Ashes of the Singularity

Discussion in 'Unrelated Discussion' started by cwarner7264, March 5, 2015.

  1. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    The Alpha? D:
  2. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    From what I understood early access was supposed to be in summer, but I may have misheard.
    I don't get what is wrong with the screenshots, they look great?
  3. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    I'm almost certain that's just a tech demo; all scripted. xP

    Anyway yeah I think you're right- Steam early access is summer and 99$ early access is a little bit before cx

    Edit: Oh I read that wrong, I think what he meant is there's just a different feeling to see the battles actually happening. :p
  4. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Well sure it is a scripted demo, but it seems to already use the ingame rendering and the graphics reminds me a lot of SupCom, particulary of aeon thing. So big plus in hitting the right spot in my brain to trigger a "do want" feeling I guess.
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  5. tollman

    tollman Member

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    Don't get me wrong, the screen shots looked decent but the movement and things flying around just really brought it to life for me. I think you are right, early-access release is in the summer. It will definitely be on my radar.
  6. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Ah yeah that makes sense as well. Sure a full video is better than screenshots :)
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  7. tollman

    tollman Member

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    I wonder if both races will be hovering? Must save a lot of work to not have to do tracks on the earth, worry about certain aspects of path finding and some movement animations as well. I personally hope the other race travels on the ground as it will give more character to the game. All comes down to the budget I guess.
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  8. Nicb1

    Nicb1 Post Master General

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    Damn you beat me to it. This is the first game to make me squeal in a long long time (Yes im a guy).
    So excited :)
  9. adoghost

    adoghost Active Member

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  10. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

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    There's a bit more to it than that. Some 32 programs require multiple commands to achieve certain calculations, due to the limit of how much command data can fit in a 32 bit instruction. In addition to greater memory mapping, 64 bit also has an increased instruction set, which when used correctly can cause performance gains - either because the additional instructions are more specific, or because you can combine multiple instructions into one. I think there are also differences such as more registers and such that can be further utilised on a low level for general perf gains if the compiler is good, but I haven't actually dabbled in that area. If you're just running existing instructions though, then you aren't going to see any performance difference.
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  11. Planktum

    Planktum Post Master General

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    Most games are still coded in 32bit though (although I think some recent games are starting to use 64bit), so even if you have a 64bit OS this doesn't help the game. The game actually has to be coded for 64bit and I believe games like this one will be. For example Crysis 1 had a separate 64bit executable.
  12. mered4

    mered4 Post Master General

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    One of those is hyperbole.
    The rest are completely true.

    That said, they are releasing a detailed balance patch in the next few days that should help solve those issues, and the latest performance patch has really helped things.

    And, unfortunately, they over-hyped a game that wasn't worth $50.
    Game over. The playerbase is dwindling, but I am willing to bet it will see a steady expansion over the next few months.

    :)
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  13. mered4

    mered4 Post Master General

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    Hey, is this game on a globe?
    Or a plain?

    There is no indication.
  14. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    It appears to be a flat map (very large). Can't tell if they've made it so you don't hit a hard edge or not though.

    This isn't shooting for any kind of celestial stuff from what I can tell. Essentially looks like sup com, scaled up and with the big height variations from ta. That said it also sounds like they are capping expansion and growth based on control areas (1 generator per zone)...
  15. mered4

    mered4 Post Master General

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    That looks like a performance-based design. They claim unprecedented game size, but with tongue in cheek. Same thing PA and SupCom did :)
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  16. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    Also interesting they only mention 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 game modes... But they are talking 10k plus units a player.

    Ironically it doesn't look to be able to handle any more stuff than pa :p
  17. mered4

    mered4 Post Master General

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    I find that interesting. Both PA and SupCom developers realized very early on that limiting players per match will only keep the matches smaller. You can only manage so much.

    That said, they might have a miracle fix. I doubt it, but they might. And if they say 10k units per player, they must have completely eliminated micro. Interesting.
  18. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

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    A good compiler can, I think, get some small performance gains without specifically coding for 64 bit, but it's probably nothing to write home about, and also probably situational. In most cases, yes, you'd need to code specifically for 64 bit to take full advantage.

    "Everything is it's own light source"
    "Wait a minute, no current graphics system can handle more than 8 lights, can it?"
    " ... As a practical matter, no, after 8 it becomes really problematic".

    o_O

    C'mon. This, and talking about doing stuff that other RTS have been doing for ages (omg, simulated projectiles? Units with independent turrets?? No way!!) sounds really unprofessional. The demo looks really good, and the tech sounds cool - so why dumb it down and pretend like other games and existing tech don't exist?
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  19. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    Well from the sounds of it the 'meta unit' system takes care of this. Essentially it's stolen the 'platoons' idea from Total War, however instead of being given them ready formed, you start out with individual units and form them yourself. I quite like that as a concept actually, as the units are both individual & platoon based depending on stage in the game, and also you get to control the composition of them. If you want to build a large artillery force with a bit of AA / medics you can. If you then want a separate platoon comprising mainly of heavy hitting front line stuff, also good.

    I'm guessing once you've formed these 'meta units' you then issue commands to them *as if they were 1 unit*. So essentially from a control point of view you 10k units become 10 platoons of 1k units :p
  20. mered4

    mered4 Post Master General

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    I did notice that, but that seems tedious for micro - would you have the units auto-join a meta unit upon production? What about meta units? How are they special?
    Or even aircraft - how do they fit in? What about cross-biome forces, like naval and land?

    Etc etc.

    There's a lot of variables here. We'll see how they decide to solve these issues.
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