The Vanguard Newsletter - Issue 3

Awesome, does it also readjust it's speed, or does it still fly around at warp speed?

From what I've seen, it does end up orbiting the target very fast. I haven't yet tested whether that affects the ability of orbital units or nukes to move toward it.

EDIT: And now that I check, it seems Uber has removed this feature from the latest build. Not sure why - it was a very useful ability to have!

Added in links to previous Issues of the Newsletter at the bottom of the first post.

Mike

I'd imagine Jon realises this. Ergo, it is already acceptable. Because it's been posted. Because he's aware it's been posted.

We're going in circles at this point.

Honestly, I hope you're not trying to trip the Vanguards up in some kind of verbal twist. They're too good at debates for that

They surpassed the budget by promising additional features. The initial budget may have been enough to cover the original scope of the project.

In various respects, we have already far surpassed the original scope of the project. Other features have yet to be implemented, of course, but I hope you understand the point I am making.

I do. And thanks for your reply. But that's a bit different from what have been stated by Neutrino, though. Not big deal, we'll see in the next months how Uber will proceed with the development.

Just because they have chosen a particular method - and it is considered acceptable - doesn't mean it is the only possibility, or even the best. Jon and the vanguards aren't infallible in that regard. The implication that an honest discussion on format is intended to simply trip them up isn't necessary either. I'm sure they have thick enough skin to handle constructive feedback.

I'm sorry, but I don't take a discussion as honest when you're repeatedly finding different ways to phrase the insinuation that the Vanguards are putting their own spin on the stuff Uber says.

That's an inescapable result of not having the devs words directly.

That's the uninformed response to someone with an axe to grind, personally.

They have been given reassurances. They have been told that the meaning is 100% Uber's intentions. And yet, complaints are still made. Why? Because people simply want to complain.

Likely, they'd complain if they had Uber's actual words, because they'd be able to dissect and misinterpret a conversation made in a private environment that doesn't have to worry about PR.

why i get no reply?

Because I cannot understand what your idea is. You need to be a little clearer. Are you suggesting that there are separate ladders for popular mods? In that case, how does someone curate what particular cocktail of mods gets to form a ladder? What do you mean by a mod hunger games?

Remember, the purpose of the discussion component in this thread is to give people an opportunity to ask questions about our most recent meeting with developers. Therefore if the question you are asking is "did you talk about my idea with Jon?", I'm afraid the answer will be no because we don't know what your idea is.

Promoting mods is very important and there are multiple ways it can be done. If you want to discuss that, then a good idea might be to bring it up at the next Community Consultation.

Ok I understand now that maybe the clarification my idea needs is a precise set of event->result explanations


first off though I understand that my idea probably wasn't ever asked to devs yet but I want it to be put to the devs, especially neutrino, either now (since vanguards get to converse with the devs more regularly) but really mostly for the next vanguard letter.


Mod Ranking :

• they are a seperate category from the stock ranking there should only be one stock ranking but the stock ranking is not more important
• points from each ranking could commute over to other categories of rankings in the same way that 1v1 ladder on faf gives points to the general ranking which applies to all types of games.

New Ranking Candidacy :

• the following rules delimit what rankings are admitted and added to the list of available rankings. The reason for limiting in the first place are 1.) the increasing number of available rankings dilute their individual value 2.) If there is to be distribution of points which ups the ante, the gameplay must be fair and balanced
• a group of mods can be combined and the code refined and optimized, the balance perfected and the be considered "complete" by a community or even just one person and submitted to the ranking candidacy section.
• in this section (a part of the PA UI) players can upvote and downvote mods for reviewal. The higest mod on the list every month is sent to the committee.
• then either one of a bunch of options happens : 1.) Uber evaluate it and tests it 2.) the entire community evaluate it and tests it 3.) A community-elected team of elder players that are good with balance tweaks evaluate it and tests it 4.) ect..
• the mod is either denied entry to ranking and must propose extra content, balance tweaks (other changes) to satisfy a completion/stability/balance criteria or is by nature unfit to ever be ranked and will never be accepted or fits the criteria and is accepted henceforth the mod shows up side by side with the stock version of PA in a list for which mode to play PA in.
• "complete" is an elastic term. almost the same criteria delimiting possible monetization of a mod determines if it is "big enough a change" to warrant it's own ranking. The addition of a single unit isn't eligible. A DOTA-like of PA is (even if said mod is offered for free!). There are futher meanings to the term "complete" ... :

