I definitely suggest you make your appeal directly to the developer. They're very good about honoring reasonable community requests. They're good folks.

Personally, I'd guess that Arcen will do something exactly like you request, but they're much more likely to do so if asked by their customers. In that case, I'd estimate that the GOG version would only be updated every major version, so yeah, that's probably about once per year, give or take.

Final x.0 releases also generally coincide with expansion pack releases, so this would probably trigger a GOG update anyway, I would think.

(I'm just a fan of the game, and not a member of the team by any means, so I'm not speaking for them.)

It almost makes me nervous about starting the game... it will be out of date the first day!

I know how you feel, so many games on GOG are finished, legacy products, warts 'n all. Even current indie titles undergo a few patches, then rest for a long time.

It's true that AI War is in continual evolution after nearly five years, but don't worry so much. It's a complete game, and has been, for a very long time. It undergoes moderate changes a few times a year, and the patches in between are often pretty minor, especially for a new player. Don't feel like you have to keep it up to date, like you're going to miss some major bug fix or vital gameplay improvement. You won't. Just relax and enjoy your video game!

Just make sure all your players are on the same version when you start playing. There is very little more frustrating to me than wanting to play a game over the internet but can't because someone needs to download patches for the next three hours.

You can simply update the game and then move it wherever you like. Still doesn't need an internet connection. People call this messy but it still works regardless.

Yes, but it would be good if GOG updates their installer every month or second month. This wouldn't be too much.

Anyone knows if The Collection has Prototype? Fleet Command clearly states it.

Yes it does. In fact, AI War Collection = AI War Fleet Command + DLC Pack

What's to stop them just 'catching up' periodically? Yes the downloads on GOG will probably never be completely up to date, but it would help out people like the guy you were replying to and help people who like to keep a backup (like me). After all, part of the whole reason for DRM-free games is to be able to back them up. Being dependent on the developer still being around to be able to reinstall to the latest version is no good. So you're not going to bother updating your installer?

If Arcen ever says 'That's it! This game is effing done! Good job gang!', I have little doubt that the GoG installer will be updated to that final version within two days.

That still doesn't really help people keep backups... Why not just update the installer periodically? Maybe every couple of months or something.

I would have assumed they would, but some of the answers in this thread seemed to imply otherwise.

Arcen (the developers) are currently busy with another project, but they've promised to return to AI War to do "something".