Single player's letter to Ubernet

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by casale, January 6, 2014.

  1. casale

    casale New Member

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    Dear Ubernet

    Thanks for making this game.

    My favourite game was Warcraft 1. Then Command & Conquer (1) came out, becoming my new favourite game. Then I found Total Annihilation, the new reigning champ. Nothing beat that until Supreme Commander, then FA. The single player level design is the best I've ever seen. Nothing was better than overcoming the initial struggle, gaining a foothold until I can build that first shield generator, then slowly developing into an immaculately laid-out inpenetrable fortress of power.

    My greatest joy was building a neatly laid-out mechanized war compound, with symmetrical rows of defense cannons tucked inside a shield generator. I set repair constructors to patrol in sequence behind my wall of cannons to repair automatically when a particularly large rush managed to do some damage. My pride was to set up a powerful system, go away for a few hours, and when I came back my base was still operating as I left it (+~20k kill count).

    Then came SupCom 2. I didn't like it. It seemed like it was designed as a "sport" for multiplayer users rather than a war against the machines. I don't play multiplayer, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

    PA has huge promise. Please, whatever you do, don't forget about those of us who only buy for the single player experience. Already, the lack of "map corners" on spherical planets make building a fortress difficult, since you have to defend equally on all sides. But that's fine! As long as I can set up good, strong walls and create bottlenecks using the terrain.

    Ideally I'd love to see:
    • Vertically stackable buildings (such as energy -> metal converters and energy generators) so that I can increase my economy without having to expand my territory.
    • Experimental units, buildings & defense systems
    • Shield generators
    • Tall wall units
    • Not really a feature, but one of the beautiful things about SupCom were the different factions' unique looks: Cybran were insectoid, UEF were man-made war machines, Aeon were sleek and alien.
    I know the game is still WIP and I can see that it's very likely going to be the new #1 RTS for single player.

    Cheers,
    Casale
  2. Teod

    Teod Well-Known Member

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    Why so lazy? "Expand!" is the most importsnt advice for any player, both in single and multiplayer. You should always have enough space to place everything. And placing everything in one place makes you very vulnerable.
    Confirmed "probably no". They are very hard to balance properly.
    Confirmed no.
    As alternative to shields? Probable, but still unlikely.
    Confirmed no. Art assets are expensive. And lack of unit factions makes game easier to balance.
    Antiglow likes this.
  3. Schulti

    Schulti Active Member

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    Hello casale, welcome to the forums!

    I enjoyed reading your post. I can understand what your favourite playstyle is and i like that too. Did similar things and had a lot of fun with it.
    But i´m sorry to tell you that nearly all of your point have and unfortunatly will not have much to do with PA how it will be released - at least thats what i know about the development and the aim of the game (and thats from early alpha and much, much reading in the forums after all).

    This game is about scale, about masses and masses of units. About war on differnet planets. So rather not about building a massiv fortress. I dont say that this will be impossilbe, but the game is not made for players that only want to play in this way.

    • Vertically stackable buildings (such as energy -> metal converters and energy generators) so that I can increase my economy without having to expand my territory.
    The dev said that there will not be such things. no metal makers and no boosting of eco buildings and such.

    • Experimental units, buildings & defense systems
    As for now, there are no experimental units planed. The unitroaster isnt complete at all, but it will be more like a spilt of basic and advance units where advance units will have spezialiced rolls that are usable in other ways (or more ways) than only be a stronger version of the basic units.
    • Shield generators
    In the releaseversion of the game are no shields. maby the are added sometimes after the launch.
    • Tall wall units
    Nothing heard of such plans.
    • Not really a feature, but one of the beautiful things about SupCom were the different factions' unique looks: Cybran were insectoid, UEF were man-made war machines, Aeon were sleek and alien.
    This is one thing because a game of this scale can be made by a developerteam that has a relativly low budget compared with other games (like SC2). There is only one set of units, because its cheaper.

    I recommend you to read in the forums a little bit and use the search function to get more information.
  4. Schulti

    Schulti Active Member

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    damn. i was too slow :)
  5. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    It seems to me that you are asking for a game that offers a lot of defence structures rather than a single player focused game?
  6. nestar2

    nestar2 Member

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    I am also single player player and all which focus on single player I find enjoyable since every game on the market is made for multiplayer nowadays.
  7. mushroomars

    mushroomars Well-Known Member

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    *shrugs* everyone has their preferences. Galactic War is one of the stretch goals that we more than reached, so we should be seeing it in game. The primary difference between GW is the amount of imagination you'll have to have to enjoy it compared to SupCom.

    Modders will also certainly be coming out with custom campaigns.
  8. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I am not saying it is bad to ask for a tower wars game. I just don't see how they are related to single player.
  9. monkeyulize

    monkeyulize Active Member

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    It sounds like you want sim city but with wave based attacks.
  10. zaphodx

    zaphodx Post Master General

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    You'll probably find there are some pretty fun mods like this that get made.
  11. YourLocalMadSci

    YourLocalMadSci Well-Known Member

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    As a side point, I recommend that you address your post to Uber Entertainment instead of Ubernet. The Ubernet is the back-end server system used for hosting and user account management. I don't think it is making any game design decisions.
    cwarner7264 likes this.
  12. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

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  13. Dexodrill

    Dexodrill New Member

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    Well As a fellow Single player, in this world of games, I must say I like some ideas however I agree with the points made about shield generators and most of the other topics brought forward.

    Theres one thing id back up and that is something that would be very nice but in in no way important to my enjoyment of the game.

    That is the different faction looks.

    Now I understand that it is very expensive and time consuming process to get all of the art work created, designed, programmed and balanced, however Id ask if its possible to put out the call for some people to create different looks without altering the functionality and balance of the units. Im not expecting much here since Im already happy with the design of the units as is, infact the color scheme has really helped me enjoy the units as a whole. But it would be nice to see some different style bot destroying my stuff.

    Again I understand the draw backs and don't expect this to be a focus by the developers but maybe we could work on making a way to add different unit looks as an option more then a demand. To sum up my thoughts: I don't want the developers sweating and having more issues delaying there work or hindering it, but the idea of some variety in the battlefield would be nice.

    And please no stack-able buildings unless they are upgrades! Id rather not see the AI stacking buildings making it rather easy and quick for me to nuke there economy... although it already seems to stick things wayyyy to close together.
  14. fragal0t

    fragal0t New Member

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    Metal Extractors are stackable. You can build a T2 extractor over an existing T1, which effectively makes it a T3 metal extractor, but the game still sees the two separately (thus different health meters). You can also build a T1 under an existing T2 extractor.

    One thing i miss from SupCom was how you can increase the output of your metal extractors and generators by placing containers next to them. Though this was only effective with T2 and above for metal extractors.

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