| 📰 Title: | AI War 2 | 🕹️ / 🛠️ Type: | Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🗃️ Genre: | Strategy | 👁️ Visual: | Free-roaming camera |
| 🏷️ Category: | Strategy ➤ Space Exploration & Warfare ➤ Misc. | 🏝️ Perspective: | Top-down |
| 🔖 Tags: | Strategy; Grand Strategy; Tactical; 4X; Space; Space Sim; Tower Defense; Unity engine; Sci-fi; Co-op; Local Co-op; Difficult; Replay Value; Moddable | ⏱️ Pacing: | Real Time with Pause |
| 🐣️ Approx. start: | 2018-10-15 | 👫️ Played: | Single & Multi |
| 🐓️ Latest: | 2021-07-17 | 🚦 Status: | 04. Released (status) |
| 📍️ Version: | Latest: Beta 3.313 Input | ❤️ Like it: | 9. ⏳️ |
| 🏛️ License type: | 💰 Commercial | 🎀️ Quality: | 7. ⏳️ |
| 🏛️ License: | Commercial | ✨️ (temporary): | |
| 🐛️ Created: | 2021-07-25 | 🐜️ Updated: | 2024-10-10 |
| 📰 What's new?: | 👻️ Temporary: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 💡 Lights on: | 🎨️ Significant improvement: | ||
| 👔️ Already shown: | 💭️ New version published (to be updated): | ||
| 🎖️ This work: |  |
🚧️ Some work remains to be done: | |
| 👫️ Contrib.: | goupildb | 🦺️ Work in progress: | |
| 🎰️ ID: | 16090 |
| 📜️[en]: | An hybrid RTS/grand strategy space game (able to implement hundreds of thousands of units) with asymmetric gameplay, featuring the confrontation between a deviant AI that has seized power in the galaxy, and the scattered humans who have become ultra-minority. The player leads one of his factions, with only one planet and a few ships. Because of this imbalance, he will have to be smart enough not to attract too much attention from the AI, strengthen himself - by conquering planets, exploiting their resources and building ships, and try to turn the tide... | 📜️[fr]: | Un jeu hybride RTS/grande stratégie (pouvant mettre en œuvre des centaines de milliers d'unités) spatial au gameplay asymétrique, campant l'affrontement entre une IA déviante qui s'est emparée du pouvoir dans la galaxie, et les humains éparpillés devenus ultra-minoritaires. Le joueur dirige l'une de ses factions, avec une seule planète et quelques vaisseaux. Du fait de ce déséquilibre, il devra faire preuve de finesse pour ne pas trop attirer l'attention de l'IA, se renforcer - par la conquête de planètes, l'exploitation de leurs ressources et la construction de vaisseaux, et tenter de renverser la situation... |
|---|
🏝️ Trailer: (202xxx♺),
🦉️ From Devs: (202xxx♺),
🕵️ Reviews: (202xxx♺),
🕯️ How To: (202xxx♺), [fr](202xxx♺),
🎲️ Gameplay: (202xxx♺), (202xxx♺), [fr](202xxx♺),
🐧 Linux plays: Gaming on Linux Guide (202xxx♺),
🏡️ Website & videos
[Homepage] [Dev site] [Features/About] [Screenshots] [Videos t(202xxx♺) gd(202xxx♺) gu(202xxx) r(202xxx♺) lp(202xxx♺) ht(202xxx♺) ht[fr](202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g[fr](202xxx♺) g[fr](202xxx♺) g[fr](202xxx♺) g[fr](202xxx♺) g[fr](202xxx♺) g[de](202xxx♺) g[ru](202xxx♺) g[ru](202xxx♺) g[ru](202xxx♺) g[pl](202xxx) g[cz](202xxx) g[sp](202xxx) g[pt](202xxx) g[it](202xxx) g[tr](202xxx)] [WIKI] [FAQ] [RSS] [Changelog 1 2 3]
💰 Commercial
• [IsThereAnyDeal] [Online store] [Humble Store] [Steam] [GOG]
🍩️ Resources
• (empty, license): [Homepage] [Dev site] 🎬️ g(202xxx)
🛠️ Technical informations
[PCGamingWiki] [MobyGames]
🦣️ Social
Devs (Arcen Games [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [Forums] [Chat] [mastodon] [Facebook] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2 3 4]
The Project: [Blog] [Chat] [Forums] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [reddit]
🐝️ Related
[Wikipedia (AI War 2) [fr] [en] [de]]
[Wikipedia (AI War: Fleet Command) [fr] [en] [de]]
[HOLaRSE [de]]
📦️ Misc. repositories
[Repology] [pkgs.org] [Generic binary] [Arch Linux / AUR] [openSUSE] [Debian/Ubuntu] [Flatpak] [AppImage(author's repo)] [Snap] [PortableLinuxGames]
🕵️ Reviews
[HowLongToBeat] [metacritic] [OpenCritic] [iGDB]
