More details on upcoming Asteroids update!

Hey all,

Just wanted to swing by and give a quick update as to what we’re working on over at Uber!

Currently we’re pushing on getting the Asteroids in the game! The current design thoughts that have proven the most fun have them spawning in systems (if set up to spawn there), spawning up to 3 asteroids that can be launched at any planet in the system. I’ll be sharing more info on this as they progress in development here in this thread.

One major change that will be occurring with the introduction of asteroids will be reverting how planet smashing works back to the original design. Some of you may remember in Gamma and earlier that planets fully destroyed one another on impact instead of the crater method that was eventually implemented just before ship. Design has been overall unhappy with the current crater smashing, as the core of the game was designed with SMASH ALL THE PLANETS in mind. We’ve been doing playtesting internally and we have been much happier with the old smashing destroying the planet, as we feel it really goes more with the mass planet destruction feel of the original vision, and I’m sure all of you who have crashed a planet into another, only to have the commanders survive will agree. Alongside this change, we’ll also be working on a new planet smashing effect more in line with the original vision (as well as often requested )

Overall things keep moving forward in the world of PA, and the team keeps working to make the game everything we wanted it to be! Oh, and just as a sidenote, something I’ve been meaning to say for a long time now. I just wanted to take the time to thank the community for being so awesome and enjoying the game. It makes us happier than you could imagine to see so many people playing, streaming, and uploading videos of something we worked so hard on and just could hope it was enjoyed. I’ve seen a new player learning the game on twitch only to have players from the community jumping in the stream to help teach them. Community coming together to host and run tournaments. Our mod community knocking out amazing things and pushing to bring the community closer with great additions like global chat. Honestly, in 12 years of making games, this community is one of the most helpful and welcoming I’ve seen.. So thanks to you all for making PA so great a game to play

So Asteroids will crash like planets currently do and planets will annihilate everything with a worthy graphical effect?Great stuff.
Also very interested into what you're doing with wreckages and that new navy unit thing that was recently found in the game files. Working wreckages especially would be quite a great addition.

Planets will annihilate everything with a new effect, as will asteroids. We are moving away from the crater gameplay.

Can we please have an option for map makers?

Incidental collisions are a nice option.

soo save game feature is completed?? when playing with large planets, it takes quite lots of time to save game.. any ETA for point save feature without chrono cam history?

Current plan is to move away from crater gameplay. I can look into what it would take to have it be an option, but it's currently not planned.

Thanks... the more options the better.

Awesome news. May I ask, by "original vision" for collisions do you mean like the Kickstarter trailer with the cracks of lava covering the planet?

YAY! I'm a big fan of reverting to the old global extinction planet smashing.

I'll withhold comment until @bgolus is done with his magic I would rather show it than tell it.

Looking forward to it. Keep up the good work!

The problem with existing collisions was how to specify you wanted a planet killer or a crater.

It seemed to be based on some combination of radius and mass so it wasn't obvious in the system editor user interface how to specify.

A simple radio button saying planet killer or crater allows for both options.

Don't forget to cross-post this to Steam @jables. You guys should use Steam announcements feature more too.

The problem with existing collisions is a planet is always worth more as an eco base than for the damage it can do. Only by having smaller planets eradicate large ones (like they used to) do you fix this.

EDIT: Misunderstood how asteroids would work

Sounds great!! I really liked the old planet smashing much much more since you knew you were doomed if something was incoming, now you could just teleport your commander to your backupbase and survive with a huge not that great looking and not working gameplay wise crater at your old base. I can't wait to see what Bgolus will make of it, big all destroying fire shockwaves and thunder and explosions as showed on several discovery channel videos please!!! <3

It would also be great to have a big explosion when two equally sized planets collide since they now just 'dissapear' into an invisible black hole of nothingness. So I'd also love to see several effects for different impact sizes

Maybe small craters could be revisited for nuke explosions? It would add a nice effect compared to the current decal.

I am really looking forward to this addition!!! Time to get Planetary Annihilation back again big time!!
And thank you Uber for listening to the community which also helps with creating a good community; since these forums are still the only forums that kept me around somehow. <3

that was what I thought, but it seems Uber wants to do "everything is a planet killer".

I would think having a differentiation between planets and asteroids like that would be logical. Though I don't play much late game planet crashing dunno how it actually plays out. But if asteroids are planet killers just like planets are then what is special about asteroids?

Alternatively make asteroids craters and planets are always planet killers.

Current design has asteroids as a renewable planet to throw, which makes them different than your normal moon or planet. We are also experimenting with them having metal or not.. so basically they are renewable floating weapons, more than areas to possibly set up a base.

oh god if they have metal then people are just going to turtle up on them and prolong the game forever.

Also note, current design thoughts are you can asteroid other asteroids

oh ok

well if there's only one asteroid it would be a problem but then I guess that's just a bad system.