Not only is it an outstanding game, but the developer support is the best I’ve seen.

Regarding pacing, I would posit that if you are finding yourself too secure, you aren’t playing on a difficulty level that really matches your skill. Often I get to a point where I FEEL secure, but then the AI does something and I lose a bunch of planets. This effect is exaggerated somewhat in multiplayer, too, because you are forced to have more territory (by nature of having more players to support), and so there are more ingress points.

In the past some players were able to set up extreme-low-AI-Progress setups, but the changes to how energy works, as well as the addition of the Supply mechanic, have largely addressed that; players can still go for that sort of strategy, but it’s not a clear best path for play by any stretch. That’s a great example of players doing something clever that I never thought of, and then having to address that with new game mechanics. If I wasn’t still rebalancing the game based on player findings of that sort, that’s where the game would “die” for those players, since there would be nothing more to do once a best path was arrived at. Some of that is still ongoing, as it will always likely be with a game of sufficient complexity, but there aren’t any unfixed best paths at the moment that anyone has found to my knowledge.

In the expansion, even beyond the third minor faction, it’s really going to shake stuff up just with the new capturables and new AI weapons in general. Making the galactic landscape feel more unique really has a huge effect on the game. Bot partners may be something for a future expansion, but one cool thing is with the new Zenith faction in this expansion, those guys are neutral so they can be a friend or a foe at times. Not quite the same as a full-out bot partner, but sometimes they will fill something of a similar role.

The demo gives you the full tutorial, which includes a campaign with no time limit. Sure, the AI is set to the easiest level, but learning in the interface in the demo should not be an issue.

For the most part I love AI Wars, but having come back and tried 2.0 for the first time I’m having mixed feelings about the graphical overhaul. The screen feels really busy now, and information I used to find easy to tell at a glance I now find myself lost in a sea of colours. My biggest issue is that I really don’t think the new shot graphics match the ship sizes, and as they sort of leap onto their target at the end it’s hard to tell who you’re actually firing on.

On the other hand, perhaps if I’d started with 2.0 and tried to go back to 1.0 I’d have similar complaints

I’d have liked to see someone take Chris to task for his comments on pacing. He brought this up as an issue he intended to tackle, but I think it’s too easy in AI War to get stuck in a cycle of having yourself in a secure setup, build up a fleet behind the lines, use it, then rinse and repeat. Certainly I’d like someone to have asked him how he felt he’d tackled that issue since 1.0 as I believe has has made several strides away from that model.

Can’t wait for the expansion though, I think a third faction is exactly what’s needed to mix things up for those of us playing single-player. I still harbour a hope that one expansion will add bot partners though.