Things I think need improving/adding/removing, imho.

OK so I have been testing and playing since the beginning and have made a few suggestions along the way. Now that the game is officially released, I have a few things on my mind about what I would like to see improved or added. Nothing like new units and such. More like polish and improvements. Here goes, in a sort of list. Its long, you are warned lol. Also, excuse any bad grammar or spelling, I’m dyslexic but I try my best to write coherently.


First off I should say I am very happy about this game existing. I was stoked when I saw the kickstarter page. I love it.... anyway, in no particular order:


Ram usage after game exit - I have noticed that sometimes it takes a while to get ram back after I exit the game. The game.exe seems to linger on occasion.


Orbit changes when selecting planets - When selecting a planet to edit in system editor, if you are not extremely careful, you will nudge the orbit of the planet. So, if you have deliberately designed an eccentric orbit you will have to go back and re-do whatever you did. I find it quite annoying as I often design systems with specific orbits. I know I am not the only player with a science background or, the only player with a little OCD about system design. I have come to believe the game was intended to offer players a high degree of control over systems and game play. Would it be possible to add a planet select tab like we have in the top right while playing the game? This would solve the issue without too much work, as the planet select tab is already in use elsewhere.



Caps Lock warning – Just as it says. A caps lock warning on password entry. For user friendliness.


Difficulty on normal – I think that difficulty on normal could be eased up a little, thats all.


Commander variations – I have seen that different commanders have idiosyncratic behaviours, and I am all for that. I would like to have the ability to make adjustments to this behaviour before a match with the AI. I would like to be able to determine the level of aggression for each opponent. I think that was available on CNC generals or one of those games. Basically I would like to have more control over the type of game I play against the AI. My suggestion is that on the skirmish setup menu, for each AI slot, there would be a drop down menu for aggression with 3 options perhaps. Maybe aggressive/balanced/consolidative. Or, aggressive/turtle/resource. Or (as a wish), Hyper aggressive (spamming units at you without thinking about future plans)/regular aggressive (wants to destroy everything)/balanced/Turtle (defensive expanding infrastructure and consolidative strategy)/super turtle (gets dug in to become very difficult to assault). I think giving these options to the player would offer more opportunities for playng with different strateges. Having these ‘personalities’ on certain commanders would help but that would mean playing the same commanders over again. If the options where there for every commander as I have suggested would yield countless combinations and permutations of challenge. Having some more basic options like this for each commander slot on skirmish mode, is what I would like to see above all else with this game.


Planet bumps – I know this has come up before so I would harp on about it. I think something need to be done about the planet surface features. There is not enough variation in the seeds spectrum for a start. What I see generally is small bumps on the surface in wide rings around a planet (typically earth and desert biomes). As surface features they would be ok but, as the only surface feature they are tiresome. They are not big enough to build on or mount with a vehicle. They only seem to be obstacles to manoeuvrability. Very similar to the features in the old RTS title ‘Emperor Battle for Dune’ except in that game, they did sometime have larger bumps which you could travel over. What I would like to see at least, is a slider for planet bumpiness. Or, a slider for planet features above sea level. At least it would be easier to set up your starting base without worrying about all the bumps being so close together.


Trees! – In reality, If we have the technology to create uber destruction bots and vehicles, able to create bases and building and the like. Would not these units be able to wipe away little trees in the way of building construction? It is annoying to see 10 fabbers clearing one tree at a time in a big circle in readiness for a small missile turret. Do other people spend time bombing the ground to clear them? Maybe have the buildings auto clear a small area upon placement of the building base marker. Or simply allow vehicles to destroy trees while moving about, and have buildings ignore trees at placement while the trees just vanish with building placement.


Caps lock build cue visibility – It is very handy to see the build cue building in wireframe. It help with base planning and such. However, in practice there is a problem. If you select a different set of fabbers and place some buildings, caps lock would show you all the building wireframes from all fabbers under your control. My suggestion is to make the level of wireframe visibility toggle through different levels with successive presses of the key. For example: one press gives you the current fabbers build cue, a second press gives you the wireframe build cue for all fabbers under your control, a third press removes all wireframe build cues from the map. Shouldn’t be that hard to implement I would think (admits to no game programming experience o


No super weapons toggle switch on game setup – mentioned before a few times.


Path finding – Even with the improvements to path finding I still often see fabbers being blocked by other fabbers or vehicles, when moving between buildings. In normal circumstances I see fabbers and vehicles moving to the left or right to get around each other but, in between building seems to present large problems to units. Maybe if a unit has not found a route after 30 second it should reverse back and plot a new route. Or, give units a better sense of what other units are trying to do.


And just for kicks...


Commander throne (hell yeah) – A structure that the commander can sit on (read dock with). Maybe like with CNC generals (there was a support structure if i remember with 3 abilities to toggle between, one was a super cannon i think), a structure that once the commander has docked with, can offer some upgraded abilities to the local base. For example the structure could offer better radar range with the commander docked with it. Or, have its own anti air coverage controlled by the commander, or, a missile defence grid. With the commander docked with the throne, he cannot use his uber cannon and it takes a while for him to mount and dismount the structure leaving him momentarily vulnerable to attack.


Thats all folks. Sorry about the essay but there was a lot to mention. If anyone wants to comment about this or chat about similar ideas then please do. I have enjoyed reading the many suggestions offered by other backers and testers. As long as we don’t end up talking about shields or new specific units for the game. I think that is well covered in other threads. No offence intended though, I just think its been done already. If you just agree with something here please go ahead and quote the subtitle and give it a thumbs up and maybe in a good few people agree with something here, the Devs might look at it.


