Planetary Annihilation [TA on Steroids]

Montag · Post by **Montag** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 8:18 pm

Downloading mine now.

EzeKieL · Post by **EzeKieL** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:05 pm

It's on steam!

And if you want to play the alpha beta, you have to pay 83€ or 90$... are they totally off their rocker?

If you wait for the beta, it'll only cost you 60$!

I thought it was a joke, but apparently it's for real o_O

http://store.steampowered.com/app/233250/" target="_blank

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:07 pm

Those are just the prices from the Kickstarter tiers that included those rewards. It makes sense in Kickstarter land, but probably not as much in the real world.

EzeKieL · Post by **EzeKieL** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:10 pm

They're raking up the comments about it though, 64 comments so far, it was about 30 10 minutes ago

I kickstarted it as well but without those options ^^.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:25 pm

If they hadn’t put the early access at that high of price they would have had major backlash from the people on Kickstarter. I’m never paying that much but it makes sense.

ibdoomed · Post by **ibdoomed** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:36 pm

Lordnine wrote:If they hadn’t put the early access at that high of price they would have had major backlash from the people on Kickstarter. I’m never paying that much but it makes sense.

Right. The real problem is that they put alpha access at $90 on KS. I've done many and it's generally been around $30-$40 for alpha if offered. $50 I could understand but $90 is outrageous.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:43 pm

ibdoomed wrote:
Lordnine wrote:If they hadn’t put the early access at that high of price they would have had major backlash from the people on Kickstarter. I’m never paying that much but it makes sense.
Right. The real problem is that they put alpha access at $90 on KS. I've done many and it's generally been around $30-$40 for alpha if offered. $50 I could understand but $90 is outrageous.

Yes, it would be outrageous if that was what happened. The $90 was for the game, a special commander, digital art book, name in credits, a 2nd special commander, the soundtrack, backer forum access and the game. You can quibble and say that they should have made a special tier with alpha access for less, but that's not the choice they made (though they did offer beta access at $40). The $90 tier and above got over 8,000 backers, so it seems to me that their value proposition was not off the mark.

ibdoomed · Post by **ibdoomed** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:51 pm

Zaxxon wrote:
ibdoomed wrote:
Lordnine wrote:If they hadn’t put the early access at that high of price they would have had major backlash from the people on Kickstarter. I’m never paying that much but it makes sense.
Right. The real problem is that they put alpha access at $90 on KS. I've done many and it's generally been around $30-$40 for alpha if offered. $50 I could understand but $90 is outrageous.
Yes, it would be outrageous if that was what happened. The $90 was for the game, a special commander, digital art book, name in credits, a 2nd special commander, the soundtrack, backer forum access and the game. You can quibble and say that they should have made a special tier with alpha access for less, but that's not the choice they made (though they did offer beta access at $40). The $90 tier and above got over 8,000 backers, so it seems to me that their value proposition was not off the mark.

Oh, well in that case, they could sell the game with alpha access for $50 since the $90'ers are getting a crapton of bonuses.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:28 pm

Except that if that was the only tier that offered alpha access you can bet that quite a few didn’t care about any of that other stuff.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:34 pm

Lordnine wrote:Except that if that was the only tier that offered alpha access you can bet that quite a few didn’t care about any of that other stuff.

Indeed. And they could opt for beta access.

"I want X, and I want to pay Y for it" is not a sufficient reason for company Z to offer X for Y.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:09 pm

Its their business model, and it worked. And i fully support it. If someone really wanted to play alpha, they would shell out 90 and get bunch of goodies. 8k people did, which means the model worked. Since i cant imagine them selling alpha for 50$ and doubling that amount of sign ups, since first adapters are not everyone. I for one has zero desire play alpha, let them deal with bugs and all that, and i will play final product. ( I didnt back this game, i like rts but Supreme commander never clicked with me)

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:35 pm

Ok so peeps with the Alpha version, how is it?

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:07 pm

msduncan wrote:Ok so peeps with the Alpha version, how is it?

Very alpha-y. Promising but impossible to evaluate as a game at this stage.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:41 pm

Just got an email saying the beta releases on September 26th.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 2:19 pm

Beta is live.

