The dates on your tiers show the date of that tier’s FINAL deliverable; you’ll have access to the game during private alpha at the same time as every other private alpha backer.

Some rules of thumb: - Backer badges will be available very soon after the Kickstarter ends. - The private alpha is set for February. All private alpha backers will be able to claim their game at this time. - Same deal for the Early Access in May and 1.0 in October. - The collaborative rewards have later dates because we’re going to need time to work with you on writing, art, or music as your case may be.

tl;dr: some tiers have later estimated delivery dates because your last reward comes later.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:01

Yes. We don’t have to go through Greenlight either; things are all already set there.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:01

We want to! No promises though, getting projects on GOG is now more involved and more subjective on their side. They carry a number of our games, but they’ve flatly turned down a few others (RIP Starward Rogue).

They do seem interested in AI War II so we are hopeful they will carry it at 1.0, and maybe via their Games In Development program. Please stay tuned!

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:01

Did you just ask us that? Did you just ask US that?

Perish the thought. We hate DRM just as much as you. Regardless of platform, our games through our games are always DRM-free. With any of our titles, you can simply copy their files out of the Steam folder (or whatever) and plop them on a thumb drive or whatever you want to do. Easy.

There will be some Steamworks integration, which will not be required for local achievements, or for multiplayer in general.

There is also a check for updates via our own in-game updater. The original AI War has, as do our other titles. This can be disabled, and is in no way required to run the game. If the auto-updater detects an update it lets you know and you can choose whether to download it or not. You’re never forced to keep the game up to date.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:01

Certainly! You know we love you guys. We should have said this up top somewhere, but we just take it for granted so much we don’t always think about it.

The OS requirements for Unity 5.4 have changed, but the change shouldn’t affect anyone that is keeping remotely up to date with their OS versions. The new requirements are:

• Windows XP SP2+
• Mac OS X 10.8+
• Ubuntu 12.04+
• SteamOS+

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:01

YES. Turns out we can support both those and 64bit systems without multiplayer compatibility problems after all. Previously we had stated that would not be possible, but we were happy to learn we actually can do it!

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:01

Chris here. We had to really evaluate our scope. The original goal was based around us doing EVERYTHING all in one go, versus over time. There were a few reasons for that aggressiveness, but the main one was that I wanted to avoid having to lay off staff. We gave it our best go, but ultimately that was not meant to be. In some of the later updates on the first kickstarter, we went into a lot of detail on what all changed, if you want to read them:

First update with differences and changes in Arcen: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii/posts/1723950

Second update with even more clarity about what is changing in the re-launched design: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii/posts/1731960

Third update that breaks things out in more bullet points and has even more info: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii/posts/1733680

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:06

Yep! Here’s the file: http://aiwar.s3.amazonaws.com/AIWar8000WinMacLin_RequiresKey.zip

This zip archive contains the OSX, Windows, and Linux versions all in one package. More than 99% of the files are the same between all three operating systems, so this gives you the flexibility of having all three operating systems in one package without needing to download multiple large archives. To play the demo, simply unzip the archive into the location of your choice.

To run the game: 1. Windows: Run AIWar.exe (this is 32bit) 2. OSX: Run AIWar.app (this will run as 32bit or 64bit, depending on your OS). 3. Linux: Run AIWarLinux.x86 if you are on a 32bit OS, or AIWarLinux.x86_64 if you are on a 64bit OS.

That’s it! Note: if you have a CD key (NOT a steam key) for the game, then you can unlock this demo into the full version of the game.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:08

No restrictions! Once you have whatever copy of the game you’re choosing to get, feel free to video and screenshot whatever you want to with it.

We also get asked a lot about monetization of videos. Good grief please feel free – with any of our games. We love LPers and reviewers and all the various things people do, and if they can get compensation through video monetezation or patreon or whatever other source, we’re super happy for them.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:08

Yes! Finally, this is here. Hoo boy this took me forever, and for that I’m really sorry. I know some folks from our forums haven’t been able to back until now. http://arcengames.com/ai-war-2-kickstarter-paypal-at-last/

At this point, the actual number on the kickstarter page becomes a lie. ;) So we may hit the Nemesis goal faster than it looks like, thanks to outside paypal pledges. If that’s the case we’ll treat them just as if they were on kickstarter itself, and we’ll give you updates on that. But if we see some strange number like $87k and the $90k goal is “hit,” then that’s the paypal side bolstering it.

I do want to note: if you’re able to back on kickstarter, please do so here instead of via paypal. It helps with management of everything on our end, as well as helping appearances on the kickstarter itself, and so on. But if that’s not an option… now there’s an option for you!

