PA Has Ruined All Other RTS Games for Me

Just played some SupCom FA the other day just to dork around with some experimentals.

Ugh. It was a frustrating experience. I found the UI to be clunky and missing a variety of things that I was used to with PA.

In particular, no area commands!

You could click and drag to build a row of buildings, but that's it. No are attack... no area build of metal extractors... oy, it was painful.

This is pretty ill-informed, Brian.

You get used to it. I kind of prefer the UI in FA and area commands aren't required in FA, You dont need to scout to find the enemy opponent, you scout to get intel, what he's building. You do that in 1 click...

I agree. I can't play most RTS games now, they just feel lacking...

I still want Spring's pencil-drawn order tool, so I can scribble a zig zag pattern and carpet-bomb my opponent's base. Not that PA's bombers work like that anymore....

I tried playing Age of Empires 2 the other day, same sort of experience. The micro required was pretty jarring and the upfront style eco was pretty strange to play with after playing PA. Even the square maps felt pretty alien.
I guess once you go sphere, there's no going squeer.

...that sounded so much better in my head I apologize.

hah, I still play brood wars with my sister on occasion

Area Commands aren't required in any game, but are still really helpful. Giving a "go destroy all of these units" command to bombers is INCREDIBLY useful and was what I missed the most when playing supcom. It's also much faster to place a bunch of metal extractors with one click, no matter what game you're playing.

As for the scouting? How is that different than PA? Build a radar on small planets. On large planets, radar isn't enough, and that is exactly like SupCom.

I think he means how in PA you actually have to find your opponent beforehand, but in SupCom you instantly know where the enemy is; spawn locations are shown pre-game, and even if you manage to forget the spawn points the maps are perfectly symmetrical so you just have to look on the opposite side of the map and poof, opponent found.

What about time dilation? This ruins the game for me.

If that's what he's talking about, then that has nothing to do with the points I was making. It's simply a different topic entirely. Also, I definitely prefer not knowing where my opponent is at the start of the match.

Complaining about no area commands in FA is like complaining that there are no planets to smash. It's really not necessary for the style of play.

I'm currently playing 2 other RTS games other than PA and I'm having no problems with the lack of area commands. If anything, I find it frustrating that PA is so behind on pathing, balance and polish, which makes me avoid playing it most of the time (although pathing and balance are the main problems with FAF and Coh2 atm.)

I think it's quite an overstatement and even a fallacy to say PA makes other RTS games look really unpolished...

No planets to smash? No. Just... no. Not in the slightest.

Giving an area attack to units to go destroy a bunch of enemy units fits in any RTS game, especially a large scale game like SupCom.

I never said the word polish. I just said the PA UI is better than SupCom IMO.

I'm talking about area commands, not pathing and balance. Pathing in PA definitely could use some improvements, and I've written tons about my opinion on PA balance.

I'm simply talking about how awesome and useful area commands are and I really wish other games had them.

Area commands are a UI feature for improving gameplay, not a gameplay mechanic like planet smashing.

http://faforever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=8471&sid=214e91d76026e4203fc3cbb981d8ee8f

FA has area commands...
Your argument is invald.

What, you'd prefer desynchs and skipping?

Lack of time dilation will not cause desyncs but time dilation is definitely superior to frame skipping units.

Not invalid. Not in the slightest.

That's a mod. A mod that is worth using, but my argument is definitely not invalid because a 3rd party after the fact mod adds this functionality. That would be like claiming that people who are complaining about PA not having matchmaking have nothing to complain about because PA Stats adds matchmaking.

Nor does it get you off the hook for claiming that a UI feature is akin to a core gameplay feature.

other games i find are very reactive (like when i move units, they are easier to move) and have an easier UI to manipulate, but i miss the infinite queue order that i can only get in supcom and PA,
the art is what gets me the most, other games it looks very clean while in PA its a bit of a mesh, but i love seeing planets in the background, that always gets me.
Oh...and how Navy is actually cool in SupCom, (and best part in subcom2)

Infinite build is in Planetary Annihilation. It's the button at the bottom of the command bar that's on the right. :-D

A mod that is going to become part of the official game in the next patch.

http://faforever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8518&sid=f1ecb37b6211cadaead98f4c91bffae0

Oh srry, mistype i meant supcom *and PA*