Hey guys, before I start just a quick warning that this post will be composed of a mix of questions and miniature rants about the development of the game so far. Also I do not want to offend anyone in any way so don't take anything I say here overly seriously (This includes the devs, just take this as feedback/ a set of questions from one of your kickstarter backers). Firstly I wanted ask why there is such a focus on balance at this point in time? We don't even have the gas giant unit set and it is likely that the entire unit set in general is not present yet. So I fail to understand the huge focus on delicately balancing the game as is. As it stands there are still many features not present yet and from what I understand delecate balancing should be done closer to release so that more of the units which will be present in the final game are present and the game does not need to be balanced with such precision a hundered times during the early-mid dev stages. I have nothing against balancing at this stage, but there just seems to be such a huge focus on precise balance mid development which will likely have to be redone again when the new units are added. (I'm no dev and this may sound stupid, but i'd just like to hear about why the community is constantly going on about balance at this stage when a good portion of the end content is not even present). Now on to another point. The devs have decided to say that the game is in its gamma stage (which from what I understand is after beta) so why have we not heard about anything relating to gas giants, functioning metal planets and the such. Heck my biggest gripe atm is the fact that planet smashing has been untouched since early beta. The game is called Planetary Annihilation and at no point after an early beta patch have we heard anything about things like the effects for planet smashing being overhauled, planet smashing actually effecting the environment in a way other than just leaving a crater (Think changing biomes, or even totally destroying the planet like in the kickstarter visualisation). Planetary annihilation should be the biggest focus since the game is actually called Planetary Annihilation but we (the community) have yet to hear about any work being done on overhauling effects or providing more methods to execute planetary annihilation other than using a moon with halleys (By now id like to have heard about there being more than one way to annihilatie planets with a variety of after effects for each method). My third point: (more of a request) I am asking that the awesome team developing PA please provide us with more free commanders that we can access. Even though I originally did not like the idea of $1000 backer commanders costing so much (let alone costing anything), I have come to accept it. But im asking that Uber gives us more free commanders. This is not a F2P game (and thank goodness it isn't, i've had enough of them), this is a full retail game and should generally be treated as such. I don't mind if there are a few paid official uber commanders released later on, but please expand the existing roster of free commanders. We have already paid retail price for the game and thus the amount of microtransactions, whether they be cosmetic or not should not be the same as an F2P game. Uber are already receiving money from sales so they should not need to rely on microtransactions like F2P games (It is acceptable in F2P because that is their only source of income). I don't mind there being a few paid for comms after release but do not make that your only focus, because if you do many customers who have supported you to date would take it as a slap to the face (well I would anyway). To anyone who has read this thanks for bearing with me so far, and i'd like to hear what the community or even a dev or two have to say. Again I am just one of your backers, I am not a game dev and I am simply requesting that someone answers or talks about what I have said in this post. Even though this may sound a bit negative I still am a supporter of uber and understand that game development is not easy. Again understand that I am not a dev, but a gamer who may not fully understand everything so what I say sometimes may come across as a bit stupid.
I enjoyed reading your post and many of the sentiments you have expressed have crossed my mind as well. That being said I think I have an answer to one of your questions. The question of why balance is being focused like it is. I believe the desire for the community to begin playing the game at a seriously competitive level is driving the balance issue. I agree that it is early to be putting too many hours into balance but it is a moving target that changes with every update. Also you should not ignore the fact that they are adding other elements and working on issues like pathing etc. with every patch.
Yeah I am aware of the fact that various under the hood optimisations are coming out for the engine on a regular basis and features like ui, optimisation and path finding are being worked on, although from what I understand path finding for example is not being worked on by all the uber devs and is being developed by only a few individuals, so I'm still waiting to hear more about various gameplay elements being worked on that are not balance related from Uber. I can see how Uber are trying to drive the competitive scene through balancing. (A part of me still thinks that they are going overboard with balance at this stage, although I can understand to some extent). By putting out balance passes so often Uber are simply in my opinion using up too much valuable time and money since each time a new unit, mechanic or set of units is introduced they potentially have to go and rebalance everything again. In the end it's their choice, just wanted to talk about it and hear from other people anyway. On a side note I'm glad that someone else shares some of my concerns.
