D Gun !!!

Ok I've been asking since alpha.... how do I use the damn thing!?

Get close and rightclick. It has about half the range of the standard Commander attack and 'automatically' fires when you target a unit in range.

It's not very impressive however; nothing like the D-Gun from TA.

The sound design makes it sound rather anemic... and the blue-fluffy-cloud AOE (rather than the red-spiky-line from TA) is very small. It takes multiple hits to destroy the strongest units and has a long recharge time.

Basically, if you take away everything that made the TA Disintegrator-Gun cool and awe inspiring, you get the 'Uber Cannon'.

The sound is the deal beaker for me, as is most of the unit sounds in this game.

There's a lot of things wrong with it, sound not least among them.

Yes I've noticed its weakness, but still powerful..... figured there was a key stroke like ta, thanks guys

Powerful against a single scout, or handful of wayward and un-microed tanks maybe...

It can do some hefty damage to enemy commanders.

So can everything else... with the added benefit of not having your own Commander in a suicidal position.

The D-gun played a critical role as the "anti rush" weapon of TA. It was built to destroy the most powerful and efficient units in the game- short range tanky stuff- because they are the most directly lethal weapon against Commanders. Without it, a single bulldog or Zeus could have killed the Comm( or maybe 2, it didn't take much).

The D-Gun's castration began with Supreme Commander, which tried to "balance" the weapon because large theoretical numbers are scaaaary.

Yeah, the "Uber" gun really isn't all that impressive at all. Sure, it may be more balanced, but isn't the goal of Planetary Annihilation to aim for awesome rather than realistic?

D-Gun as it was in TA = awesome. That's why it needs to make a return in all of its glory in PA. Make it happen!

the D-gun should be like the SupCom Overcharge, never miss!

I really do feel bad for the guy who unleashed this phrase, as I have loathed anything more on a forum then that as some kind of excuse.

In the case of the D-Gun, it applies. Replace 'realistic' with 'balanced' and you're there.

The thing is, you can have a weapon that deals unlimited damage at a fast fire rate, and not have it overwhelmingly screw over the game. TA already proved that. There was no 'balance' that needed fixing.

The D-gun used to take out a Commander in 2 shots. The Commander Duels weren't fun back then and people would rush with their commander as their opening move. No one enjoyed it.

I understand why Uber nerved the D-gun like they did.

Did they nerf it too much?

Probably.

Game balance isn't done I imagine they'll improve the Dgun before the game is released.

There are more effective ways to alter the Commander rush that have nothing to do with the d-gun's strength. An actual Comm rush only matters in the first minutes of the game. The D-gun lasts all game long and has to deal with many more midgame threats. A proper answer should solve those first few minutes, and not screw the Commander beyond that point.

Commander rushes were fine; you had a short (less than 5min) game that you can just move on from... and you have one more name on your 'Ignore' list.

Everyone wins... except the arse who 'griefed', since he now has a reduced player pool to play with.

It's not even that. There are a HUGE number of factors that go into any early game scenario, from the initial build up to movement speeds and rush distance and extractors and starting resources and so on. Out of those factors there are two things that make the Commander unique and should not be compromised:
1) The D-gun. As strong as can be.
2) The death explosion. As epic as can be.

If you have to cripple either of those two factors to make the Comm rush not effective, then you simply aren't a good designer.

There's already 2 things in this game that really heavily mitigate the risk of a Comm rush: the speed that you can get T1 units out early, and the sheer surface area of all but the smallest planets (500m or less). Unless you get really lucky, by the time a Comm rusher actually finds and reaches you with his commander, it's not likely to succeed, powerful D-gun or not. I say bring back the gun of doom, a successful Comm rush is typically a sign that you weren't going to win anyway.

Additionally, the D-Gun was avoidable since it had a very obvious telltale sign. It was a big flashing line of small explosions coming at you so you could dodge it.

While they don't need to make an exact copy the D-Gun was very well done. It was dodgeable from far away but the commander could lead the shot and since it destroyed everything in a line with a bit of practice you could kill fast stuff too. It used enough energy that in early game you got a shot or two off and then had to wait for recharge.

And as has been said before, nobody rushed with the commanders since the only thing you got was a draw. (Besides some trolling. But as nano said, just make another game without that player.) What you sometimes got (especially in team games) were standoffs between commanders (or games of chicken) where each would try to force the other commander to move away without getting into D-Gun range until one of them lost their nerves and retreated.