1.0 Release - Short Term vs Long Term

We've heard from a few different developers (mostly Brad, tho), that Uber is trying for a 1.0 release sooner rather than later. I've heard rumors of anything from next week to late September. Since all rumors have some truth to them, I think it is safe to assume here that Uber is trying to finish certain aspects of the game within the next two months, then calling it 1.0 and releasing.

First, a few questions for Uber (Brad is not allowed to answer these. I'm tired of dodges. I want the real deal. Take five minutes to give me and the rest of the community who plays your game an answer):

What's the big deal? Why a push all of a sudden? Is it an attempt to stick to a mid-2014 deadline?

What are you guys planning to exclude from 1.0 if you were to release within two months? We already know the Unit Cannon and multi-transports.
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Now, if the push for release is based on a lack of resources (money), then ok. I'm all for it. You guys have to feed yourselves. If the release is based on anything else, I beg you to reconsider. We need this game to be feature complete BEFORE 1.0 (Unit Cannon excluded maybe, much as I wish it wasn't). That means a functional naval, more orbital play, etc.

I'll outline some other issues in the game I see right now that must be resolved for the game to be ready for 1.0:

Balance is fundamentally flawed. While basing your balancing practice on *the feels* is a great idea in theory, you have to take this in mediation with the MATH side of balance for things to bear fruit. I'll take the recent price increase of the vanguard in the PTE as an example:

You increased the cost of the most powerful unit in the game by 300 metal. Whoop-de-do. Now, instead of spamming 13 of them, I'll spam 10! Problem is solved still alive and kicking.
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The biggest issue with balance is Cost-effective T2 units. In the RCBM (where they do specialized and/or expensive T2 very well), some T2 units are more expensive, and more powerful than regular tanks, but they just don't stand up to a cost-for-cost comparison to similar T1 units. This means it's better to take T2 units and T1 units and mix them together, with T1 at the front to soak damage, and T2 at the back to deal it.

In addition, we have few options for AA in Vanilla. With air currently being overpowered early game, I think more options are in order. Stingers with different traits than spinners?

Also, T1 BOTS ARE USELESS. I don't care if they cost one metal each, dox are literally useless. Believe me - we tried a dox only game once. Somewhere in the middle, it was 500 dox vs one commander and some walls. The commander won, and he didn't even lose 50% of his health. If that doesn't show you how Underpowered bots are, and how useless they are as a factory, then I do not know what will. Dox should be fast raiding units: Okay. I can dig that. Now can I get higher DPS please? Thanks!

That's just the basic stuff. I'm sure some of the more thoughtful members of this community could come up with more detailed problems and solutions that make perfect, logical sense.

(Nanolathe, if you don't have something nice and non-sarcastic to say, don't say it)

i agree we need working naval i.e sinking wrecks and bots need a looking at only fun unit really is the spider bot. iv tried mixing grenedeers in with my tanks and microing them but still their damage is so low i might as well have more tanks and attack move. one thing i would like to be done is that mortars under attack move just charge into the front ( yes i know this is the purpose of attack move attack and move towards the objective ) but could it be made so they stop at max range and attack untill nothing is in range before moving in? or even 3/4 range is still plenty to stay out of combat!

Im sure we will get it next week...........

My problem with the above- your mixing 2 different arguments.

1: The game isn't feature complete? Well I'd argue it's closer than others think. The major leg work on getting actually working is done. Most of this other stuff is polish. Things that are *currently(?)* missing...

a: unit cannon won't be in, but that wasn't actually stated anywhere (even if it was in the pitch video).

b: Multi-unit transports, these were never promised. It is something that was done in sup com (and TA in a kinda hacked way e.g. 'the Hulk' sea transport) however PA does have controls that these earlier games never had which in my opinion mitigate largely the need, as cool as they would be.

c: Naval, with the exception of subs, naval is in and working.

d: Orbital- this is in and although simple I think is fine, remember the orbital layer is meant as support / logistics to the lower layers. PA is a very ground focused game (and was always intended to be). This isn't a remake of Homeworld (although I'd back Uber making that game on this engine!)...

e: Gas giants- this is something not yet in but recently stated as being worked on. As one of the stretch goals I think this really should be in the game before 1.0, this will also likely add in some additional orbital capabilities so should be interesting.

2: Balance- ok you have issues with the balance Uber are pursuing. I personally find they're balance is playable. Also things like bots *do* have their uses. Bots aren't much use in an up close 1 v 1 at the moment. However you need to bear in mind that PA isn't solely built for 1 v 1 play. In team games, ffa and multi planet bots have far more uses and I'd argue that *T2* bots are much more useful than T2 vehicles.

Now the other thing on balance- Uber are pretty open to suggestions in my experience. I think the best way to demonstrate a better way to balance things is with mods like RCBM. Once that is finished and at a level we all agree on, then lets get Uber to play some games with us (I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the devs haven't tried some of the test builds already). If it is really that much better I think it's likely they'll adjust their balance accordingly. The real question is though, in the multitude of situations and play styles that PA covers, is it *really* that much better? I think balance is one of those issues where everyone is an armchair expert, yet in reality it is a very complex and difficult thing to get nailed down.

