Thank you Uber - I love PE even though I don't like skirmish RTS's

I know the game has received some harsh reviews, so I wanted to post the evolution of a critic of the game, to someone who adores it now.

I didn't care for it when I first started playing in early summer. It was a combination of being overwhelmed, bugginess, poor performance, and not understanding the game & it's interface. But once things started coming together in August I fell flat in love with it.

Though I've played a lot of RTS's, my normal game preference is for turn based strategy as I don't have quick reflexes nor am I good at multi-tasking. Playing against humans is something I hate as I always/usually get destroyed, and AI games get boring. Once I started making my own solar systems to play in and as performance skyrocketed I got hooked in a way no other RTS over 20 years has ever done. So my post is to say you are most definitely on the right track, and please keep at it the way you have. People WILL come around, it just may take some time. I'd also suggest you implement some kind of faculty to rate/share solar systems. Though I have the mod that allows it, it is a bit messy. One of the biggest issue from many reviewers is being bored with the randomly generated systems they ended up with. I have created some amazing systems with the kind of variety, performance, stunning vistas, and jaw-dropping events that could dramatically change how someone perceives an RTS played on a sphere vs. rectangle and thinking the rectangle is better. But few will get to see it as they're lost in the fluff or people aren't playing with the mod manager.

Take care and keep up the fantastic work!

sports class is always the best.

*PA

Originally when I made the mod I assumed that an official version would be coming sooner and I just focused on getting it working. If you have suggestions for how to improve the UI without taking up too much of my time, I would be happy to consider it! I agree though that the optimal solution would still be to get something directly from Uber. There are some more things I would like to add to give people more control over the systems they upload, but I can't really do it until we get a good way to authenticate users. If I add more tools now I am worried that people will start to edit or delete other people's systems by hacking the mod.

cptcondrum - the best thing I can suggest is that filenames over-write currently existing ones from the player. For example I have several version of the same solar system due to finding out bugs after playtesting or user suggestions. A way to delete our own maps, and sorting via name of map, date of submission, and author ID would be fantastic. It would also be nice if Uber would add a "background" text option for maps. Each map I've made have their own special idiosyncratic themes that are impossible to convey with just the title's name so those who are downloading/playing will not be getting the whole experience. T that end, if in the system sharer, you could add a text box where we could add the information, whether in-game or on the server would be great.

just to know what is a Skirmish RTS?

I am already planning to add a description field to System Sharing to allow people to leave a short message about the system.

Editing, replacing, and deleting maps isn't something I want to touch because it is so easy to trick the game (and therefore the mod) into thinking you are someone else. I don't want to open up an opportunity for someone to replace all of clopse's wonderful moons with some boring tropical planets, for example. Once we get a way to authenticate users with third-party servers like mine I will probably add in more functionality.

Searching and filtering was actually in the original version of System Sharing but it broke somewhere along the way and I didn't bother to bring it back. I will have to think about ways to make this available to the client again.

Awesome!

Gerfand - skirmish RTS is playing a game like Starcraft 2 in skirmish mode instead of the campaign (either against the AI or other people). This applies to all RTS's. Normally the only fun I get out of RTS's is by playing their campaign.

We actually provided a document to Uber with some suggestions on how they could modify existing APIs to help support mods such as this. Hopefully it reached the right people and maybe one day...

It needs to