Re: "the gimmicky laser moon"

(Continuation from the locked thread, "It was a mistake to call this a release")

I have to disagree here, the laser moon was critical to prevent late game stalemates. Now, games actually finish within 30-60 minutes. That's critical given the limitations of the player base ("humans") and the servers (compute time, etc).

It's a purely functional feature that was artistically implemented.

There are more possible solutions to breaking orbital stalemates. IMO, as I've written many times, Asteroid Belts would be a more enjoyable, better balanced, and better way to break orbital stalemates.

Add drop pods and we have even more options. Add the Unit Cannon alongside asteroid belts, and we're pretty much golden. Possibly finish it off with a heavily armored, large, multi-unit transport and forget about orbital stalemates.

In its current implementation, Metal Planets just force everyone to try for the same binary strategy, and whoever can get entrenched on the metal planet wins.

If the Catalyst had an energy cost, or were single use, they'd be better balanced.

The annihilaser gives this game a lot more personality than it had before. Those PAX games never would have been possible without it.

personality ≠ balance.

The Annihilaser is cool, but has a lot to be desired as far as balance goes.

This is a case where overpowered is fun. It does what game enders are supposed to do, but in one of the most ridiculously satisfying ways possible. I wouldn't complain much about a cooldown timer because I try not to complain about things that really don't matter much, but blowing up the entire solar system in seconds can be pretty funny.

Noone's arguing that the Annihilaser is a fun (albeit currently imbalanced) addition to the game.

The point was that there's a huge list of issues plagueing the game right now, both reflected in reviews and customer issues, which should see a higher priority. I won't repeat it, we all know which features are missing.

Is the laser cool? Yeah. Does it make for an awesome way to introduce PA? Sure. It may have even been easy to implement, programming-wise. But I can't fault people for feeling frustrated when basic functionalities are still missing while flashy features are added.

Sure. All the noobs going for the biggest weapon in the game made those games more interesting because it forced them to do certain things, like build large armies and stuff.

In reality, with players who are much better at playing the game than the dudes at PAX (many of their moves made me want to cry), it is easily evident that the catalysts are worthless in games both teams are eager to win.
I noticed one of the clan wars home systems had a metal planet inside. Made me laugh. I WANT the enemy team to waste their precious eco on securing it. We'll just take the majority of the system (or even just one planet) and start raining hell on them for less of a metal cost. Every time they get close to finishing the five cats, we'll drop 2-3 nukes to restart the process while we hunt down their commanders.

Is the Annihilaser cool? Hell yes.

Is it practical in an actual game? Only as bait for noobs.

Well, spoiler, the developers playing at PAX were putting on a show.

Very powerful ≠ imbalanced.

Balance is very subjective, and there is no real incorrect or correct balance. Just what balance which prefer, with the balance Uber wants the catalyst fits exactly as its supposed to, as a game ender. And as me red pointed out, with real competitive players it still is quite balanced either way.

In this game its hard to really predict units that are imbalanced because they tend to be ideal for different roles and different situations

except Navy, thats underpowered

If only we have (mobile shields) that makes the teleporters survive more than 3 seconds when trying to invade...

YOU REMEMBERED THE E YOU REMEMBERED THE E! WOO!!


Not sure how I really feel about the Annihilaser right now. Being able to entrench yourself on a planet is pretty bad, but being able to entrench yourself on a superweapon is worse.

Not really.

I didn't say "incorrect" – I said imbalanced. And things can be imbalanced.

I played an extremely fun map with 3 moons, 3 metal planets, and a gas giant. The moons won out in the 9-way FFA.

They propably had the gas giant. Currently the Jigs give just too many resources fast. It is easy to spam nukes with that income.

The core issue is that it is hard to properly invade a heavily fortified planet. The anni-laser is a fix, but not the best fix.
Other things would be, but those need a decent time to be implemented and balanced. Especialyl the unit cannon is a tricky beast to programm.
Plus there are bigger fish to fry first.

Our system has a metal planet... As well as a few other things strategically it mixes up the orbital a bit as if someone starts building catalysts it can't be ignored

A great distraction technique imo

Based on the original design, things like asteroids and metal planet lasers were designed for the late game to be a way of reducing the battlefields size, in order to finally bring the game to a close.

Either you are there when the blow lands, or you are making a desperate push in a place that can't be targeted, such as the metal planet or asteroid.

Yep, it's all about baiting the enemies metal expenditure onto your half built catalysts. Go ahead and drop 3 nukes on our catalysts every time mered, you can be sure that there's going to be nothing else of value in the AoE, so that's 3 nukes we just distracted from a comm, or production or whatever. If you're careful with how much build power you put on your catalysts you can actually come out ahead in the metal game.

I quite agree that actually trying to activate the laser is a huge waste of time in almost all games though.

Well, like, if they aren't coming at you, it can still be cheaper then a bunch o' nukes

nope, thanks i rather not have shields and the turtleformation in this game ...
for that mobile armor(vanguard) and anti missile/shell PD is for me as far as i want it to go ...