Well, I managed to finish my first map today. I put the AI at level 3 which ended up being way too easy (AI pretty much passive) but at least let me test more capabilities than the advanced tutorial. Was on 50 planets map, good length/strategy ratio I found. Took me around 7 hours to finish

Free Roam Defender mode is really awesome and I love how much micro-management it takes off your hands (especially for Engineers and Rebuilders).

I think this game is the first one where I see some really "smart" auto-mode that let you concentrate on the important things while handling the small craps like rebuilding mine fields or destroyed turrets.

Playing around more with some of the units was fun too:

- Parasites are really awesome for getting your some Mark 4 and Core units and basically sometimes finishing fights with more units than your started

- Mobile Repair Station can really make a difference in some tougher planets, engineers are just a bit too slow to repair lots of ships.

- I used one Golem, the Hive one which was really really really expensive to use but very powerful once fully loaded, it basically killed all the ships on the 2 AI core planets on its own (500 wasps = pwn). The other golems all seem to have some pretty big drawback though, I am not sure if they are really worth the cost/AI increase compare to a similar cost fleet or normal sheep. It crippled my economy for qutie a long time to bring it online and used a huge proportion of my energy, but I just wanted to try it out

- Zenith Power Generator are now on my very top priority list to grab (I got 2 in my map and they let me use the golem, otherwise impossible to have enough energy while still having some resource left)

I think I might try level 6 for next game, will be quite a bit step up but could be interesting. Lots of room to improve my resource management though, I usually ended up running out of resources for too long.

@frags: I think I will try to complete at least a couple more games before trying the Coop, which level of AI do you usually use?

Haven't been playing lately. But I normally stick with 6/7.

Just got it. Its tiem to play as soon as I finished my darned Dragon Age.

7 hours?!?!? I think RTS game suits my taste better...4X just takes too long.

Well, I tend to be a bit of a slow, methodical player so I always take longer than really necessary but usually "play it safe" (that was also my first game and I was playing around with the units/golem and all)
Yesterday my 2nd victory was after about 6 hours of game too, with a harder AI (lvl 6)

But yar, this game is not twitchy fast game anyway, it's another genre.

I told you this game was innovative. You see how brilliant the game is right? There are so many small things in it which shame many RTS games. I have no doubt that some AAA developer might copy some of the things in this game. This game deserves more attention really.

Yap, I totally agree, it's impressive really

I just started a Lvl 7 campaign and it's really a big jump from 6 to 7, I had to restart a few times on different maps to pull it out ( kept getting surrounded by level 4 planets that pretty much boxed me in, not exactly fun for a first game at that level)
The AI really start to harass you in the first 5-10 minutes, which is really surprising for a game that last so long.

The AI (the enemy's and your own units one) is really what separate that game from others. Like how your units on FRD mode separate themselves equally if two groups of enemy arrive and all, it's impressive
I read on the forum that the guy used fuzzy logic and some advanced AI behaviors, I studied that a bit during my uni time but it's the first time I see it being used in a real game.

I am finally on to a good start but took me about one hour just to make my home planet safe (I hate "immune to tractor beams" enemy ships...) and to take one of the neighbor planets.

I am still only taking Parasites as my special ships, I just find them too good at the beginning (when you have limited resource) and at the end (to get these yummy Core/IV ships). But they do cost quite a lot of energy which is not easy to pump at the beginning.

If some big AAA developer could bring out this kind of AI in another game, it could really be impressive

When I think about it, recently the two games that really impressed me are this one and Dwarf Fortress new release, both made by one guy team for their programming core.
These 2 guys programming skills put lots of people (me included) to shame really, go go Indies!

This post has been edited by Gormaz: Apr 3 2010, 04:17 PM

Got the game and its xpack. Gimme a bit more time to play around in SP and i'll join u guys for a coop.

This post has been edited by chiakm: Apr 3 2010, 05:38 PM

Ermmm I think I better play with Easy AI first maybe 3/4. I started a game with AI 7 and immediately got attacked before I built a fleet properly. LOL restart. Been a long time since I played this. Forgot the shortcut keys to build mines etc.

Yar, AI 7 really jump to your throat in the first few minutes, its not huge waves but it's quite problematic when you just getting started.

Have to spend more research on turrets at first than I spent on AI6.

Odd, Steam keeps installing DirectX everytime I start the game. Hmm, need to find tech support liao.

The game is a blast btw. Now fooling around in lvl4 AI.

You are using WinXP SP3 is it? I had the same problem last time. I think there might be a work around it. Check the forums.

Nope, Windows Vista SP1.

So far I don't have that issue, I am using Windows 7 64bit.

Try this:

http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,1892.0.html

Make sure you backup first before trying

Yeah, it worked.

There's a competition here:

http://www.indiegamenews.com/2010/04/new-i...ion-for-pc.html

They are giving away 5 copies of AI War and Zenith Remnant.

I r finish Dragon Age. Let me know when you guys want a co-op game. Imma go conquer this AI4 first.

I'm still trying to win my AI5 game. But if u guys are planning to start a coop, count me in.

Okay if you are interested, please set a day and time. Post here in this thread. May i suggest Friday 10pm?