Do We Need Gentleman's Rules Anymore?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by brianpurkiss, January 2, 2014.

  1. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    Most new players don't even know what the Gentleman's Rules are.

    Walls have had some balancing. I don't even think the wall reclaim exploit is a thing anymore.

    So do we need the 1 wall per tower rule anymore?

    Do we need to any Gentleman's rules anymore? Do we need to adjust them?
  2. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

    Messages:
    12,074
    Likes Received:
    16,221
    Personally I don't care about them anymore. They were meant to yield a playable game when we could place mex everywhere. They were also meant to be used in the gentlemens ladder, which is prettty much dead.
    By now the game enforces all rules for the most part. Exploits exist, but it "do not cheat" kinda is a basic rule that should always apply.
  3. zaphodx

    zaphodx Post Master General

    Messages:
    2,350
    Likes Received:
    2,409
    I think people should do away with the no wall spam mindset. They're expensive and don't have huge amounts of HP, we should be playtesting whether they're really OP any more.
    zihuatanejo, elwyn, siefer101 and 3 others like this.
  4. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    I agree. Just kinda a generic "don't use exploits" is probably good enough at this point.

    I am very curious to see how walls play out.
  5. BradNicholson

    BradNicholson Uber Employee Uber Alumni

    Messages:
    1,073
    Likes Received:
    4,589
    Yeah, we'd love to hear your guys' feedback on these.
    zihuatanejo and brianpurkiss like this.
  6. Dementiurge

    Dementiurge Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,094
    Likes Received:
    693
    The only gentleman's rule you need is not to play on multi-planet systems.
    That inter-orbital layer...
  7. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    Heh, yeah, I personally don't play on multi planet systems right now. Simply too many issues due to an Orbital layer.
  8. WarriorServent

    WarriorServent Member

    Messages:
    54
    Likes Received:
    33
    Hi, um to prove your first point, what are the Gentlemans Rules?
  9. mrqasq

    mrqasq Member

    Messages:
    42
    Likes Received:
    15
    I'd like them to be upgradeable as they are quite well for begin, but their value goes down with t2. Also I'd like them to be faster to build, or build in modules like in RedAlert ;)

    I think (guessing) that they play via some sort of a forum from SupCom, and they made their own rules for the Alpha, were game was to broken to be played :)
  10. mrqasq

    mrqasq Member

    Messages:
    42
    Likes Received:
    15
    nvm
  11. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    They were a set of rules amongst players to keep players from using certain exploits and unbalanced mechanics during Alpha and early Beta.

    You can read more here: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/pa-beta-gentlemens-ladder.48472/

    I don't think Brad was wanting your opinion on walls, but rather, the gentleman's rules.

    They definitely need to not be faster to be built or they'd be OP like they were during Alpha and early Beta.

    It's also a known thing that buildings won't be upgradeable.
  12. mrqasq

    mrqasq Member

    Messages:
    42
    Likes Received:
    15
    I am hoping on a precedent that happend some time ago where big game maker said something in public, and than just "changed" it's mind :)
  13. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    The game is pretty well built around the concept of buildings not being upgradeable. Choosing when to step up to Advanced and whether you should build more Advanced factories or Basic factories is pretty well hardwired into the game. They're very important strategic decisions and I doubt it'll change. It's a really really good strategic component of PA.
  14. BradNicholson

    BradNicholson Uber Employee Uber Alumni

    Messages:
    1,073
    Likes Received:
    4,589
    Nah, I meant "these [new walls]." We tweaked them several times specifically because the balance was a bit off, so it'd be neat to get some more perspective as they are now.
    tatsujb, stormingkiwi and mrqasq like this.
  15. boylobster

    boylobster Active Member

    Messages:
    167
    Likes Received:
    185
    Ahhhaha, *awkwaaaaaard*...

    I'm not a PA veteran by any means, but having watched way more PA casts than I should, I can say this: I don't think I've ever seen a high-level player use them. For that matter, in the matches I've played, I hardly ever see them, and it never occurs to me to build them myself, partly because of the above.

    That doesn't necessarily mean they're not useful, of course - it could simply be that effective strategies and tactics utilizing walls have yet to be popularized. You guys can collect metrics on what people build and with what frequency, etc, right? Because of the ChronoCam tech, I guess I'd just assumed that mass gameplay statistics of that nature are available to Uber. A *lot* of interesting analysis could be done on that kind of aggregated info.
    tatsujb likes this.
  16. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    I think the veteran players don't use them because we're so used to not using them due to the gentleman's rules. I'm really interested in experimenting with them.
  17. dianalogue

    dianalogue Member

    Messages:
    76
    Likes Received:
    28
    I like walls, if I'm building a forward outpost thats kind of near their base and I just have 2 engineers on a build que over there, my last stop will be a short line of walls in front of my pelter and laser because why the hell not?
  18. mered4

    mered4 Post Master General

    Messages:
    4,083
    Likes Received:
    3,149
    The only reason I build walls nowadays is as an afterthought to make my pelters go that extra 4-5 tanks before getting taken down. Usually doesnt happen early game, because for three walls, you can usually build 2 tanks. Tradeoff there i suppose.

    I deem them useful, as in better than nothing, but I still think they need a visual overhaul. :D

    I want my walls to LOOK like you cannot get through them. ;)
  19. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

    Messages:
    7,879
    Likes Received:
    7,438
    Hm....

    An Ant costs 225 metal and a single wall costs 150 200 metal. Generally you need at least three walls for maximum effectiveness.

    However, that does mean the defensive line generally will destroy more Ants than you could have built with the metal you invested in the wall.

    So walls do seem like a good investment if you keep on getting attacked in the same spot.

    But then again, in the long run, an offensive investment is better than a defensive investment.
    Last edited: January 3, 2014
  20. bobucles

    bobucles Post Master General

    Messages:
    3,388
    Likes Received:
    558
    So I take it that the point of walls is to absorb fire and act as a force multiplier? How MMORPG in scope.

Share This Page