need to claim one of the P7 systems (Core shield gen Bs, also advanced factory/starport) and two of the P8 systems (Core shield gen A, also advanced science ship) before the AI homeworlds are vulnerable. Blue will be my first victim, as they are closest, at which point I can finally advance my bulwark past its current position.
For the curious, P6 designations are those AI subprocessor whatever things where they're +20 progress each, and -120 progress once they're all gone.
P5 designations are Fabricators/turret controllers.
P4s are those AI databanks that drop progress by 20
The lone P3 has a black hole machine that serves as a backup bulwark in case the AI manages to bypass the main one.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Man, I love AI Wars, it's such a complex and difficult and frustrating and fulfilling game.
The only problem is time. It seems like it's nothing to sink 20-30 hours into a single game. It's definitely not a game you can really play if you can only sink 15 minutes here, an hour there, into it. I just don't have that time anymore to play...AI War is what I would play when my daughter was a baby and would take naps. Now that she's older and I don't have a four day workweek, I just can't play.
Still, an excellent game that's well worth taking the time to learn. Deep and fun. Highly recommended.
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
If you have the Light of the Spire expansion you have access to an alternate Defense Campaign, zagdrob. It's designed around defending your worlds for a set time limit. Much easier to fit into a busy schedule.
Amidst all the talk of how deep, or Lovecraftian, this game is, there's a point in its favor that I've not come across. It's a remarkable thing that I think deserves mention.
The game is downright intuitive.
Sure, it takes a little bit to be introduced to a couple basic commands and to have the various units pointed out by the tutorial, but once you've got that base, it's off to the races. Now it has been mentioned that everything comes with a label, there's descriptions for everything and anything that you run into- But the neat thing is that once you've read that label, the unit is going to perform as per spec, and it'll interact with other units just the way you'd expect it to do.
You have so many tools at your disposal, and you'll likely use most of them, but they're not all that arcane by themselves. It's when you start deploying various units together that you see the potential for depth, but you can still use your troops in the classic RTS sledgehammer maneuvers you're likely used to.
It's very much a game that's difficult to master, but easy to pick up. I think that really needs to be stressed, this is not nearly so scary a game as it's sometimes made out to be. There are some rules and general guidelines to game play that are unique, but once you learn them, you can work with and bend them to create your own game experience.
I sat down, took one look at the map, and turned the game into a simulation of space trench warfare, doing exactly what I shouldn't have done by teasing the AI and causing it to send increasingly new and exciting ships to tear me apart. After losing and rebuilding a couple systems, I adjusted my thinking to allow for deep strikes, softening defenses, preventing reinforcement and neutering threatening systems. This all came fairly naturally, as the AI basically taught me what it did and did not like by smacking me on the nose with a giant space newspaper with laser guns on.
The thing is, as long as you're savvy with your defenses and occasionally pop in to take a look at your automated systems while they're under attack, you can get away with doing a lot of scouting, thinking and plotting between strikes. The sense of urgency, at least with certain AI settings, is dictated by your own pace. The game ramps up as you do, reacting to your actions in a way that's easy to predict. How, exactly, it ramps up is up to to AI and is something that will surprise you, but at the very least you'll know the hammer blow is coming.
I enjoy the medley the game offers. There's your increasingly advanced Tower Defense aspect, there's your assumption of direct control in the offensive RTS aspect, and there's the economic sensibilities and automation of your good old Total Annihilation, or Supreme Commander, if you prefer. It's a very pleasant combination, as I've found myself swapping from one focus to another as I handle new situations and plot the AI's inevitable demise.*
Also great is the music. The music is just sublime. Really well done tunes!
*This is a leetle joke. I am actually completely out of metal, and if my planned attacks fall through I stand to lose multiple systems to the counter attack, but I'm pretty sure I can neuter the nearest AI systems before my forces are depleted to a point where I can't defend myself.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if someone had told me, "AI War is fun and easy to play!", I would not have walked out of the experience a broken shell of a man.
So, is there any sort of ETA on VotM steam keys going out from the Indie Royale sale? Mostly what I bought it for.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Status update: One down, one to go.
Popped one A-Prime core shield
Popped a second, bringing the network down and rendering the homeworlds vulnerable.
Popped the first AI Homeworld.
