INTRO:
The previous two expansions for AI War, which are The Zenith Remnant and Children of The Neinzul, introduced units. Most of these units are available for use right from the start if the player so chooses. Some others, such as the Zenith Golems, have to be found and recovered. Light of the Spire introduces more units, as well as an additional way to unlock them for use.
Furthermore, Light of the Spire introduces a campaign type, which poses challenges and headaches that cannot be encountered in the default campaign type. This is not the only major change in the overarching gameplay either; there is a variant to the default campaign type that introduces a new way to win a playthrough without taking down the homeworlds of the AI.
This review also describes some notable changes in the gameplay in the official updates, wherever they are relevant to the content in Light of the Spire.
PREMISE:
The Spire was an alien species on the ascendant; their technological achievement is incredible, and they were even close to colonizing the entire galaxy. Unfortunately, they encountered the titular AI of AI War. Being the galactic jerk that it is, the AI crushed the Spire, stole their technology, and scattered its remnants, leaving them to go extinct on their own.
However, the Spire is far from defeated; it so happens that they were wise enough to have contingency plans for a comeback. Incidentally, the player can help them accelerate these plans, thus achieving revenge against the AI for both the Spire and humanity. Of course, there would be the issue of who inherits the galaxy, but for now, the AI is a common enemy which poses great threat to both.
DEFENDER CAMPAIGN:
One of the more overt additions which this expansion provides is the “Defender” campaign type, which the player can choose instead of the Conquest type.
In “Defender”, the player cannot gain any additional territory; the ability to build Colony Ships is also disabled. All the player has is his/her starting home worlds, and three times more resources. Any world lost is also lost permanently. There are also no AI core worlds or home worlds, because taking over the AI’s holdings is not part of the gameplay in this mode.
The player’s objective is to dig in and survive for a set amount of time. During this period of time, the AI sends waves after the player’s holdings, with the intention of destroying whatever assets which the player has.
Furthermore, the progression of the AI’s aggressiveness and cunning is more pronounced in “Defender”, compared to the AI for a regular playthrough with the same settings. Every point which goes into the dreaded “AI Progress” (AIP) counter counts for a lot more in Defender mode than it does in Conquest.
Furthermore, the waves which the AI sends are more punishingly frequent. In fact, as soon as a wave arrives, another is declared. Every wave which is eliminated causes the AIP counter to rise too.
If the player is not careful in setting up the conditions for a Defender playthrough, the experience can be hopeless and brutal. However, as of the latest update, there had been some changes which make it easier to take certain defensive measures. These will be described in their own sections.
Incidentally, the behaviour of the AI opponent in this mode is similar to the last few phases of the alternative solution of a Conquest campaign. In fact, the Defender campaign type may have been a derivative of the alternative solution.
BUILDING COMMAND STATIONS WITH EXISTING COMMAND STATIONS:
As of build 6.031 (implemented in May 2013), command stations can build their replacements without the consumption of a colony ship, with the limitation that the replacement has to be close to the previous one. This was introduced mainly to ease the tedium of upgrading existing command stations.
However, in a Defender campaign, this can be used to stave off the loss of a planetary system. In fact, with considerable micro-management, the player can attempt to “kite” enemy flotillas around by progressively building and replacing the command station around the system. It would be costly to do so, but the player would probably have the resources to maintain this cheesy tactic.
TURRET LIMITS CAPPED PER PLANET:
In the earlier builds of the game, prior to build 7.032, the number of turrets which the player can have is capped according to the total number of turrets which the player has across all planetary systems under his/her control.
Although this meant that the player had to be prudent with the placement of static defences, it also prevented the player from concentrating defences where they would have been effective. Moreover, these caps were not of much use in playthroughs where planetary systems have plenty of wormhole links.
This was changed in build 7.032. The caps for turrets are now per planet, much like the caps for the Mini-Fortresses and Harvester Exo-shields. This means that each planetary system can now have considerable defences of its own to delay assaults with, and that playthroughs with complicated networks of planets are now more doable. In particular, this is of much benefit to playthroughs in “Defender” mode, where each planetary system is near-indispensable.
