The Vanguard Newsletter - Issue 3

He swears a lot

I'm surprised it's not called 'Planetary ****ing Annihilation'

I sure hope this will clear up some of the conspiracies running around right now. That plan for funding continued development through payed mods is really neat and I sure hope it works! I can't wait to see what the coming months will hold for PA.

So you say you trust our interpretation, then go to say that we put our own spin on it......so which is it?

Keep in mind that Uber Verifies all Newsletters before they're posted, if we were trying to swindle the community they'd see it and take action.

Mike

That's very understandable, but in a way - as Im sure Jon must realise this - not being quoted directly is often worse as it permits a third party to essentially speak on your behalf, adding their own spin. Often meaning is lost in translation.

If you say you had a detailed conversation about the role of the unit cannon and then neglect to actually even paraphrase what Uber see the role of the unit cannon as then, as I said, this is frustrating to me as a reader of the newsletter.

Writing a quote in your own words will always fundamentally alter the meaning - words are precise tools, you cant really substitute them without "putting your own spin" on them. Whether I trust your interpretation or not doesnt mean that everyone else will or wont.

This is what I think Uber are acutely aware of, hence trying to release a polished game rather than one with more features but buggy.
The problem is whether you think that not having features such as the unit cannon in at 1.0 release will damage balance later. I do not think this personally, but you never know.

Yes, but if there was Vanguard induced spin, then anyone on the Uber team could comment in here and say it was wrong. Which they aren't. So I think we're safe?

But as already explained, Ubers goes over everything prior to posting and changes are made as needed, so there isn't any spin, Uber directly approves these newsletters.

There is no spin.

Mike

Why not have both? A polished, complete game. After all, release was (since December) "out when its done" and they never said anything about having money issues before, only recently it has been said that the kickstarter money wasn't anywhere near the amount they needed to do the things they listed on kickstarter. Is it because of Grey Goo? Is it maybe because Chris Taylor could be about to unleash something? Time will tell. I mean, isn't the whole point of steams "Early access" and selling alpha products, to get feedback, to continue development through further purchasers and to hold out releasing an unfinished game? Pretty sure the latter is exactly why steam came up with early access, they were getting in trouble loosing popularity with selling unfinished games (The WarZ)

Little hypocritical of you to say that while at the same time not acknowledging this

Im sorry but what is ur agenda here?

I feel a bit sad about the fact that Uber does have some uncontrollable factors, preventing them from pushing release date further down the feature road. Would be nice if they haven't.
But sadly they don't live in a fairytale. I almost started thinking that they do after all of this awesome development...

Well in an ideal world this is what we would be getting, but we are just going to have to accept that we are not getting both of those things on 1.0 launch. I am STILL satisfied as long as I get both of those things eventually.

Transparency and clarity. Which is very important.

It's not? I'VE BEEN LIVING A LIE!!!

But seriously, good to hear some clarifications and thoughts on what the 1.0 milestone is supposed to be and what is planned for after that point.

Well I see very clearly what Knight is writing, did you think is was taking from thin air? Im sadly seeing people focus alot on problems where there are non...

That is the best part about release. Ideally, if you have server side tools, what is to stop you from trying to make a unit that does this?

Good luck and perhaps we will see some immitation unit cannons real soon.

Because that would take a long time. They've got to release the game sometime.

Uber has stated that they have complete control over the release date. The company that is distributing the hardcopy is just that – a distributor. They have no control about the when of it getting released.

Thanks for the newsletter guys (@both Uber and Vanguards). Always nice to get some insight into the games development. Excited for release whenever it comes!

Those may be important factors. After all Uber has to monetize in order to survive and hopefully thrive in a competitive market.

What confused me at first, is the Kickstarter campaign. I did not imagine that highly surpassing the pledged initial budget, could be still insufficient to complete the project. The closest information to that aspect may be found at the end of the Kickstarter page.

You as the customer get the ultimate vote in whether we make this game. Your dollars are your votes and the better we do the more resources we’ll have to bring you a great game. Please support us, tell your friends and participate in the discussion.

I bet that many understood that all the project was going to be a democratic process, where backers have more decision power than one could reasonably expect.

I say reasonably, because, obviously, there should be a central point of decision, and some critical information cannot be revealed publicly outside that circle.

Therefore the frustration of many when we did not understand what is going on at the present, with the actual rush for release while so many "promised" features are still missing.

Therefore, it's with a great timing that the Vanguard Newsletter shades light on those hot topics.

I remark that our concern has always been for the good and if anyone lost hope is out of frustration in being ignored in something we care.

At this point, I have little to add. I frankly see a big company taking the lead and leaving its customer base behind. I have also some doubts about the next paid per play content phase, but also I know anything about. First time I hear of it.

But I also understand that Uber has to monetize its investment and efforts in this project and that its employees do not work for anything. They need to pay their bills as we all do.

So, good luck Uber!! If it's gonna go well, we all will benefit, so let's hope for the best with the incoming release.

I agree with this for the most part. At the end of the day they do need to get paid and anyway they can do that without hurting PA or themselves is great because they will be around for longer. Not sure I understand the monetization things in the newsletter but I think that could lead to many things.