Map control not comfortable like on rectangular maps.

Actually the engine already can make flat maps quite easily, heck @UberGaf made a Halo ring. (Look at his profile picture)

So when's the mod coming then?

There are very few modders in this game and a lot of them are also competitive players that enjoy the round maps. I think right now one of our biggest limitations is the small number of modders we have.

Not to mention I don't believe it's possible without access to the engine tech, all we have is the server. :/

Once we get csg placement in the system editor, it should be possible to drill a hole through the planet.

See, OP? Even the modders need to prioritize their work, and flat maps are nowhere near the top of them.

I hate being the bearer of bad news, but maybe you should try giving the spherical maps another try? If you are being overwhelmed because of the 360-degree possibilities in this game, how about you try playing in a team w/shared-armies game with one or two more people, and dividing the various fronts between you? It is a lot less stressful, and much more fun in my opinion.

I don't even know what would happen if you had a brush that went all the way through, that would be such a HUGE subtractive brush XD

Or just layers of smaller ones.

The point of this game is to play on spherical maps.

What this thread tells me is that Uber should prioritize interface improvements to help make using spherical maps easier to learn.

At the very least Pole lock and the PIP set to view the opposite side of the planet, should be on by default. I mean a lot of "official" reviewers gave up on trying to learn the game without even turning on the PIP.

To be fair, the pool of reviewers might be skewed... RTS is so rare these days that those outside the "circle" of veterans can't make heads or tails of anything that's not Starcraft. But then, some people can't figure out Starcraft, either.

A proper tutorial would help. As i read in one review, it's ridiculous that every FPS feels the need to tell you how crouch and RTS throws you into the pool headfirst.

No matter how much easier you make it, it will still be harder than flat maps. So you need players who are prepared to deal with the extra difficulty.

What I find interesting about the spherical maps in the game today is that people still barely utilize them at all. In the majority of games I've seen - even with the high level games on the various YT channels - pretty much nobody makes use of anything other than the direct line of attack to a base. The only time I've seen people actually use the entire sphere is when sending small raiding parties to take out mex on the backside.

To get back to the point made in the OP though, I don't think taking away spherical maps is the answer. But I do think as it stands today PA can be extremely overwhelming with all the different attack vectors to worry about (planetary/orbital, 360 degrees of vulnerability, nukes, air units, ground units, etc.) and with the extreme vulnerability of the comm today. I think bolstering defensive structures would help in this regard - let me completely lock down some part of my base defensively so I can put more attention elsewhere. Right now the defensive structures are really really weak.

And double or triple the commander health.

OP teleporters are also to blame for this.

Tunneling units go go go!

But you need that to overcome how massively difficult it is otherwise to do an orbital invasion - until unit cannon and asteroids

True enough.

In earlier builds it was common for the better players to build proxy bases to open up more angles of attack. For some reason this is less common at the moment (perhaps because dox are so fast, and fabbers so fragile that it's too risky?).

I have seen tele's used to great effect to do this. I think the reason you don't see people doing much attacking by sending units via long alternative routes is two fold:
1: Radar coverage is wide (especially given the small maps usually favored for 1 v 1)
2: Dox and air are fast so it's easy to intercept.

Of course it could just be the 'fashion' at the moment I often send squads of units the back way (though usually I still have a 'main' attack force going a more direct route as you need to create a good distraction for the kiting force to have a change of getting to the juicy bits...)

The game is in a really weird rut at the moment wrt balace. I think what's going on is everyone feels like if you take your foot off the gas for one moment pumping out staple t1 factories & units (dox, bombers, bolo) you're toast and you're going to get overrun. The end result is nobody bothers going around the backside of the base or trying anything else strategically interesting, because if you try you're going to waste time & resources that your opponent will use to just crank more dox and get they'll upper hand pushing forward directly on to your base.

Strategically, this makes PA games exceptionally boring today in my opinion.

It's also why I think defensive structures need a massive buff so that can just completely lock down areas against t1 spam. If I lock down the direct line of attack to my base so your t1 units wash up against it like water on rocks, you're going to be forced to innovate a bit - go orbital, use the rest of the map, go t2, etc.

The lack of a unit cap changes all the mechanics. That's why spamming units is king in this game. People think this is bad, but only because they are not good at strategy. The key is spamming units WHILE concocting and executing strategies. If you watch my clan's huge 4v4+ team games on Elysium, that's exactly what we do, and it's glorious. You can't do this in any other RTS, because in other RTSes you are always thinking about the unit cap (or you are not allowed to have enough people in your team). People who are complaining about this are complaining about the essence of the game. Just like with the spherical maps, etc.