Orbital Improvements

Discussion in 'PA: TITANS: General Discussion' started by mjshorty, January 17, 2021.

  1. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    Many high-skilled 1v1 players don't enjoy orbital gameplay as it has a number of functional issues that make it irritating to use properly and properly get visual feedback. Ulmost is currently the only orbital start system and it is disliked far more widely than other maps.
    Given that Orbital launchers have had their costs decreased, a certain 1v1 map maker enjoys making orbital maps to gleefully antagonize 1v1 players, and a specific tournament organizer that loves adding orbital maps to the map pool because of his love for unsettling strategies and behaviors, orbital gameplay is here to stay so these are the changes and improvements I would recommend in order for orbital gameplay to be enjoyable and barrable.

    -Add indicators for incoming/outbound units on the planet you are focused on
    Visual example
    [​IMG]

    -Homogenize orbital units leaving a planet from any location This aspect is not entirely understood by many veterans and is virtually unknown by the general playerbase but there is a marked difference if you send an orbital unit to another planet from the poles than they do from the equator. There may also be a difference the location where you arrive but I'm not entirely sure. This should be changed so no matter what location of a planet you leave from, it will take the same amount of time. A difference of 10-20 seconds due to just launching at what location you are at is hard to gauge and the difference in seconds can be a major deal in high level games.

    -Orbital units should have a leave planet delay. Currently if you order orbital units to another planet, they leave instantly. When they arrive they take 2 or 3 seconds (i'm not entirely sure) before they are usable and can be given commands. This should also apply for when they leave a planet. Right now it feels frustrating catching orbital units if a player just moves them instantly out of harms way, however if you give a delay, it will allow you to punish players properly for catching out their units, but still showcase attentive players the reward when they flick their orbital units away before you get close.

    -Add a charge up/charge down bar for arriving/leaving orbital units A simple UI change to visually show what is happening.

    -Give an option to see all orbital layers on all planets and units travelling in between This helps when you are zoomed out to the system level to instantly take in the state of all orbital units that are being played out throughout the system. (I personally would use this feature for Picture-In-Picture (PIP) as a form of a minimap)
    Lenetis and bthirteen like this.
  2. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    Just to say, I see people do this a lot on the Internet, and it's a real turn-off. You kick off your otherwise excellent points in a manner that comes across as insecure, and you're undercutting your own argument by indicating you don't think it'll stand on its own merits. It's meant to reinforce the point, but it's empty rhetoric without data.

    I know this because many high-skilled writers agree with me.
    lulamae likes this.
  3. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    It was suppose to be half-sarcastic including "a certain 1v1 map maker enjoys making orbital maps to gleefully antagonize 1v1 players, and a specific tournament organizer that loves adding orbital maps to the map pool because of his love for unsettling strategies and behaviors" but probably was a miss.
  4. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    I think certain people just overestimate how much time a certain map maker spends thinking about them and would do well to check their egos.
    bthirteen likes this.
  5. bthirteen

    bthirteen Member

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    We don't like orbital because balance is so bland and it is an extreme example of snowball if left unattended. I do understand the full design and mechanics of orbital gameplay even if I don't play it well. Another thing is by watching my VOD/stream is playing the game with 15-23 FPS (mostly because of my PC so kinda can't give that blame to the game) and taking 50 minutes to win the game which would last vs same exact player on ground map less than my queue time. All that comes from poor and kinda limited T1 ways of invading planets.

    Add indicators for incoming/outbound units - those are fine add-on examples, PIP is pretty useless if you are playing the game.

    Homogenize orbital units leaving a planet from any location - most bases\stuff isn't built on poles. I don't think they even do that in team games.

    Orbital units should have a leave planet delay - you can actually always see a number of enemy orbital units, what's the point of making that? It needs to be a surprise where it goes or you would just build defenses before they land, or even move your own orbital units. So this aspect deflects need for indicators for orbital units.

    Add a charge up/charge down bar for arriving/leaving the orbital units - that is not so easy to make, depending on the fact if the engine can support it.

    Give an option to see all orbital layers on all planets and units traveling in between - check settings and keybinds. You can see units from all layers at the same time if you set it that way (tell me if I'm wrong, I wasn't there for a long time). On top of that, you can set a keybind to move from one layer to another :)

    And one PRO tip around map makers, don't f*ck with them. Do you want a full orbital\naval map pool in the next season? Jokes aside. It takes an insane amount of rolling perfect seed for the planet, then creating something that looks interesting and innovating with limited CSG models. I've played my first 8 months of this game on the same 5-7 maps which rotated in the ranked pool. I've actually talked with Marshi and GH about their ways of making maps and my conclusion is that I would faster get to Uber league as a new player than made more than one good map for its player base.
  6. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    A full naval map pool sounds nice.
  7. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    I dont think it is, but I'm not sure, I've poked around the settings and the only thing that is there is orbital shell which just puts an annoying green lens around the planet. Maybe theres something else that allows you to see orbiting units across multiple planets?
  8. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    Please at least add something. Orbital games are unbearable
    bthirteen likes this.

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