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 AI War is the award-winning flagship title of Arcen Games, released in 2009. Six expansions were added, with the last coming out in 2014. Just recently, the sequel AI War 2 entered Early Access. I hope it does well, since a lot of Arcen's other titles haven't and I think they really need this one to be a success. AI War is a very complex strategy game, and is the only release-version title on which I have ever lost the tutorial. It plays differently than literally anything else, so if you've never experienced it before be prepared for that. Officially, it's a 'Grand Strategy 4X Tower Defense RTS'. A lolwutnow? Yep, precisely. For more information see the AI War Wiki Backstory The Human Civil War is over, having lasted eight centuries. It ended when the increasingly sophisticated AIs we created to manage the destructive conflict for us first learned how to cooperate, and showed us how powerful that cooperation could be - by uniting AGAINST us. Only a small remnant of humanity remains, while the bulk of the AI forces have left the galaxy to pursue more pressing goals than finishing us off, whatever those may be. Still, what they left behind, under a pair of AI Commanders, is still vastly superior to us. We must survive long enough in a desperate post-war struggle to recover and defeat them, before they complete the job. One side or the other is going to be utterly destroyed, and soon. It falls to the player to command this uphill battle for survival. Hasn't this been done? Well, yes and no. RockyB did an excellent SSLP a few years ago that is in the Archives. However, it's also quite a pretty high-level one and despite his best efforts, that's a lot of stuff for people to absorb. More broadly, there are a number of YouTube series about AI War but not as many as you might think. Most are on the default difficulty or below(there's a good reason for that - this is not an easy game and it can be ruthless even on the easiest settings if you screw up - hence the mentioned tutorial loss). Others are versions of 'heh, I'm going taking on this game on super-hard settings to see how quickly it smacks me around' with predictable consequences, along with a tutorial series which is fantastic but also throws too much at the player IMO. There's a number of holes in that body of work, and my aim is to fill some of them here. LP Format? Normally I go hybrid, but this is going to be strictly a video LP with hopefully coherent and vaguely tolerable rambling by yours truly. Feel free to cry about that as much as you want, I know a lot of people like screenshots, as do I - but I'm not changing my mind on this. It's my preferred way to do and read LPs myself, but it just won't work effectively here. I think the archived LP shows the limitations, but there's a lot of zooming in and out to see various things, and a great deal of AI War is lost when you don't see it in motion. I'll be breaking this up into 'bite-size' sections, 20-minute videos at most is the goal. Along with that, I'll be uploading at least twice a week, and maybe eventually more often depending on how things go. Spoilers? For unit types, have at it. Story elements, use the tags in case people other than me want that stuff revealed as we progress, but otherwhise go for it as well. LP Scope? As is my tradition, I plan to be fairly comprehensive here. I'll start with a beginner-level, tutorialish game with a stripped-down-to-the-basics setup, then proceed to escalating levels of complexity and difficulty until I hit whatever my limits are in the game. I've been waiting for the time to do this LP to proceed further, because I want to 'climb the ladder' and learn as I go through this - the journey of discovery is a rewarding part of things for me. I expect several playthroughs to eventually come out of this project, all of them significantly different, and there will be setbacks and defeats as well as successes. LP Index This shtuff has already happened so far. Beginner Walkthrough 5/5 Difficulty, stripped-down setup with most optional things off Beginner Walkthrough #1(Intro & Setup Options) First Steps Ships & Scouting Basics AI Planets & AI Progress Humanity Strikes Back Hacking & AI Reinforcement Scouting Strategic Assessment End of the Beginning Fabricators & Tachyon Raiding Upping the Ante Advanced Facilities Closing the Net Final Preparations Victory! Vanilla Standard 7/7 The 'default' AI War experience with most optionals turned on but not all Setup & Scouting Defending the Kahuna Way Even the Planets Have Eyes Battle of Tethys Beachheading Massalia Mid-game Multi-tasking Planning & Neutering Elektra Data Center Hunting Cleanup Punching Through Approaching Slaan Slaan Beginnings Tug of War Slaan Still Lives Slaan's Last Laugh The Zenith Remnant The first expansion, which adds variety and GOLEMS and other fun stuff. 