By Aubrey on December 31st, 2009

Here is our first (long in coming) update for the comic. Thanks everyone for being so patient!
Overgrowth

The comic is a fun way to explore places and characters for Overgrowth, and also lets us practice our story writing skills.
Overgrowth

It takes a lot of work to make the comic, but I think it is time well spent. What do you think?

Pictures at the link below:
(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Overgrowth-Comic-Update)

By Aubrey on December 31st, 2009

Here is our first (long in coming) update for the comic. Thanks everyone for being so patient!
Overgrowth

The comic is a fun way to explore places and characters for Overgrowth, and also lets us practice our story writing skills.
Overgrowth

It takes a lot of work to make the comic, but I think it is time well spent. What do you think?

Pictures at the link below:
(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Overgrowth-Comic-Update)

Prerelease/Expans 2.001ZJ (9 Control Nodes, Transports+, Fixes, AI Logic+)

The pre-releeases continue for New Year's Eve!

Please see http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2804.0.html for more information upon ZG, as I have missed it, and it contains a "Control Node" feature that re-allows players to control one another's units, and with a impressive new skin for Fortresses made by community member, I-KP.

Topic: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2821.0.html
Download: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar2001ZJ.zip

What's new since 2.001ZG:

-The way that the names of technologies are loaded is now more efficient for localization, and also prevents a redudancy in the notification-of-unlock message text that is now shown.

-New Control Node: Auto-Build Engineers Mark II. Each command station you control will automatically maintain one Mark II Engineer at each planet you control. Building multiple of this control node causes multiple engineers to be maintained at each planet. Replacement engineers will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Auto-Build Engineers Mark III. Each command station you control will automatically maintain one Mark III Engineer at each planet you control. Building multiple of this control node causes multiple engineers to be maintained at each planet. Replacement engineers will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Auto-FRD Engineers. Automatically places all of your engineers (including secondary engineers such as remains rebuilders) into Free-Roaming Defender mode if they are on planets you control.

-New Control Node: Auto-FRD Mobile Military. Automatically places all of your mobile military ships into Free-Roaming Defender mode if they are on planets you control.

-New Control Node: Auto-Build Remains Rebuilders. Each command station you control will automatically maintain one Remains Rebuilder at each planet you control. Building multiple of this control node causes multiple rebuilders to be maintained at each planet. Replacement rebuilders will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Auto-Rebuild Harvesters. Automatically rebuilds metal and crystal harvesters on all planets you control. Replacement harvesters will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Engineers To Not Auto-Assist Queues. Prevents your engineers from automatically assisting build queues (keeping them on repair duty only, unless they are given explicit orders to accelerate a queue).

-New Control Node: Engineers To Not Auto-Assist Allies. Prevents your engineers from automatically assisting any allied ships (though you can still manually assign them to assist specific allied ships).

-The intel summaries on the galaxy map now include labels for all of their icons to make it easier to tell what planets might deserve more investigation without having to use the help palettes in the planetary summary.

-Ships that are rebuilt from remains now start out with 50% health when they are starting to be rebuilt.

-Previously there was a bug that would sometimes cause AI ships -- most notably bombers -- to act indecisive when they are generally outnumbered but also still have a target of value that they can kill. This is now fixed.

-On difficulty 7 and up, the AI is now smarter about taking out key targets when it is outnumbered; now sometimes managing suicide runs instead of always falling back in this situation.

-The list of scouts in the scouts button now only includes the specific scout ships (Scout I-IV) and the Scout Starship.

-Fortresses now provide scout data.

-Transports move away from the wormhole to avoid taking so much direct fire.

-When transports are destroyed they now safely eject their cargo, rather than losing all of it.

Please see the topic on the changes since prior releases, and changes since 2.001ZJ.

Prerelease/Expans 2.001ZJ (9 Control Nodes, Transports+, Fixes, AI Logic+)

The pre-releeases continue for New Year's Eve!

Please see http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2804.0.html for more information upon ZG, as I have missed it, and it contains a "Control Node" feature that re-allows players to control one another's units, and with a impressive new skin for Fortresses made by community member, I-KP.

Topic: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2821.0.html
Download: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar2001ZJ.zip

What's new since 2.001ZG:

-The way that the names of technologies are loaded is now more efficient for localization, and also prevents a redudancy in the notification-of-unlock message text that is now shown.

-New Control Node: Auto-Build Engineers Mark II. Each command station you control will automatically maintain one Mark II Engineer at each planet you control. Building multiple of this control node causes multiple engineers to be maintained at each planet. Replacement engineers will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Auto-Build Engineers Mark III. Each command station you control will automatically maintain one Mark III Engineer at each planet you control. Building multiple of this control node causes multiple engineers to be maintained at each planet. Replacement engineers will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Auto-FRD Engineers. Automatically places all of your engineers (including secondary engineers such as remains rebuilders) into Free-Roaming Defender mode if they are on planets you control.

