What happened to PA?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by drtomb, October 5, 2014.

  1. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    And PA is not Steam-Only either.
    That is the last post on the roadmap to modding. Which, does not happen overnight. But, they do touch on it. They just don't repeat. You know. "are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet..."
  2. burlayz

    burlayz Member

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    More like a car without wheels.
    Why on earth should anyone be expected to pay for an unfinished product?

    None of this would have happened if they'd just released the game feature complete, but they didn't and this decision has done irreparable damage to both PA and Uber's reputation.

    Still awfully low for a game that's 50% off

    Impossible to know just how many are playing through the launcher, a damn sight less I'd imagine though, especially considering their isn't a sale on Uber's store
  3. pizwitch

    pizwitch Active Member

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    Macro RTS is quite a niche genre, especially compared to MMO RPG, MOBA, adventure or FPS.
  4. Bsport

    Bsport Well-Known Member

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    Awfully high for a niche RTS, game, with one of the best review games of the year released the other day....

    Got to love subjective analysis
  5. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    Spikes in interest aren't what matters, a spike is worthless on it's own, it's the longevity that really matters considering PA seems to be banking on that longevity in order for Uber to actually finish the game.

    Mike
  6. InstantMix

    InstantMix Member

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    Exactly this. The reason PA isn't selling is because it is an incomplete game with the "um released I guess" tag shoved onto it. Nobody wants to buy an unfinished game.
    cmdandy, bradaz85 and KNight like this.
  7. Bsport

    Bsport Well-Known Member

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    Thats true enough, Currently theres not enough data for a decent projection, my own deadline is xmas, i think we'll have more realistic trend then.
  8. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    Added a little bit to the end there for clarity. The problem isn't that there are things missing and that PA isn't 100% complete, the problem is that a lot of what are considered core features are missing and the things seemingly added in their place are not core features at all.

    Mike
    elkanfirst, cmdandy and bradaz85 like this.
  9. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    You are completely incorrect on this, the developers have a well... I dunno, a job? They can't come on the forums every ten minutes to take five minutes to respond to someone asking a question. I mean- they do at times, but that'd be taking their free time or their time at work.

    The developers are people to you know? They've got a job, a family, arrangements, and more.
    Geers likes this.
  10. burlayz

    burlayz Member

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    Keeping the community informed doesn't require them spending 33% of their work hours on the forums.

    Besides, don't they have a guy whose job description is to relay information between the developers and the community?
    nlaush, bradaz85 and elkanfirst like this.
  11. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Yes, however that is one point. Others include things like "manage the whole PR for all our products". You can imagine that is a lot.
    I agree they probably would need devs that spent a few minutes a day on the forums.
    If the devs would feel like "people who are regulars on the forums, just like other active community members" we probably would not have most of the "there is no communication" claims.
    reptarking likes this.
  12. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    I will always agree, it would be an excellent decision for Uber to go strong on the development to get servers to players quick and to go strong on savegame as well. If they put all their eggs in that basket, I just know they would be instantly glad afterwards.

    I don't advocate that as a mass boycott to Uber. They do work that is ground up without handholding other game design, to get specific results like loadable replays and editable terrain and a clear server client interaction. It has apparent drawbacks on the workload to achieve them, in contrast a half *** state load dump file and existing common program woulda been safer but not as fresh.

    their probably right not to promise much on predev for HR tbh, because you can not deny, from PA they learned, you can't count on coherent not to bug out on Linux after promising support, you can't count on having time to build a server for a game that technically is a whole nother program, and you can't count on the complexity and level of detail a replay loaded as a game start will take.

    they should prioritize and decide which they can take later in development, Linux, server, saves, mods, ect.
  13. radongog

    radongog Well-Known Member

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    Have you been playing solo, TeamArmies or SharedArmies? If you´ve been playing with shared armies:
    Were you in Teamspeak/ Skype/ in the same room like your friends?
    Course only if the answers are SharedArmy & Yes your opinion does matter.
    If not, do a SharedArmyGame with Premates. Do another one. And another one. You won´t stop, as this game is really genius in that mode!
  14. pivo187

    pivo187 Active Member

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    Just played pa for the first time since summer and it's bad..it just feels like the core game is flawed and there is no flow and pace/action in the game. I miss the strategic depth of sup com and actually fighting battles from early on until the end. Almost every match in sup com had my heart pumping and adrenaline racing trying to strategize a plan to win and I was excited to play the game. Another core problem with pa is the maps..let's face it they suck. There is nothing special about them and nothing that adds to the gameplay unlike in ta and supcom..in pa all of that is missing and it's just about building resources taking a planet and no action/strategy for 90% of the game..no excitement bc many things are not balanced,missing and the game is more frustrating than fun. rip pa come on Ta2
    Last edited: October 6, 2014
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  15. nawrot

    nawrot Active Member

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    I doubt there will be ever any real mod tools, like for eg. skyrim has. All we get is some play with scripts, so maybe different skin for tank and slightly changed stats, that's all. Same goes for offline server and some real way for invasions. They feel PA is released and finished, so from now on we get a bunch of patches, some balance tweaks, but no new major features. They milked as much cash out of PA as they could, cut it short with HR kickstarter, PA is not making more $$ for uber so it will be just maintained by 2-3 guys that are too clumsy to be in HR team.
    KNight and bradaz85 like this.

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