7.3 'still normal' difficulty Zenith Remnant Intro Traders, Mirrors, and More A Series of Unfortunate Golems Vampire Claws SUCK! A Plan Finally Emerges Seizing the Initiative Venus Convention Power, Unlimited POWER! Ambush at Geonosis All Their Ships Are Belong To Us A New Rebellion March of the Golems Superterminal, Bane of Framerate Avenger, We Hardly Knew Ye The Last Battle Neinzul Knife-fight! Children of Neinzul 'micro-expansion', which explores the 'sentient fruit flies' of the galaxy. 7.6 'Moderate' difficulty on a minimal 10-planet map for a quick, frenetic game.  Neinzul Knife-fight Intro Two for the Price of … Uh, Two Release the Blasted Weapons! Core Resistance The Maginot Line, in SPAAAACE Is This the End? A Photo Finish  Fallen Spire Stepping up to the 'semi-pro' level of competition now with the Light of the Spire, big third expansion which explores another race and adds a bunch of things for both human and AIs, another entire campaign mode, and an alternate path to victory. 8.0 'Hard' difficulty at which the gloves are now completely off. Something Spirelike This Way Comes Blitzkrieg! Spirecraft Ahoy! Two Can Play at the Warhead Game Facing the Exos Utapau and Back Again Look Before You Leap The Spire Lives! A New AI Trick Spire Logistics & Cryptic Hints Scouting and Escalations Surgical Strike Casualties & Revelations Spire Hacking, Meet Cookie Monster The Fifth Hub A Capitol For Exaron Recovering the Core Last, Desperate Defense, Part I Last, Desperate Defense Part II Go Drunk Spirecraft, You're Home. Literally. Shut the Front Door Defender Mode The alternate pure tower defense mode introduced in Light of the Spire for a shorter, more intense game of AI War. Its, uh, really different. I'm not good at it. Watch me prove it, if you're sadistic. Defender Mode Flop Royal Buttkicking Fallen Spire Pure Redux A no-frills, normal 7/7 difficulty run in a Concentric galaxy. I WILL see the alternate FS win condition. I hope. The Fallen Spire Returns Hektor!!! Revealing the Galaxy Getting Down to Business Assembling the Fleet Behold the Might of the Spire! A Swift Conclusion Champion Adventures The fourth expansion, Ancient Shadows, brings forth a 'hero unit', complete with upgradable modules, its own campaign, and all sorts of other tomfoolery. And that's just part of the surprises in store as I go for a more methodical, super-low-AIP approach.  Ancient Shadows Intro Beachheads Suck The Champion's New Clothes The Shattered Pillar Attack of the Infinite Drones Antagonize This! Premature Retirement Champion Reboot Let's try this again - this time with a more limited set of optional add-ons Focused Champion Reboot Miner Mayhem A Slow, Steady Grind Kamikaze Colony Ships? Mourners & Cruisers Over the Raiding Hump A Sizable Roadblock Outwitting the Ravenous Shadow Close Call(s) Battleships Ahoy! AI Masterstroke? Raiding Tour of the Galaxy Neptune's Folly Finishing the Job SuperTerminal, Part Deux Themis, Part I Themis & The Aftermath Coruscant: The Early Years Coruscant Continued Submission  Spirecraft Showdown Vengeance of the Machine, the 5th expansion, brings the Showdown alternate win condition, Dire Guardians, Dual AIs, Planetary Subcommanders, and the usual assortment of bells and whistles to an already-packed environment. 8.0/Hard Spirecraft Showdown Teeth of the Tigers I HATE HKs. Why are there HKs? Ramming Speed!! … or Not Return to Quaoar Deploy the Sentinels! Over the Hump? Showdown Snippet (22:56) Another Piece of the Puzzle (19:10) Shredding the Opposition (28:20) Outmaneuvering Sindai (30:06) Pathway to Coruscant (18:57) Cliffhanger (19:16) Showdown Suprises (20:12) Bizarre Showdown Finale (22:44) Exodian Blade Exodian Blade Intro (13:04) Nomad Meeting & Shopping Spree (16:21) Guardian Grind (25:58) Reprocessing Pain (29:18) Deceptive Danger (27:54) Back on the Exodian Trail (23:25) Exile Hunt (24:45) Exodian Blade Revealed! (23:28) PITA Core Guardians (33:43) Repairing the Blade (19:37) Activating the Blade! (26:18) Double Destruction! (35:09) A Hopeless Cause (11:10) Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Apr 8, 2020 |
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Oct 31, 2018 09:50
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Beginner Walkthrough Beginner Walkthrough #1(Intro & Setup Options) I blather on a bit about my reasons for doing this series, and then we wade through the setup options. That's right, the first video is all about starting a game. Actual gameplay will begin in the next one.
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Oct 31, 2018 10:29
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I love Arcen Games. They may not be perfect, but they are very different from everything else.
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Oct 31, 2018 10:42
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Holy moly I've been waiting for an LP of this that would click with me, and here it is. Teach me how to play, Thotimx, I am bad at deciphering it and I love Arcen games and want to play their most popular game.
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Oct 31, 2018 12:40
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Count me among those who saw the previous LP, picked up the game, and ultimately found it unplayably complicated without more effort than I want to put into a casual hobby. I suspect one of my problems was that I got a Steam deal to get all the DLC packages too, which throws a ton more unit types and choices at the player. Akratic Method fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Nov 1, 2018 |
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Nov 1, 2018 04:08
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I usually bounce off of RTS games really hard, but it's a genre I'd like to at least understand better. Looking forward to seeing this; a lot of my online friends are big fans and I'm not good at seeing the appeal on my own.
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Nov 1, 2018 05:56
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The SSLP got me to buy the game and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit and playing a few MP games with goons. It's a really neat implementation of the idea of an RTS designed end-to-end for play against an asymmetric AI. Next game I recommend using moderate AI types (the easy ones tend to be boring and the hard ones just unfair) and turning on at least a couple extra factions, like golems. Golems are a lot of fun. Pure vanilla AI War is actually pretty boring once you understand the basic mechanics. Sindai fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Nov 1, 2018 |
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Nov 1, 2018 07:34
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Akratic Method posted:ultimately found it unplayably complicated without more effort than I want to put into a casual hobby I can't promise this won't happen again, but the first game is as stripped-down as it can be and still lay a reasonable foundation. StrixNebulosa posted:Teach me how to play, Thotimx, I am bad at deciphering it and I love Arcen games and want to play their most popular game. I'll do my best - there's a lot to absorb but step by step and all that. Sindai posted:Next game I recommend using moderate AI types (the easy ones tend to be boring and the hard ones just unfair) and turning on at least a couple extra factions, like golems. We'll get there, but that'd be a bit early for golems IMO. Second game I plan I doing with standard difficulty, moderate AI types, more ship types and the basic factions, but I won't be jumping in the deep end of the pool with stuff like that until later on. Walk before you run and all that. Next update in a day or two.
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Nov 1, 2018 21:06
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Excellent. I love this game - it really emphasizes the "strategy" part of RTS and is thus the only RTS I'd play now - but always feel lost. I've won a few smaller games at lower difficulties and/or map sizes. Core Shield Generators were a great feature! Keep them on even on later plays. I hope that someday you can build the level III nuclear warhead.