-New Control Node: Auto-FRD Mobile Military. Automatically places all of your mobile military ships into Free-Roaming Defender mode if they are on planets you control.

-New Control Node: Auto-Build Remains Rebuilders. Each command station you control will automatically maintain one Remains Rebuilder at each planet you control. Building multiple of this control node causes multiple rebuilders to be maintained at each planet. Replacement rebuilders will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Auto-Rebuild Harvesters. Automatically rebuilds metal and crystal harvesters on all planets you control. Replacement harvesters will only be built if there are fewer than 100 mobile enemy ships on the planet.

-New Control Node: Engineers To Not Auto-Assist Queues. Prevents your engineers from automatically assisting build queues (keeping them on repair duty only, unless they are given explicit orders to accelerate a queue).

-New Control Node: Engineers To Not Auto-Assist Allies. Prevents your engineers from automatically assisting any allied ships (though you can still manually assign them to assist specific allied ships).

-The intel summaries on the galaxy map now include labels for all of their icons to make it easier to tell what planets might deserve more investigation without having to use the help palettes in the planetary summary.

-Ships that are rebuilt from remains now start out with 50% health when they are starting to be rebuilt.

-Previously there was a bug that would sometimes cause AI ships -- most notably bombers -- to act indecisive when they are generally outnumbered but also still have a target of value that they can kill. This is now fixed.

-On difficulty 7 and up, the AI is now smarter about taking out key targets when it is outnumbered; now sometimes managing suicide runs instead of always falling back in this situation.

-The list of scouts in the scouts button now only includes the specific scout ships (Scout I-IV) and the Scout Starship.

-Fortresses now provide scout data.

-Transports move away from the wormhole to avoid taking so much direct fire.

-When transports are destroyed they now safely eject their cargo, rather than losing all of it.

Please see the topic on the changes since prior releases, and changes since 2.001ZJ.

You and your friends can buy Shattered Horizon for only $4.99 / €4.99 for the next 24 hours on Steam. The Clan Pack is even better value - 4 copies for only $14.99 / €14.99. Grab it while you can!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/18110/

Happy New Year from everyone at Futuremark Games Studio.

Happy new year from the Darkest Hour team to all of you!

Remember to throw a vote for Darkest Hour in the MOTY 09 awards.
Link below:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/darkest-hour-normandy-1944


-Razorneck

Happy new year from the Darkest Hour team to all of you!

Remember to throw a vote for Darkest Hour in the MOTY 09 awards.
Link below:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/darkest-hour-normandy-1944


-Razorneck

By John on December 30th, 2009

We can talk perpetually about various aspects of indie game development on the blog. However, sometimes it's nice to step off our soapbox and answer some direct questions from the readers! Our last community Q&A session was very successful, so we've decided that it's time to open the floor again.

Our goal is always to focus on topics that people are actually interested in. So in the spirit of open development, we ask you to please submit your burning questions in the comments. We will focus on the 10 questions which receive the most "likes" (within reason, I don't know if I can handle another kilt interpretive dance). We also reserve the right to answer extra questions that we find particularly interesting. If you submit a real doozie, we may decide to save it for its own blog post later on.
Bunny questions

Kilt dance or not, we promise to provide some kind of video response!

Post your questions and click the "Like" button on the ones you want us to answer below!

Pictures & Video Below
(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Interview-the-Wolfire-Team)

By John on December 30th, 2009

We can talk perpetually about various aspects of indie game development on the blog. However, sometimes it's nice to step off our soapbox and answer some direct questions from the readers! Our last community Q&A session was very successful, so we've decided that it's time to open the floor again.

Our goal is always to focus on topics that people are actually interested in. So in the spirit of open development, we ask you to please submit your burning questions in the comments. We will focus on the 10 questions which receive the most "likes" (within reason, I don't know if I can handle another kilt interpretive dance). We also reserve the right to answer extra questions that we find particularly interesting. If you submit a real doozie, we may decide to save it for its own blog post later on.
Bunny questions

Kilt dance or not, we promise to provide some kind of video response!

Post your questions and click the "Like" button on the ones you want us to answer below!

Pictures & Video Below
(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Interview-the-Wolfire-Team)

By Jeff on December 29th, 2009

Here is what is new in Overgrowth in this weekly alpha. If you are confused what a weekly alpha is, or even what Overgrowth is, please read our fancy FAQ. Basically, we are developing a massive video game from the ground up -- we are able to do this completely independently by accepting preorders for the game before it's done!
Overgrowth

Aubrey has made a number of awesome new art assets, and David fixed a lot of bugs. Here are a few highlights from the source repository:

* Started working on V8 scripting
* Hooked up V8 libraries
* Created V8 context and function wrappers
* Hooked up V8 console
* Enabled ragdoll shadows
* Misc bug fixes

Overgrowth alpha 59
Dropping some ragdolls

Thanks as always for all the support! See you guys in IRC and the forums.

Picture & Video on link Below.
(http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/12/Overgrowth-alpha-59)