Don't forget ranked Ladder / Matchmaking, Gas Planets (only because it was promised as a stretch goal), galactic war multiplayer.

I hope we atleast will see A ladder and astroids implementet before 1.0

oh I forgot about the asteroids! Obviously we need those.

Orbital is boring as hell to play. It needs more variety. It doesn't need to be homeworld 2, but in needs to be something more than anchors versus avengers, because currently interplanetary warfare is stale. I've stopped playing large multi-planet games because of orbital.

Naval is not working. It "works" – but isn't actually very playable. It's just a nightmare to use, mainly because of the wrecks. It's impossible to mount an attack once there's a lot of wrecks out there.

Have you tried playing some of the other balance mods?

There are so many major issues with the current balance. The two biggest is that it's so difficult to recover and once someone gets to T2, it's over. Uber promised that all units be valid at all stages of the game, and that's not what happened. Also, with how things are balanced currently, if you lose momentum, then it's pretty much over. Recovery is almost non-existent in the vanilla, but is actually reliably possible in the RCBM.

If it is a case of rushing a release I can't say I don't see why.
The longer a kickstarter project stays in development, the more berated it gets by people.

I'm going to set the bar really high here by giving you a well-researched answer. It might take a day or two, but i'll get there.

I agree that, unless money is the issue, Uber shouldn't rush this game out. Better to have a really successful launch than an early, buggy launch. This is especially needed considering that the game has already been out on steam for a while so Uber can say "look at how amazing it is now" as opposed to people thinking it is simply an extension of early access.

I have a general question about releasing early access games that you can already buy and play.
What is the point of rushing release and excluding some features, just to say 'it's final release'? Really, game gets all the promotion already, like steam front page, discounts, etc. Only thing that changes is early access tag removed and a line saying 'now available' on steam front page instead of 'early access now available'. It's not like game is going to get any more attention, because literally nothing changes, you already have people who wanted your game so bad, and everyone who was on a fence will still be like 'well is was around for sometime, maybe I should wait for a discount'. It's just another patch for those who have the games, and updated banner for those who don't.

I don't mean to sound offensive, I am really curious of what are actual benefits of saying '1.0/final release'.

Once the game was released, actual reviews will start to pop up, the announcement will draw a LOT of attention, many people are waiting till this game was released to even start playing it (even some Kickstarter backers) and even more are waiting for the game to be released/reviews before deciding whether to purchase it.
I personally recommended people to wait till release if they simply want to play a good strategy game and have no interest in participating in the development.
PA's release will change a LOT. Either it is a huge success and PA gains a good reputation and lots of players and we will get plenty of nice updates ad a vibrant and large community or it will fail, PA will receive bad reviews, reputation will be bad and the community won't grow but instead slowly die till only the most hardcore fans are left.
Or something in between

Any evidence? I mean, we do scoff at games that are in open development for extended periods, but isn't that the point of open development? Why the hell is it such a bad thing?

There's a difference between open development (see PA) and infinite development (see Starbound, Prison Architect and Kerbal Space Program)

Now I know what you're going to say. "But Uber plans on working on this game well into the future."
Yes, but at some point the game needs to leave the beta/gamma/galactic phase.

People don't scoff open development they scoff at never ending development.

But it isn't never ending - I mean, even Firefall (yearlong closed beta, 3 year open beta) is now releasing in two weeks. It's been the backend of every early access joke out there. But now they are releasing. KSP, SB, and PrisonA? KSP is designed that way. It's a game designed around letting the players do what they want to the game.

PA is none of those. It has to release sometime, sure. And we've already pushed back a release date or two. But that doesn't mean we HAVE to release soon. The game isn't FINISHED. How about we DON'T release it until we can be reasonably sure half the KS backers won't revolt upon opening the game?

What is "finished" in PA's case?
Hell, what is "finished" in ANY RTS's case?
Well balanced, fully optimized, functional UI, and visually complete.

Balance-wise, I don't even know anymore. Meta and Scathis seem to think they're close and I'll trust their better judgement. Maybe they have some sort of interior balance close to completion none of us got to see yet (this is why I miss the vanguard newsletters but that's another topic entirely.)

The UI works really well and apart from planet smashing is pretty up-front and simplistic about everything.

Optimization is only really missing instancing, and the visuals are definitely getting there.
Far as a finished game goes, this really has it all covered. Everything else is polish.

There's also the point that 1.0 will probably end up coming with a bunch of new features as well as one huge feature. Every big update has so far. Beta brought interplanetary gameplay, gamma brought the soundtrack [and lasted like, 5 weeks], galactic brought galactic war, 1.0 will probably bring in something too. Asteroid belts? Gas giants? Metal planet super weapons? All three? Who knows? Uber does, but they won't tell us.

The only way I could think of this game as being incomplete is the fact that it's missing a ladder.

Well i hope V1.0 is nothing like the current build. I don't see anywhere near the amount of players as the last build, probably from crashes and UI annoyances. Still nice to see the plan though.

That's actually what always happens. New major build comes out, amount of players skyrockets then slowly dwindles until the next major build.

Once 1.0 comes out the amount of players should stay pretty constant.