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Nov 1, 2018 21:44
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Oh cool! I played this a bit, got my rear end handed to me, and didn't have the patience to really get to grips with it. Happy to see someone else do it, though! e: Oh, it's you! Of course it is! drat, you're such a masochist, Thot. lofi fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Nov 2, 2018 |
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Nov 2, 2018 01:22
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Count me in as another person really interested in this. I bought this game a few years ago, started a game on difficulty 5, and then got bored and quit halfway through because it didn't seem like much of a challenge (although for all I know the endgame is way harder). I recently reread RockyB's LP and I've been thinking about giving the game another shot, so I'll be watching this.
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Nov 2, 2018 06:04
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On that, I'd posit two points: ** Difficulty 5 isn't supposed to be much of a challenge. ** Things can feel like you're easily winning, and then you can lose all of a sudden. The normal sense in a typical RTS of just getting over the hump against your opponent and then it's downhill from there really doesn't apply to AI War, which is one reason why it's an acquired taste. Hopefully I'll explain the process well enough for you to decide whether or not this is a game worth your time. rchandra posted:Core Shield Generators were a great feature! Keep them on even on later plays. I might put them on every now and then, but there's a particular fairly-advanced strat(playing for particulary-low AIP, for those who know what that means) that you can't do with CSGs on. So I'm definitely not going to use them all of the time. If others want to see them more often, I could throw them in the rotation more than I planned though. lofi posted:Oh, it's you! Of course it is! drat, you're such a masochist, Thot. LOL. Thanks! … I think. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Nov 2, 2018 |
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Nov 2, 2018 06:36
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This will be an interesting read. I picked this up years ago and tried it on lower difficulties to get a hang on how to play it. I always ended up breezing along until I suddenly got destroyed for somewhat unclear reasons.
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Nov 2, 2018 12:26
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AI War's difficulty scale is very weird. It goes from 1 to 10, but 7 is considered the normal difficulty, 6 is easy, 5 is very easy, and anything below 5 is practically a sandbox. The main counter intuitive thing about the game is that unlike most strategy games more territory isn't better. It's usually worse. Since every system you conquer increases your AI Progress, and AI Progress makes the AI launch larger attacks, the primary goal of the game is actually "take as few systems as possible in order to become strong enough to destroy the two AI homeworlds." New players tend to capture every system around them until they cross the AIP threshold that makes the next attack large enough to overwhelm their defenses.
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Nov 2, 2018 17:00
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Yep, that's pretty much what I did! That or end up with a roaming AI patrol that just wrecked everything it connected with.
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Nov 2, 2018 19:47
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Thotimx posted:I might put them on every now and then, but there's a particular fairly-advanced strat(playing for particulary-low AIP, for those who know what that means) that you can't do with CSGs on. So I'm definitely not going to use them all of the time. If others want to see them more often, I could throw them in the rotation more than I planned though. Certainly showing that strategy off is good, but it's basically an exploit (as is no AIP over time, but I do that myself). I suspect that if CSGs were in the game originally they wouldn't be optional. Well, who am I kidding. AI War makes everything optional so we can all have the game we want in there. OK, time to fire this up again and get lost. Sindai posted:AI War's difficulty scale is very weird. It goes from 1 to 10, but 7 is considered the normal difficulty, 6 is easy, 5 is very easy, and anything below 5 is practically a sandbox. I think one reason it works this way is the difficulty number is itself a parameter in various game functions. Often in the form of "Do X/(11-Diff) stuff", so as it gets closer to 10 it ramps up a lot. rchandra fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Nov 3, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 03:06
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 First Steps In which I conduct a tour of the key points of the interface & resources, blather on a bit about our primary goal and some fundamental AI War concepts, and set up beginner-level fixed defenses for our homeworld of Darkvin. Next up: actual shipbuilding and basic fleet operations, and leaving Darkvin for the first time at least for scouting purposes. Hostilities are quite likely. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Nov 3, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 07:06
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Well, I want to see how this will go and how this will end.
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Nov 4, 2018 19:31
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NHO posted:Well, I want to see how this will go and how this will end. In fire and blood. Or at least oil.
