Didn't Mavor talk about the unit cannon intended to fill that niche? It will be able to launch units from an airless moon to the planet its orbiting, but also be able to launch from point A to point B on the planet itself as well for fast movement of strike teams (for a cost ofc). I suspect air transports a la SupCom to be added as well for additional options. I guess it must just be me, but I didn't expect ANY games to be played on planets as small as the ones currently in alpha after Retail release of this game. I was thinking '1000 meter' planets would become the standard for 1v1 games. Thats almost double the size currently. At that size, high water level worlds (which you will be able to adjust the water level yourself) will have oceans easily large enough for at least basic naval functionality (4-5x the area in your screenshot)
Yep but this does not mean units scale doesn't have to be downsized. As zepilot shows it, even on Forged Alliance scale looks ok for the smallest map. And scale does not change for larger maps. The point is that the current units scale does not feel good whether you're on a small or large planet.
Huh, alright. I can agree to disagree there. I kinda like the current 'oversized' units (in comparison with the planet biome features), cause it adds to the psuedo-cartoonish look of the game and the blocked out unit styles. It fits in well with the Wile E. Coyote style unit death explosions as well. Either way though, such a discussion is more a 'polish' type problem and not a fundamental content issue (imho) and should be shelved until early beta. Priorities at this point now that we are getting to a fairly stable place fatal crash wise should be about content completion, UI, and pathfinding. After we have the metal points, proper building displacement, planet builder, orbital layer, and interplanetary play, then we can start in on issues of this nature.
Indeed, there are probably more important issues to fix so far and i'm especially thinking about the issues they may have with specific OS ports. however, the big concern is if this can allowed to be changed after alpha has completed. Beta is supposed to involve much more people and there will be even much more feedback spread around forums. I'm worrying that having this not fixed before beta (provided Uber even consider we're here with a valid point, and we do not have any idea actually). More over as stated many times before : Scaling down units size may not simply be a matter of scaling down, but also have consequences on all the gameplay mechanisms. In which degree of magnitude, scaling down unit size, is going to impact all the stuff achieved so far ? Well i guess not having uber reacting on this is simply either related to being much busy on engine stability and specific OS ports issues or just because they have no definitive answer to provide.
I just wanted to stop by and mention that my original point regarding overlooking the horizon can be ignored. It is the streaming that is the culprit when the interface comes to a grinding halt. It is madly aggressive. PA is also chewing up 95% of memory at all times, but that is another issue. But as far as performance goes, the game runs perfectly fine (normal speed, even compared with my desktop) as long as the streaming isn't hitting it.
When people say "1km planets", what exactly are they referring to? Radius? Circumference? One thing pre-alpha I routinely saw people forget / disregard is that on a spherical map where you have no 'corners' to hide in is basically a map that's half the effective size that it would be if it were 2D. The farthest you can ever get from someone is exactly halfway around the planet, and it's only half a planet in any direction for the players to get to each other.
IIRC the current alpha planets are 500m to 650m in 'size', I am not certain if this is referring to radius or diameter. During the planet builder livestream Mavor mentioned the max planet size currently in the builder at the time to be 4000 meters. An ocean spanning the same relative amount of a planet that size as is shown in the earlier screenshots would be >6x the distance from coast to coast, creating 30-40 times as much water area in which to have naval. Now using the 'max' planet size is somewhat unreasonable counter-arguement, but a 1000m planet in which you have tweaked up the water a bit could have double the distance from coast to coast for roughly 4 to 5 times the area. That would still be small yes, but could provide a stategic reason for naval. Currently on the alpha terran maps however you are correct, naval is massive compared to the available water. Its almost always better to just build a static artillery cause thats all we are really getting out of our battleships anyway, but in the above scenario, you could have 'bombardment' situations where you build outside defensive range, then move to the other coast to bombard their base with naval. That functionality is there at the current size of naval units and doesn't need a downsizing.
Mavor and his steam have so far achieved a huge and incredible stuff. I this this scale matter should be discussed during next livestream. I don't want to go back to disapointing days when everyone was expecting a lot from supcom 2 and discovered epicness had gone way just because of Units being oversized. PA is probably our only chance to get the true spirital sequel to TA/supcom. Only Mavor and his team could do it. Please don't let part of this community getting dispointed once again about scale and epicness. we need to feel epicness even on smaller maps. It's not a matter of playing on larger maps. Just fix the scale on smaller maps and epicness will be here whatever the planet size is.
Exactly, it's not because you want to play a quick 1v1 match that you have to feel like playing with toys.
Hi, My first post here. I don't want to create a new topic so i post in this topic. I see 2 major gameplay problems. 1 - Units are too big and/or maps to small. You can go to the opposite of the planet in no time.(the farther point on the sphere) Try to walk with your com across a 5*5 diagonal supcom map, it will take far more time. 2 - Random maps are boring/difficult to understand. Just make easy geometric map. (example : try to imagine finn's revenge on a sphere) It will help us a lot to figure out where we are is on the planet (where the camera is), where i must go, where i should attack etc ... I think we are all supcom/TA fan here. Imagine supcom/TA only with randoms maps ??? Anyway Uber, keep up the good work !
If navigation is an issue which might occur I suggest a thin visible x axis kind of line aroujd the planet so you can better navigate across the planet in the quickest fashion based on good ol fashion north or south. That being said it doesn't mean the whole of space, moons planets etc are organized horizontally that's not space XD just means wen you zoom in on a planet that should appear to assist with navigation. Anyways just a thought
Friend, you've got a lot of work cut out for you. First of all, all the planets are randomly-generated, hence their chaotic-looking nature. There are some pre-default sizes, but they are all basically between tiny, only good for 1v1, and go up and up depending on how many players are in; but the planet will always be just a bit cramped, relative to players. Not much you can do but get used to the camera so far. I'm a-okay with it. Regarding your first point, that's really a blessing, if you ask me. Remember, you can be flanked from any direction, and base expansion becomes harder to track; so is scouting. Units are okay-sized; just get like a million of them, and then you'll thank the stars they're that size (can't believe you think they're TOO big). The only valid issue we're having here is how big the T2 ships are... but frankly, I don't THINK it should be a problem. What you should do is STOP comparing this game with SupCom, and instead educate yourself to what's going on in the development. I am disclaiming right now; I'm only guesstimating from personal experience from within the game all that which I've previously told you. Have a good one!