Current balance changes seem to be mostly about testing the waters with basic vs advanced strength and cost, and unit roles and counters, and not so much about making an actually balanced game just yet. I think they are trying to get a feel for every unit "type" first, when they have that it might be easier to fill out the unit roster. It's funny people really want to play tournaments already, there's only so much time for you to become "alpha/beta/gamma champion" and after that no one can take the title away from you Playing tournaments during active development, hilarity ensues, like getting an update pushed right smack in the middle of it ! About alpha/beta/gamma, Mavor has said that they kinda went with a different way of staging development for this game. Traditionally you'd be feature complete in alpha, bugtest and fix and polish in beta, and then go gold and release. You'd also mostly keep your game hidden from the general public until late beta/release. PA is getting features added after beta and had been open to general public since alpha (through Kickstarter though) You and me (and everyone) would love to see more features come online, and they will, when they are ready in an acceptable and playable state, which might not be in any particular order. The "final release" state is so much more fluid than what you usually get, devs have already stated that features will be added after release, so it's not even that final. Really what it comes down to right now is, anyone can buy the game, anyone can play the game, and I think pretty much anyone can have fun. The game is improving all the time, and it really doesn't matter what kind of development paradigm label you slap on to the product, that's just the old way of thinking about it
A point re planet smash balance.... The capability to adjust this is in the files already (and can be unlocked with a server mod now). The reason it hasn't been implemented is due to pathing problems- a new pathing system is in the works. I think this is why gas giants and metal planet weapons haven't been implemented either. Those features are about artwork and fx, so are comparatively easy to implement compared to core engine features like path finding so will come in at the end in the polish phase.
Not gonna be doing any quoting here, big blocks of text and all that. Balance: The thing is that you do have to start balance at some point and frankly, starting it early is better than starting it late. What I think should be a more important consideration is HOW balance is being done. Gas Giants: I think you might be over-estimating how much there is to do specifically for Gas Giants aside from the planet/biome stuff. There might be a few specific Orbital units that might be specific to Gas Giant use but a lot of the rest of orbital still has a place around Gas Giants too, it's not like they would make a second set of Orbital units when they already have most of it done. As far as it's apparent lack of progress, I think Uber is still trying to figure out how they want Orbital to fit in with the Surface layers and how it all ties into the Interplanetary mechanics along with solving the awkward UI issues no one has ever had to deal with before. Once that stuff gets settle it should be pretty easy to implement Gas Giants, but no use doing it now in-case they have to completely overhaul it because the underlying systems/code/art/whatever need to be changed. Planet Smashing: I think this is just mostly a situation of priorities. Yes Planet Smashing is important and it does currently work ona rudimentary level but it is also dependent on a lot of things factors too like how the interplanetary stuff plays out along with how proper Invasions will work. They had the ground work in place so when they're ready to work on the Planet Smashing stuff it'll be all set to go. It's like Building a house, Yes the Roof is Important in the end, but up front things like the Foundation and Framing need to get done first before you can work on finishing the Roof. Alternate Planet Annihilation Methods: Uh.....why would that be the case? Really teh only other option there might be is with Metal Planets, and the Metal Planet's capabilities have been vague so we should count on anything specific at this point. Most of the talk about Alternating annihilation methods have come from the community and have been in general quite, questionable overall IMO. I'm sure int eh long Run there are some good ideas that Uber can run with, but you generally don't want to front load those kind of things when still in development, especially when it's arguably not strictly needed in the first place. Commanders: I think you might be forgetting a few things here. I mean, we know that right now Uber is primarily focused on the 1K Custom Commanders, of which there are just over 100, and take it from me, its still a lot of work even when you have the concepts handed to you by someone else. And it's not like there aren't ANY free Commanders either, we current;y have 6 100% non-restricted Commanders, and anyone playing now will/has have access to at least the Theta and some also have access to the Alpha, Delta and Progenitor. There are 3 Commanders that have been mentioned in passing by Uber or we know will be non-restricted, those being one for the 4th Faction leader which we haven't seen anything for yet, a "replacement" for the Delta after the issue with the Invictus and lastly a Commander for the Steam Holiday Sale of 2013 which will go to those that purchased it and "You guys will also get him, since you’ve supported us from the ground up. We’ll have a lot more details on this guy down the road, so stay tuned." In the end it is a bit of a waiting game simply because the Custom Commanders are a pretty huge drain on the Artist Resource over at Uber. Now if it were a few months after release and all the commanders Uber had created since completing the 1K Commanders needed to be purchased then I'd say we have an issue. Mike