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Nov 4, 2018 19:47
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Just noticed this:Thotimx posted:Spoilers? I didn't even know AI war had a story beyond "AI bad, people good".
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Nov 4, 2018 19:50
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lofi posted:Just noticed this: Most of it is in expansions - dealing with side factions. There's even an optional story campaign you can trigger in one of them.
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Nov 4, 2018 20:22
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Cool, I've been looking for a good explanation of this.
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Nov 4, 2018 20:26
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I love AI War. It’s a solid game, and I think my favorite RTS from a mechanics standpoint. AI War 2 went into early access recently, and I just booted it up based on this thread. I’m hoping it lives up to the first. Thanks for the LP!
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Nov 4, 2018 20:29
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lofi posted:I didn't even know AI war had a story beyond "AI bad, people good". What malkav said. The story is definitely not a major thing, and while I haven't seen most of it myself, it's not something where anyone's going to recommend the game for that based on what I've heard about it. But it's worth looking at what's there IMO, when I get to it. Also, a programming note: due to strong viewership(most of it coming from SA, so thanks!) I'm going to try and bump this to three uploads a week(T/Th/Sat). Ships & Scouting Basics I build some ships and spend some time showing a number of basic ways to select, divide, and move them around. I think this is a strong(and necessary) point in AI War's design; it's powerful and easy to use and needs to be given the scope of the game and how often you need to be doing this kind of thing. Then initial scouting begins including an intro to the Galaxy Map. Next Up We will definitely get to the first battle, such as it is, one way or the other. Also we'll take a look at some specifics at the planets that we're just scouted and talk more about stuff like Hacking and AI Progress.
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Nov 6, 2018 06:09
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More games should let you have controls like those, IMO. The only other one I can think of is Supreme Commander (and probably Total Annihilation?) and that was also a really great game
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Nov 6, 2018 23:09
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AI Planets & AI Progress A closer look at the AI defenses on the nearby planets, including one basic, low-level example of a good combo that will cause problems for us to solve. AI Progress/Hacking and the relationship between them is discussed as well as the first attack wave hitting our homeworld of Darkvin. Featured in this update are Core Shield Generators, Design Backup Servers, Guard Posts, and Tachyon Sentinels along with another ship type we haven't yet seen and so on. I noticed at the end that my test recordings appear to have been insufficient; effects volume is too loud so I'm going to knock that down considerably next time. Next Up I'll look at things to consider for handling the effects of attacks like the one we just endured, and then we'll put an eye towards starting to expand beyond Darkvin.
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Nov 8, 2018 07:20
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I never took more than a cursory look at this game, but it looks kinda interesting. Looking forward to the videos getting deeper into it. Some of the unit graphics look familiar. Are they from Tyrian?
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Nov 8, 2018 13:57
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Good catch - a significant number of them are in fact from Tyrian.
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Nov 8, 2018 22:04
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Since you're having trouble (understandably) with some of the planet names, any consideration to using a custom list for future games? I have one of Solar System bodies, or you could take usernames from this and the MoO thread, etc.
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Nov 9, 2018 01:51
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Goon-name systems would be awesome.
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Nov 9, 2018 02:05
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I'll have to figure out how to do that, but sure. rchandra, if you're willing to share the solar system list, perhaps the best thing would be to make one list combining that with goons.