However, all of the turrets do eat into the player’s Energy reserves. It will be impossible for the player to make sure that every planetary system under his/her control is saturated with defences, so this change is still balanced in terms of gameplay.
NEW REGULAR UNITS:
Like the two previous expansions, Light of The Spire introduces new units, specifically those which are associated with the Spire species. To differentiate them from other units, their icons in the Star Dock build menu have been given a pervasive amount of white.
Most of the regular (i.e. non-Starship) Spire units have peculiar capabilities which do more than just fill strategic gaps in the variety of units in A.I. War. For example, there is the Teleporting Leech, which is practically a Parasite unit with teleporting capabilities. Considering that the Parasite unit is already notorious (for being able to convert enemy units onto its own side), this teleporting unit can be rather overwhelming, especially if they are being used by the AI (which can field them in the hundreds, by the way). More examples are Spire units which can hamper the mobility of enemies, and quite rapidly too.
Incidentally, some of these units would end up having options in the block-list of units, for the sake of players who consider them to be too imbalanced.
NEW MAP TYPES:
Light of the Spire introduces a few map types to generate the ‘galaxy’ with. Two of these are the Grid and the Crosshatch. Both are intended to create easily understandable displays of the galaxy map. The difference between them is that Crosshatch can link planets to more planets than the Grid type could.
There are also “Maze A” and “Maze B”. These map types are actually derivatives of the Grid and Crosshatch. They are easier to play with, especially if the player is playing a “Defender” campaign.
Despite their simple appearance on the galaxy map, they do not determine the location of wormholes in planetary systems. The wormholes are still randomly scattered about.
NEW AI TYPES:
There are a handful of AI types which are introduced by Light of the Spire. The most notable of these is the Vanilla AI. Like its name suggests, it has no special advantages or disadvantages, and as such is suitable for beginner players. It was also an AI type that was glaringly missing in the base game.
Then, there are AI types which specifically use Spire units, much like the AI types which use units introduced by earlier expansions.
Interestingly, there are more “Hard”-rank AI types than there are easier ones. Most of them are the result of feedback from players, either due to remarks which indirectly led to their conception or outright suggestions. An example of the latter is an AI type which has many of the notorious Counterattack Guard Post.
ADDITIONAL A.I.-ONLY UNITS:
A.I. War happens to have ardent fan base, some of which are more interested in increasing the asymmetrical challenge of the game, which is the AI’s considerably different ways of waging war. Based on their suggestions and complaints, the various updates to the game have introduced new AI-only units, namely the various Guardians.
A few of these are practically variants of the new Spire units, but with tweaks which make them more powerful (and rarer), or weaker (and more numerous) than the Spire units which are under the AI’s control. For example, there is the Implosion Guardian, which is the Guardian version of the Implosion Artillery Spirecraft.
One of the Guardians which were introduced was the Carrier Guardian. Not to be confused with the regular Carrier, this Guardian was supposed to act as a mobile garage for damaged AI-controlled units. It would carry them around until the AI decides it is time to release its contents on one of the player’s holdings. This involved considerable computing overheads however, so it was changed to the Enclave Guardian instead, which acts like a Guardian version of the Neinzul Enclave Starship which was introduced in Children of the Neinzul.
Incidentally, some of the Guardians are so potentially powerful that they would only appear if the player has the AI opponent toggled to high difficulty ratings. Examples of these include the Warp Gate Guardian, which as its name suggests, allows waves of AI units to spawn on its location.
The AI also gains new types of Core Guard Posts from this expansion, which make its core- and home-worlds much more difficult to deal with. Two among them are particularly worrisome: the Raid Engine Guard Post and the Cross Planet Attack Guard Post. Both of these trigger attack waves in addition to the regular periodic waves. Obviously, they are particularly high-priority targets for the player, if only to minimize the hardship which they can impose.