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A few more points that I think could be improved/changed:


Icon height visibility - The camera height above ground that the unit icons are visible, for me, is too low. Perhapes a slider for icon height visibility under the camera options tab in settings. When I am raining down
awesomeness in the form of nukes or other similar, I like to be able to see the carnage. With the unit icons becoming visible at such a low height, It spoils the view somewhat. I know I can show/hide the icons but that isnt what I want to do really.


Building placement - In the earlier versions of the game, back in alpha days, placement of buildings was slightly more sensitive. By which I mean for instance, if I placed the building and kept the mouse button held down (to point the building), I could release the button with the mouse pointer not over the building and the building would still be placed. I have noticed that for a while now this action has been made more strict. Now mostly the mouse pointer needs to be over the building in order for the building to be placed. This might sound like a nit-pick but in terms of game play, it does make it slower to place buildings and more awkward. at one time it was soo easy to quickly place multiple building. That ease has been slightly lost since alpha and early beta days. Has anyone else noticed this? If you havent noticed it that give it a go. Recreate the scenario and see what I mean. Please comment back if you get what im saying. Maybe I am clumsy with the mouse. I can't be the only one that finds this annoying.


The AI not commiting - The AI seems to not like to commit enough forces to a fight. I see the AI massing huge numbers of Air units and tanks etc but, only sending a handfull at a time to my main base. And, almost never going after small groups of buildings. If I leave the planet and build up on another, the AI will just leave anything I leave behind and look for another planet to settle on. Im not complaining about this as know comments about the AI are abundent. I just mention it as I am writing up all my observations here.


I will add to this as I remember things. Im playing PA a bit today to test as much as I can, I want to get all my suggestions in before too long. If any of them get sorted I will be well chuffed. But, if it turns out I am just an overly fussy backer I will still be pleased with the game I have. Machines fighting machines! There is nothing in that, that humans across this world dont like, always (unless we meet some for real and they wipe us all out).

Isn't that under UI, like I swear it is.

is it? I was looking under camera controls. I will have a look for it. I would really like it to be there. Cheers.

Ok thanks for that. I got to Icon height and also the option for showing all of the build cue for all fabbers with Caps. I having been in the options since Alpha when I set up for first play. (Feels a bit silly).

Can anyone tell me how to get this thread moved to 'general discussions'? It's probly better off there. Cheers.

Gas giants could improve somewhat!

@cola_colin can you move this thread to general?

Ok so after some more testing I will reiterate the three most annoying issues I have, that if fixed would dramatically improve my experience. Cherp up please if you can relate to these:

1) Fabber units don't follow new orders if they where assisting a fab structure beforehand. The situation is simple. You have some fabbers assisting a vehicle structure for some time. You select them and cue up some build orders at some other location, using shift. After releasing shift, the fabbers just sit there and continue assisting the factory. I imagine that by using shift the fabbers just add the build orders to the cue which in their eyes starts with the old assist order. However, this should not be the case. Yes, in situations where the fabbers are building something already and you shift add more orders, they should add them to the list. But, in the case of assisting a factory, they should immeadiaty stop assisting and follow the new orders. No one would order a fabber to assist a factory forever and after that do other stuff!! After assisting forever there is no more time to do other stuff. In the case of assisting then, fabbers need to always stop assisting when given new orders, even with shift add. There is no button to skip current orders so this can't be gotten around either.

2) There is no way I can see to give a 'hold position' order to a factory, to make all units produced follow the 'hold position' order after exiting the factory and reaching the rally point. I find it annoying that after building a set of mixed ability units and getting them in formation at a certain point, a few with the longest range just wonder off when an enemy comes into range. The rest of the formation is left with a hole in its capabilities. Yes, I can keep selecting all units and issuing the 'hold position' order but that is tedious to do repeatedly. Surely the factories could really be improved if moverment orders were included with all the other orders that can be applied to units coming out of them?

3) Again I was testing today and got heated by the UI not loetting me select structures from the build menu without being uber careful to not move the mouse even the tinyest amount while pressing the mouse button. Then getting more heated by not being able to place the structure unless the mouse pointer was inside the wireframe plan of the structure. Yes, I could use hotkeys to select from the menu but, I am very old school with RTS games and I have a play style. I am quick enough to not need extra hotkeys. I have enough to remember as it is. Im my opinion, If I release the mouse button with the wireframe showing 'white' for ok position, the building should place. This should happen regardless of where the mouse pointer is in relation to the wireframe. This was how it used to be in alpha days. Same with the build menu sensitivity. I could select enything I needed as quick as I wanted from the menus and never be held back with the second guessing computer. Please bring back the relaxed UI build menus. It is infuriating to cue up a whole bunch of structures and when adding the last defensive buildings I accidentally place another umbrella, and have to click away with my fabbers and start the whole layout again. If uber will not add a delete last order button to the menu then please relax the menu buttons a bit.

If anyone relates to these 3 annoyances let me know. Otherwise its just me and I will have to live with them.

Do you think I am being overly picky to want these changes. I honestly think the game play would be a lot smoother with these adjustments. It annoys the hell out of me buit, thats me.

The super annoying thing about this slider is that it depends on planet size. On a small planet the icons will appear much earlier than on huge planets.
Or does that mean it doesn't depend on the planet size?
Anyway - it behaves differently on different sized planets which is annoying.