What's up?

-Loading from replay files.
-Vanilla Mod Manager
-A launcher with some neat utilities
-Balance based off some mods like Community Uberbalance, just things like grenadiers and combat fabbers which are practically empty units
-Naval balance, worth stating itself
-Mod Hooks for things like cloak, multiple ammo source weapons, multiple teleporters that link to like-teleporters, more unit-type and armor-percent entrys.

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/wip-the-beta-balance-mod.66111/

Hmmm

Not trying to dash your hopes, but if Uber can add one to vanilla then everyone can have blackjack and hookers.

Meanwhile, I keep your link in my sig so anyone I can possibly advertize to can use it.

I do have a big list of things that I want to see done much better in PA. And I'm sure Uber has a list like that too, but it's 10 times longer. Of course I want to see naval and orbital completely reconsidered. I want better art and biomes. I want cooler transports and a unit cannon. But I only want them because I want modders to not have to struggle for a decade to add extremely basic features to the game.

(see here. This is crazy. Multi-unit transports are front page news in the TA community ... more than 15 years post-release. Now these few guys are doing an amazing labor of love against long odds, but seriously, let's not see this again with PA, which has similar unsolved problems.)

Here are my two big picture wishes:

1. Enable modders to the greatest extent possible to do the things that Uber just doesn't have the resources or time or interest to tackle. Let modders do weird, or risky, or pie-in-the-sky stuff that doesn't quite fit the game. Let modders fix balance, naval, orbital, and maps. For the average guy who just bought PA at the Steam holiday sale, who doesn't know about the forums or know what a mod manager is ... Uber should showcase the best mods front and center instead of listing youtube videos. Add a Mod Marketplace tab on the left side with the other tabs. Can this be monetized with the creators? What's the legal situation? I won't play armchair CEO or Law Guy, but it's a possibility. Win for Uber. Win for Us.

2. Uber should start working on major DLC packages to keep the PA engine development profitable. I mean Core Contingency or Forged Alliance size DLC. Stuff that they can charge a decent amount for and advance the game significantly and breathe new excitement into this title and genre. If you look at old threads from the Alpha release or (especially) before, you'll see all the crazy dreams people had for this game - staff from Uber included. Neutrino was as big a dreamer as almost anybody. I'd like to see Uber take what they have right now - which is pretty damn good - and pull out all the stops to turn it into something incredible.

So I'd like to see a two step approach - between modders and developers. I want to see Planetary Annihilation take the leap from good to truly awesome. It has come so far already and I'd love to see it keep going for another decade or more.

Call it an addon, so all those weird reviewers actually rate it again and can go "oh yeah they fixed so many of the things we disliked earlier"

"Still has spherical planets, 4/10, standard." X3

I'm glad things are looking up for all this stuff.

Do you guys think the (kind of) 2D maps will be available for play anytime soon? Are they right now? I'd much prefer them over the spherical maps now. I'm out of the loop on all the modding nonsense.

I second the DLC idea. It'd be a good way for them to get more funds and make the game 200% better. The jump from Supreme Commander (vanilla) to Forged Alliance was crazy good and I'd love to see something like that with this game.

I like either the possibility of "old style" dlc, maybe to add factions and flavors to units that already exist or add a few new roles like stealth and stuff. Or newer style DLC and make it a bunch of different small things you can opt into or something or maybe different games that run same engine.