Uber needs to save Chris Taylor from World of Tanks

I am 100% serious. His talent is being wasted - this is the guy who made Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander! Someone at Uber should offer him a job. I mean, he lives in Washington and Uber is based there...

I don't think Uber can pay his salary, so it's a no go I bet

Or Wargaming should buy Uber and put them and Chris Taylor to work together on a free-to-play PA 2 with space battles!

You guys must not have heard WarGaming bought the Total Annihilation franchise... Most likely Chris is working on Total Annihilation 2.

Yeah, I've heard of that, and I am wondering what he's doing exactly, and if Mavor knows about it

I can't see how CT can improve TA without turning it into PA. If TA2 doesn't have planets what else could it have to bring to the table?

By not adding interplanetary gameplay and round planets that destroy the strategy and macro mechanics which were awesome in TA?

PA is a dumbed down TA in every aspect with added spamm on flat maps with meaningless terrain and lots of micro that nobody can handle.

Yeah the game they came up with, with the cavemen, i really loved that concept, that would be a freaking epic game.

I tell you, if i had gotten all the moneys Notch had gotten now, i would start secretly funding all the games of my childhood and new cool ideas.

Lots of micro? Pffft.. you've obviously never played O:TA, most professional players just did Samson/Slasher spam or Flash Spam.

TA was a pretty micro oriented game, at least the arm was. You say PA is just about spammimg and saying "go over there" then completely contradict that saying it's micro intensive?

For the record, I thought TA was amazing, especially with the addition of modding.

What I've seen in his interviews, he really likes working for Wargaming.

Flat maps are superior when it comes to gameplay. They are much easier to manage and you can see everything at least with minimap. The only thing I see spherical maps do better than flat maps is that there are no corners. Then again, when it comes to gameplay that's not really enough to justify the difficult management.

Spherical maps are not "insta-win" that every RTS developer will suddenly start using in their games.

Neither are they and insta lose.

I think they both have their merits, I kinda' like the whole planet bit. Feels very natural to move around on, but it's nice to have flat maps as well. It's actually possible to create a flat map within the engine, all you'd need a flat map with a changed point of gravity. The devs have talked about it before. (Heck, you can actually make a halo ring map)

Sphere's are definitely a niche sort of map, but personally I don't think flat maps are necessarily "superior", just a different flavour of gameplay. I'd go to say they're superior when it comes to ease of pathfinding, and such though.

Well, they are for me. I try to go back to flat maps, but I just can't.

You can have a flat circular map with no corners, or map with one rollover edge (a ring) that has no corners.

Whether a spherical map is better, I think they're too distant from 'reality'. Humans expect flat surfaces because we live on more or less flat surfaces, and playing on a sphere is going to be unfamiliar for the vast majority of people who really just want to see tanks shooting at tanks on a battlefield you could throw a stone across.

No. I will not accept free to play. that means pay to win. Don't you know the formula?

Well yes, you can enjoy difficulty to manage planet maps just like starcraft players enjoy their micro for example. It's fine. I guess it just depends on what you are looking from the game. Personally, I just don't care about the planet thing, which is why I prefer the one that is easier to manage.

Tf2 here, and it disagrees.

Hehe, I sort of like the blind spot of it, having to quickly pan about. Also the movement is very smooth, holding my scroll click, and moving the camera feels very natural and fits nicely. I couldn't play it using WASD like I could a flat map, it'd feel too unnatural.

Tf2 wasn't made by wargaming

I gave up on TF2 because of the dozens of weapons I didn't have.
Also the horrors they inflicted on the art style.

It's really not hard to get weapons you just... wait?

Also what'd they mess up with the art style, there are some edge cases where they're sort of- a bit too detailed, but nothing overboard I'd say at least. Worst I've seen is the machina sniper rifle.