AI War: Fleet Command

[TheWesDude]

uhh... all the pics in the images folder are .png and its trying to load .jpg

 

[x4000]

Hi there, looks like you forgot to upgrade to 1.006 before applying that patch. That patch only updates version 1.006 to 1.007A, looks like you had an earlier version there...

 

[x4000]

uhh... all the pics in the images folder are .png and its trying to load .jpg

There are a couple of jpegs. It looks for pngs first, and then if that is missing looks for a jpg just in case. The second error is the one you see there, but it looks for both. That file was actually added as part of 1.005, so looks like at some point you actually missed that patch. You can either do check for Updates and that should work, or you could unzip the following zip file and then re-apply 1.007A: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1000To1006.zip

That link is a cumulative update from 1.000 to 1.006. It will catch you up on any patches you missed in the meantime. Normally if you go through the official updater it always gives you cumulative updates and makes sure nothing is missing, but with the prereleases like this it can get confusing if you try to skip straight from 1.004 to 1.006 or whatever.

 

[TheWesDude]

ok, works now, no crashes when attempting a tutorial with music on, and no forced software buffers, and i have music in-game


but it most likely was an issue with my having the old ass usb speakers from microsoft.

they kick ass and havent really needed to upgrade them because they have worked for about 10 years no problem and still have great sound.

EDIT:

to be honest, im suprised microsoft is still putting drivers for them when they stopped officially supporting them in 2001 in all their OSes natively.

what suprised the shit out of me is when i installed xp64 the first time, it actually had 64 bit drivers for the speakers!!! they actually took the time to convert the drivers to 64 bit for it!

not only that, but my keyboard they stopped making in 2002 and the mouse they stopped making in 2000.... and they are still making 64 bit drivers for this stuff!

havent tried the windows7 beta yet, but i would be suprised if there was no drivers in there for them.

 

[x4000]

Awesome! Glad to hear it. I agree that this was probably related to hardware or directsound on your system, but I'm glad I was able to get this to a point where AI War wasn't triggering the issue, since other major games also didn't trigger it. Thanks again for your patience, and I hope you enjoy the game now that you can actually play it with music, etc.

 

[x4000]

Check out the improved graphics in the latest version! Many more such improvements to come...

 

[Tankor Smash]

Hey, just sayin'

Hey there,

Just wanted to let you know that I found this searching around for AI War after I found it on Impulse. I found the demo and now working my way through the intermediate tutorial.

I really, really like the face that you made a fresh game with this. It's interesting to me to see that you are not afraid to do something a little different. I for one, LOVE the fact that the ships are 2D!

Anyways, just wanted to let you know, whether you are still following this or not, I am going to purchase this game 95% based on the fact that you helped this gentleman so well with his problem. (the other 5% is that it's a kick ass game!)

I look forward to reading any sort of anything you happen to type up. I love when I read whatever a developer has to say; hence me buying the game just based on this forum interaction.

Thanks,
Tankor Smash

 

[x4000]

Hey Tankor,

Thanks very much for your interest in the game, that is much appreciated! If you have any questions for me, of course feel free to let me know. Since you seem to be interested in development-related topics, you might check out my blog as an additional resource. I'm a sporadic poster, but I try to cover topics that people ask about. If you have any topics you want to suggest, by all means go ahead.

Thanks for the note!
Chris

 

[Tankor Smash]

Hey,

I laughed when I saw that someone replied so quickly, and then again when I saw that it was who I was looking for who last posted in the thread a month ago.

Thanks, I'll definitely be checking out that blog, thanks for the link! I'll let you know if I have something interesting to say if the comments on your blog, or on here, if there is no such thing.

Thanks again!

 

[x4000]

It emails me when there is a new comment, so it's easy to keep up to date. There is a spot for comments on my blog, so you can reach me there or here with no problems. Hope you stick around the Codex, looks like you're new here (I'm relatively new myself) -- it's a cool place.

 

[Tankor Smash]

Yeah, the reply e-mail notification is something I've got going on, I just figured you may have deactivated it or something by now.

Anyways, I've read a few of your blogposts, and I really enjoy what you have there, because you seem to have the same line of thinking I do about these kinds of things. I very much enjoyed reading what it was like within the release of your game. I've wanted to know for some time now, what indie developers had to go through before their game gets any recognition. I was asking myself how you indie developers ever made money off of your early games because I feel like the ones that don't make it mainstream don't make that many sales. So your blog opened my eyes to the fact that most indie devs don't even do it full time. I had always assumed that indie devs had to be full time to put in the hours required to put out a game of such scale.

