I LOVE the idea of a Total Annihilation sequel, that game honestly introduced and caused my PC gaming addiction. I now sell and discuss computers daily as a profession, and it is a huge passion and hobby of mine to PC game. I was motivated enough to buy a 60 dollar beta ffs. The whole idea of PA is amazing, however, after a few games of PA, my head hurts trying to play. Trying to navigate the planets and decide what units are construction or not is seriously taxing mentally. I don't understand quite why, but I have played many RTS games and TA since it was released with insane AI mods and on the bone yard pvp, but PA just seems horribly confusing to micromanage compared to any RTS I've tried. Every construction plant looks almost the same! It's hard to see where metal is and where your units are without zooming way out, and it's easy to feel confused and overwhelmed with that view (which will probably become easier with experience, but still). You select a unit and there are no options as to their functions without relying on hot keys. Its a good thing the hot keys are almost identical to TA or I'd have no clue how to use them. No GUI. There is a strange schism between being close and seeing the graphic of the units and zooming out to see basic icons. The idea makes sense for this level of macro gameplay, but it feels sooo weird. I wish I had a suggestion, but it's mostly feedback from an average user perspective. To create a game with galactic warfare is quite the task so idk how to make it feel better but it feels bad imo atm. I tried the wasd map control, and that was great and intuitive, except that defaults to all kinds of functions already! Very sloppy, but very new idea. Going to the directional keys is so awkward because the keys are so far away from everything! I will say it was amazing to never have played and understand how to work the camera! Bravo on intuitiveness(at least for TA players). Also, the hotkeys match TA so well I could pick the game up instantly almost in terms of squad assignment and such. I can't really complain that 1/2 my games haven't finished or loaded considering it's beta. I want this game to be great! My friends and I still play TA so many years later; make this game a classic <3.
Considering how few complains they get about the zoom and units being simular, i would theoriese that it may not be a "average users perspective" more like a minority of users (but still quite a few). That dosent make your comments any less valid off course, just saying.
It will get better in all those regards. Modders already make mods for mex and metal visibility, commander health display, strat icons, coloration changes... and besides better ui, they ask daily about things like giving commands to unfinished units and commanding a factory to send groups from factories or factories to assist factories or factories to send units to assist things... The only pressing issue, is air and naval factories look unique in animation and design, but maybe there is more they could do to make bot and vehicle look different. I don't religiously play, actually its more weekly, and it was way less before beta, but i have come without mods to find factories possible to tell apart reasonably fast. I would say nobody new easily can tell, but less than two days of play you can easily start telling. Also, uber, please put a hotkey in the game to list hotkeys. If the hotkeys are to be used people need to know how. A lot of people think you cannot edit queue, and honestly every other day i forget the hotkeys and just change queue by starting build list over.
I disagree. I think its more likely that people are expecting the models to still change since its still beta. Personally I think that a lot of the units and buildings are hard to distinguish, even after a lot of plays and really hope they'll get more attention. Especially the vehicle fabbers. And bots. And t1, t2 tanks, etc.
I found that turning on the "lock camera to poles" option really helped with navigating planets, if you're having trouble with that.
It defaults to functions because you're not supposed to be using keys to control your camera. The zoom system is practically the same as SupCom's, and so you should never touch any camera-related keyboard controls. You don't move the camera, you zoom out and zoom back in where you want to be, or middle-click on the planet and drag. Relying on keys for camera control is getting into bad habits. Well, at least you're not asking for a minimap.
I'm a ta player and in the beginning I found it better to turn in edge scroll in the options menu. Now I use the middle button. Took me some time to get used but is the best way I think. Pressing cntrl-n during the game shows the metal much more clearly. They strategic view isn't working right now as good as it should. So this will become better. All that said, as you have mentioned a lot of the other headaches you said are just down to a new game and will get better after you play for a few hours.
I disagree on the idea that you're not supposed to use keys to navigate the screen. Having all the camera functionally based on the idea that everyone has a three button mouse or prefers to zoom in and out to move around the planet is rather limited and not always intuitive for the end user. Keys are always familiar in a sense that most games move a character or thing that involves the directional keys or WASD. Eliminating it will be forcing people to adapt to something they might not even have access to (a middle click mouse). In most RTS games you can Edge scroll which Clopse mentions, but not in this RTS.
Three button mice are standard, and have been for years. They can be had for the price of a cup of coffee. If you own a modern computer (which you do, or you wouldn't be able to play this game), you either own or can afford to buy a three button mouse. Both navigating by scrolling and middle-click-and-drag have also been the standard way one navigates documents and web pages for years. It's only "not intuitive" to interact with the game in this way if you haven't used a web browser in the last ten years. There was a time when the FPS genre was new and people made the exact arguments you're making now for designing around keyboard-only control schemes. "Mouselook" was seen as a new-fangled and counterintuitive design that forces people to adapt to something they might not even have access to (a mouse). And you can effectively "edge scroll" in PA. Mouseover the horizon and scroll up to rotate the planet towards that point on the horizon, and scroll down to rotate in the opposite direction. It uses the same motion and is conceptually similar to zooming in and out. Now, PA could do with supporting 2D scrolling and pinch-to-zoom, especially as Mavor said he wanted to support that silly dual-trackpad controller Steam have just announced. It's slightly annoying that you can't spin a pole-locked planet by scrolling sideways.
Just because 3 button mice have been standard for years doesn't qualify that people know how to use 3 button mice for all applications. You even mention that. My point was that its a familiar thing for individuals to use keys for scrolling, having an option for them to use it gives them time to adapt to different methods. Until there is a small tutorial developed to outline the different methods of scrolling, a lot of people are going to not know the methods at first glance. (example would be OP) The method of scrolling you mentioned is an example of something that would be good for a tutorial. I must of mis-read your first post thinking you were saying that you were using edge scroll in TA. I found the option in PA, have yet to try it.
If people playing a Beta don't look things up for themselves, that's their fault, and the defaults in the finished game. It's only natural an in-development version would be poorly documented. The defaults should be the options suitable to most players, which isn't WASD because it's either imprecise or slow, and it compromises the "attack" and "stop" hotkeys at least.
Perhaps your definition of a "games spirit" is different then mine, but its supposed to be a different game.
Yes, i think that. But can i edit queue? I´m talking of build orders of buildings - not in factories... How can i do this?
I think he's referring to ctrl-click to add to front of factory queue. You can't edit build orders of engineers.
Yes indeed those options are awesome; I think the metals showing should be a default setting because it seems so critical. I would agree. I think a big part of it is getting into a beta with no tutorial. So glad you can show metals. First few games were on the gray scale maps and it was so weird to find metal. There are so many options in the menu I had to spend some time tinkering to make it easier. I am glad there is a programmable hot key to almost any action. It does seem much easier after a few games, but first impression was the main point of the article, honestly. Moving between planets will be an interesting challenge, and I am glad there will be multiple monitor support (yet then may be hard on laptops!). I don't really see how a minimap would help tbh. I do think it is strange to not see enemy units on radar without zooming out to the icon level. It will be interesting to see how the "galactic wars" pans out micromanagement wise.
It would be nice if they made everything have an order queue, visible when you click the unit, and could edit anything about it. That way would be best.