🕊️ Source of this Entry: [HOLaRSE on mastodon [de](20210717)]
🦣️ Social Networking Update (on mastodon)
🕹️ Title: AI War 2
🦊️ What's: An hybrid RTS/grand strategy space game with asymmetric gameplay, where ultra-minority humans are confronted with a deviant AI
🏡️ https://www.arcengames.com/aiwar2
🔖 #LinuxGaming #ShareYourGames #RTS #GrandStrategy #Space
📦️ #Commercial
📖 Our entry: (homeless)
🥁️ Update: -
⚗️ -
📌️ Changes: -
🦣️ From: https://mastodon.social/@holarse/106595405662065739
🏝️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dfp7hjJgCFI
🦉️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/IluP7KEx0xk
🎲️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/R1ok9sDTFzE
🐧https://www.youtube.com/embed/n-3PWT7qxDY
🕶️
📚️ AI War 2 is an hybrid RTS/grand strategy space game (able to implement hundreds of thousands of units) with asymmetric gameplay, featuring the confrontation between a deviant AI that has seized power in the galaxy, and the scattered humans who have become ultra-minority. The player leads one of his factions, with only one planet and a few ships. Because of this imbalance, he will have to be smart enough not to attract too much attention from the AI, strengthen himself - by conquering planets, exploiting their resources and building ships, and try to turn the tide...
📜️ "A hybrid RTS/grand strategy space game with asymmetric gameplay, where ultra-minority humans are confronted with a deviant AI" 📜️
AI War 2 is a grand strategy/RTS hybrid against a galaxy that has already been conquered by rogue artificial intelligence. It's also "a sequel to [Arcen's] enormo-space RTS AI War, which we called 'one of this year's finest strategy games' back in 2009" (Tom Sykes, PC Gamer)
The most devious and acclaimed artificial intelligence in strategy gaming returns... with a host of mutual enemies.
Face off against a more advanced version of the original AI, who once again has captured the entire galaxy leaving you only a tiny planet to yourself. Then strike out and find a way to cleverly outwit it nonetheless. All the new capturables, larger fleets, and hacking abilities are sure to help. (You're going to need it.)
Or immerse yourself in a far more complicated galactic struggle involving the nanocaust, macrophages, dyson spheres, and more. Other factions each have their own goals, rules, units, and entirely unique economies. Make the scenario complicated enough and it can become "World War XV is in progress, you're in a tiny farm in the middle of it, nobody likes you, but if you can just kill that one giant angry enemy leader this will all be over."
If that sounds over the top -- and frankly that bit is wearying to us to imagine even though some people seek it out -- then take a break and maybe hack the all-consuming computer virus to be your ally, and convince the star-sized alien hives to watch your back as you take on a suddenly-less-arrogant AI.
(If you're really feeling spiteful, take yourself out of the equation, turn on super fast forward, and watch them all fight like ants on a galactic scale.)
Modernized and supercharged.
It's been ten years since the original AI War launched, and the gaming world has changed a lot -- as has the available computing power on any device you're using to read this. We've pulled out all the stops to build foes more formidable and intelligent than before, and to create simulations of hundreds of thousands of units running at 120fps in a lot of cases. You can speed up and slow down the simulation without any extra load on your CPU, and pause at will.
The interface respects your time by automating things that you would do the same 95% of the time anyway. For that other 5% there are indeed advanced features such as placing spy nanites, tweaking or disabling the rules of automation, or redesigning your fleet compositions as much as you want.