Tampa_Gamer · Post by **Tampa_Gamer** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 3:56 pm

Can anyone provide a link to what the beta has/doesn't have in it now (e.g. brain dead AI, etc.) I understand that everything is still moving, but I would like to understand if its worth the $$ to tinker with it now.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:02 pm

Yeah, all I need to see is a few people saying "they pulled it off!" for me to start throwing handfuls of cash at my computer.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:03 pm

Tampa_Gamer wrote:Can anyone provide a link to what the beta has/doesn't have in it now (e.g. brain dead AI, etc.) I understand that everything is still moving, but I would like to understand if its worth the $$ to tinker with it now.

I don't have a changelog (I last checked it out in alpha back in June/July) and haven't put much time into the beta, but the base gameplay is there. There is AI, you can play against it and it will fight. You can also play multiplayer matches. Multiple planets are in.

Lots of performance improvements are still coming, as is AI improvement and planet-smashing stuff. But it's a fun sandbox now.

Tampa_Gamer · Post by **Tampa_Gamer** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:19 pm

Thanks for the quick info Zaxxon. I just learned they haven't put it in the ability to give orders while the game is paused (ala Forged Alliance, etc.) yet so I will probably stay on the fence at least until its in.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:22 pm

Tampa_Gamer wrote:Thanks for the quick info Zaxxon. I just learned they haven't put it in the ability to give orders while the game is paused (ala Forged Alliance, etc.) yet so I will probably stay on the fence at least until its in.

I'm not even sure that's planned as the focus seems to be more on multiplayer than single-player. I could be wrong, though.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:56 pm

Hmm, so no way to skirmish yet? Guess I'll be waiting a little longer to play the beta.

Edit: NM, figured it out. You have to start a custom game, then hit ready, hope no one jumps in, and then it will auto fill open seats with AI.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 6:59 pm

Sepiche wrote:Hmm, so no way to skirmish yet? Guess I'll be waiting a little longer to play the beta.

Yes, you can start a game vs AI.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:02 am

Only played a little with it last night. Still very beta, but it seems like they've really captured the Total Annihilation feel to the units, buildings, movement, etc.

I tried creating a small 5 planet system in the system editor and for the most part it worked, but once I was in game the planets kind of went careening around in orbits that didn't look too much like the predicted orbits, but still pretty cool to see all the planet out there and know I could hop between them.

It's been a long time since I've played any TA, but the units and build tree here seems straight out of there. You start with your commander who can build resource buildings, defenses, and basic manufacturing: robots, vehicles, and aircraft. The factories can all then construct a builder unit that has access to more advanced buildings.

I think my only big complaint so far is the controls. It'd be much easier to control with a combination of mouse and WASD, but right now it doesn't look like you can remap the camera movement. When there's a lot of planets moving around in a small area it's also a bit hard to zoom and move around to the right spot, but I'm sure that's part of what they're working on.

Anyone know if there's a way yet to have players start on different planets? I didn't look real hard, but it seemed like you could only select one starting planet and it was used by everyone.

I probably won't spend a lot of time with it until they add in a few more features and do a little more polishing, but I think people that bought into it to see the next coming of Total Annihilation are going to be very happy once this gets released.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:15 am

How rare and valuable are resources in the game? I was a gigantic TA fanboy, but I thought it worked way better when metal deposits were coveted and critical points on the map to fight over. I never liked playing on metal planets, and I hated how the DLC moved to add more avenues to convert energy to metal.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:19 am

wonderpug wrote:How rare and valuable are resources in the game? I was a gigantic TA fanboy, but I thought it worked way better when metal deposits were coveted and critical points on the map to fight over. I never liked playing on metal planets, and I hated how the DLC moved to add more avenues to convert energy to metal.

Looks like you can place energy plants anywhere, but there are resource nodes you have to place metal extractors on. I had 2 metal nodes near my base, and they look like they're fairly evenly spaced around the surface of planets. Not sure if converting is an option farther along though.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:21 am

Also, you can adjust initial and ongoing resource levels for each game, so if the defaults don't do it for you, you can fix it.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:02 pm

Downloading now, hope it's all that the trailer showed!!!

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:40 pm

This write-up on the ChronoCam tech is interesting. Sounds like they are well on their way to hitting a couple of the major promises from the Kickstarter campaign (huge player counts and a major step forward in replay technology).

Moat_Man · Post by **Moat_Man** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:42 am

I have been following PA's progress with interest and have also become of fan of watching youtube videos of replays. ZaphodX is a very entertaining caster and he also explains what he is doing so you learn as well. Highly recommended viewing.