I also liked reading your thoughts on DRM. I'm very much is agreement with everything you've said. Seeing how you are putting your game out by Impulse, I'm sure you are very familiar with Brad Wardell of Stardock, and his policies. To be honest without Impulse, I'm not even sure that I would have even heard of your game!

Another thing I was wondering about: Publishing and Digital Distributions/ Reviews: I didn't know how one goes about getting ones game "out there" as I'm sure reviewers get plenty of games from indie devs all the time saying "Hey check out our game, it's 1337!".

Going over it, I realized that the very first page of your blog, starting with the entry on the 21st (my b-day hurrah), pretty much adresses almost every sort of question I was asking, including poor review/ers and DRM/Piracy. Also I checked the humour tags section and I have seen that video and I think another part of it where he brings up the Friends theme song, if I'm not mistaken! All part of that chord progression. Also, xkcd is great! And if you are more of a nerdy gamerCtrl+Alt+Del and 8bit Theatre are must reads

I'm still left with reading the interviews on the AI, and the ever important question of Love vs Money. Oh, and of course playing the actual game itself. I can't wait!

EDIT: I also just wanted to let you know that I made an account here purely to let you know and congratulate you! Keep up the good work, I'll have to comment on the individual blogs when I read 'em but there are so many and this forum is easier to take care of so until the next posting, I'll keep my messages in here, if that's alright.

 

[x4000]

Anyways, I've read a few of your blogposts, and I really enjoy what you have there, because you seem to have the same line of thinking I do about these kinds of things. I very much enjoyed reading what it was like within the release of your game. I've wanted to know for some time now, what indie developers had to go through before their game gets any recognition. I was asking myself how you indie developers ever made money off of your early games because I feel like the ones that don't make it mainstream don't make that many sales. So your blog opened my eyes to the fact that most indie devs don't even do it full time. I had always assumed that indie devs had to be full time to put in the hours required to put out a game of such scale.

Often it just takes a huge, huge amount of time in the off-hours. There are exceptions, like the guys from 2D Boy (who came from the industry, and thus supported themselves off of some past money and off of 60,000 preorder sales they were able to drum up via an awesome early demo), plus others that might take out a loan and quit the day job for a while (a super risky proposition in my book). But the vast majority of first-time indie developers don't have those sorts of luxuries. If you look at the game Cave Story, that was created completely by one guy (art, music, programming, design, everything) over a five year period of his spare time.

Another thing I was wondering about: Publishing and Digital Distributions/ Reviews: I didn't know how one goes about getting ones game "out there" as I'm sure reviewers get plenty of games from indie devs all the time saying "Hey check out our game, it's 1337!".

I've been asked about this a lot recently, actually. Check out the latest post on my blog, hopefully that will answer your questions there in great detail.

Also, xkcd is great! And if you are more of a nerdy gamerCtrl+Alt+Del and 8bit Theatre are must reads

Indeed! All great ones, although 8bit is new to me. I'll have to give it a look.

EDIT: I also just wanted to let you know that I made an account here purely to let you know and congratulate you! Keep up the good work, I'll have to comment on the individual blogs when I read 'em but there are so many and this forum is easier to take care of so until the next posting, I'll keep my messages in here, if that's alright.

No worries from my end, though I hope you will take some time to look at the Codex itself while you are here.

 

[Tankor Smash]

Another thing I was wondering about: Publishing and Digital Distributions/ Reviews: I didn't know how one goes about getting ones game "out there" as I'm sure reviewers get plenty of games from indie devs all the time saying "Hey check out our game, it's 1337!".

I've been asked about this a lot recently, actually. Check out the latest post on my blog, hopefully that will answer your questions there in great detail.

Oh yeah sorry, I worded that incorrectly, what I meant to say was that your blog answered that question, including almost every other one I could have.

I have to admit, I am skipping the posts with the programming in them for now, seeing as I don't understand any of it.

 

[x4000]

Ah, I see. No worries!

 

[cutterjohn]

Gamersgate has this on sale right now, 30% off, c. $14.

Anyone here playing it? It sounds like it's best played with several people co-operatively...

Still not sure about it, as I really do prefer 4X games and generally detest RT"S", which is why I prefer Space Empires V ATM.

x4000: I hope that you bring your flame retardant suit here, as you'll likely be eventually flamed... If you want to see make some disparaging remarks about a bioware game and you'll meet the resident bw(now EA) fanboi. (or you could praise recent Bethesda games for being awesome RPGs for a larger flame base...)

 

[x4000]

Gamersgate has this on sale right now, 30% off, c. $14.

