Because people dont know whats good for them

*Looking at Shellers*

Also, defenses are totally useless now. It's better to have a army standing in your base instead of building defense...

If you haven't played lately and try to play you probably won't get the large battles you are hoping for because you will be eliminated before they happen. Also it really matters what kind of game you are playing. 1v1, FFA, team games, etc.

For FFA and Team games that I have played lately there have been epic battles. I played one last night that was 3v3 and we each had 1000s of units. How did this happen? Well both teams had experienced players who knew the counters to things and when to apply them. Also the single planet we were on was quite large. And thus the rush wasn't an effective way to end the game.

I'm not saying there aren't balance issues, nor am I suggesting that the game doesn't need more work. What I am saying is that the game can be quite fun and there are large battles occurring.

I was implying that we DO have large land battles currently, and claiming that T2 units are "stupid powerful" is insane.

It's insane because you can tell just by the numbers, not even looking at gameplay, that the majority of T2 units are underpowered or irrelevant. The Vanguard and Shellers are exceptions to the rule that T2 sucks, and even those aren't instant-win buttons like you suggest. The Shellers especially have to be with a group of T1 units or hidden behind buildings to stop them getting killed. If you DO look at gameplay and not the numbers, you can also tell that T2 units aren't OP judging by how infrequently and unsuccessfully they were used in last weekends tournament.

Get to the point and tell everyone ants are OP.

Have you used T2 bots lately? when you use those right, they start chewing through stuff pretty easily.

Ah. Bots are also useless. Totally forgot them.

Eh, their vehicle counterparts are considerably better at everything... well, except for the slammer's torpedoes.

Shh. I was trying to be positive

Tbh, I think that defenses should out range units (not by a lot ofcourse)

Something like this:
Single laser out ranges doxes(if they do not get a range buff)

Double/triple laser out ranges tanks and levellers

Pelters (and catapults/holkins) out range shellers

AA towers out range hornets

Obviously they shouldn't out range units by a lot just enough that they place these units under threat when trying to enter someone's base ad not just plow through willy nilly(esp. Pellets and AAtowers out ranging shellers and hornets because that is just ridiculous)

shellers hornets and bluehawks aredor besieging bases ... them outranging pelters or aa makes only sense ... otherwise one could just again turtle in ... also why should hornets be forced to fly into enemy aa? that in it self is rediulous .. hornets just need their flyghtbehavior changed...
instead of hovering in a place like vtol's they should just be forced to move forwart like planes but not be forced to have short range or dropping bombs ... this is why you have fighters and anchors as well as mobile aa
on shellers and bluehawks the holkins still outranges those even if high arc

There are two problems I mentioned in this forum during Kickstarter that are still problems.

1.Space between planets isn't like traditional terrain barriers in RTS game, once a unit get across the space, it might has chance to land anywhere on another planet, so interplanetary battles can either be too random, or stagnating with planetary turtling. And Uber haven't show us how they would avoid this problem yet.

2.Controlling and tracking things across multiple spheres at the same time would be quite difficult without a truely outstanding UI and good automation, yet Uber seems quite conservative on UI design and highly resistant to simple stuffs like automated kiting. Also they failed to implement the line formation, which is one of the best things that Spring commiuity created, needlessly overcomplicated it.

Without a good outline of interplanetary gameplay, it is still unproved the game concept of PA is a good one. It certainly has potentiality to be a awesome modding platform though.

As for unit balance, apparently Uber think unit obsoletion is something that should be deliberately pursued for this game. That's a bit difficult to comprehense, wasn't unit obsoletion a badly received thing for SupCom ever since it is in Beta? Not to mention PA has less unit diversity than SupCom.

what i kind of agree on is, that there is still a need of more ways to invade a planet. everything else here is just agitation

Im thinking of big dropships with weapons withstanding fire long enough to drop the army. Im thinking of unit cannon. Im thinking of stealthed operations. Maybe even Megabots that can be built in orbit and dropped on ground, worth to fight armies of 30-50 units.

I see you have a different way of interpreting the balance and I respect that. I just feel that defences should be able to do as well as they are supposed to be(I really don't see people build pelters and they are easily squashed by shellers without then even taking a shot sometimes might just be me)

I agree with ohshiny orbital stuff has really turned this game into something boring/dull..gone are the exciting epic battles with ground forces etc. Maybe going orbital is just to easy/cheap. I've seen so many games where there are literally zero battles or action the whole game. Def a step back from supcom/ta rts style of epic battles with tons of non stop action. Maybe the round planets with no actual choke points are a big problem..I'm hoping this can get fixed and we see epic battles occurring across multiple planets at the same time!

Orbital just feels too dull right now. It's the place where games are decided, and we only have 2 combat units to do so. I'd like it to have tactical depth at least equal to naval, and preferably depth closer to our land gameplay.

Gee, if only there were some sort of powerful, medium-range gun emplacement that was hardened to be resistant to artillery and gunfire. We could give it a snazzy name like "Guardian" or "Punisher" or something cool like that...

</tongue-in-cheek>

For those that think orbital play is dull and non interesting I'm just going to say, before totally deciding, please watch this:


This was the final of the Weakest Link 3 v 3 tournament...

The 'Punisher' was an artillery piece though... It is directly equivalent to the pelter. In TA, the upgraded version was the pop up cannon (Toaster I think) although tbh it wasn't much of an upgrade so it isn't really comparable to a Holkins. The Intimidator was *much* longer ranges than a Holkins so those 2 don't really compare. I think if PA lacks anything in terms of defenses, it's a super tough multi weapon defense (for anti swarm) ala the Doomsday machine, those were just epic!

I agree arch. I think the biggest problem with the game is it's lacking strategic depth that supcom and ta had. Hardly any battles take place and most games can only end in nuke war, orplanet smash..dull is the exact description...

I beg to differ. The Punisher was a direct fire weapon and had negligible splash damage. The Pelter is essentially unarmored artillery and is more similar to SupCom's Klink Hammer/Gunther/Miasma.

In any case, that's beside the point, which is that an armored gun emplacement would make creating a stable defensive line much more practical.

Interesting - so most people say that the problems right now are mostly balancing issues. Actually, i thought its more about couple mechanics, but looks like i was wrong. We will see in which direction it will evolve, and i will wait and see.
The ULTIMATE Solution (and i admit i dont know how this can happen) when every major strategy can be played (turtling, rushing, multiple plants, many outposts etc.), and even more, has a place and time where those strategies are best.

In short, i always thought the main problem is that the current meta is dominated by half a handful of strategies, and the ultimate goal for everyone is set in the very beginning. (quick T2 into orbital into planet smashing) instead of actually giving the people a choice. Okay this is not like the alpha, in the alpha it was more of the beauty of brute strength, but the game became rather complex, and it needs a reason to be so.
How it is right now it is more a thing of better mechanics than actual strategy, much like SC2. At least it feels like it.