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"AI War breaks most of the genre’s rules. Which is precisely why it’s incredible... This out-of-the-blue one-man passion project is one of this year’s finest strategy games." - PC Gamer UK Review, November 2009

AI War is an entirely unique large-scale RTS with aspects of TBS, tower defense, and grand strategy. It features single or cooperative play with as many as 8 humans against a pair of powerful, intelligent AIs. These AIs are driven by an AI Progress stat that players contribute to through aggressive actions such as taking control of planets and destroying key units, forcing tough decisions regarding which targets are worth capturing or destroying. Human fleets are usually several thousand ships in size or larger, with games often featuring 30,000 units at any given time across galaxies of anywhere from 10 to 120 planets. Some games have reached as many as 90,000 units!

Despite this, players retain powerful control over their fleets in a macro-sense, ignoring painful micromanagement present in other games in favor of actual tactics like flanking. Meanwhile, ships themselves attempt to target enemies as intelligently as possible so the player can focus on the tasks that really matter. Scouting also plays a major role in the game, supplying an intel 'snapshot' about important capturable units, enemy fleet sizes, and planet ownership. Designed by RTS veterans and backed by strong, responsive support on the official forums and elsewhere, AI War is an exciting and refreshing experience.

  • Space-based RTS, single player or up to 8 player co-op
  • Powerful emergent AI that retreats, probes defenses, and surprises even veterans with intelligent tactics
  • 30,000+ ships at a time on 10-120 simultaneous planetary battlefields
  • Different Every Time: 16 billion procedural maps, each with specific units
  • A focus on deep strategy with nearly no micromanagement
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This one is mostly a maintenance release, but there's some important iteration on Salvage and other features.

The salvage-reprisal waves were working pretty well but feedback showed they ultimately needed to be separated from normal waves into their own thing. Now they probably won't happen nearly as often (unless your fleet is an accident-waiting-to-happen permanently on the offensive... though I guess that's actually pretty accurate in some cases) and won't displace the normal wave mechanic. They'll also be much less of a threat in the early minutes of the game, to avoid the need for building serious defenses before you even start to attack.

The Neinzul Enclave Starship is hilariously powerful. In fact, hilariously over-powerful. And the hilarity is great particularly given the unit's past where relatively few players really wanted to use them. So we're not nerf-hammering it into the ground (indeed, the first two marks are getting a bit better), but ultimately it's not good for a single line of units to allow you to take heavily-defended systems without significant casualties. Further balance feedback (up or down) is quite welcome.

Hacking costs have seen another pass, with the ARS-redirection and design-corruption actions getting cheaper and the fab-hacking and sabotage actions getting more expensive.

And there's some important bugfixes, including one for the issue where the first two Showdown CPAs would imitate the third (and launch everything).

Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

Originally posted by Keith LaMothe on the Arcen Games news blog.

AI War Beta 7.013 "Revised Salvage" Released

AI War Beta 7.013 "Revised Salvage" Released

News

A new beta patch for AI War is out -- adding improvements to the recently added Salvage mechanic, along with other fixes and tweaks. Thanks for the feedback...

AI War Beta 7.011 "Salvaged Resources" Released

AI War Beta 7.011 "Salvaged Resources" Released

News

The latest beta patch for AI War is out now! This one addresses refleeting issues, combines metal and crystal (related to hacking, and more.

AI War: CoN donations to Child's Play finalize at $44,597.02

AI War: CoN donations to Child's Play finalize at $44,597.02

News

AI War: Children of Neinzul donations have wrapped up at over $44.5k for Child's Play!

Humble Update: 40,000 Bundles Sold, $135,000 Earned (3 Days Left!)

Humble Update: 40,000 Bundles Sold, $135,000 Earned (3 Days Left!)

News

We're just over halfway through the Arcen Humble Weekly Sale, and have sold 40,000+ bundles so far!

RSS Files
AI War: Fleet Command v5.000 Windows Installer

AI War: Fleet Command v5.000 Windows Installer

Demo

This is both the demo and the full version of the latest official version of the game. Players who wish to unlock the full version from the demo can purchase...

AI War: Fleet Command v5.000 OSX Installer

AI War: Fleet Command v5.000 OSX Installer

Demo

This is both the demo and the full version of the latest official version of the game. Players who wish to unlock the full version from the demo can purchase...

AI War: Fleet Command v3.120 Installer

AI War: Fleet Command v3.120 Installer

Demo

This is both the demo and the full version of the game. Players who wish to unlock the full version from the demo can purchase a license key from the...