Fortifying my new turf, as well as clearing out the AI from side branches so I can move my bulwark forward. Yes that's quite a few ships in arriving waves, I've noticed the AI has a tendency to pick the same system for its warp counterattacks, so I decided to see how many counterattack guardposts I could pop before it picks a different system. (the answer was 4)
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited June 2013
Arcen sent the keys to the bundle guys a little while ago. So basically it's up to whenever the bundle guys put the keys into the bundle key pages.
Also, I totally agree with you Basil. I've tried to communicate that idea more than once but never as clearly as you just did.
NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Things that have left me rather underwhelmed:
Decided to run a ship design hack on the final ARS because why I was interested to see just what the AI does when you hack at "Forest Fire" response level, and the response seems to be a persistent text box sitting above the unit list box that says "UnhandledErrors", along with nothing else. No spawns of zombie ships or anything, just the number on the hacker going down.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
Sometimes things get broken in the transition to a new version. Bound to happen with a game that sees as much updating as AI War. If you are feeling helpful you could post the issue on Arcen's bug tracker or make a post about it on their forums. Or heck you could even fire an email off to the devs.
Is there a good let's play series anyone can recommend for AI war? I've watch the tutorias by Denaries; I'm looking for a full playthrough (either to victory or defeat)
With Love and Courage
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
So maybe I'm just getting better at the whole AI crushing thing, but this felt a lot smoother than my previous runs. Gotta say the new turret controller bits you can commandeer are nice, mk V turrets on a per-planet cap? Yes please.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
So maybe I'm just getting better at the whole AI crushing thing, but this felt a lot smoother than my previous runs. Gotta say the new turret controller bits you can commandeer are nice, mk V turrets on a per-planet cap? Yes please.
The Turret Controllers definitely let me feel like I don't need to lock myself down to a single chokepoint so much. An isolated planet can not only drop a set of turrets that are just about equivalent to a full cap of MkI-IIIs, but it can also drop them on all the adjacent planets too, providing hefty layers of defense. I think that the controllers may be a little too far on the overpowered side, and perhaps the roles should be reversed, with the Controllers giving you a (larger) number of turrets you can use to reinforce key worlds, but the base unlocks having per-planet caps so that you are able to keep relatively secure borders (but at a higher cost). Also: the MkV sniper turrets are pretty amazing.
On the other hand, the Hunter plot option is a bit crazy-bananas. Or maybe it's because I slapped it onto a Special Forces AI type... either way, it was a fleetball of over 6000 ships at one point, with a couple dozen Disassembler guardians. I've had to dodge that thing multiple times lest it roll over my fleet. Makes the AI a little scarier.
Also, those special command stations can be NASTY. Had one with four counterattacks sitting on top of a nasty railgun station with about four shields covering the whole thing. The planet was guarding the Botnet golem, and the only way I could crack it was to drop an EMP and blow up the posts and command station before the shields came back up. Definitely an interesting addition.
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
So, looking at the achievement list, I am wondering how on earth you're supposed to get a champion up to level 50, I only managed up to 30 in my 81-world game, and that was with every nebula cleared and regular use of my champion in general.
Unless XP values scale when multiple champions are present.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
So I caved and bought the full bundle. This game is going to break my shit sideways, isn't it?
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
It is gonna push your shit in nice and tight and you will love every moment of it, especially when things start to click and you start to push back.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Although not AI War related directly, Arcen Games have been working on their 7th game. From a blog post yesterday.
Keith is working away on the coding and implementation for Bionic Dues, and we’re working on finding colorists for the game (we’ve already got a sketch artist doing awesome work for it). And Keith and I are tag-teaming the design there. It’s coming along well I think, and it’s definitely an exciting project for us. A turn-based tactical… kind of roguelike-ish… strategic… thing. I’ll get better at describing it before we start a beta for it. That one probably will come out in October for 1.0, and probably in late August or early September for beta.
Turn-based tactical roguelike-ish strategic thing? He may joke about not describing it well, but he just sold a copy right there. Not all of their games catch on like AI War has and Skyward Collapse most recently did, but that sounds like something I could really get into and hope sells well enough that it gets as much support as AI War is getting.
This is on sale - the whole shebang for under $5- so I snagged it.
Interesting stuff.
My favorite thing about it is the soundtrack.
Currently have a strong campaign going - I rolled Zenith Autobombs as my extra starting unit. I've been waging a blitzkrieg with them - just took a deep level VI planet with a fab, an advanced research station, and a spider golem at like the 25 minute mark. Other damage inflicted across the galaxy includes at least 2 Datacenters and four or five of the supply dump things that give you monies.
I'm not sure how I can lose this campaign, as I can pretty much cover the entire galaxy this way and cherry-pick only the best systems to take while keeping the AI Progress in the ~20 range.
... what's my win condition, anyway?
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NEO|PhyteThey follow the stars, bound together.Strands in a braid till the end.Registered Userregular
Assuming you don't have any alternate win conditions enabled, your win condition is destroying both AI home command centers.
It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Posts
Must, resist, urge, to post, loadsamoney video.
Also I'm Royal Canterlot Voice on steam if anyone is playing this. I don't really understand it but I'll happily be that inept commander you all curse ever being put incharge of anything come co-op time.
That has got to be one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time about a indie studio.
Thanks.
Origin: Broncbuster
And Sold:
http://www.arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AVWW_-_Multiplayer
Come on Summer Dale!
Last non-AI War Post I promise.
Origin: Broncbuster
4 Warp Counterattack guard posts
2 Spire Shield guard posts
4 Forcefield generators
All on top of an attackboosting command center
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Two Spire Shield Gens and all those Guardians. Looks like a job for Plasma Siege Starships and Bomber Starships backed up with a whole bunch of fleet ships.
Man... two Spire Shield Gens... dick move man. Dick move.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Those AI Subcommander worlds look like prime candidates for getting hit with the big weapons.
AI War is the worst offender. I can see there's a great game here it just doesn't click for me.
Might be worthwhile to set up a huge map with several human players and just let anyone come and go as it runs
Edit - if either Tycho or Neo can invite me, that would be good...
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Thanks for the invite.
You know those AI Eyes some systems have, where if you outnumber the local forces by more than 2:1, it turns on and starts doing shit? There's a nuke version.
:edit: and just spotted a version that launches an attack wave, too.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Overall progress has been slow of late, due to my not wanting to claim strategically valuable systems until I'm at a point where I can advance my bulwark to properly protect them. I need to claim one of the P7 systems (Core shield gen Bs, also advanced factory/starport) and two of the P8 systems (Core shield gen A, also advanced science ship) before the AI homeworlds are vulnerable. Blue will be my first victim, as they are closest, at which point I can finally advance my bulwark past its current position.
For the curious, P6 designations are those AI subprocessor whatever things where they're +20 progress each, and -120 progress once they're all gone.
P5 designations are Fabricators/turret controllers.
P4s are those AI databanks that drop progress by 20
The lone P3 has a black hole machine that serves as a backup bulwark in case the AI manages to bypass the main one.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
The only problem is time. It seems like it's nothing to sink 20-30 hours into a single game. It's definitely not a game you can really play if you can only sink 15 minutes here, an hour there, into it. I just don't have that time anymore to play...AI War is what I would play when my daughter was a baby and would take naps. Now that she's older and I don't have a four day workweek, I just can't play.
Still, an excellent game that's well worth taking the time to learn. Deep and fun. Highly recommended.
The game is downright intuitive.
Sure, it takes a little bit to be introduced to a couple basic commands and to have the various units pointed out by the tutorial, but once you've got that base, it's off to the races. Now it has been mentioned that everything comes with a label, there's descriptions for everything and anything that you run into- But the neat thing is that once you've read that label, the unit is going to perform as per spec, and it'll interact with other units just the way you'd expect it to do.
You have so many tools at your disposal, and you'll likely use most of them, but they're not all that arcane by themselves. It's when you start deploying various units together that you see the potential for depth, but you can still use your troops in the classic RTS sledgehammer maneuvers you're likely used to.
It's very much a game that's difficult to master, but easy to pick up. I think that really needs to be stressed, this is not nearly so scary a game as it's sometimes made out to be. There are some rules and general guidelines to game play that are unique, but once you learn them, you can work with and bend them to create your own game experience.
I sat down, took one look at the map, and turned the game into a simulation of space trench warfare, doing exactly what I shouldn't have done by teasing the AI and causing it to send increasingly new and exciting ships to tear me apart. After losing and rebuilding a couple systems, I adjusted my thinking to allow for deep strikes, softening defenses, preventing reinforcement and neutering threatening systems. This all came fairly naturally, as the AI basically taught me what it did and did not like by smacking me on the nose with a giant space newspaper with laser guns on.
