What is the point of this game? It already exists.

I won't react to provocations from neither side. But I wonder in how many Betas you've been so far? Those I've seen were for polishing and debugging, but never for adding new gameplay content. The game we got now won't change noticably, beyond balance changes and bug fixing. Maybe 1 or 2 small new things, but thats it.

I don't want to say the gameplay is bad. I'm not even an expert on RTS like this (I won my alpha-code). The game needs more polish in terms of UI-usage, switching between planets, finding correct units, zooming in and out, better differentiation between ground, air and space, etc.. all solvable in beta. If that is fixed and smooth, I think multi-planet battles can be very entertaining.

But saying "its just beta, stop complaining" won't help if someone is criticising gameplay mechanics.

So Mr. xterminator27, wtf did you expect? its a RTS, not a new genre. FPS's are all the same, yet people play them. You know Chess? most popular strategy game for hundreds of years, still one of the most played games of all time.

PA is not trying to be TA, SupCom, StarCrap, CnC, Earth 20XX, Dune, Dark Reign, HomeWorld or any other RTS in the business, no RTS ever made has the scale of PA, thats whats makes it unique, and its only selling point yet not the reason people pledged over 2 million bucks.

Seriously dude, drop the ******* routine and play something else if you're bored of RTS, it really doesnt take lots of brain-power to figure how to entertain yourself... I hear porn and masturbation are a good starting point.

But..but..but its fun to feed trolls! Sometimes its like watching home funiest video's.

hahahahahahaha ,,, Maybe there should be a sign like the ones at the zoo "NO FEEDING THE TROLLS"

lol You told him alright. OP needs to go look in the mirror and find out why he's full of ****.

I am glad there are at least a handful of people over 13 years old in this thread who say something beyond "trolling", or "lock this thread".

Sure I am a bit upset that a game I was expecting to be "the next generation of RTS" ended up being Supreme Commander "Sphere edition", so maybe my tone was a bit harsh.

But lets look at the real issues here.

1. This game in its beta is less dynamic and fleshed out than a SC2 arcade mod, made by 2 guys in their spare time.

- Ok so this one is debatable, most of you (all of you) probably have never played the sc2 supreme commander mod, so you really don't know what I am talking about. And in terms of "good" that is debatable. What I am saying however, is that currently, I feel that the free version of Supreme commander in the SC2 mod scene, is better than this game.

2. The mouse bindings

-I feel this one is an obvious issue that I don't need to bring up, I am certain that the devs are aware that a lack of mouse bindings really hurts the gameplay, and that middle mouse-click is a bad choice for camera movements (depending on the brand of mouse you have). I would be surprised if this didn't get fixed during beta.

3. My main issue, the fundamental core of the game.

-Look, I have played TA, and Supreme Commander. I understand that this is a "spiritual successor" to the two. But look at how SC2 is a "spiritual successor" to BroodWar. That is a true "next generation" of that form of RTS. I was expecting this to be the (as advertised) "Next Generation of TA". But I really feel that it is more of an expansion pack, or a mod than a whole new game. The fundamental Mechanics are not improved, at all. They are by all means, the exact same.


I received a lot of great input and messages from people who feel the same way as me, but don't want to post it on the forums because of the backlash they will receive from some of the mods/people. I do think that is fairly disappointing, but I am glad that some people in here are willing to keep the discussion going.

You're really going to have to elaborate. SC2 is sometimes considered an inferior successor to SC1 in terms of gameplay, despite the graphical improvements. What is SupCom -> PA missing that SC1 -> SC2 did properly?

I wonder when this guy will realize that this is a sequel to total annihilation. A game made before supreme commander. if this is a supreme commander ripoff then wouldn't that make supreme commander a total annihilation ripoff?do some research before calling something a rip off.
its like saying skyrim is a rip off of oblivion.

lol, totally avoided my comment... what a coward, thanks for making me look good.

Regarding point 1, do you feel that the Supreme Commander mod in the StarCraft 2 arcade is better than the PA beta because of the UI, or unit variety, or map design, or abilities, or... what specifically? Please note that I have not played this mod.

Regarding point 2, I agree with others that this point is well communicated and something that should be looked at by the devs. I personally do not have any problems with the middle/scroll button on my mouse though.

Regarding point 3, it sounds like your expectations of PA are very high and you feel like you've been let down by what you have seen after playing the PA beta for a relatively short amount of time. Did you watch the video from the PA Kickstarter campaign that described how the game was going to be like before you pre-purchased PA? I am curious how/why your expectations of PA are so high.

Also, you mentioned that the fundamental mechanics of the PA beta are not improved from TA and SupCom... can you give specific examples of which fundamental mechanics you are referring to? How specifically would you like to see them improved? Maybe you have some great ideas for improving the fundamental mechanics that the devs can incorporate into PA either before or after official release. Please share them.

What exactly do you want to do with your mouse? Like what binds etc? And there are 3 different ways to move the camera. Edge scroll, arrow keys and the middle button. you want a different way?

I didn't know SC2 had a SupCom mod. I'd like to learn more about it.

You are wrong there, he wasn't slapping anyone's face. The OP was first just bashing the game; until you guys (or a few people) just took it all personally and then it all turned personal. If OP doesn't respect you, could it be because you don't respect him, hmm?

You don't cure rudeness with rudeness. You only create more rudeness.

xterminator27, you are right, it is mostly same thing as SC and TA, there's no denying that. You just want new ideas, I don't know why people bash you for that... :/ new ideas are always a good thing.

Thank-you for admitting your harshness,

I agree middle mouse binding is awkward for a lot of people, remapping of this would be great.

one honest question to the OP though,
What do you think of the galactic war part of the game ?? (even though it isn't implemented yet)
I have played SPORE and this kind of idea EMULATES the galactic takeover part of spore but through RTS means not by buying a solar system out with spore bucks and long term trading. it became stale fast in spore because there was no action, I'm hoping this wont be the case with PA as it will be much more battle and economy oriented.