Beachheads are new AI units that are so troublesome, they receive their own setting option for starting a playthrough. Beachheads can appear together with attack waves which spawn on the player’s planets; they disable all static defences. Obviously, they are incredibly nasty to deal with.
A.I. CARRIER CHANGES:
Experienced players of A.I. War may recall that the AI makes Carriers to hold units whenever there are more units than its AIP allows it to use. Although Carriers are made more powerful by their occupants, they were ultimately only a threat until their Health runs down to zero because their occupants did not make them tougher. After their occupants are released upon their destruction, the AI ends up having more units than it can control; at low levels of AIP, the released units are likely to be rooted to the spot, or even shut down. The player can then just pick apart the flotilla of units which are released.
On the flip-side, there were also complaints that the Carriers’ occupants are nastier than the Carriers themselves, so popping the Carriers actually made things worse.
Therefore, to address both concerns, a Carrier no longer protects its occupants from incoming damage. Rather, incoming damage is transferred to the occupants. Depending on the AI’s whims, the AI can choose to have the Carrier’s occupants take all the brunt (especially if the occupants are small fries), or it will just pop it open as soon as possible if it has calculated that the occupants can inflict more damage than the Carrier could.
SPIRE STRUCTURES:
The ever-greedy AI has co-opted some assets of the Spire civilization for its own purposes. There are two of these, which appear if the player enables Light of the Spire content.
The first is the Spire Civilian Leader Outpost, which increases the AIP counter every hour regardless of whatever setting which the player has for automatic AIP increases. If the player can liberate the planetary system which it is in and take it for the player’s own, the Outpost reduces AIP every hour instead. However, this will provoke retribution from the AI, which will target this Outpost whenever the opportunity arises.
The other structure is the Spire Archive, which circumvents the limitation on the Knowledge resource which the player can gain from a planetary system; the player can obtain up to three times the usual amount of Knowledge that can be gained from the system. However, the player will have to hold onto it after it has outlived its use; its destruction causes an increase in AIP.
SPECIAL MINERALS & SPIRECRAFT:
There are actual Spirecraft which are not cheap knock-offs like the regular Spire-derived units that are made at the Star Docks. Like the Zenith’s Golems, they are not always readily available.
To obtain them, the player has to find special mineral deposits which are sometimes found in planetary systems. After that, the player has to have a Spire Mining Ship in these planetary systems; this unit works a lot like the Mobile Builder, i.e. the ship only acts as an enabler of construction options.
Upon placing a construction project on a mineral deposit, the deposit is practically gone; the player cannot change his/her choice of project. The project is also vulnerable to enemy attacks until it is completed. Most of the projects also cost considerable metal, so there is significant opportunity cost too, especially at the early stages of a playthrough.
The mineral deposits are the only way to obtain Spirecraft and replacements. Since there are finite numbers of mineral deposits, this means that the player should be careful in their usage.
There are several grades of mineral deposits: the higher-grade deposits become higher-mark Spirecraft. However, the higher grades of minerals are rarer than the lower grade ones, understandably.
REPAIR RESTRICTIONS:
Due to the mineral-based composition of Spirecraft, some of them cannot be repaired; this is the case for the shield-bearing Spirecraft. Depending on the settings which the player has chosen for the inclusion of Spirecraft, all of them might be irreparable too. This makes the Spirecraft even more precious.
SITUATIONAL USES FOR SPIRECRAFT:
All of the mineral-made Spirecraft have specializations which make them not suitable for all situations; for general-purpose roles, a mix of regular units from the base game is a better choice.
However, when the situations which they are made for do come up, they are incredibly useful. For example, the shield-bearing Spirecraft is one of very few shield-bearing units which do not penalize the damage output of units which they are shielding.
Another example is the Implosion Artillery Spirecraft. These Spirecraft happen to inflict damage at a percentage of their targets’ remaining health. This makes them incredibly useful for the “neutralizing” strategy, which is the removal of Wormhole Guard Posts from AI-controlled planetary systems which the player does not intend to capture.
