My thoughts in summary thus far

http://thecrimsonpixel.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/planetary-annihilation-beta/

Why can't you just copy and paste that post onto the forums so people don't have to hit link?

Views/link clicks count for the site so it's better for you if it's your site to just post a link.

Bam.

You're saying this

"PA on the other hand, has gone down the cartoon, stylized road, a decision I feel was largely made due to budget restraints, and one which for me has both advantages and disadvantages. I adore the stylized swirls and charming glow of the planets, especially with the newly added FXAA option, which causes literally everything to glimmer and sparkle in delight."

Don't you mean HDR?

If you're going to post a link, go to Reddit. If you want discussion on a forum, copy and paste the article.

They didn't go down the route of "cartoon" style graphics due to budgetary reasons. That claim is just 100% false. They went with the current style to stay as true to the Kickstarter video as possible. What's more, the graphics aren't done. They still have many improvements to be made to the graphics.

It isn't the "elephant in the gameplay room." It is talked about constantly and very well known that there will be planetary invasion techniques.

The game is in Beta. The game is not complete yet. Uber has several plans for invading other planets, and we don't even know about all of them. Two techniques in particular will be the "Unit Cannon" and "The Egg." The Unit Cannon will be like a giant artillery piece that shoots units to other planets. The Egg is like a capsule that you load up with units, it lands on another planet, and then it opens up and units pour out. There's also speculation of interplanetary tactical (or nuclear) missiles.

So don't worry about that. It isn't an elephant. It isn't overlooked. It isn't anything except incomplete.

As for spherical nature, it's something you'll just have to get used to. We're playing on a sphere, not a square. And not just a single sphere, but multiple spheres. You won't ever be able to see every inch of the map at all times. Just won't happen. It's an additional challenge to gameplay.

That being said, Uber has plans to make it easier. We'll be able to have multiple windows and there will be an extensive notification system to also aid in keeping track of everything that is going on.

If the finished game looks like this, I don't think anybody will be complaining.

@Culverin That indeed is a beautiful picture. I hope Uber has the time to give us full control of planet making with a tool set that lets us fully customize using the planet editor. Not only will it help us make stellar battlefields, but will also add better opportunity for custom scenarios and even campaigns to be more easily modded into the game.

Well I thought it was a nice write-up.

In terms of fidelity? Because when I saw those pictures I got worried. Tiny usable spaces, huge rocks which block your view, etc. It looked like a ******* nightmare.

There are ways to do interplanetary combat that aren't particularly interesting.

If there are easy ways to transport workers to empty planets, if resources are shared across all planets, then you can start a new economy on a planet easily. If you can then fortify it this requires some new techniques for other players to break it, such as the unit cannon.

I don't see how this is different from island maps in starcraft. The unit cannon is even nearly the same as the dropship or nydus canal. People do enjoy island maps, but maybe it's telling they were phased out in starcraft 2. (people do complain about starcraft 2 a lot though, so maybe it's not the best example)

Tiny usable space is kind of good - it shows that terrain actually matters - More chokepoints. The way I imagine a desert is seas of sand and mazes of canyons - so that part is the mazes of canyons part. I like metal planets for that reason - there's lots of controllable chokepoint areas, but also lots of regular space for building.

Huge rocks that block your view - that's a vanity mode view. Not the normal top down view that you look at the game through.

That screenshot is of a maze. It would be a nightmare to play on a map like that.

*ahem*










I disagree.
Playing in a terrain like that would be a wet dream (assuming the pathfinding is up to snuff).

Figuring out which units to assault it, you will need a mix of tanky units and indirect fire..
But imagine it eventually opens up to a wide open field where they have a firing line on your forces.

Playing the defender in a place like that would also be incredible!


That pathfinding demo we say will take us that far right?

They've pretty much said this will be a mod, not in game at release.

Things may change, or they may add such a feature, we'll see.

One way or another, it will be in the game eventually.

There's a reason the most popular TA maps were the mostly open ones. The pathfinding collapses on those maps. Design a map like that and you're basically telling a player to go super weapons and air.

I

I can't wait to see the mods that are a complete conversion.

This is also false and, to be honest, dumb assumption. Kickstarter trailer wasn't a God's gift, they made it themselves. And they picked this style for kickstarter trailer because realistic graphics didn't look good with silly planet scale. When you place two buildings together and they aren't parallel, no amount of gritty HD textures will make stuff look real. They said it in interview with TotalBiscuit.

I agree entirely. But that screen shot is of the desert biome. Desert, to pretty much everyone, involves dune seas. There is little of interest to take a screenshot of in a dune sea. I therefore don't imagine that the screenshot is saying "This is what a desert planet will look like over 100% of the surface", and I don't think that's what Culverin was saying - I think Culverin is talking about the degree of graphical detail.

Having a planet with a good mix between dune sea and maze is good, dune sea gives you flexibility in your approaches, canyons gives you points which you can cheaply fortify (Horatius defending the bridge, Thermopylae, and so on)

I don't think that the entire planet should be a maze. But there should be natural chokepoints that you can take advantage of.

There should be chokepoint areas if you choose to have them. Makes great natural basebuilding.

Between a few canyons and mesas, should be wide open sand, patches of it so great that units can still roam the wide open areas freely.

That's why I like lava planets.

Metal planets are too choke pointy, I like them as they are not 1/100th as restrictive as a maze map, but I could see how it could oversimplify base defences.

Planets with a few jagged canyon around one another makes good places to stuff things into, naturally hidden to a degree and chokepoints to defend, while you can send units out of it into the "wide open spaces" to fight.