Sensible discussion about 1.0

Hi guys, first of a little exposition:

I've been playing since the game hit Steam around 13 months ago. I've not been hugely involved in testing the game throughout the alpha and beta process, although I did "play" it enough to get a decent evaluation of the state of things during each of those phases (alpha and beta).

I've come back now and, I think I can say this fairly objectively (as a pair of fresh eyes), that the game has improved dramatically since beta phase (much more so than from alpha to beta). This is great news and my interest in the game has definitely peaked again, for a few months I was worried that the game wasn't really going to get finished to an acceptable level at all.

Anyway I see the community here is very passionate about the game (often destructively so), I think we can safely say Uber know what they are doing, regardless of whether you agree with their PR methods.



With that waffle out of the way I'd like to have a sensible discussion about what's likely to be included in 1.0.

Firstly is there absolutely no chance of Uber commenting on a general release window? Is it late Q4 2014 or Q1 2015?


Things I would like to see prioritised (in order):


1. Finalize the loose balance of all unit types (bots, vehicles, land, orbital)

Note: This does not mean going to the far end of a fart, I mean just differentiate between the actual function of all the unit types (i.e. bots/vehicles serve nearly the same purpose (bots are pretty redundant so scrap them or differentiate them more in my opinion)

2. End game mechanics fleshed out more (unit cannon, asteroid belts etc....)

3. Implement gas giants, give them some reason for being there other than aesthetics

4. Implement water planets, give them some reason for being there other than aesthetics

5. Optimize network code

6. Optimize render code

7. Optimize path finding

8. Clean up all random crappy bugs (i.e. fabs stopping fabbing, glitchy building placement etc...) in other
words polish


Uber: I respect your right to not disclose information, but can you provide definitive answers to any of the above?

Community: Thoughts and if you can't post constructively then don't bother (I mean it)

Oh and another thought for Uber:

You have some talented modders? Is there any way you can get the community involved in pushing the game out of the door sooner? (With "immenent" release of 1.0, although game is still only @ 0.6x and current Steam sale speaks of money woes (am I wrong?))

By this I mean is there some way that modders can work on discrete, but prescribed (by you guys), still to be implemented aspects of the game.

For instance can the community produce the gas giant/water planet first pass using the tools you've used to make the existing stuff or is this out of the question? The community work could then go through checking and approval process at your end, *hopefully* saving you guys some time so you can work on more pressing matters and also getting the community more directly involved in the development?

Crazy talk I know but it just might work?

Its not a bad idea, to see if there is enough people with talent willing to help out. Its good for the game and good for the people who then have something to show.

I mean the new Unreal Tournament is being made with fans.

of course again i dont know if its harder legally and such when a game is being sold. I think the new unreal tournament is free 2 play.

Just send out NDA's and contracts I guess... or selectively pick members of the community who have time and time again proven themselves not to be idiots?

The whole 1.0 deal revolves around the financials. If there is enough money coming in, they can genuinely wait "until it's done". If there isn't, they must release, because every major update creates an earnings spike, and especially the 1.0 update.

On the other hand, if they did a "Gas Giants" update, and then a "Ladder" update, and then a "Server" update, and so on and so forth, wouldn't these little earning spikes bring enough money to keep them going until the genuine "it's done" 1.0 release?

We don't know because we are not privy to the company's finances, and they don't seem to want to talk about them even in general terms (i.e. "We have enough to keep going for 6 months, or 4 months, or 2 months, etc.)

Lacking this information, then, we are not in a position to say what could be included in 1.0, since every inclusion has a time requirement, and time is money, etc.

The biggest piece of advice we could give them is to do their utmost to include all the promised features, because people are dumb, and the tiniest divergence from what was promised years ago will create a torrent of ridiculous complaints and negativity.

The worst of all is that, even if they include all promised features, there'll still be a ton of "meh" reactions to the game, despite the fact that it's a masterpiece of colossal proportions and its production history a minor miracle of hard work and favorable circumstances.


P.S. I think discussion of the financials is the last taboo in "open" game development. How long before some of these Kickstarter-based companies begin showing their fans/backers hard financial data? I am not saying it would be a good thing, but I definitely expect it to happen at some point. Probably by the smallest devs.