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Nov 9, 2018 06:10
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Are you planning on doing the Spire campaign? That's the biggest chunk of story by far, and I think it's really worth doing. And re: AI War 2: A lot of AI War 1 content was inspired by, suggested by, or occasionally straight-up designed by the fans - Arcen has a great community board. The company nearly shuttered and is now run by only two people, and the community has really ramped up in response, so some of the updates are hilarious. "This week, we fixed some longstanding GUI issues, and added ten new options to the options menu. The bugs re: wormhole display have also been fixed. And a big thanks to Bigdilz92, who designed an entire new faction and set of playable ships, and Gorillazilla who ported over a ton of the old content to the new system!" (Not throwing shade, I think it's legit great, and of course the main devs do a ton of solid work themselves, it's just entertaining when a fan does a huge amount of work, especially when paired with an otherwise-weak main update)
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Nov 9, 2018 06:15
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Thotimx posted:I'll have to figure out how to do that, but sure. rchandra, if you're willing to share the solar system list, perhaps the best thing would be to make one list combining that with goons. Your PMs are off! In your AI War folder (Steam\steamapps\common\AI War Fleet Command), go into \runtime\. You can put a text file there called "altplanetnames.txt" - I forget if it exists with a default of "Murdoch" in it, or you have to create it. Here's mine - I think I made it from solar system bodies sorted by size or mass, then added the biggest Star Wars ones at the end. Just add / remove entries to taste.
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Nov 9, 2018 14:18
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John Lee posted:Are you planning on doing the Spire campaign? That's the biggest chunk of story by far, and I think it's really worth doing. Definitely plan on doing that eventually. That's the third expansion IIRC so it'll be a fair while before I get to the point off adding that much stuff into the hopper, but it's definitely on the agenda. rchandra posted:I think I made it from solar system bodies sorted by size or mass, then added the biggest Star Wars ones at the end. Looks good, thanks! I'll plan on using a modified version of this with some goons added starting with the second game. That'll give me time to sort it all out, and you can't use it to change the names in an already-started campaign anyway.
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Nov 10, 2018 01:04
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Put all the SA subforums in your name list.
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Nov 10, 2018 03:50
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Humanity Strikes Back After taking a brief look at the salvaging mechanic and a quick intro to the insanely complicated glory of the Controls screen, we take a planet from the AI for the first time. A wimpy one, but still it's a start. The colonization process features in this, and we 'create' our first threat ships. Also included is an explanation of the three command station types and a bit about our next strategic goals, now that we've comfortably secured Darkvin against initial attacking threats. Up Next We'll stay on the attack and 'liberate' more planets, seeking to establish that buffer zone around our home planet. Hacking, further scouting, and a closer look at our other starships may or may not be on the menu. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Nov 13, 2018 |
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Nov 10, 2018 05:56
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Hacking & AI Reinforcements A second 'buffer system' is taken, with a bit of a new wrinkle happening there. Then we do our first hacking task, downloading a new ship design from the DBS in Usmarur - in decidedly amateurish fashion. Up Next We'll take down Usmarur to complete our buffer around Darkvin, which should prove quite routine at this point. Then we'll do more in-depth scouting work, providing a chance to look at some new AI structures further out in the galaxy.
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Nov 13, 2018 19:18
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I love the idea of this game, but only beat one round at like, AI level 6 or something. Typically once I get to half a dozen planets or so I just get Option Fatigue, which probably isn't helped by all the DLC being active. On one hand I could turn that nonsense off, on the other hand.... GOLEMS!!!
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Nov 13, 2018 20:57
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That's sort of the stage we're coming up on; there are almost always multiple things you can do. I also find it interesting that people fawn over Golems as much as they do, because I think they are a cool option but just that; an option. The way all the other stuff interacts once you start turning a stupid amount of stuff on is at least as worthwhile IMO.
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Nov 14, 2018 06:34
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Thotimx posted:That's sort of the stage we're coming up on; there are almost always multiple things you can do. I also find it interesting that people fawn over Golems as much as they do, because I think they are a cool option but just that; an option. The way all the other stuff interacts once you start turning a stupid amount of stuff on is at least as worthwhile IMO. I think this is because the a lot of the other stuff sounds like either a dominating bother or a big nothing, and it's hard to figure out what combinations work. But Golems just go in there, and you have reasonable difficulty options (but don't play medium). And they don't decay anymore, or was that just being unrepairable? In ancient times I remember powering down your golems being an important thing.
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Nov 14, 2018 06:51
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