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Author Topic: AI War: Fleet Command  (Read 10090 times)

Deozaan

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AI War: Fleet Command
« on: February 15, 2011, 10:20 PM »
This is a deep (real-time) strategy game made by Indie Dev Arcen Games that reduces the need to micromanage and allows you to focus more on strategy. It's not about building the largest, most powerful army and wiping out all traces of the competition. In fact, if you attempt that, you will likely find yourself wiped out pretty quickly. This game is about trying to appear insignificant and choosing your battles. Also, there is no PVP in this game. If you play with other players, it's cooperative vs the AI.

A great review was just written up on EuroGamer:

You're humanity's last hope, because you're the last of humanity. You're given a single chance to reclaim the galaxy, and there's one giant, obscene obstacle in your way: the AI. Think Terminator or the Matrix; think any sort of sci-fi where the computers take over and you've got yourself the premise of AI War. Except this time, the battle is fought over the entire galaxy, over dozens of them. You've got to take it all back and the AI can stop you at any time. You've just got to piss it off enough to think you're a genuine threat.

This is Buckaroo, only the stakes are a little higher, and the scale is cosmic. Each little piece of detritus you're littering over that angry donkey is a star system, a data bank, a factory. At any point, you might well take one thing too many, and suddenly, in the top left of your screen, a little message is going to pop up. It's not going to be a pleasant sort of message. It will read something like this:

"30,000 ships headed towards your system in 5:00."

That timer at the end is going to start ticking down and you're going to frantically start to build up your defences, except somewhere, in the back of your mind, you're going to know it's not enough. It'll never be enough. You recall all your ships, from everywhere, to try to mount some kind of realistic defence, but somehow they seem to be moving slower than usual, or maybe it's just because this is so much more urgent and your mind is wanting, no, needing, them to move faster. And oh God the AI ships are here and we're all going to die.

That's AI War at its climax. Well, one of its climaxes. This happens so often, with you barely scraping through each time, that if you aren't a frayed mess of overloaded nerve endings, you're probably just as much a machine as the one you're fighting.

The third expansion, Light of the Spire has just released (and is discounted) on Steam. Also, to celebrate, AI War itself is 50% off temporarily.

Try out the free demo and see if you like it. If so, buy it! I'd really love to have some other players to attempt to defeat the AI with. I keep losing. :-[

Also, Arcen Games are a great studio! They're like Stardock in that they don't have any DRM in their games beyond a simple serial number that you use to unlock the full version from the demo. There's no internet connection required to activate or login, no phoning home, no max activations, etc. (In fact, if you like Sins of a Solar Empire by Stardock, you really need to check out this game. Even though they are way different, I can't help but be reminded of SoaSE when I try to describe the game to others.)



OpposingFleets.pngAI War: Fleet Command

Renegade

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2011, 05:27 AM »
Now I remember why I uninstalled Steam a while back...

It's still nigh unto impossible to buy on the Internet.


NSFW - As in really ranty and not safe for anyone

Just how fucking hard is it to give some people money?

Error #1:
****
Your billing address doesn’t look like it matches up with your current country. Please contact support for assistance or use a payment method registered to your current address.
****

Who fucking cares? It's money. Just fucking take it already!

Me, money. Me money you give. Smiley happy!

It's not that fucking hard a concept to grasp...

Error #2:
****
There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction. Please wait a minute and try again or contact support for assistance.
****

Oh Jesus...

I blame this entirely on fucking shit-head business/marketing cock-faces and lawyers.

I do NOT want to give such incompetent fuckwads my credit card information. Jesus Christ... How fucking stupid would that be? They cock up the payment system, then want my credit card information AND THEY WANT TO FUCKING STORE IT SO THAT IT'S "EASIER" FOR ME?



There. I feel better after getting that out of my system. Now to uninstall Steam... Yet again...

Still...

Damn! It looks like such a wicked cool game too. I mostly check out a few games and very few perk my interest. Money in hand, and no luck.

NSFW - but not as unsafe as the above
Can't manage to buy a simple game... If feel like the loser that can't get laid in the whore house... :P


Is there a non-steam version or something else that you'd recommend that's similar?



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Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Deozaan

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2011, 11:38 AM »
Is there a non-steam version or something else that you'd recommend that's similar?

You can also buy directly from them on their website and I they also have their games available on other digital distribution platforms like Direct2Drive, etc., though you'll have to check their website to verify the other retailers. But if you're having trouble paying via Steam, I can't imagine it working much better from anywhere else. :huh:

Also one of the highlights:

We've been asked if the game contains any signficiant DRM, and the answer is, emphatically, no. We've got a simple license key (which turns the trial version into the full version), but that's it. No need to contact our servers during install, no hidden drivers, no encryption, or install limits.

We want to make it easy on our customers, and we've never really felt like DRM works, anyway. If you like our games, please buy them so that we can make more, but we're not about to start treating our real customers like thieves just to thwart the inevitable pirates.

:Thmbsup:

Deozaan

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2011, 04:20 PM »
Arcen is having a 2 year anniversary sale on the entire AI War Bundle (includes all expansions):

http://arcengames.bl...n-bundle-and-ai.html

It's approx $21 USD for the game and all three expansions. DRM free. :Thmbsup:

NO DRM

We've been asked if our games contain any significant DRM, and the answer is, emphatically, no. Each game has a simple license key (which turns the trial version into the full version), but that's it. No need to contact our servers during install, no hidden drivers, no encryption, or install limits.

We want to make it easy on our customers, and we've never really felt like DRM works, anyway. If you like our games, please buy them so that we can make more, but we're not about to start treating our real customers like thieves just to thwart the inevitable pirates.

iphigenie

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2011, 02:26 AM »
you can buy AI war on impulse and gamersgate as well - less invasive than steam. Impulse has a client, whereabout GG just has a download manager that starts a game download (per game in the installation file, not installed on the computer)

Deozaan

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2011, 12:42 PM »
you can buy AI war on impulse and gamersgate as well - less invasive than steam.

You can even buy it directly from Arcen Games by following my link in my last post. And, if you buy it on Impulse or Steam or GamersGate, then you can always just download it directly from Arcen Games as well, and the registration key(s) will unlock the full version.

Deozaan

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2011, 12:06 PM »
Today on Steam you can get AI War and all of it's expansions for $4.50 USD.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/

lanux128

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Re: AI War: Fleet Command
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2013, 09:54 PM »
Deozaan's favourite game is back on sale, at Humble Weekly Sale: Arcen Games.

You'll receive AI War: Fleet Command plus all five DLC packs: AI War: The Zenith Remnant, AI War: Children of Neinzul, AI War: Light of the Spire, AI War: Ancient Shadows, and AI War: Vengeance of the Machine.

http://www.humblebundle.com/weekly