Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automated.

Alright, I'm covering several topics here:
1: Automated building of bases on different celestial bodies
2: Automated management of said bases.

1: So, I was wondering, when you expand thorughout the solar system, say, to an asteroid belt or something similar, will you be required to manually set up and expand bases on each and every single asteroid you go to?

Because, seriously, doing such will probably end up getting annoying if you have to manage each ad every single base you have on the entire map.

So, I propose that, if it is at all possible, we could make something to possibly ease up on the management of new colonies.

Alright, hypothetical situation here:

You're on a planet, fighting you opponent who you've managed to keep locked down on the planet. You ditch the planet, go to the moon and build up a base to gain more advantages over your enemy. Just in case, you send some fabricators to several asteroids around should it come to the point that you want to slam some asteroids at him.

The fabricators arrive, and you spend the next 5 minutes queing up each individual building on each asteroid. You look back to your base to notice that your enemy is about to overrun you, a result of him changing his strategy and you not noticing because you were busy elsewere.

You see that parts of your base was destroyed, crippling your ability to stop him, and more or less ceding the planet to him.

Hypothetical situation end.

The problem here lies in the fact that it would take a large (And boring) amount of gameplay to build bases on not really important objects in the long run.

If there were some way automate the base building, you wouldn't have to pay attention to the somewhat minor and inconsequential asteroids. They take time to set up, and I think that a large amount of players would like the ability to make it build up itself while the focus on more important things like combat with the enemy.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Wat. That's not realistic at all, in Supcom/FA I can Queue up a complex fire base in under a minute, if I place each building down individually and not use a building template I created previously.

Even if it did take 5 minutes, you're the one at fault for not taking a few seconds to check back at home to see how things were going back home.

Mike

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Zero-k has a nice little thing with it's mass deposits where you can click even close to the deposit and a little line from your pointer to the deposit will show where the building will actually go.

Making it easy to que up location dependant buildings.

Anything else is't really hard to que up.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Wow, you guys responded quickly.

Didn't even get the full thing out yet.

2: Automated management of said bases.

Alright, let me just define what I mean here before you gain any contrary ideas to what I mean.


First, the ability to give orders to the base on a large scale.
Second, the ability to repair and rebuild buildings automatically.

For example, let's say that you've built a base on the moon, including those unit cannons we saw in the kickstarter video. Let's also say that we have the hypothetical ability to transport air units down as well.

Now, lets say that you place a repeating order on the factories to load up the cannon with units (Which is apparently what you did in the kickstarter trailer), and an order on the cannon to fire at enemy bases to continuously attack them. You've also given an order for the aircraft to fly at the planet and attack the enemy base.

Now, however, lets say that the enemy has ditched the base, built another elsewhere, and your units are still hanging around at that place.

5 minutes later, you look back, and your old base is dead, with your enemy attempting to get to your moon and coming close to succeeding due to the fact that you ordered everything to continuesly go down there.

You stop and prepare to bombard the planet.

Hypothetical scenario ends.

To deal with both at the same time, What I suggest is the ability to add global commands.

For example, a command that causes units to automatically patrol the planet and attack enemies. Or a command that causes units to attack-move towards detected enemy units/structures. Or a command that allows all fabricators to rebuild buildings similar to SACU's of Supreme Commander,

Going with this idea also brings me to a 'Planetary Garrison' idea. This being that, a planet could have a unit counter that causes any base on the planet to automatically maintain the selected amounts of units on a planet, for example, making it so that planets maintain 20 Fabricators, 100 Bots and 200 Tanks.

Combining Planetary Garrison with Planet wide orders cuts down management of bases, which is something that a game of such an extremely large scale like Planetary Annihilation needs.

So, there's my idea(s), what do you guys think?

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Not realistic, yes. Exaggerated, probably.

I was just saying 5 minutes because 5 minutes seems like (But totally isn't.) a realitvely short time for when you're dealing with upwards of 4 differen't locations on extremely large parts of the map, and you're trying to que up the full construction of everything on a relatively larger area.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Well completely automated not the best i think.
But if something like autmated repair or rebuild is up for vote, then yes.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

So, basically you're creating a biased situation where you look correct?

Don't forget, you don't need to queue everything at a particular base all at once, even just setting up a few buildings can buy you a minute or 2 to focus elsewhere before the queue is finished.

Mike

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

If you want to look at like that, yes. However, it isn't always that clear cut. Some players, like myself, prefer to cue up the total construction of 'small' spaces, like asteroids. Some, like yourself, judging from what you said, do not care about that.

But back on topic, I have already detailed what I suggest and now simply want your opinion on it.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Okay, I think it doesn't solve an actual problem considering other tools available.

Mike

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Oh? And what do you mean by other tools avaliable?

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

The whole point of RTS is to build up bases while commanding units at the same time.
So if you don't check up on your mainbase for 5 minutes it is your fault.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Not needing to queue everything at once, Build templates and really queuing itself.

Mike

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

While I do agree with that statement, an RTS usually doesn't encompas an entire solar system or more within the scale of a single map.

To say nothing of Galactic War.

Eventually, you will get to the point that checking on everything you own will actually take a significantly large amount of time.

I'd count Build Templates as an automation in and of itself, if you're using them in the context that I am. (Pre-listed locations of buildings for quickly placing a template onto a world.)

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Because Galactic War is only a meta game to tie together regular skirmish games, so you're correct, but for the wrong reason.

About the same time KEWs come into play most likely.......

Mike

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

More than likely, if it takes you a significant amount of to check everyhting you own, you'll be the one throwing the KEWs around.

Can I get a link to this please?

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

I would dare say that dual monitors is a solution. I would also hope that building templates will be included.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

The game's controls should be as efficient as possible, but only by things like endless queues. Not by taking away core-gameplay such as building bases.
I don't think it is a good idea to treat PA like some kind of special RTS that can ignore basic RTS-fundamentals, just because it has planets.

GW is a Metagame. You dont actually play it in real time. It basically has nothing to do with this topic. Think of it like playing Risk and instead of roling dices to fight you startup PA with the planet to fight over.
The idea comes from TA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boneyards#Galactic_War

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

In SupCom i used 2 screens. It is not that helpfull. I have two 27" screens so sitting close i can just focus on one the most of the time.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

Two screens sounds great, but please put some thought into those people who have higher spending priorities than a second monitor.

Building templates, on the other hand, are the best. I have no doubt they will be making a comeback in PA.

Re: Getting new bases up and running. And preferably, automa

While I agree that the 2nd screen in SupCom didnt help that much I think this might change in PA. In SupCom it only took a single zoomout to see everything and a zoomin to give commands anywhere. In PA we might need to move the camera around planets. So putting different sides of a single planet on different screens might speed up change between locations.

People just need to learn not to give away their old screens when they buy new ones.
Just keep the older ones as secondary screens