NO TRANSPORT FOR SPIRECRAFT:
The worst drawback of Spirecraft is that all of them cannot be transported by any transport units. Transport units like the Assault Transport are essential for high-speed responses to emergencies, or just to save on transit time in general. The lack of transport for Spirecraft means that they are best used only with each other, or with other units which cannot be transported like Zenith Golems.
FALLEN SPIRE CAMPAIGN:
Perhaps the most substantial introduction of content by Light of the Spire is the “Fallen Spire” alternative campaign path. This is implemented via the “Minor Faction” options.
Through the pursuit of objectives which are posed by the “Fallen Spire” alternative campaign, the player would learn about the lore of the Spire (and some lore about the other alien species, namely the Neinzul and Zenith). In addition, if the player chooses to pursue this path further, the player would gain access to powerful Spire frigates, destroyers and capital ships. Unlike the specialist mineral-formed Spirecraft, these exclusive units are straight-up intended for battle.
Incidentally, the Spire infrastructure which is needed to raise such an armada also happens to be quite well-armed and armoured. This is just as well, as the AI will target it whenever it can.
The Spire capital ships happen to be an expansion of what the Riot Starship has already established, that is, ships with modules which the player can fill with combinations of weapons. In the case of the Spire capital ships, they have their own set of modules, one of which is a heavy beam cannon that can shred swathes of weak units.
However, in return, the AI gains additional Exogalactic Strikeforces. As a reminder, Exogalactic Strikeforces are special waves of AI-controlled units which can spawn at the edges of a planetary system instead of the wormholes. Incidentally, they often appear very close to the command station of the system.
The AI can unleash these Exogalactic Strikeforces every ten minutes, each one worse than the last at least until they hit a ceiling limit. The ceiling limits are raised as the player reaches certain progress milestones. Incidentally, these strikes are intended to balance against the player’s ownership of Spire capital ships. Therefore, the player must carefully consider the pros and cons of pursuing and advancing the Fallen Spire campaign.
Eventually, a determined and skilled player would be able to enact the final phase of the alternative campaign. This final phase resembles a Defender campaign; the player has to hold out for half an hour while the AI goes berserk and sends a lot of units after the player’s homeworld and other holdings. If the player survives, the alternative victory is obtained.
FLAVOUR TEXT:
Every phase in the “Fallen Spire” campaign is prefaced by some text, which is generally the reports that the player receives upon making progress in communicating with the Spire and fulfilling their requests. Experienced story-goers might notice some sources of inspiration in the writing, such as the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life”. However, Arcen Games is not exactly known for stellar writing, so the player should not expect a particularly memorable story.
VISUAL DESIGNS:
Virtually all of the visual designs which are introduced by Light of the Spire are for the new units, apparently. However, there is also some reusing of sprites from Arcen Games’ other titles. In particular, the mineral deposits which are used to create Spirecraft look much like the mineral formations in the first Valley Without Wind title.
The original ones are not much better either. Like the visual designs for the base game and the earlier expansions, they are best appreciated for their function, e.g. the visual contrast between the unit icons which helps in differentiating between them. When viewed up close, however, the artwork is just hideous.
SOUND DESIGNS:
For better or worse, the sound clips which are introduced in Light of the Spire are remixes of sound clips which have been heard in the earlier expansions and the base game. Of course, this can be justified with the reasoning that the Spire’s technology is actually the original version, or the pinnacle, of many technologies which have been in the earlier content packs.
There are several new tracks which had been composed by Arcen Games’ in-house composer, the Vega couple. Like the previously-heard tracks, they do not exactly thematically match the gameplay. Nevertheless, they are pleasant to listen to, as is often the case with the Vega couple’s music.
SUMMARY:
Like the earlier expansions, Light of the Spire shakes up the gameplay in A.I. War with its unique gameplay additions. Most importantly, where the earlier games did not implement much of any narrative-driven gameplay, the “Fallen Spire” campaign in Light of the Spire would be a much-welcome addition to the IP.