AI War: Fleet Command v3.060 Installer

AI War: Fleet Command v3.060 Installer

Demo

This is both the demo and the full version of the game. Players who wish to unlock the full version from the demo can purchase a license key from the...

AI War: Fleet Command v3.000 Installer

AI War: Fleet Command v3.000 Installer

Demo

This is both the demo and the full version of the game. Players who wish to unlock the full version from the demo can purchase a license key from the...

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towerbooks3192
towerbooks3192

I really really really would love to get in to this game but no matter how hard I tried, its just so darn hard. I felt like its the "dark souls" of Space RTS.

I was wondering if the 4x setting (slower one) would make a difference in this game?

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pnptcn
pnptcn

Yeah, don't be afraid to find your comfort zone. Setting the game on it's lowest difficulty setting basically turns the game into a sandbox. I consider diff 1 through 5 to be Easy. They say 7 difficulty is "normal" but that can probably translate to "normal for them." You can also select easier AI to go up against at the start. Pretty much any aspect of the games difficulty can be tweaked. Just don't make the common mistake that a lot of players make with their first campaigns. A low planet setting doesn't make the game easier at all. You just turn the game into a cage match with a couple of 800 lb gorillas.

And yeah, Dark Souls of RTS isn't a bad analogy. I usually say that AI War is to RTS as Dwarf Fortress is to Sims.

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CYON4D
CYON4D

I am suprised that noone mentioned "Supreme Commander" here.
I checked the demo just now and I was expecting something more original but I can see the rip offs of Supreme Commander in every corner of this game.
The economy system of the game is almost copied entirely as it is from Supreme Commander.

Matter Creator = Mass Generator, Mark I,II,III = Tech I,II,III
Science Lab = Research Lab(SUPCOM2), Knowledge = Research Points(SUPCOM2)
Orbital Command Center = Armored Command Unit.

Even the "Reclaim of wreckage" feature from Supreme Commander is used in this game.

If you have never heard of Supreme Commander series and think that AI:War is a good game, you will have a blast if you play Supreme Commander, especially SupCom: Forged Alliance.


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pnptcn
pnptcn

The creator of AI War has never tried to hide or deny the influence of Total Annihlation on AI War. Using the term "rip off" is harsh and juvenile. Practically every game developed borrows the best ideas of other games. Nothing is ever created in a vacuum.

Further, AI War has a depth to its design and gameplay that is unmatched by any other RTS I know of. That certainly includes SupCom.

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KDR_11k
KDR_11k

Command Centers are more like StarCraft CCs, no? And the knowledge comparison is really stretching it. Wreckage reclamation is not the same either, wreckage is used for rebuilding lost structures, not taking resources from killed enemies. Only similarity is that metal and crystal are consumed over time instead of when a unit is queued but that has been in use since the days of Command & Conquer (dunno about Dune 2 since I only played the Dune 2000 remake).

The core concept of AI War is the asymmetry between you and the AI, SupCom has nothing like that. Some people improvise by playing coop against top difficulty AIs in SupCom but AI War is completely designed around that kind of setup.

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CYON4D
CYON4D

Ofcourse there are and has to be areas where AI Wars differs from Supreme Commander. Otherwise why bother making a game if it's going to be completely same with a previous title.
Don't get me wrong I am not saying that AI Wars is a bad game. It just reminds me so much of Supreme Commander to a degree that I feel like I am playing a reduced version of SupCom. Cheers.

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Piemanlives
Piemanlives

Balls, and when i though i'd seen everything. Looking forward to it.

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soMe_RandoM
soMe_RandoM

I enjoy this game a lot, this game has enough content and replay ability if i was forced to live very long time with only 1 game to choose i would pick this game.

This game is very well done for indie game. And still very active development and community

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kelthehet
kelthehet

Well, before you ask for a free ride, write one yourself to the complexity and general timbre of this game and do so yourself. Remember that games like these take time to make, effort to balance out, and a lot of patience to get just right. I purchased this game because it forces me to adjust, think differently, and approach from many different angles.

This is a good game. Remember that information is vital in this game, and that you need to think out each step very carefully, as the AI progress keeps climbing... and you don't want them to get high up there. As the game says, you are outgunned, outclassed, outplanned, and outmanuvered... that is until you get a decent foothold and litter every system you take with AI ship parts.

This game is a blast with friends, btw.

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