PTE Build 82821-pte is up now!

I don't know if this will help or not, but have you tried deleting and re-adding the Game Capture source (make sure you're using Game Capture) for PA in OBS?

Just finished an epic sized absurd GW, here are my thoughts about it:

First: That was pretty entertaining already ^^

It seems though that the difficulty scale for GW is off. I don't mean the level you choose at the start but the difficulty over the whole campaign.

Usually a game campaign starts quite easy and ramps up difficulty until you beat the (quite hard) boss and you feel awesome (feeling of achievement). GW on the contrary has its most difficult missions at the start of the war, because you lack the tech to do serious damage. The feeling of being awesome is purely due to the accumulated tech that just feels op (feeling of empowerment). So mid to late GW misses out on the feeling of achievement introduced by timed difficulty scaling.

Also, there is the problem, that rushes are superior to all other tactics in early GW because if you cannot defeat all enemies before they go heavy T2, you probably won't defeat them anymore.

Finally, it seems (at least that was my impression) that the games that are somewhere in the middle of the war feel almost the same. This might have a negative impact on newer players that do not (yet) love PA like most (some?) of us.

Here, have some graph with some vague empirical data: (might be not that representative due to low sample count )

Note the valley of boredom in the middle.


I propose a solution to at least the first two problems:
The AI commanders should have tech proportionally to what the player could have at a given point in time: They would start with very limited tech and get some buff with every battle. The buff amount per battle won could be determined by the difficulty level the player selects when starting the GW.
Technically this could mean:
0. (offline) each tech gets a "buff value" which states how useful this tech is in comparison to the other ones.
1. Values "max buff level" and "buff per battle" are set to some reasonable values based on the difficulty level selected.
2. On start of a battle: Give each AI commander random techs until the cumulative buff values reach the current max buff level. (This might also introduce interesting synergies between AI commanders that disappear when one of them is killed, adding to the feeling of achievement)
3. After the player has won, increase the max buff level by buff per battle. Go to 2.

It seems as though the unit selection bug still exists in the PTE. The mixture of units selected below was done by simply dragging a selection box over the whole area where the listed units existed on the map. The unit types selected, and the individual unit type totals are correct (95 Infernos for example), as well as the grand total number of units (987). The unit subtotal selection boxes at the top are accurate for the number of bots and the number of tanks selected, and both of those buttons work to sub-select each respective group of units. However, when it comes to orbital and air units, that's where it is broken. The subtotal for the air units is represented with a solid dot, which is the unit icon for orbital units, not air units. However, selecting that subtotal button doesn't actually select anything. When pressed, ALL of the units are deselected, including air and orbital. There is also no subtotal button at all for the orbital units (orange box). Presently the only way to select air from the entire group is to deselect bots and tanks using the subtotal buttons (with a right-click), however, if any orbital units are in the mix, they must be deselected individually. Selecting only orbital from the mix currently involves deselecting every other unit type individually.

Using Game Capture works, thanks
I've only used OBS once for a school project, so I assumed monitor capture would just capture anything the monitor displays

I've got two more bugs that have been in for ages and are easy to get repro's on.

The first one is annoying when playing shared army's. Its the area build with metal extractors. If someone ques up metal extractors around the whole planet then you can't que up extractors anymore when holding shift. So you want a fabber to build a turret and after that the 3 mex close that it can't because someone else qued up world wide metal extractor build.

Vid of the bug



The other bug is when you try to area build and you hit subractive brushes ( not sure if its for additive brushes too). The area build won't respond until you get passed the brush with your mouse. Can get really confusing things on the metal planet.

Vid of the bug

Until it is fixed, here is a workaround:
1. hold shift
2. start mouse drag for area command
3. release shift
4. release mouse

The thing is you are only unable to build on top of another blueprint if shift is held down on mouse release. To cue things you need only hold shift while the mouse button is being pressed down.

Weird things^^

How difficult would it be to make the Leaderboards a scrollable list that shows ALL of the players in each league? It would be so much more meaningful and engaging to see the players around you in the rankings, then simply a static list of the top ten in each league.

same here ... every destroyed airuint caused a crackling explosion sound ...


other than that GW is fairly enjoyable now ...

We found the cause of the issue and this will be fixed in the next release.

if you can't wait
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/pte-build-82484-pte-is-up-now.68951/page-3#post-1089813

alright

updated OP with new update notes

Wow, is the team working on pa growing again? The updates are more frequent now, juat like they used to be

Note: I played GW normal, hard, and relentless on the last build, and just started absurd on 82714

There seems to be a skill gap between the end of relentless and the start of absurd. I never once had occasion to try out the non-hardcore features going through the first few levels, but it took multiple rewinds, essentially cheating by knowing where the stronger enemy was, plus correcting lots of bad battles, to beat the first absurd system. FYI I used to find Hard a good challenge (with a few judicious quits) in older versions.

And then I didn't really win it. I ended up back on the previous star. I think I technically died a few moments before hitting "play from here" once. After the restart time stopped after running for a few seconds; I rewound again and was able to play, but the match was still treated as a loss.

I saw some units sort of stutter stepping - moving in small jerky steps. I noticed it once with AI infernos advancing (who would have done better to go as fast as possible), and once when I was trying to retreat from a laser tower (and I would have really liked them to go faster)

Oh, and it used to be possible to ESC past the GW opening video. Is there a method now?

Testing the Galactic war features - some nice improvements to be sure. But had one issue that's lead to several more.

Okay, so had a problem where the overlay of things like the global patrol routes stayed on screen with building templates and waypoints (checked, wasn't caps lock) - decided to save game and reload her up may fix it. Saved about 2/3 minutes into game after playing a few prior maps on GW.

