Factions/Unit Set

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Yourtime, September 7, 2012.

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What do you think about the factions?

  1. Only One, no need for DLC!

    88 vote(s)
    57.5%
  2. One per release, more with DLC!

    33 vote(s)
    21.6%
  3. Actually I think it's important to have more than one in the beginning.

    32 vote(s)
    20.9%
  1. truemasterofdisaster

    truemasterofdisaster New Member

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    Not necessarily more joice.

    Don't expect modded units to be balanced.
  2. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

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    please... I'd loooove to see how well uber does unique units.

    By my count the uef 2heavy tank and t3mobile missile platform could be replaced by a unit of their tech ...sorta, the Uef t2 missile defense it's t2torpedo bomber and the Cybran t2 stationary shield were all so worthless, it would save you mass not to build them but that's it. 5 units out of the lot that could qualify as redundant.

    All the rest you'd want to be that race to have it.
  3. truemasterofdisaster

    truemasterofdisaster New Member

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    I want two playable factions and both of them in the original game. The release date may be postponed but the two playable factions must be included to the game.
  4. YourLocalMadSci

    YourLocalMadSci Well-Known Member

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    "I want" doesn't get.

    It ain't gonna happen.
  5. bongologist

    bongologist Member

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    Been playing RTS since I discovered Dune2 on some floppy discs, that had three factions, something that wasn't seen in another RTS for quite a long time as far as I remember.

    I am used to having sides, it is the status quo of the RTS to pick a side and and melt the other side with your long list of tools and weapons.

    In FA I could not pick a favourite side, I was stuck, sometimes I wanted UEF for some good defence, other days it was Cybran for a rush etc..

    Having it all on one side could actually make for more tactical battles, you won't be able to pull everything out the bag because there's too much, you will have to master decent strategy/tactics and be ready to counter a whole variety of attacks, I like the sound of this, even if it does feel a little strange.
  6. truemasterofdisaster

    truemasterofdisaster New Member

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    Have fun with slightly more than units 100 in PA and no factions and no identity.

    Supcom had 100 per race and it still got boring. Of course this not the only reason why Supcom got boring, but definitely the main one. At least it had three factions/ four in dlc with different unit skins.
  7. nanolathe

    nanolathe Post Master General

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    You just undermined your own argument.

    Cheers!
    :D
  8. mushroomars

    mushroomars Well-Known Member

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    Biased poll is biased.

    Please add "I don't think there should be more than one faction because it is out of the scope of Uber's budget and soft deadlines."

    Honestly, I'm going to add a custom faction. I already have about 1/4 of the artwork done, just wait if you're that anal about having another faction.
  9. truemasterofdisaster

    truemasterofdisaster New Member

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    With so many people on the forum that don't want factions I did't believe I can pull that of. I just Imagine how boring PA will be with only slightly more than hundred units. Surely it will be more boring than Supcom which has twice as many units.
    I can't whait till the game will be released and see how you get bored with the game.
  10. truemasterofdisaster

    truemasterofdisaster New Member

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    Supcom had 3 races and 300 and units and it still was boring. Pa will not even have half of this, so it's logical it will be more boring.

    The fact that you don't know how much is it 100*3 is not my problem.

    Good luck with life.
  11. nanolathe

    nanolathe Post Master General

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    If you think "boring" is an actual empirical measurement then that's even more hilarious.
    100 units is 3 times as boring as 100 units for 3 races?
    :lol:
    Last edited: July 18, 2013
  12. garat

    garat Cat Herder Uber Alumni

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    First off, please mind your manners on our forums. All of you (Nano, you too :) ).

    However, there is a reasonable point here. A stated effect does not imply causality. For instance. 300 units, I'm bored: doesn't follow. It is reasonable to ask the question as to whether it is unit variance that cause the boredom, or something more intrinsic about the core game loop or how they emerge in gameplay.

