2 months to release and the game feels like pre-alpha and is a letdown. Please delay the release.

I've only seen 15v15 actually played but the network load is insignificant. I am pretty sure that Spring is not p2p, there is still a host which collects and sends commands from each player. The core idea is that only the commands are sent and this requires each player to have a synchronized simulation.

PA is run on servers isn't it?

I disagree, I specifically backed the game because it was the brains behind SupCom and TA that wanted to make a bigger, better and more epic TA. This kind of game suggested by those who make C&C wouldn't have given me any expectations. The fact that the developers, in their video, referenced all their TA/SupCom work and how they wanted to make a next-gen version of it is what drew me here. This is a sentiment expressed by many other people in the thread and on the forum.

Everyone was looking for something special when they backed the game; Most of us were looking for that successor to TA/SupCom that would take it to a new level and make us fall in love with RTSS (Real Time Strategy Simulations) all over again. I can understand why people are worried that their favorite (and most neglected) genre's revival in PA is in danger.

Really sorry for my "synchronized=p2p" misconception, that said I still think having no forced latency and low bandwidth requirement are significant more important than the advantages a asynchronous model could provides (no cheating, no desync etc).
Forced latency also hinders modding, because a lot of potential mod concepts have low latency tolerance.

What do you mean by forced latency and how does it hinder modding? In my experience latency is not a problem for modding and it's part of the game. I have no idea what you mean by forced latency.

Broadly the difference between asynchronous and synchronous is as follows:

Asynchronous

• Each client send to the server the commands that the player issued each frame.
  
• Server runs the simulation.
• Server sends positions etc.. of all the units visible to each player back to the client and the client uses this to draw the game world for the player.

Synchronous

• Each client send to the server the commands that the player issued each frame.
  
• Server collects these commands, sends a list of commands to each client.
• The clients run the simulation and issue the commands they receive from the server. If everything goes well the same game is run on each client.

So I'll guess here. Is forced latency the fact that in the synchronous system it is harder to present the player with some fudge which makes it look like their commands are taking effect sooner than the round trip between server and client?

Not sure what forced latency in Client/Server model is either. P2P has forced latency to ensure all clients keep in step with each other, as the latency is the interval the peers sync with each other (Sup Com had an enforced latency of 500ms, for example).

I think release will be around 2014 summer. ( I hope)

I don't agree with delaying release
But I think that PA might be released in either mid December or late December

Came here to post your exact statements when I realized you already beat me to it. So uh, this. ^

When Neutrino said something akin to PA's end result being "what TA would be if it were made by today's standards", it drew me. This line drew me in more than the video, more than Mr Epic Voice (John Patric Lowrie), more than the idea of smashing planets, more than the absurd scale. Don't get me wrong, those helped immensely.

The idea of TA being spiritually remade with today's technology without needing it's units, names, or associated objects is the very reason why I'm here. Probably the same reason why so many others backed the kickstarter. It's why the video and voice-over drew such a large and dedicated fanbase. In my heart, I want TA all over again, but TA hasn't actually gone anywhere, I still have it. Simply bringing back the idea of such an amazing game to today's standards with current gen technology is extraordinary. Here's hoping it gets there.

Huh?

Where are you getting the idea that forced latency hinders modding?

With that units can't be very responsive to the commands no matter how low the player's ping is, so any mod that requires split second controls would be undoable.

Never saw any modder complain about that. Also, they can lower that threshold inside the mod if they want to.

Has anyone ever test a mod on multiplayer with really low forced latency in SupCom? If it is not necessary, why the developers need it at first? Also the forced latency in PA is done for the bandwidth management instead of synchronization, so I'm not sure if they are the same.

If you want a FPS, TPS or Racing mod with multiplayer like the ones in Starcraft 2, or even a remake of OTA with all those micro tricks, lower forced latency would definitely be needed.

Supreme Commander has an update interval of 500ms. That is, every 500ms all computers synchronise with each other. You can easily achieve the same level of micro in Supreme Commander as you can in Total Annihilation, so I wouldn't say lowering it is necessary.

I am not aware of the value being editable in Supreme Commander via mods.

I saw some talk of planetary mapping options some of which seemed rather convoluted. Not sure what it would look like, but has anyone made a simple circular map based on arc length and angle? You 'flatten' the planet so everything is moved to a uniform radius from center of planet. So say if radius of planet is 300 and a plane is flying at 400, you move it to 300, keeping it at the same angle (line from center of planet to unit=400 length, reduce along line to 300). Everything would then be on a flat planet. Then you have a center point on the surface of the planet. Then you calculate everything from that point.

Get your arc length and that's distance from the center. Then you just need to create a base compass directions to determine angle and you go that distance from the center in the appropriate angle to create a circular map of points for all units on the planet. Half your circumference would be the maximum distance (or quarter if you split it into two hemisphere maps). If anything is perfectly opposite you could just force it to one side so it's not on all edges. This might be a little odd looking, but it would be uniform I would think and people could learn to read it and it would display all information on a single compressed map. Could even divide it into two pieces, chop the planet into two hemispheres and do one for each from opposing center-points. Curious to see what that would look like and how difficult/demanding it would be to generate that... not sure if you could also display terrain on such a map as that might be tricky, but units/metal points atleast I would think. Would that not be a fairly useful display? You could also display the radius of the planet in the corner to help people judge scale and maybe even add some rings at specific ranges as well. Perhaps even let people reduce it from full map exposure to a certain range from the center-point. So you wouldn't see the full map anymore, but would expand everything nearby on the minimap to make it more useful in a given area. If someone has already suggested this and especially if someone has done it and has pictures to show what it looks like please point me to them!

Some micro tricks in OTA require unit reaction time to be less than 500ms, like using nanoframes to block enemy fire, or start bombing when the bomber flying sideward.

I dont think much people want such micro quirks in PA anyway.
Oh and @raevn I am pretty sure that the value could be set by a console call and those where available form within mods, too.

since you guys are mods, would you please change this thread's title?

it obviously doesn't match it's original cause and it is annoying to see "2 months to release and the game feels like pre-alpha and is a letdown. Please delay the release." on the front page on a daily basis.

While the discussion might start to drift off the topic still contains like 20+ pages that mostly discuss the topic of people being afraid PA could not be ready for release. So I don't think changing the title is necessary.

Call it the DEAD THREAD.. lol