Streamlined, yet deeper.
Sometimes when a sequel says it's "streamlined," it can really mean "dumbed down." And there are indeed fewer tiny choices to be made in some areas here: you don't have to decide how to wash each dish; you have a dishwasher. And it's a good thing you do, to be honest, because the rabbit hole of complex and confounding scenarios goes as deep as you want it to.
All those bits where you make the interesting strategic decisions? Those bits are tougher than ever, and you can't fall back on old boring habits to muddle through. You need your attention free to anticipate, to plan, to dream... and then throw those all aside and figure it out by the seat of your pants when everything goes sideways.
There's too much to memorize (but tooltips are always right there, anyway), and there's always an unfamiliar element. Clicking fast won't help you. To win the AI War, you'll have to improvise, adapt, and use your wits.
As it should be.
🌍️ Wikipedia: AI War: Fleet Command
AI War: Fleet Command is a real time strategy computer game created by independent developer Arcen Games. The game was first released on the Arcen Games website and Impulse on June 2, 2009, before getting a Steam release on October 16, 2009 that coincided with the release of version 2.0. AI War blends the 4X, tower defense, and traditional RTS genre to create something that was hailed as unique but with a steep learning curve. Players go up against two artificial intelligence (AI) opponents that are superior to the player. The objective is to destroy the home planets of both AI opponents.
AI War was lauded by reviewers for being a fresh take on the RTS genre and bringing something new to the table, but criticized for its learning curve and lackluster graphics. It was also noted that the AI represented a significant challenge and reacted to the actions of the player. An expansion titled The Zenith Remnant was released on January 12, 2010 that adds new factions, AI types, ships and new gameplay mechanics. As of October 27, 2010, a micro-expansion named Children of Neinzul was released, with the sole intention of donating all profits from game sales to Child's Play, a charity for sick children. Another full expansion was released on January 28, 2011 titled Light of the Spire, which added new content and game modes. On October 19, 2012, AI War 6.0 was released along with the Ancient Shadows expansion. A sequel, AI War 2, was released to early access on Steam on October 15, 2018. The official release was on October 22, 2019.
Gameplay
AI War pits human players against AI opponents that control vastly superior fleets at the start of the game. The main goal is to destroy the two opposing AI's home command stations without losing yours (in multiplayer the humans will not lose until all human home command stations have been lost). As with chess, AI War is generally thought of in the three stages of opening, middlegame, and endgame, all of which involve different player and AI interactions and activities.
Maps vary in size from 10 to 120 systems and map size has a significant impact on the play style of the game as well as time required. The game starts out with the human player(s) each controlling one system (though they may choose to start with more) and the AI controlling the rest of the map. The AI operates using something called AI Progress. This mechanic works as an indicator of how aware the AI is of the leftover human remnants in the galaxy (as well as to balance the fact that if the AI simply attacked the player with everything it had at the start of the game it would win every time). As players complete objectives and capture systems, this value goes up, increasing the volume of reinforcements and attack forces the AI gets to use. There are a few mechanics such as Data Centers and the newly introduced AI Superterminals that lower the AI Progress. One of the primary factors when considering whether to take a planet is the AI progress; taking planets raises it and taking too many will cause the player to be overrun.
AI War supports dynamic cooperation where up to eight players can play together and drop in and out of the game at any time. One effect of this is a group game between friends does not require everybody to be around for each game session, nor does the lobby have to be remade to continue playing if another shows up. As of 3.0, players who join mid-game are given a special colony ship that allows them to start playing without leaning on the other players to gift them systems/units as much.
AI War uses strong disincentives to micromanage units in order to help players manage such a large empire without getting bogged down in details, being more important to choose planets wisely and balance forces than to control said forces exact behavior. AI War instead chooses to be more of a grand strategy game, putting more focus into critical thinking and proper decision making than into "clicking fast".
Emergent AI
In a quote from the developer, Chris Park, "'There are a ton of RTS games out there that are fun to play...The key weakness that they almost all share, in my opinion, is AI that falls apart in advanced play." AI War is developed using "Emergent AI", which differs from standard game AI in that it doesn't follow "decision trees", or in other words, the AI does not have an easily predictable pattern that can be exploited as in most games. Instead, the AI makes decisions on an individual unit level, a concept the developer coins as "Decentralized Intelligence".
Some other key factors that make the AI War "Emergent AI" unique are:
Strategic Tiers – The 3 levels of 'thinking' in AI War: Strategic, sub-level, and individual unit. The critical decisions made by the Emergent AI are based on a combination of these 3 factors.
Sub-Commanders – The way the individual AI units work together on a group level, in which they will "Do what's best for themselves, but also take into account what the group is doing." The developer compares this design principle to flocking behavior in the animal kingdom. He also points out that because of this design mechanic, the AI is "fairly untrickable", meaning they won't often fall victim to the same tactic.
Fuzzy Logic – This mechanic is designed to prevent players from "knowing" based on standard logic what the AI will do. The general concept of this design strategy is to prevent the AI from being predictable by programming them to not always make the "best" choice, but instead choosing from a larger selection of possibly sub-optimal choices, to prevent the player from being able to easily understand and therefore counter them.
Intelligent Mistakes – The intentional programming of the AI to make "mistakes" on lower difficulties, to make the game easier for the player. Since the AI at its full operating capacity is reportedly an extremely tough opponent to face, the developer designs the AI to be less of a challenge on easier settings.
Asymmetrical AI – A design which simplifies the AI reinforcement/attacking process by simply giving them reinforcements of units they need in important locations (on a timer), rather than over-complicating the design with the build process that humans use.
Expansions
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Un jeu hybride RTS/grande stratégie au gameplay asymétrique, par le studio Arcen Games.
Il utilise le moteur Unity.
AI War 2 est un jeu hybride RTS/grande stratégie (pouvant mettre en œuvre des centaines de milliers d'unités) spatial au gameplay asymétrique, campant l'affrontement entre une IA déviante qui s'est emparée du pouvoir dans la galaxie, et les humains éparpillés devenus ultra-minoritaires. Le joueur dirige l'une de ses factions, avec une seule planète et quelques vaisseaux. Du fait de ce déséquilibre, il devra faire preuve de finesse pour ne pas trop attirer l'attention de l'IA, se renforcer - par la conquête de planètes, l'exploitation de leurs ressources et la construction de vaisseaux, et tenter de renverser la situation...
AI War 2 est un jeu hybride de grande stratégie et de STR qui se déroule dans une galaxie déjà conquise par une intelligence artificielle malveillante. Il s'agit également de "la suite d'AI War, le STR d'Arcen dans l'espace, que nous avions qualifié en 2009 d'un des meilleurs jeux de stratégie de l'année" (Tom Sykes, PC Gamer).
L'intelligence artificielle la plus sournoise et la plus acclamée des jeux de stratégie revient... avec une foule d'ennemis communs.
Affrontez une version plus avancée de l'IA d'origine, qui s'est emparée de la galaxie entière, ne vous laissant qu'une minuscule planète pour vous seul. Vous devez ensuite trouver un moyen de la déjouer. Tous les nouveaux objets capturables, les flottes plus grandes et les capacités de piratage vous aideront sûrement. (Vous allez en avoir besoin.)
Vous pouvez aussi vous plonger dans une lutte galactique bien plus complexe, impliquant le nanocauste, les macrophages, les sphères de dyson, etc. Les autres factions ont chacune leurs propres objectifs, règles, unités et économies entièrement uniques. Rendez le scénario suffisamment compliqué et il peut devenir "La XVe Guerre mondiale est en cours, vous êtes dans une minuscule ferme au milieu de celle-ci, personne ne vous aime, mais si vous pouvez juste tuer ce chef ennemi géant et en colère, tout sera terminé".
Si cela vous semble exagéré - et franchement, cette idée nous paraît difficile à imaginer, même si certaines personnes la revendiquent -, faites une pause, piratez le virus informatique dévorant pour qu'il devienne votre allié, et convainquez les ruches extraterrestres de la taille d'une étoile de surveiller vos arrières pendant que vous affrontez une IA soudainement moins arrogante.
