AI War: Fleet Command is one of those games that seems to live permanently on my hard-drive, always teasing me, begging for just one more go. Despite a very low visual budget (it even re-uses a lot of now-public-domain sprites from classic PC shmup Tyrian), it’s a genuinely unique and clever take on the RTS genre, mixing in elements of 4X empire-expansion and Tower Defense with a focus on slowly chipping away at an inhuman enemy far, far bigger and stronger than yourself.

You can read the full developer Q&A over here, but the general gist of the story is that it’ll be due out somewhere around October, and they’ll be taking preorders for early Beta access soon, and they’ll be taking community feedback on the new features and content into consideration as they approach a final release version. The price-tag on this expansion is going to be a lightweight $5 and it’s probably going to weigh in at a little smaller than previous expansions such as The Zenith Remnant and Light of The Spire.

Rather than focus on a single new element, this new expansion sounds like it’s going to add a variety of new units and features to both the human player-race and the three alien NPC factions that have gradually involved themselves in the war. As with previous expansions, the way the game is played should be shaken up even further. I recall that the most recent expansion added an optional story-driven route to victory, whereas previously the only win condition was completely wiping out the rogue AI forces. We’ll be taking a more in-depth look at AI War: Ancient Shadows once we snag a beta build.

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