Program restarted but didn't show viability on any units at all, just the map. It was still there, I could see the metal and power being used just not select and see anything.

Tried to quit / restart from in game menu and quit out, this then showed units and buildings where indeed there now with visibility but then hard crashed dead the game.

When I tried to reload it up to reproduce the error, I had saved over my save, now 8 minutes into the game, both me and my friendly AI's all but gone and just left showing the enemy AI's bases.

This wasn't on ironman mode ether, so why the save was updated like that... I got no idea.

Maybe the server was running on my machine while all the crashing was going on or something, but I'm a little at a loss otherwise.

I've tried to restart from beginning of that fight several times and its stuck in a loop restarting and mid game etc.

ALSO, a suggestion if I may.

Picking a save file just gives you the name of the file you saved originally. That's okay, but the only way to know the details is when you load it up. It is.... wanting.

Ideally they these details should be logged for GW and shown when going to load.

Commander picked for this save, size of the galaxy, difficulty selected - bonus ones for faction picked, amount of current tech slots, amount of turns played. All these details will be welcome.

As an alternative even the save game name could be it. Changes as you pick the details. So something like 'Tank, Epic, Relentless' - Tank commander picked, epic galaxy size and relentless difficulty. - Its all just an idea to consider.

More as I fine em' - Keep up the good work all the same! ^^

many nice fix. keep em coming

I agree this looks really good all.

Still crashing on Linux, I'm afraid.

Code:

username@weasel:~/Games/PA/PTE $ ./PA --nomods
[08:57:35.896] INFO Started at 2015-06-06 08:57:35
[08:57:35.896] INFO Setting STEAM_RUNTIME to /home/username/Games/PA/PTE/steam-runtime
[08:57:35.896] INFO SDL: Built w/ v2.0.3, linked w/ v2.0.3
[08:57:35.897] INFO build version 82714-pte, id 2015060582714
[08:57:35.898] INFO Log file /home/username/.local/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/log/PA-2015-06-06_085735.txt opened
[08:57:35.898] INFO Starting async parallel for driver with 6 threads
[08:57:36.086] INFO Successfully created context with configuration 6/8: v3.3 (core)
[08:57:36.086] INFO HAL initializing...
[08:57:36.086] INFO OpenGL Vendor: Intel Open Source Technology Center
[08:57:36.086] INFO OpenGL Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Mobile
[08:57:36.086] INFO OpenGL Version: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 10.1.3
[08:57:36.086] INFO OpenGL Shader Language Version: 3.30
[08:57:36.086] INFO Vendor flag set to Intel.
[08:57:36.086] INFO Supported rasterizer capabilities: Gamma correct pipeline, Ranged mapping, Advanced instancing, Advanced shaders
[08:57:36.086] INFO Unsupported rasterizer capabilities: Compute shaders, Persistent buffer mapping
[08:57:36.086] INFO Buffer textures enabled.
[08:57:36.086] INFO initial size 1600x845
[08:57:36.091] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/post.json
[08:57:36.232] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/content.json
[08:57:36.949] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/impostors.json
[08:57:36.977] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/misc.json
[08:57:37.017] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/particle.json
[08:57:37.538] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/scene.json
[08:57:37.689] INFO Loading effects from file /shaders/vtex.json
[08:57:38.200] INFO Caching boot.js & boot.css
[08:57:38.226] ERROR appendFile Unable to find path: /ui/mods/ui_mod_list.js
[08:57:38.226] INFO Coherent content root: "coui://ui/"
[08:57:38.226] INFO Coherent host dir: "/home/username/Games/PA/PTE/host"
[08:57:38.226] INFO Coherent local store: "/home/username/.local/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/localstore"
[08:57:38.226] INFO [COUI] Additional host options detected. Please note that these options are experimental, untested and not officially supported, they might cause unexpected behaviour.
[08:57:38.226] INFO [COUI] AdditionalHostOptions {--resource-buffer-max-allocation-size=134217728 --resource-buffer-size=2097152}
[08:57:38.233] INFO ClientInterface constructed
[08:57:38.247] INFO {{FMOD}} fmod buffer size 5
[4398:4398:ERROR:nss_util.cc(686)] Failed to load NSS libraries.
[08:57:38.437] INFO Using local server at /home/username/Games/PA/PTE/server
[08:57:38.437] INFO ClientInterface constructed
[08:57:38.507] INFO [COUI] PID: 4394 | 4414 12:57:38.471136 [4394:4414:WARNING:proxy_service.cc(888)] PAC support disabled because there is no system implementation
[08:57:38.515] INFO ContextReady
[4420:4420:INFO:renderer_main.cc(215)] Running without renderer sandbox
[4424:4424:INFO:renderer_main.cc(215)] Running without renderer sandbox
[4426:4426:INFO:renderer_main.cc(215)] Running without renderer sandbox
ATTENTION: default value of option force_s3tc_enable overridden by environment.
[08:57:38.749] ERROR [JS/main] :1: Uncaught TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method '_trigger'
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 70: non-double matrix element
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 70: non-double matrix element
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 78: saw unknown, expected number
[4458:4458:INFO:renderer_main.cc(215)] Running without renderer sandbox
[4461:4461:INFO:renderer_main.cc(215)] Running without renderer sandbox
[08:57:39.341] INFO [JS/game] :3: initializing catalog
[08:57:39.756] INFO resetGameState
[08:57:39.756] INFO Mouse constraint cleared.
[08:57:39.756] INFO ClientInterface constructed
Dump written to /tmp/12074e4a-71b1-a7c8-67d650a1-7f87712c.dmp
Crash uploaded, link developer to http://crashes.uberent.com/report/index/bp-01e82785-02be-48c8-b060-059212150606
Previous crashes stored in /tmp/checkpoint.cpk
crashupload returned success