The number is just the number of times things have been comited. 1.0 will probably not be build 100,000; more likely something like 76543.

Well I don't think we need to know the in's and outs of Ubers finances to have an informed discussion, rather just a: hey guys we've got 3-4 months left in the bank and then it's getting released so... discuss!

But as you say they don't feel comfortable to discuss even this on the forums (afaik) which is a shame but hardly something that the community can demand (in fact demanding attitude probably backs Uber into a corner where they'd rather just say nothing).

It's funny because I joined this forum about exactly 1 year ago and I too had a very entitled attitude; I thought I've paid £100 for this game ONE HUNDRED AND EVERYTHING I WANT IS WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN.

Well now I've actually been doing game development for 1 year myself and I can say: It's ******* hard, stressful and your back aches and everytime you see people testing it you want to cry with shame at the smallest mistakes (and I have to work for free, that's right literally don't get paid a penny, just so I have a chance of breaking into the industry).... So I can understand any reluctance to be any more transparent about the game than they currently are being.

Fair enough. I thought typically this was a version control thing, so when you have a major update you up rev the project from 5.x to 6.x and any small incremental changes afterwards will be 6.x where x is the small change.

So project plan would be something like 0.x = first line of code > 1.x = wow something rendered > 2.x ok we have units now > 3.x ...... > 9.x = 90 % done.

That was the system my old job used for engineering projects anyway but I guess it's all arbitrary

The latter I can answer: while I appreciate the outreach, we've got the main features on lock. What we want to do for all our amazing content creators is ensure that mods are a first-class feature and enable them to make great things. That means we need: (a) great tools, (b) an easily accessible marketplace, and (c) a way to make installing mods / finding modded games intuitive. We're obviously not there yet, but the path ahead is pretty clear.

Ok fair shout, I guess there is no comment on the OP?

We don't comment on rumors or speculation. Unless we think of a really clever joke. Then, we'll probably comment on them because everyone loves funny people.

But in all seriousness: we don't discuss business on message boards. I'll say this, though: we're releasing Planetary Annihilation on our own schedule.

Why isn't there a Mega Like button for this type of information?

I prefer physical gift baskets.

I won't push it any further, but it wouldn't be a rumour and people wouldn't be speculating if you told them

A guy rushes into a bar and orders twelve tequilas. No sooner has the bartender poured them than he knocks them back.


Concerned, the bartender says, "Woah, you might want to slow down there..."


The guy replies, finishing the last one, "You'd be drinking like this if you had what I have!"


The bartender says, "Oh god, I'm sorry man. What do you have?"


"Fifty cents."

I only have 2 concerns thus far and on both topics I have been pretty out spoken about. 1st is the offline mode for all the obvious reasons why its important, but mostly lag/performance to not be restricted on my internet connection or net connection limitations once I hit a certain unit count on the game. 2nd is the current state of the Lava planets which I have been pretty out spoken about for the past year where they've barely seen any attention since alpha. I've done an image comparison of alpha and now and their pretty much in an identical state. It should be the best planet biome they have but in its current state I feel like it is the worst, with no illumination on lava what so ever and the fact that the lava's have been made exactly like the ocean's on other planets.

The problem is its too flat looking for a lava planet that should only be held together like glue because of the lava in the very early stages of a planets cycle and to have just simply siwtch out a colour pallette from blue to orange makes it feel both rushed, and a bit cheap to be fair. If thats how the game comes out then thats how the game comes out heh, nothing I can do or said in the past or now will change that, but i really do hope they don't leave it in its current form though.

Everything has been awesome from the start, from balancing, re-balancing and even more balancing! orbitals, the imrpovements on planet rocks/mountains, how the game plays as a whole always keeps getting better and I have absolutely no worries what so ever about the core gameplay.

If I remember correctly, Mavor stated in that unofficial AMA that the game had exceeded sales expectations.

The only feature that is currently missing that I think "needs" to be in there for purposes of meeting kickstarter goals is gas giants, and we have information coming on that soon apparently. Might as well get the game going out the door and expanding as a full release title.

Water planets are in?

well, you can crank the water height to have near ocean worlds. Naval is still broken though so I'm not too concerned about having "proper" water worlds.

This: