Build 77337-pte now up

@jables @sorian @otherDevs: I really love how the PTE has been treated by you!
I really dislike that still "nobody" is playing PTE!

@radongog
@ZaphodX is playing PTE on stream now and is getting people playing because of it:
http://www.twitch.tv/ZaphodX1

It looks like giving a planetwide Patrol area command no longer works for Avengers, at least not on small moons like the one shown below. I tried to re-issue the command several times, but each time their patrol route was the equivalent to an area command for just the one side of the planet (not even half of it) where the command was originally given. No mods were on during this test.

MY EXPIERNCE WITH MINES IN PA
I have experimented with mines a little. There have been SOME favorable results in situation early game and late… middle game they normally are a head ache. In the early game, when players do not often have radar of your base a roaming dox pack or flanking enemy can lose everything running into your base.
Mid game, when players can often time see your mines, I have experimented with defending from a base assault with mines around my perimeter. My thought process was that if I keep their units distracted firing at the mines I can fire at them. I also force the player to slowly assault me, buying me time. It works occasionally… but more times than not if I am fighting on dispersive ground I am just postponing the inevitable.
Late game I find that they work again, as enemies from across the map are running blind flank attacks on my base and have no vision of the mines.

ARE THEY WORTH IT
Now are they worth it? Well for the cost I do not think so. Not while they are so easy to see. If they mines were more difficult to spot then for sure I would use them more often. They are the best unit to do ambush attacks with at strategic locations.

WISH LIST FOR MINES
On a side note I would like to be able to lay them in strips or rectangles rather than their current pattern. This would make base building for easier to manage. I could also do more little strips in the desired location around the map. As it is now I cannot always predict WERE the mines are going to be so I have to lay lots of little circles which takes more time to lay than I have to worry about and inserts more OBJECTS into the game than I really need to for my purpose. Just my opinion.
Having used mines in other games like Mech Commander and StarCraft2 here would be my suggestions for implementing mines in a way I think they could be useful without being abused.
1. Make the unit that lays the mines a tad more expensive with a limited supply of mines. This opens up strategy from both sides. Spotting a mind layer gives their intention away and killing one that has not exhausted their supply becomes a tangible target. On the flip side, wisely using the limited supply, since the mines CAN NOT BE SEEN, can return a huge reward for the risk.
2. Allow the ground to be fired upon by units to destroy mines were they THINK they are located. This gives the mine layer strategy in HOW they lay their mines. This gives the player that finds himself inside a mine field a choice to make… retreat or push forward trying to detonate mines.

My 2 cents.

Random system generator we had in place before was causing problems so we have pulled it for now and will be rewriting it to be better. It'll make a reappearance, but probably not before all of this goes live.

Yay

You'll get no disagreement from me there. But some more combat units in orbital would be good too, even if they aren't like they are in OWO.

That's like saying no on wants improved orbital because it doesn't even have 3000 downloads. Do you think that people are choosing not to PLAY the mods, or that they are choosing not to LOOK for the mods, that they are even aware of their existence? Do you really think that if people spent a month playing nothing but Statera, they want to go back to vanilla?

I went back to vanilla...

Thank god, because random players always sets the same multiplanet systems with 4 spawns, 4 moons etc. We need variety.

Hello custom 15 planet recreations of Sol for 4 players

updated OP with build 77337-pte notes

- New commanders added
Ooooh ^^

I am really loving all this balancing, bugfixing and AI tweaking!!!

PTE still hasn't been pushed to steam?

jeez you guys are pumping this stuff out really fast, yer not working those guys like a child-workhouse are you? (besides Sorian, hes a robot, so it hardly matters to him )

They won't show up in the Armory until it goes live, but they look like this.

- AceAI


- Enzomatrix

steam takes longer than our servers. give it a bit.

lol a one legged commander

I don't even know which one I want more... D:

Will start testing in the next few minutes.

Btw Does anyone have a Mod for me to test units? sorta like sandbox but I can play both commanders?