I thought people would be interested to know that the "gamma" build is up. Anyone who backed it on Kickstarter at the $20 level take note, I believed that only entitled me to the "finished game" but on a whim I logged into my Uber account and I was able to convert my Kickstarter "purchase" into a Steam key which unlocked the game right now. Bonus!

I've played a bunch of games today and it is quite far along, hence the recent gamma build. However, there seems to be a desync problem with servers and I've lost connection about 50% of the time. The devs are aware of the issue and will probably issue a hotfix shortly. Hey, it's still technically unreleased right?

The gameplay it is quite fun once you get used to playing on spheres and maneuvering the camera. The AI is already very good and I'm sure that's a result of Soren (an AI modder of Supreme Commander fame) working for Uber. Smart move.

If you want to play some matches and you aren't already friends with me on Steam, send me an invite and we'll blow some stuff up good. Real good.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:37 am

It's also on sale until the sixth for $29.99 on steam...

Tampa_Gamer · Post by **Tampa_Gamer** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:01 pm

Did they ever put it in the ability to give orders while the game is paused (ala Forged Alliance, etc.)? - I read about the chronocam thing but I could not tell from the description if it allowed this or not.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:05 pm

Tampa_Gamer wrote:Did they ever put it in the ability to give orders while the game is paused (ala Forged Alliance, etc.)? - I read about the chronocam thing but I could not tell from the description if it allowed this or not.

Not as of yet. I don't know if it will be coming once they move it off of the dev's servers but I know you can't do it now. Honestly it's not really a good game for that because pausing to micromanage every little bot or whatever will instantly make the game very tedious. Learn the area commands (in the PA wiki at pamatches.com) and that will help control what you want to control.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:06 pm

The game does not pause (full stop), so I would guess no.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:23 pm

Zaxxon wrote:The game does not pause (full stop), so I would guess no.

Well that explains my inability to find a pause button this morning.

My impressions after a whopping 10 minutes or so of playing are that this seems even more like Total Annihilation than Supreme Commander 1 or 2. My biggest concern out the gate is that it seemed a bit awkward controlling the different layers of combat.

When I built a handful of orbital units, it seemed difficult to distinguish them from the ground units (both identifying them and commanding them). Seems like it would be nicer to have a distinct toggle for which layer I wanted to actively command.

And then on my first attempt to move a unit to a different planet, my view inexplicably shifted so that I could see nothing but the sun, no matter which way I tried to pan or zoom. I had to reset my view to my commander and re-find my way from there. I did really appreciate how the planetary transfer looks kinda like a real orbital transfer instead of just a magic Star Wars straight line between planets.

Hopefully my confusion with the interface is just early newbie-ness.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:27 pm

Yeah, I have issues with control at this game's scale, as well. Haven't put enough time in yet to know if it's me or the game. Hopefully when it's out there'll be a full-fledged tutorial.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:41 pm

Keyboard shortcuts also note that keyboard bindings are assigned in the game even though they may not be listed there.

Zitterbacke · Post by **Zitterbacke** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:33 pm

Got it today from uber themselves, who asked $29 via Paypal, ~€21 instead of €24,95 on Humble Store and Steam (you can convert their key to Steam, too, if one wanted to do so). It is worth that money in it's current state (there are issues, see further down) if you liked TA/SC and paid full price for them, as I did.
My first game against a normal AI got me stomped from orbit. From the first orbits attack to end of game was roundabout 30 seconds... I went over 3 further games (easy AI, one disconnected) to the last game winning for the first time. The orbit was a bit of a hassle in that one, I guess you better set the rally point a bit off-center over your base and let the created units patrol for easy access. I won accidentally when the enemy commander walked into a rather small T2 suicide recon troup, incidentally the first ground units I've build... I wanted to orbit stomp him...
Two things have to happen quite soon, tho: pause and save, my time is sparse and fragmented.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:25 pm

I believe that the game was designed as a multi-player game rather than a single player experience (no sp campaign) so I am guessing that is why there's no pause. I only play against the ai so I would like pause but I went into it not expecting any.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:28 pm

IceBear wrote:I believe that the game was designed as a multi-player game rather than a single player experience (no sp campaign) so I am guessing that is why there's no pause. I only play against the ai so I would like pause but I went into it not expecting any.

Yes, this. Pause is not going to happen.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:34 pm

I don't get how it can possibly be difficult to have it so single player matches have a pause button and multiplayer ones don't.