[PC] AI War

[Lint of Death]

Hey, dudes!

AI War (http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/) is a vast and amazingly challenging cooperative multiplayer game. I, along with BrassGecko and Ten19, have all of the expansions and we play from time to time. Apart from sharing our own experiences, I have created this thread to invite others to join in the fun.

As many as 8 players can form a team to assassinate two vastly superior AIs. Imagine enduring pitched battles against thousands of enemy ships, using "downtime" to plan and execute the conquering of strategic planets. Although the maximum team size is 8, not all players need be present at the start of a game: it is possible to join a game in progress, borrowing from your buddies for a while before perhaps claiming some systems for yourself.

The three of us haven't finished a game yet (they can run for many hours and we are rather new), but it is easy to save and resume at a later time. There are even ways to manage multiple, simultaneously in-progress games without having to remember much of anything.

If you've ever even considered an RTS "comp stomp" in any game, AI War is the epitome of such an experience. The two AIs are ingenious and adaptive, never puttering out after a short while like in most games. The universe is different with every playthrough, procedurally generated and populated with your choice of 3rd parties who are eager to help you, hurt you, or both.

So join us! (http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/) But not too enthusiastically, please, you might catch the AIs' attention :eek:

[Superman's Dead]

This sounds fascinating

[burger]

Can dumb people like me play?

[Lint of Death]

The best way to find out is to try the demo. The expansions all have demos (http://www.arcengames.com/w/index.php/aiwar-downloads), too, so you can just install them on top of the base demo to get a "fuller" albeit more complex demo experience. Even better, try the demo with someone who knows the basics already like us :) But yeah the game does have tutorials, and from there we've learned by exploration/trial and error.

The demo lets you play the full game, but with a time limit of 3 hours per campaign. In some ways that's not as generous as it sounds due to the expected length of a given game, but it really is a lot of opportunity to get a feel for it.

As for dumb people, well, all it takes is learning (and some patience) ;) If you can learn, you can play, and you can usually see what you did wrong in this game if you watch what's going on. Even with hundreds/thousands of ships on screen, they do have a pretty clever AI of their own that makes them useful with little to no micromanagement.

P.S. I linked to the site's demos instead of Steam's because Steam's demo doesn't make it easy to demo the expansions due to the nature of installing DLC content.

[Lint of Death]

By the way, I should mention that the AIs' difficulty can be toned down or up to your hearts' content, so it actually doesn't have to be challenging at all (there's even a Sandbox difficulty). However, the whole fun of the game lies in being challenged, so I would argue that any difficulty level that doesn't provide that for you rapidly loses its value :)

We are trying 7; the ratings go from 1 to 10, though there are additional decimals at some intervals such as between 9 and 10. There is also a wide variety of AI "personalities", each with their own behaviors, ships, and special powers, that dramatically affect your opponents. Some AIs are actually purely defensive and won't send waves against you, and some are even purely supportive such as not sending their own waves but instead supplementing the other AI with utility ships. And on top of that, there's a bunch of other general game settings you can toggle, and all the 3rd party factions can be turned on or off individually.

Edit: My favorite AI personality I've played against is the Thief. It uses tractor beam ships, which are invisible until they attack (or you reveal them with cloaking detection), to grab your ships and pull them away. Then, it uses parasite ships to kill and summarily convert your ships into additional enemies. With the right ships at your disposal, you can do this, too ;)

[BrassGecko]

One time Lint killed us in something like 10 minutes by triggering an alarm. It was great.

[Lint of Death]

One time Lint killed us in something like 10 minutes by triggering an alarm. It was great.

Correction: I got myself killed in ~10 minutes by triggering an alarm. While I was cleaning out - successfully, mind you - my lost homeworld and the one other system I attacked, BrassGecko attacked another planet, triggering who knows what and then he lost his homeworld. Game Over :p

So that's another thing to keep in mind. As long as at least one player still has their homeworld, everyone is still in the game. One of my favorite features!