The thing is, as long as you're savvy with your defenses and occasionally pop in to take a look at your automated systems while they're under attack, you can get away with doing a lot of scouting, thinking and plotting between strikes. The sense of urgency, at least with certain AI settings, is dictated by your own pace. The game ramps up as you do, reacting to your actions in a way that's easy to predict. How, exactly, it ramps up is up to to AI and is something that will surprise you, but at the very least you'll know the hammer blow is coming.
I enjoy the medley the game offers. There's your increasingly advanced Tower Defense aspect, there's your assumption of direct control in the offensive RTS aspect, and there's the economic sensibilities and automation of your good old Total Annihilation, or Supreme Commander, if you prefer. It's a very pleasant combination, as I've found myself swapping from one focus to another as I handle new situations and plot the AI's inevitable demise.*
Also great is the music. The music is just sublime. Really well done tunes!
*This is a leetle joke. I am actually completely out of metal, and if my planned attacks fall through I stand to lose multiple systems to the counter attack, but I'm pretty sure I can neuter the nearest AI systems before my forces are depleted to a point where I can't defend myself.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if someone had told me, "AI War is fun and easy to play!", I would not have walked out of the experience a broken shell of a man.
Popped one A-Prime core shield
Popped a second, bringing the network down and rendering the homeworlds vulnerable.
Popped the first AI Homeworld.
Fortifying my new turf, as well as clearing out the AI from side branches so I can move my bulwark forward. Yes that's quite a few ships in arriving waves, I've noticed the AI has a tendency to pick the same system for its warp counterattacks, so I decided to see how many counterattack guardposts I could pop before it picks a different system. (the answer was 4)
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Also, I totally agree with you Basil. I've tried to communicate that idea more than once but never as clearly as you just did.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
The Turret Controllers definitely let me feel like I don't need to lock myself down to a single chokepoint so much. An isolated planet can not only drop a set of turrets that are just about equivalent to a full cap of MkI-IIIs, but it can also drop them on all the adjacent planets too, providing hefty layers of defense. I think that the controllers may be a little too far on the overpowered side, and perhaps the roles should be reversed, with the Controllers giving you a (larger) number of turrets you can use to reinforce key worlds, but the base unlocks having per-planet caps so that you are able to keep relatively secure borders (but at a higher cost). Also: the MkV sniper turrets are pretty amazing.
On the other hand, the Hunter plot option is a bit crazy-bananas. Or maybe it's because I slapped it onto a Special Forces AI type... either way, it was a fleetball of over 6000 ships at one point, with a couple dozen Disassembler guardians. I've had to dodge that thing multiple times lest it roll over my fleet. Makes the AI a little scarier.
Also, those special command stations can be NASTY. Had one with four counterattacks sitting on top of a nasty railgun station with about four shields covering the whole thing. The planet was guarding the Botnet golem, and the only way I could crack it was to drop an EMP and blow up the posts and command station before the shields came back up. Definitely an interesting addition.
Unless XP values scale when multiple champions are present.
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
The clicking isn't normal, you might want to see a doctor about that.
edit: And now for something actually relevant. The steam keys for Vengeance of the Machine are up on your Indie Royale bundle page.
Turn-based tactical roguelike-ish strategic thing? He may joke about not describing it well, but he just sold a copy right there. Not all of their games catch on like AI War has and Skyward Collapse most recently did, but that sounds like something I could really get into and hope sells well enough that it gets as much support as AI War is getting.
Interesting stuff.
My favorite thing about it is the soundtrack.
Currently have a strong campaign going - I rolled Zenith Autobombs as my extra starting unit. I've been waging a blitzkrieg with them - just took a deep level VI planet with a fab, an advanced research station, and a spider golem at like the 25 minute mark. Other damage inflicted across the galaxy includes at least 2 Datacenters and four or five of the supply dump things that give you monies.
I'm not sure how I can lose this campaign, as I can pretty much cover the entire galaxy this way and cherry-pick only the best systems to take while keeping the AI Progress in the ~20 range.
... what's my win condition, anyway?
Warframe/Steam: NFyt
Hmmm...