Exactly, instead of addressing the issues, most people on these forums resort to petty personal attacks, trying to defame my character so they don't have to acknowledge any sort of feedback. then they claim the thread is only for flaming when they are the ones doing all of the flaming. Look back at the posts, I don't insult a single person, yet I am insulted hundreds of times. It is sad really.

Nobody who actually plays SC2 believes that. During launch a few nay-sayers were trying to start up dirt, but lets be honest. Nobody plays Broodwar, and there are faithful Broodwar recreations in the SC2 mod scene that nobody plays. SC2 was a huge improvement from BW overall. Especially with HOTS. Now I don't expect PA to be SC2, but I was hoping for a more dynamic improvement over the previous games mechanics.

Locking this thread because of the personal attacks / general atmosphere. The debate's fine to have, but we shouldn't get this heated.

Received a couple of responses asking me to open this again. I will right now. But, let's remember to be excellent to each other.

I would disagree with #1. First of all, the term "dynamic" really doesn't mean much, it's just a buzzword. When you say "dynamic", do you mean "fun"? Because that's the general vibe I'm getting from this point.

It may be that you enjoyed the SC2 starcraft mod better than PA in its current beta build. However, I can say that I enjoy the current PA more than TA or SC, despite being buggy, incomplete, and in beta.

With point #2, you can A. use the arrow keys to navigate, and B. If you're gaming at an RTS level (especially for a game where zooming is a key mechanic that allows navigation between planets and view levels), it might be a reasonable assumption that the user has a mouse with both a right and a left click button, as well as a scroll wheel. If you don't I would recommend getting a new mouse, they only cost like 15 dollars. If you don't have 15 dollars, then what the heck did you spend 60-90 dollars on when you got PA?

Point #3. Your argument is that since PA borrows many core mechanics from its predecessors (they are exactly the same in many aspects such as economy), that it is not a separate game. If this is the case, do you feel SC is a separate game? It borrowed the fundamental mechanics from TA, it just changed some numbers, added a few new units and added experimentals. My point is that PA borrows the mechanics that succeeded in delivering consistently good gameplay from SC and TA, but that doesn't mean it's the same game.

Think for a second what PA does have that's different. 1) A spherical map: You now can attack from all directions, and be attacked from all directions. The map is also likely bigger. 2) larger scale. The benchmark given by Uber is "a million units on the screen". That is absolutely massive. 3) Interplanetary warfare. Completely different mechanics from SC and TA. You now have to deal with how to attack an enemy planet, how to defend your planets, where to expand, HOW to expand, how to transport units between planets, on top of managing an economy and army production across an entire planet. Finally, 4) attaching thrusters to asteroids and launching them into enemy planets. You might even be able to annihilate planets themselves.

Nonetheless, I do agree that PA does need to improve over the course of the beta. There isn't enough unit variety, balance is horrid because 30 new mechanics were added 2 days ago for the beta, the game is buggy and crashes often, etc. etc. I just hope that everyone can be patient with PA over the next few months, because game development is a lot harder than even I can imagine.


edit: Guys, this is how to disagree with people on the internet. You debate opposing ideas in a civilized manner, like human beings. And you use spelling and grammar to some extent, and treat the opposition as an equal, regardless of whether you believe them to be serious in their stated beliefs or not.

I didn't ask for a thread reopen but i did contact the OP coz no one should get personally attacked for their opinion.. everyone is entittled to their opinion whether we all agree with it or not.

In my opinion, there isn't another game out there thats quite like this, yes there are definitely simularities to this, supreme commander series and total annihilation but PA is going to be doing a lot more than what the other two did put together, the modding ability alone will FAR surpass anything that had been done for supcom FA, you can already see it with the mixing of planet type generators. Fighting on planets? who doesn't think that is damn epic? Crashing planets into eachother? the game is just absolutely massive its the true RTS sandbox that people would want if you ask me. Take a look at supcom and C&C for example, look how small CNC maps are compared to this, supcom was much bigger, but still it would only be about half the size of current PA planets really, and fighting across multiple planets and moons, asteriods and any other space bodies the team wants to put into the system editor.

The sheer scale of the thing is waaay more, yes how the economy works is very simular to other games, but PA is going to completely change the WAY you play, adding orbital destruction and complete planetary destruction is something that is definitely not been seen before. You have suggestions on how to make it better and different from TA or Supcom? say something... that was the whole point of this entire project.. they want to make a game that EVERYONE wants to play, not just them, or a small community... put forward some good idea's (good ideas) and they'll listen im sure of it.

I can understand the OPs point of view, the style for recent times is VERY close to Supcom, but that was an absolutely amazing RTS series, why not build on something that was epic? when you truely factor in what inter planetary fighting can bring, along with the massive mod support this game is going to have... its a total win win scenario..

@xterminator27
I play since the first days of alpha and payed 90 bugs, but so far... you are right.
Had the same fears till now, that the game will end up as a supreme commander in space.
But even if so, i will be happy, as long the game will use a modern engine, so massive battle can be enjoyed and not lagging to hell, even if i use a hell of a pc.
Me personal: I am lucky to finance such a good team with "only" 90 $ ! And i am willing to do again !!

I loved Supreme Commander and still do. I guess i will love PA also.
The things i did not lile in Supreme Commander were the use of massive units to win. There was no tactic, just zergs ^^
In PA we need to zerg now, cause of the bigness. Tactic, hopefully, in a different way. Zerg tactic.

But atm i am on your side. I really hope the game will become some more interesting features. Let`s hope.