Okay, so I just found about this game. The nutso premise and insane price tag are both strangely beguiling... Anyways, Kerbal Space Program gave me the same head-scratching when I found about it, so I went to THEIR forums to have the people who already only the game explain why it's amazing and why I should buy it. I bought it. I'd love for you to do the same for me--the concept looks incredible so far. Unfortunately, $90 IS steep. I'm not looking for a lecture on why I shouldn't care about a $90 price; I'll keep walking. But if you think this game is really worth it, tell me why.
Are you interesting in playing or testing PA and helping it develop? If you only want to play, wait for Beta in September or Release in December, the game is far from playable during Alpha. Mike
This! If you want the game only, you can buy it at the Uber store for $40 and not $90, that is just for early access... so... $40 for a massive server based next gen RTS game with a massive scale... expensive? Hell no! And yes, you should buy it, but again you need to decide what version of it.
Yeah, if you're not interested in breaking things and hunting for bugs (neither of which can be counted as playing the game) then wait for the beta. At that point, a lot more of the features will be in fun states. If you are interested in breaking things, then come right on in!
People seem to misunderstand what exactly Alpha means. The Arma3 Alpha, is definitely NOT alpha. It is a beta version that they are calling alpha. Which is just stupid, as people don't realize how early alpha actually is. Alpha is when most of the game is not there, and the graphics don't look anything like they will. Arma3, on the other hand, looks decent, is somewhat playable, and most of the 'primary' features are there. PA is not even close. The primary feature of the game is smashing planets, except that you can't smash the planets together yet, you can't even play on multiple planets yet. That should give you some indication on whether or not you should be playing this game right now. This is a true alpha, it's basically unplayable, most of the features are not present. You are paying $90 to become an 'investor' of the game. Not to 'playtest' the game. Uber has more than enough people already playtesting. And they especially don't need a bunch of whiny little children that don't understand what's going on here, or actually know what the word 'Alpha' really means in the game development world.
Only get the alpha if you understand that it is a very incomplete version and that your job is to play alot to find bugs. Otherwise just wait for release.
Going to be a little pedantic here but 'generally' the term 'alpha' denotes a stage of software development where the product is not feature-complete. 'Beta' usually denotes a stage where the product is feature-complete but not in a stage where it can be deemed a release candidate. As Bohemia is still adding new features to ARMA III it is by the common definition an alpha. But really one who is not being pedantic could just as easily view them as meaningless words on the road from 'not ready' to 'ready', As for selling the OP on PA? I first have to ask the question, have you ever played Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander I? If so did you like them? If the answer to both is yes, then I can say with little doubt that you will probably like this game.
It's worth noting, for comparison purposes, that ArmA 3 is the alpha for an update to a game engine that's been in development, and used for releases, for more than a decade, while PA is of course completely new.
You can preorder the 40$ release version right now: https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4
Seeing as the vital difference explaining the price tag has already been mentioned... Do you like the word 'infinite'? As in, you can wage war with an infinite amount of units, over an infinite amount of planets, all having an infinite size? Indeed, this all is only constrained by the capabilities of your PC (or laptop, or whatever). Have you ever played Total Annihilation? This game is roughly based on that - as well as on Supreme Commander 1 / Forged Alliance, and I suppose you could compare it to Spring / Zero-K too - but instead of being confined to a single map, you now get planets in systems in galaxies. Have you ever missed the 'S' from 'RTS'? Would you prefer strategy to be what wins the game, instead of APM and individual unit micro, or anything tedious like that? Uncountable armies numbering in the thousands waging your war across dozens of planets, with a huge unit pool to choose from (just look at Total Annihilation (or Spring / Zero-K, but I doubt it'll be that much)). Or do that times a million, if you feel like playing a never-ending game. Or the opposite; a quick game on a small, single planet is also entirely possible. But that all is the game. Whether you should become an alpha tester - in no way, shape, or any form the finished product - that is up to you.
That is misleading at best, and downright false otherwise. Nothing is infinite. Planets themselves are not even going to come close to being 1:1 with earth, let alone larger. The game will be big-ish, we have yet to see how it will matriculate. Right now scaling is sort of wonky. Planets right now are good, but they still lose something to the larger TA/Supcom maps. Playing a full game of Seven Islands had a certain feel that PA is sorely lacking so far and hopefully this changes.
Really? Because I'd swear I've seen lots of comments saying 'the only limit is your hardware'. Thus no built-in limits - or else, limits easily modded out of the game. Right?
Mhm, I see. But that seems to imply there's no hardcoded limit, right? Maybe the generation algorithms would mess up or something - perhaps it isn't adviseable to generate a planet of 9000 square kilometre - but it could be possible...? No? However, if it wouldn't work as expected, my post was, indeed, misleading. For that, then, my apologies.
The only limit is your hardware, but even so you can be sure that a real earth sized planet with 1000000 on it alone will be far too much for any computer that you can buy in the next decade or two, or three...
Oh, ok, so I was right? Well, I don't think my post was misleading, considering that I said: But oh well, if it was, then this discussion should clear that up.
hmm I think, Uber should have guessed that Steam users are stupid in masses. Of course, a lot of Steam users will understand the pricing and how it works, but there are millions of users, and therefore you get still thousands of stupid comments that tell you how expensive 90$ is. Early Access with kickstarter pricing was obviously a mistake, but who could have guessed? It probably would be best to take Early Access out and wait for release. Or reduce pricing and have the anger of kickstarter backers. Either way is a bad. I am sry for Uber^^
As others have said, there is no point in trying to "sell" the game to you or anybody yet, because its not game yet. Well its superficially a game and looks like a game, but it is so far from being done that, if you expect to get a game you'll be dissapointed. On the other hand, if you're interested in how games get made, if you want to follow the developement process of a game, see very early versions and work in progress, trying to find bugs etc. then yes, get it now. Not because its fun to play (it kinda is, a little bit) but because its an interesting experience. But if you find the thought of having to spends hours just to make the game running annoying, then don't get it yet and buy it for the cheap price of 40$ at release. As for why you should get it then? Well its a bigger Total Annihilation, which just was the best RTS ever made. :mrgreen:
If they just leave it as is the kids on Steam will forget about it within a day or two just like with Prison Architect. It's really funny to see this exact same story play out twice in a row.
