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[Xgamer4]

Arcen Game's is an indie developer of niche, experimental games including AI War, The Last Federation, Bionic Dues, and others.

Their last few games haven't met with the greatest acclaim, nor have they been financially successful, so they've had to lay off most of their staff. Their last-ditch self-funded attempt was In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor, which failed almost immediately out of the gate. It was promptly released for free on Steam just to keep it around for those that enjoyed what it was.

So now they've decided to break glass in an emergency, instead of releasing a raptor, and they're Kickstarting a sequel to AI War.

AI War is their most successful game - an asymmetric RTS pitting the last few human survivors against an overwhelming AI. It's reviewed extremely well, and lived a very long life - currently on 8.0 - with a fairly active Bay12 topic. With the sequel, the plan to polish up the parts that people loved, tweak the things that weren't-as-loved, and just all-around polish it to a shine on a new engine with a codebase that isn't a horrific nightmare.

They did a first attempt at a Kickstarter. It... didn't pan out how anyone would have liked, so they've gone back to the drawing board, learned to market, and trimmed down staff in order to go for attempt number 2. Less than 24 hours in, and attempt number 2 is basically funded.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii-0/description

Outdated info from Take 1 in the spoiler.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you'd like more details, they've published a massive Design Document detailing all their plans, and the thought process that went into it.

One notable thing is the plan to include multiple playable races, each with different play-styles against the AI. 

As for why they're kickstarting, they're treating the sequel as, essentially, a go-big-or-go-home moment. They don't want to put out something that won't hold up to the original, they know what they need to do to do so, and they know how much money that will cost. So they're going for it.

The link to the kickstarter is below. If you liked/were interested AI War, want to support an experimental dev team like Arcen, or just think the idea sounds interesting, go and back it. There's even a bunch of spots available in the Early Bird tiers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii

[Draco18s]

Yep, there's been a few talky posts over yonder.

[Aoi]

I feel like Arcen is kind of cursed. They consistently put out interesting, thoughtful stuff that usually just fails to gel in some way. I really like then myself, but there's just so much random niggling elements that things just flop over.

Like I finally got around to picking up The Last Federation recently, and find it fascinating... And ultimately, all its interlocking mechanics to be pointless. Even on higher difficulties, I just repeat the same basic strategies and they work without any kind of adjustment. Most of which just involve camping on a planet, followed by hurling massive amounts of capital around.

[Xgamer4]

Yeah, that's kinda the problem I've seen too... I love what they do - hence why I'm trying to drum up support to keep them alive. But they've really seemed to nail the "interesting experiment" niche. I really hope this Kickstarter works but... well.. it ain't lookin good.

[Neonivek]

I mean I like AI War...

But it kind of hits the point where I beg for it to stop every single time...

And smaller games are really unsatisfying a lot of the time as well.

[Shadowlord]

Personally, I have never figured out how to not die horribly in the first 15-30 minutes of AI War (or how to make sense of anything that is going on). If DF has a difficulty cliff, AI War's difficulty slope must be angled back over the head of the prospective climber.

[Neonivek]

Personally, I have never figured out how to not die horribly in the first 15-30 minutes of AI War (or how to make sense of anything that is going on). If DF has a difficulty cliff, AI War's difficulty slope must be angled back over the head of the prospective climber.

Its difficulty is based HEAVILY on mechanics that aren't obvious or intuitive.

If you know the game's inner workings (which is kind of required) then it becomes much easier...

Which the only bigger issues is that some of the stuff the AI can do it outright counter intuitive. Which you must avoid.

[Aklyon]

Personally, I have never figured out how to not die horribly in the first 15-30 minutes of AI War (or how to make sense of anything that is going on). If DF has a difficulty cliff, AI War's difficulty slope must be angled back over the head of the prospective climber.

Build defenses first. Or lots of ships.
And don't play with absolutely everything enabled.

[Draco18s]

And try a lower difficulty.  Drop down by a full integer.

[Shadowlord]

And try a lower difficulty.  Drop down by a full integer.

What, below normal?

[Aklyon]

And try a lower difficulty.  Drop down by a full integer.

What, below normal?

Theres a reason 5 and 6 exist, and its to give you a slightly easier time but not just make things way too easy like 1-4.

[martinuzz]

And try a lower difficulty.  Drop down by a full integer.

What, below normal?

Yes, normal difficulty is for advanced players.

[Neonivek]

And try a lower difficulty.  Drop down by a full integer.

What, below normal?

Yes, normal difficulty is for advanced players.

Not because it is particularly hard... but because, as I said... You have to know the hidden mechanics of the game to play effectively.

[Frumple]

... you keep saying that, but I can't recall any mechanics in AI War that were hidden. Lot of things to remember, but between the tutorial and tooltips things are pretty clear.

[Neonivek]

... you keep saying that, but I can't recall any mechanics in AI War that were hidden. Lot of things to remember, but between the tutorial and tooltips things are pretty clear.

How about Exogalactic forces.

They only trigger in one specific case.