    Frankly, you're presenting a flawed argument if you're trying to get people to rethink their position. I'm not trying to make a call on whether your core point is right or wrong (I don't think it's as simple as that), but the reason you're being called out on it is you're stating one problem (boredom), and making an immediate correlation to the cause which doesn't necessarily follow.
  13. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    SupCom didn't have twice as many units per faction, they had about 100, many of which were structures(when you need 3 of everything it adds up) and you didn't use all teh units at once, you only used a small subset of units at any time thanks to how the Tech Tiers were balanced. The Over-arching goal is to not do that, so yeah PA might only have 100 units(at Launch) but there will be less repetition in structures(only 2 Tiers) and the units will be balanced such that they can all be used together, there won't be a power-gap as seen in SupCom.

    If you want to have a serious discussion, at least get your arguments straight. SupCom had 3 factions, FA had 4, but you only ever played with 1 faction at a time, on top of all the things mentioned about it's not a good comparison to make, like apples to oranges.

    Mike
  14. bongologist

    bongologist Member

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    I can't see how loss of faction choice can possibly make the game boring, It will be like getting an engie from each side at the start of a 4v4 is what I keep thinking about.

    You still won't be able to build everything (technically), and you will still have to expect the worst in forms of defence choices. It might even prove more of a challenge because you won't know what to expect just because your enemy is a certain faction, you will have to actually scout to know exactly what he is doing in most cases.
  15. bodzio97

    bodzio97 Member

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    I personally think scouting is a good thing.
  16. truemasterofdisaster

    truemasterofdisaster New Member

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    1.I apologise for my rude language.


    2. When it come to Supcom boredom is probabbly the main problem. In late game you are left with three experimentals to use( 4th one is often to expensive) and few t3 land units. The game is often all about spawning t3 fighters, strategic bombers, t3 bots and experimentals. Some experimentals are almost unstoppable like colossus. This is how almost every game looks like in Supcom. Since Supcom has more units then PA I doubt that same problem will not occur in PA. As there is only one faction, there is only one skin for each unit and as a result less diversity.

    Believe it or not ,but my friends are not going to buy the game just, because of stupid factions. Then I tried to do my best to persuade every one that game requires second faction. It worked the other way around and nanolathe provoked me and their came my rude behavior from.
  17. BulletMagnet

    BulletMagnet Post Master General

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    The reason why SupCom turned out like that (at least in my opinion) was because the gap in strength between T2 and T1 was too big. The Same went for other tiers too. You ended up with boring situations where oneT4 was as strong as 100 tanks.

    PA should be lacking experimantharls and giant gaps between tier strengths.

    Basically, when people here say one faction is going to be boring, I think they imagine SupCom with only the UEF.
  18. nanolathe

    nanolathe Post Master General

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    You are flying so close to the problem that you're almost able to ... crash and fall into the sea like Icarus?...

    ... sorry that analogy was horrid.

    Anyway, The problem with SupCom was not that it had 300/400 stretched across four factions... it had about seven or eight meaningful units per faction... and about five or six important buildings... and then a load of chaff.

    T3 Bots, Strat Bombers and Experimentals. No wonder Supcom got boring; it was a game played thats' progression slowly restricted your unit choices, rather than expanding them.

    That is the problem. Planetary Annihilation is supposed to be addressing this issue. Hopefully we will see some evidence of it soon.
  19. mushroomars

    mushroomars Well-Known Member

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    Sense has been spoken. Said it a lot better than I could have, straight and to the point.

    If anything, SupCom's ridiculous amount of units resulted in an environment much harder to balance. Everyone is asking for MORE when what they actually need is less. Heh, units are kind of like psychotropic drugs.
  20. lockjaw

    lockjaw New Member

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    I remember this being a topic that was brought up with John Mavor and Steve Thompson on the interview that TotalBuiscut did with them; This poll was about whether gamers wanted two factions with different units or one faction with twice as many units, and a lot of people agreed that they wanted one faction with twice as many units.

    The lore with the game is that these robot commanders are using the very best that technology has to offer, so why would they use different units that may prove inferior was my understanding of what Steve Thompson said.

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