What I think the 'Setons' for PA should be..

So.. when PA came out, I played and experimented for some weeks with a lot of fun. There have been made some huge steps since alpha and beta phases, but unfortunately the game still feels 'unfinished' or 'too simple' (lack of tiers, units, factions, terrain, maps, etc...).

I know this is subjective, but no matter how you put it, or how you defend this, there wasn't 'enough there' to keep me playing. Now, the last weeks, I rolled back to SupCom: FA because several friends picked it up again (this happens about once a year, for the last 6/7 years, which shows how good the game actually is).

What we normal do is play some of our favourite maps, in this case Setons Clutch. It's amazing how important this map is for the game. It's simple and complex at the same time. It's boring and epic at the same time. This map actually makes the game for me at the moment. The little difference between playthroughs, the anticipation, the difference between good and bad players for different starting locations. Also, new custom made maps, can create total new game experiences (Battle for Thermo, Survival, etc).

Now I think PA needs something like a 'Setons' rather sooner, so I started thinking about something that is very 'PA' but also has classic map elements in it:

- Large planet - 2000-4000 radius or so depending on number of players - maybe we need optimizations for this, but eventually computers will become faster
- Planet surface is manually created and it is symmetrical between teams. There should be distinctive water areas, land areas, but also areas that can not be accessed (lava?). The right balance of these terrains will be good for strategies and tactics.
- Starting spots should be clear. All starting spots should have equally mass in the beginning, but little differences past early start will make diversity.
- Around the large planet, a number of 'asteroids' is floating. These asteroids (very small irregular planets) can be conquered for extra mass, or used to smash the asteroid and destroying a fair amount of land on impact, but not too large. More like a nuke X5. The asteroid - planet ratio should really feel realistic. There should be a decent battle for these asteroids, but they should be the only tactic.

I have experimented with building this system, but the large planet size is even on my fast computer not an easy task to generate. Currently, the random generated planets do need full motivating to play. It really needs a unique design to brings forward the cool terrain features.

As soon as the systemeditor is actually a systemeditor, I will come back to build my dream system.

Next to the proposed system, also an overhaul of orbital is needed. Building orbital needs to be Tier 3 / Tier 4 activity. At least not something you can obtain easy and fast because it is expensive.

This will be in the next PTE stream, which is likely to be released today, but surely this week.

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/pte-build-75134-main-please-post-feedback-and-bugs-here.66029/

There it is