[Lint of Death]

Aww, no takers? I'm enjoying late-night Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic a lot, but this game needs some love!

[Superman's Dead]

I'd love to check it out, but the price is a bit too steep for me to consider investing.

[Lint of Death]

The entire AI War collection - the base game and its three expansions - is on sale for $20 on Steam. That is a fantastic deal for the sheer amount of high quality content.

[biosc1]

Does everyone need to be online at once? Or is it more turn based where I can make a turn when a can?

[Lint of Death]

Does everyone need to be online at once? Or is it more turn based where I can make a turn when a can?

It's real-time strategy co-op vs. the AI. People can drop in and out of a long-running game easily enough; if someone's not present then you can assume control of their stuff, and there are a number of different ways for a late-joiner to get going.

Edit: As I said in my threadstarting post, managing concurrent games is easy.

[Ten19]

Want to strongly encourage anyone even remotely interested in AI War to pick it (and its DLC) up on the Steam sale today. I'd be happy to get in some multiplayer games (and I suspect Lint would too).

[Thanasimos]

I love this game a tremendous deal. What hours do you guys usually play? I have a lot of my nights pre-scheduled, and all my days are eaten up.

[c0m3d14n]

I love this game a tremendous deal. What hours do you guys usually play? I have a lot of my nights pre-scheduled, and all my days are eaten up.
bought it and would be up for some games, but i dont know if we can find an agreeable time since i can only play in the evening europe time ;)

[Lint of Death]

Want to strongly encourage anyone even remotely interested in AI War to pick it (and its DLC) up on the Steam sale today. I'd be happy to get in some multiplayer games (and I suspect Lint would too).

Yeah! I've been so busy I couldn't post sooner. $3 for the base game and having the MASSIVE first expansion pack for a mere 3 tickets is a mindblowing deal. Also, I just checked and you can buy ALL the expansion packs for a mere $3.57 total. Holy fucking shit, do it if you haven't already. Right up with $10 Audiosurf when it released, this is one of the best $-to-entertainment ratios one can find for a modern game. You know how Total Annihilation: Core Contingency is one of the best expansion packs ever made in large part because it introduced, like, 75 new units to an RTS? Well, these expansions are of a similar scale.

I love this game a tremendous deal. What hours do you guys usually play? I have a lot of my nights pre-scheduled, and all my days are eaten up.

We haven't played in a while, actually - BrassGecko's away all summer (and possibly most of the year) and I believe Ten and I have been busy. I'm semi-reliably available between 6PM and midnight EST on weekdays, and my weekend availability is, um, complicated. I'd love to get in on this

bought it and would be up for some games, but i dont know if we can find an agreeable time since i can only play in the evening europe time ;)

I could actually make that work on some weekends! This weekend, for example, I can do pretty much any time between 11AM and 4PM EST, assuming I don't have any prior engagements ;)

[Thanasimos]

Weekend afternoons are terrible too. The best time for me would be Tuesdays after 2:00pm EST. That is, uh, that's my open slot.

[Ten19]

Availability for the people who recently picked it up in the Summer Steam Sale? Ideally I'd love to get a massive CoG game going, but odds of getting everyone on at the same time might be tough.

[Lint of Death]

Arphahat, BrassGecko, Ten19 and myself recently started playing AI War again, and... oh, what's this? YOU CAN JOIN US FOR A MERE $7.49! (http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/) That's right - buy AI War and every single piece of DLC together for a total of $7.49! It can be truly massive co-op: up to 8 players in one game vs the 2 evil AIs. It's also easy to hop in and out of any given game, too!

Put another way, each expansion is on a similar scale to the Total Annihilation: Core Contingency expansion pack. Yes, that awesome. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/)

[BrassGecko]

This game is worth it. Help keep us humans alive (except marauders)!

[Lint of Death]

Marauders are bastards. I'd pray that they all get slowly digested by the almighty Devourer, but they're immune. Like Boba Fett.