So, there are a couple of things I want to point out about the game, in random order: When buying the game I encountered 3 huge problems, that would have totally scared away average new linux users: When buying on steam, actually tell the customers to fuse uber-account with steam-account, and how they should do that, or even better: automate the process (as much as possible). I had to google for a solution for like 15 minutes. That is not something you want the average customer to go through: they should be able to play 'out of the box', and never be left clueless on what to do next. Starting from steam does not work. Again: fresh customers want things to work 'out of the box', not search the internet to find the only way to run this game on linux is to not use steam, which is totally counter-intuitive. Running steam and this game did not 'work' for me on debian and arch at all (even after hours of tinkering): only on ubuntu 13 did it work for me: I get steam from the package manager, install PA with steam, run game from terminal with Code: ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Planetary\ Annihilation/PA This game should run flawlessly on all major linux distros. At least create some wiki that tells the user what dependencies etc are needed for (steam and) PA to work in each distro. Inside systems-editor: Whenever I press 'backspace' it deletes 2 characters in all text-boxes (like planet name and system name). Planet settings: I dont get the x & y velocity factors: they dont seem to 'do' anything when I simulate. Perhaps the game should name them logically and make them work like this: Rotation: Self [-32000 <-> +32000] (minus turns planet counterclockwise, 0 dont rotate at all, positive turns planet clockwise, in 'rotations per minute' or hour or something) System [-32000 <-> +32000] (minus turns planet around sun counterclockwise, 0 dont rotate at all, positive turns planet around sun clockwise, in 'rotations per minute' or hour) I have no clue what 'biomede' (or something) should do...? When I click 'close' on the planet settings, it does not close? Inside the systems editor: it is very hard to 'select' small asteroids placed far out in the system: you have to find them first by hand. Have some list to select planets currently in the system? The bottom bar? Make the background all black to make the planets easier to find on the map? I can only pull on the blue icon when I am zoomed in to the asteroid, but I cannot see the lane-changes I do with it, because then I have to zoom out: but when I am zoomed out: I cannot use the blue icon. Make the blue icon show up in all zoom-modes? Sometimes the lane a planet follows seems 8 shaped. Which is fun, but when I simulate: the planet does not show up? In game: Loading takes forever. Try to reduce loading time as much as possible. Also, make loading more 'fun' to look at: some random splashscreens perhaps, and a percentage-slider with some texts under it like 'step (4 out of 9): loading bitmaps for planet 2' would encourage users to wait it out, and not think the program has crashed on them and leave. Yes, loading would take a little longer: but not showing anything is just user-unfriendly. Whenever you select an item, it shows up in the lower left hand corner as an icon. Hovering above that icon should say what it is, and what it does. I cannot tell what an unit is by just looking at the shape. It is unclear how to interface with some units: like picking up a character with the orbital loader (select loader, rightclick on target? or leftclick?), unloading an unit (select 'unload'command, rightclick on bottom?), or sending the loader to another planet (select 'move' goto bottom of another planet, rightclick, then leftclick???), to make a nuke (dont how how, the building just sits there?). To make a unit follow waypoints (??), to have a builder build a couple of buildings in a row (??), the 'patrol'command seems to do exactly the same as the 'move'command? Where is the sun: I dont see the sun? Compliments: The planets look very nice with the detail and shadows and such turn up 'highest' The music/sounds are excellent This is just a great awesome game concept! I see there is a new version available (54497) today. Perhaps things are different now already.
-Steam play button still does not work: start with terminal directly -Loading a system seems much faster -Sun now shows! As a blob of blueish triangles? (using 'ati' radeon hd 6870 with standard ubuntu 13 drivers) -Commander has a line of white where his ground floor ends behind him. This did show up in the previous version with the details turned down, but in this version it also shows up with the details and everything turned all the way up. -At one point (I was setting my commander to ctrl-1), suddenly clicking my mouse did produce 'effects' (green zone and click noise), but it did not do anything anymore (commander just stood there and I could not select any building etc either). Had to alt-f4 and restart game. Terminal said it had encountered lots of Code: 18671 09:03:26.949300 A | Assert failure: Wrong coordinates passed for click-through query 0 4294967274