Updates Sub-versions, variants, look alikes, remixes

• Modders can of course (even at present) provide updates to their mods (which could possibly change everything). Considering ranked mods passed validation by a committee for a very specific set of rules, values and balance, a mod version proposed and accepted to ranked is out of bounds to the Modder (not talking about revenue).
• This means the new tweaks, balance changes, addons and eccetera will only be updated on the Mod market version of the mod, not it's Ranked one.
• When this happens the mod updates must pass validation through the exact same procedure as explained above. This way a mod a not struck by sudden dislike from the community simply because of bad balance changes or other : the changes have always been agreed upon in the first place by the persons of authority (be it the entire PA community, if this is the system which is chosen).
• New case : say Phantom X is a Ranked mod option (Murder Party having been the only Uber-made game mode of the sort). Someone makes Phantom N. that's two very similar game modes to have in Ranked, especially considering Murder party is already one of the ranked game modes and is also similar. Phantom can stay but only one of the two : the committee warns that validating Phantom N for ranked will invalidate Phantom X's status. It is now up to people to decide whether they want to carry through with pushing the mod towards the committee or abort and up to the commitee if it gets pushed to determine wich one is still most deserving of a ladder.
• this keeps the ranked mods count under a certain count to favor their popularity.

this whole system will allow for an engaging mod/game mode experience.

Rookie players will find the interface intuitive. a big button with an image and the game mode name and statistics on the mod such as how many have tried it, how many regular players ("regular" being determined by such things as one game per week) and the explanation on what it does will allow them to host/join a game of that type, the mod downloads and off they go! Ranking included! Eventually opening it up for the first time will open a tutorial of either the interactive or video type.

Users may eventually be curious enough to venture over to the Ranked Candidacy tab in the UI and sift through mod trending, give upvotes and downvotes to this or that mod, tag an uncadidated mod for "would want as candidate" so that modders know even just the idea for their mod has support and that it's worthwile that he invest himself in it and try to "complete" it to take it to candidacy.

I may have missed alot, please ask questions.

It would probably be best if you discussed this kind of thing in a separate thread. If there is plenty of community interest in it, then I'm sure that it could be discussed with Uber. Bear in mind that even with all the modders have achieved, the modding scene is still very much in it's infancy. There is a lot of stuff that Uber have yet to do before we should suggest how they should manage the modding scene.

I am perfectly aware of the stage the modding scene is in being a mod forum regular.

However I have a point of reference I use to spark this idea which is faf with it's very complete set of mods and modding integration and embetterment of all sorts.

I have already created my own thread for this idea though I made the mistake of combining it with the ELO vs. TrueSkill poll OP which ended up being the only thing people remembered from it.

I quoted it upon several livestream questions threads and most wanted features thread.

I will create a seperate thread for it.

this in all modesty is one heck of an idea, that could change the face of mods/game modes in games forever.

2 million is very little in game development. Even if they had only done the original features, I doubt that it would have been enough. They were relying on sales during alpha and beta from the very start of their planning.

Player made ladders were what interested me. Any clan could make a ladder, and it tracks for them, so they don't have to do their own metagame tracking. Besides public ones, which players could make ladders open for anyone to join anyway.

Generally, could be endless fun with your idea. But yeah, probably needs own thread or old thread ressurected.

Also, this could already be a mod if someone had the website (PAMatches for instance) to use for the metagame tracking and ladder creation and the skill to make a game integration tab, not too hard.

Unit cannon can wait, but this game requires efficient way for invading other planets. And not only some silly AI defenses, but planet that was turtled to the limits. This and interface that allows it. Currently while invading I am at double disadvantage, first for every 100 units i need to make 200, after unloading astreus stays there hiding all ground units in cloud of useless now transporters. Also for making efficient orders i need to manage at least 3 layers: 2 planets and space around target. Targets loaded on astreus lose their group, so i cannot make group of fabbers and unload them somewhere, i need to make group of fabbers and group of transporters. With only 10 groups it gets silly fast. And i need at least one for source teleport and another for invading force that waits there.
All while defending player needs 1 group for air force and one for his ground forces. Also he can put twice as many units as i can do. And on top of all that he has nukes ready to wipe anything i can send. We need at least mobile antinuke and mobile flak just for invasion. Without all that there is no reason to play games on multiple planets.