Anyone here playing it? It sounds like it's best played with several people co-operatively...

Co-op is definitely my favorite way to play, and there are a lot of players setting up games through our forums, our IRC channel, through Hamachi, XFire, and a few other forums. So you should be able to find someone to play with if you want. Though I will say, the vast majority of the AI War players still seem to play solo, which is true for most RTS games from what I have heard.

Still not sure about it, as I really do prefer 4X games and generally detest RT"S", which is why I prefer Space Empires V ATM.

You should give the demo a shot and see what you think -- I've had a surprising number of TBS players coming to play AI War and liking or loving it. Also a number of players that haven't liked any RTS games since the late 90's / early 2000's. It's not a pure RTS (as explained by Tom Chick).

x4000: I hope that you bring your flame retardant suit here, as you'll likely be eventually flamed... If you want to see make some disparaging remarks about a bioware game and you'll meet the resident bw(now EA) fanboi. (or you could praise recent Bethesda games for being awesome RPGs for a larger flame base...)

That's pretty true of the Internet in general, I'd say. I'm pretty nonconfrontational, though, so if someone wants to get into a big flame war they're better off looking elsewhere. AI War isn't for everyone, but the general response has been extremely positive. Getting flamed is not something I enjoy, and it's hard not to take that sort of thing personally, but to a certain extent it comes with the territory. Which is a shame, but what can you do.

 

[cutterjohn]

You should give the demo a shot and see what you think -- I've had a surprising number of TBS players coming to play AI War and liking or loving it. Also a number of players that haven't liked any RTS games since the late 90's / early 2000's. It's not a pure RTS (as explained by Tom Chick).

I might, but I was addressing the forum here rather than your company's forum for players, as in better the devil that I know than someting else entirely(likely worse).

That's pretty true of the Internet in general, I'd say. I'm pretty nonconfrontational, though, so if someone wants to get into a big flame war they're better off looking elsewhere. AI War isn't for everyone, but the general response has been extremely positive. Getting flamed is not something I enjoy, and it's hard not to take that sort of thing personally, but to a certain extent it comes with the territory. Which is a shame, but what can you do.

*snicker* go ahead and try one of the two tricks above, you'll be in for interesting times. e.g. crapthesda forums now replace codex links with "I love Oblivious", schills that they are...

Anyways, I'll tyr to make time to try your demo, but I must say that I'd be meore enthusiastic about it if your game had a macthmaker/server utility(according to review it's absent) even though I'd prefer to play with some people here rather than random idiots abroad. (realtime games make me breka out in hives since they're obviously arcade shooters with very slight allusions to the genres that they various reference... e.g. realtime "strategies" in which every single one that I've ever played devolves quickly into denying resources to the opponent and surviving suicidal(zerg) rushes, action "RPG"s click fests with tons of phat l00t, etc.

Admittedly your game may be different since I understand that the AI is actually offloaded to a 2nd CPU core if available, although that doesn't make the AI any good,but it does giveit extra resources...

(Of course I've done OK with TFC with random idiots since Frenchy's Low Grav server went down and I'm now stuck with a few good servers... BTW TF2 really and truly sucks balls with gay art direction and an apparnet entire lack of understanding as to what made TFC so fun...)

 

[x4000]

I might, but I was addressing the forum here rather than your company's forum for players, as in better the devil that I know than someting else entirely(likely worse).

Understandable. But that's also why I linked you to a major review on a large independent third party site, not my forums.

Anyways, I'll tyr to make time to try your demo, but I must say that I'd be meore enthusiastic about it if your game had a macthmaker/server utility(according to review it's absent) even though I'd prefer to play with some people here rather than random idiots abroad.

This is in the works, potentially. I'm talking to the folks at Gamespy about it, but I don't know what will come of it. In the meantime there are our forums, these forums, our IRC channel, and the XFire group for the game as ways to meet players. This is more of an extended thing that you have to play with people in multiple sessions over, not something to just pick up and play an hour-long game and then walk away, so matchmaking was not a priority for us (not to mention that we don't personally have the sever capacity for that). But now that the game is becoming more popular, we're looking at options for matchmaking because I think it would make a subset of the player population happier for sure.

 

[spelk]

An epic Interview I did with Chris (x4000), the developer of AI War.. (long juicy read)

The Claw
http://blog.theclawproject.net/?p=77

 

[getter77]

http://www.arcengames.com/aiwar_zenithremnant.php First giant expansion now out along with the updates proper and such. Also currently on sale direct and everywhere else anybody tends to care about for $9.99 for the base game with the expansion standard priced for the same.

Looked to be a good use of a $20.