(Si vous vous sentez vraiment revanchard, sortez vous-même de l'équation, mettez l'avance super rapide et regardez-les tous se battre comme des fourmis à l'échelle galactique).
Modernisé et survitaminé.
Dix ans se sont écoulés depuis le lancement du premier AI War, et le monde du jeu a beaucoup changé, tout comme la puissance de calcul disponible sur l'appareil que vous utilisez pour lire ces lignes. Nous avons tout mis en œuvre pour construire des ennemis plus redoutables et plus intelligents qu'auparavant, et pour créer des simulations de centaines de milliers d'unités tournant à 120 images par seconde dans de nombreux cas. Vous pouvez accélérer et ralentir la simulation sans aucune charge supplémentaire sur votre processeur, et faire des pauses à volonté.
L'interface respecte votre temps en automatisant des choses que vous feriez de toute façon de la même manière dans 95 % des cas. Pour les 5 % restants, il existe en effet des fonctions avancées telles que le placement de nanites espions, le réglage ou la désactivation des règles d'automatisation, ou encore le remaniement de la composition de votre flotte autant que vous le souhaitez.
Rationalisé, mais plus profond.
Parfois, lorsqu'une suite est dite "simplifiée", cela signifie en réalité "abrutie". Et il y a effectivement moins de petits choix à faire dans certains domaines ici : vous n'avez pas à décider comment laver chaque assiette ; vous avez un lave-vaisselle. Et c'est une bonne chose que vous le fassiez, pour être honnête, car le terrier des scénarios complexes et déroutants s'enfonce aussi profondément que vous le voulez.
Toutes ces parties où vous prenez des décisions stratégiques intéressantes ? Ces parties sont plus difficiles que jamais, et vous ne pouvez pas vous rabattre sur les vieilles habitudes ennuyeuses pour vous en sortir. Vous devez être libre d'anticiper, de planifier, de rêver... puis de tout mettre de côté et de vous débrouiller à la hâte quand tout va de travers.
Il y a trop de choses à mémoriser (mais les infobulles sont toujours là, de toute façon), et il y a toujours un élément inconnu. Cliquer rapidement ne vous aidera pas. Pour gagner la guerre de l'IA, vous devrez improviser, vous adapter et utiliser votre intelligence.
Comme il se doit.
🌍️ Wikipedia: AI War: Fleet Command
AI War: Fleet Command est un jeu de stratégie en temps réel créé par le développeur indépendant Christopher M. Park, ayant fondé Arcen Games, mettant en scène des batailles faisant intervenir plusieurs dizaines de milliers de vaisseaux spatiaux.
AI War mélange les genres, empruntant principalement aux tower defense, aux jeux 4X et aux RTS pour fournir une expérience relativement originale et rafraîchissante.
Une bonne part de cette originalité provient de son mécanisme de jeu asymétrique, homme contre machine, s'appuyant sur une intelligence artificielle aux comportements dits "émergents"
Objectifs
Les joueurs humains se battent en coopération contre deux Intelligences Artificielles (AI) qui dominent totalement la galaxie, à l'exception des quelques enclaves ayant recueilli les derniers représentants de l'espèce humaine. L'objectif est d'atteindre et de détruire les bases de commandement centrales des deux intelligences artificielles, situées sur leurs planètes mères respectives.
L'expansion territoriale est une composante importante du jeu. Elle est nécessaire à la fois économiquement pour augmenter ses ressources, stratégiquement pour s'approcher des planètes mères ennemies, et technologiquement pour acquérir de nouvelles technologies en amenant des laboratoires de recherche sur ces nouvelles planètes.
Il faut cependant s'étendre de manière mesurée, car le niveau des ripostes des deux adversaires augmente proportionnellement à l'ampleur des destructions provoquées par les joueurs humains. Ce niveau d'agressivité est mesuré par un indicateur de "Progrès" des intelligences artificielles, indicateur qu'il faut tenter de garder le plus bas possible.
Il s'agit donc de maintenir un fragile équilibre entre expansion territoriale, économie, recherche technologique et puissance militaire, contre des forces adverses dont l'agressivité croit en proportion de l'avancée des joueurs.
Extensions
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