Last updated: December 13, 2016 07:10

Evil laughter Yes, yes – of course. I doubt that the new game will have quite so many as the first did, at least not right at first. But the first game had one of the highest number of achievements of most Steam games, mainly because of all the different things you could do, and all those expansions. We’ll continue that tradition in full force!

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:08

Basically for those sort of rewards, we’ll get them to you as soon as we can after the project closes. We’re not sure if that will be right after the KS itself closes, or if it will need to be after the funds actually close and get sent to us (which takes 14 days after the project ends).

Honestly we’re new to that part, and we’ll be using BackerKit to help us, and will defer to them on best practices. We’ll do everything we can to get you each piece of your reward as soon as possible per piece, though!

Last updated: November 17, 2016 17:22

Chris: Yeah. :( That was something I was going to do in my own spare time just because I thought it would be super fun, but at this point there’s a lot of other things that I’m doing for this project in my “spare time” (hmm) that take priority. You never know, it might come back! Either way, I want to make an actual game like that someday. But right now it didn’t fit in the budget.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 18:14

Chris: We get asked about this sort of thing – or lifetime passes for DLC for this game, season passes, etc – and that’s something I’m against and unfortunately not going to change my mind on. I feel it is inherently consumer-hostile to have season passes.

To elaborate: it creates an implied obligation on Arcen’s part that I’m not comfortable with. Let’s say that AI War 2 releases and does pretty well, but for some reason we are not able to make expansions for a few years, or at all. Maybe it’s not financially viable for some reason, or maybe Keith gets abducted by Burlusts.

In those circumstances, we’d be under a lot of stress from feeling like we’re betraying those people who were kind enough to buy the season pass thingies. And a lot of those people probably would not feel great either, whether they “knew the risks” or not.

I’d like to think that everything will work out ideally with the project, but when I’m setting up any sort of circumstance where there is an obligation the company now has – moral or legal or otherwise – then I try to think through the less-ideal cases instead. In the case of a season pass, there are a variety of them that make me deeply uncomfortable and that I’m not willing to risk betraying a moral obligation for a few bucks.

When it comes to something like a Kickstarter or Early Access where you give us money in advance, we take it SUPER seriously and make sure that we budget very distinctly and are able to deliver on what we are promising. With a season pass, we wouldn’t be able to do that – and a lot of developers have gotten themselves into trouble by putting themselves in that position.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 18:14

Ever hate how the AI taunts you, but you can’t taunt back? In a lot of classic RTS games it was possible to enter a number and have a specific voice taunt play. In modding communities, there were often large packs of unlicensed quotes and other nonthematic things that made them even more fun. We can’t do THAT part, of course.

These triggers are things that players will be able to trigger by entering a chat command of “T1” or similar to activate “taunt one,” and we’ll also make them triggerable by things like “T-yes” or whatnot to be easier to remember. Older RTS games commonly had this sort of thing, and it could be super satisfying to tell your just-defeated-in-a-battle opponent that their father was a hamster. To be clear: none of these taunts will play unless you or an ally choose to invoke them, so these won’t be invading your sense of immersion if you don’t want to use them.

Last updated: November 17, 2016 18:30

It depends on the pledge tier that you select.

• If you choose “alpha” tier (which is more costly), you’ll get it in February 2017.

• If you choose “early access” tier (which is middle-price), you’ll get it when the game is first available in Steam Early Access, which is planned to be May 2017. This is also when the game first becomes available to the public to purchase, but at a price of $30.

• If you choose the 1.0/release tier, then you’ll get the game when it leaves early access, which is expected to be October 2017. At this time the price for people buying it on Steam and elsewhere will drop to $20.

Note: If you’re choosing the 1.0/release option, this does mean that other people who aren’t kickstarter backers will have the option to get the early-access version prior to you getting your key. They’ll be paying a premium ($10 more) compared to you, however. Basically this is the same sort of system that games like Prison Architect used.

Last updated: December 01, 2016 06:27

This will be at 1.0/release for everybody. Because of our rapid turnaround on new builds (typically one a week at least, historically-speaking, but it varies), AND the new and larger build sizes (read: more expensive for us to distribute from our own bandwidth) it’s not feasible for us to do a standalone version during the early access period.

Probably. ;) We may work something out, but please don’t plan on it. The Steam version itself contains no DRM (you can copy the files to a thumb drive and move them around if you want), but is being used as the distribution mechanism during early access.

Last updated: December 01, 2016 06:27

Of course! Whenever you get a key, it’s yours forever after that. You’re just getting in early – and helping to support us more, for which we thank you! All of the keys are the same, but the alpha, early access, and 1.0/launch differentiation specifies when we deliver it to you.

Last updated: December 01, 2016 06:27