Disappointed about PA

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by arkounay, February 28, 2014.

  1. arkounay

    arkounay New Member

    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    3
    Hi,
    I'm disappointed about PA, just wanted to share why and see what other people think about this. I'm not her to troll or anything ; just wanted to share my experience as an inexperimented PA player. My friends feel the same about this.

    I've always been a huge TA and SupCom fan, so I was really excited about PA at first. Didn't like it at first because it wasn't polished enough, but that was normal back then for an Alpha, and I knew the project was ambitious.

    However now, we're in Gamma version and I have to admit I've lost all my faith towards the game, let me explain why :

    • The game was supposed to be released in december 2013 if I remember well. We're close to march now, with a "gamma" version, and yet the game is still miles away from being near finished. Everything is still extremely buggy (just played a game where the AI com suicides after 5 minutes, and my commander kept attacking my ally structure without doing damage etc), the new UI that was supposed to be awesome is not even better than the previous one (I have to click non-stop to choose a color instead of having a full list where you can pick your color for example)

    • Instead of focusing on the main game itself (like being able to move a structure in a queue without having to rebuild all), it looks like Uber is adding features that are completely secondary, like that twitch thing or other social features. I know some people must like it, but that's the kind of thing that should be added once the game is complete enough to me... If you want to add social things, add social things ingame first, like being able to give a unit to someone, making better ping, being able to draw arrows, ...)These secondary features are added while some main features that were supposed to be out in december are still not there (galactic wars for example)

    • The planets are not interesting. They look good graphic-wise, but they're too flat, too small, and feel always the same. As a result, you can't make cool strats related to terrain (like putting artillery on the top of a cliff for example). And to me they never seem balanced since it's not symmetrical but I might just be wrong about that because as I said, I'm not an experienced PA player.I was excited about random map generation before, but now I see that it's just not working out as it always feel the same

    • The ingame UI is terrible too. Why does it looks like i'm right clicking when I'm left clicking to de-select an unit (with that little light) ? Why does shortcut like P to patrol never seem to work ? Why structures that were going to be bought in a correct place remove themselves from the queue because the location isn't correct anymore ? Why do I need to press 2 buttons to choose my factory production mode ?

    • Then some thing in this game seem poorly designed from the beginning and probably won't change. Like : The game is so slow... I know TA was like that, but the first minutes are just not interesting. Why not allowing us to instantly build a factory right at the start (so we can already expand faster) instead of having to build ressources first and just wait ? It was fixed in SupCom : FA and it was great. Also, why keeping a kbot and another land factory ? I'm busy enough to handle air, orbital, naval, ... Why would I have to get 2 different land factories. I know they do different stuff, but then why not 2 air factories, 2 naval factories, etc ? It just seems off compared to the rest of the game. I know it was like that in TA, but it was removed in SupCom and it made more sense.


    To me, the game should still be in alpha stage as it's still very buggy and not even feature complete yet. And it was promised to be out months ago...

    I know an enormous amount of work has been put to the game, I know the technology behind is awesome, but it just feels like I've been lied to. I knew the game would not have been made in time, but yet really experienced developers who worked on both TA and SupCom said it could be done in time, and now we're almost in march and the game is still not near finished. Yet the developers always seems happy about their work during their stream.
    To me, the game still needs 1 or 2 years to be complete. And it would have been fine if on kickstarter Uber said that the game would have been complete on 2015 for example.

    My friends and I are disappointed. Why does most of you like the game ? Planets ? But a full galaxy looks much smaller than the biggest supcom maps...
    mrqasq likes this.
  2. liltbrockie

    liltbrockie Active Member

    Messages:
    314
    Likes Received:
    160
    Oh come on it's not that bad. Patience is a virtue.
  3. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

    Messages:
    12,902
    Likes Received:
    5,385
    welp. there ARE a bunch of threads looking for solutions to these things here. how about posting there?
    someonewhoisnobody likes this.
  4. Devak

    Devak Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,713
    Likes Received:
    1,080
    @OP Because things changed along the way
  5. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

    Messages:
    12,902
    Likes Received:
    5,385

    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/gui-mock-up.52739/
    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/unofficial-official-gui-discussion-thread.52055/
  6. overwatch141

    overwatch141 Active Member

    Messages:
    164
    Likes Received:
    66
    There are only so many people that can work on 1 feature. Someone is working on twitch and it's working. Some people are working on the planets and they're getting better and so on. Some features just take longer to get into a state that is releasable.

    I agree that they should have known that the game wasn't going to be released in December and even now they should know roughly when it's going to be released.
  7. ikickasss

    ikickasss Active Member

    Messages:
    349
    Likes Received:
    114
    Well the patrol I have noticed with this patch also but uber will fix that. As far as you expecting it to be done by Dec 2013 look at starcraft 2 , good games get delayed because UBER wants to release a polished game. This patch is a new UI so buggs will be there. Uber will fix like always. Be patient.
  8. ikickasss

    ikickasss Active Member

    Messages:
    349
    Likes Received:
    114
    Im able to put out 2 factories in the first 3.30 seconds you sound a little impatient.
  9. bmb

    bmb Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,497
    Likes Received:
    219
    I want to point out that when using the size of a tank as a standard candle, the surface area of a large system with many big planets is about equivalent to that of the largest supcom maps.

    Those maps were dull anyway, they seemed more like an exercise in how big of a heightmap could fit in memory rather than any kind of attempt at good gameplay.
    Antiglow and cptconundrum like this.
  10. paulusss

    paulusss Active Member

    Messages:
    271
    Likes Received:
    144
    To explain a few things, the core game, without stretch goals would have been finished in december for shure. BUT! since we got all the stretch goals they are making the game almost twice as big then without the stretch goals. And the release date was never set in stone. But since the game made far more money now through sales via the website and steam they hired allot more people and got more time and money to produce features and do it better more refined. The release date is now, when its done!

    The UI did not change mutch i agree, but the menu and the lobby and armory are the only things that are new, the ingame UI what i heard will be rolled out in this Gamma fase. Altho the UI can use abit more colour im my opinion.

    The planets are still being worked on, more variaty in landscape will be added and they are even thinking about fixed planets which are symmetric.

    All the other things will take time to resolve, don't worry about that, if you played the game in Alpha you know how far this game as come in a short mount of time, give it another period like it and the game will be the best of it kind ^^
  11. arkounay

    arkounay New Member

    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    3
    Ah, then I'm just unlucky then, my bad

    Yeah that's true, these maps weren't really interesting gameplay wise

    But the problem is to me it's not yet in the polishing phase, since

    Ah ok, didn't understand it that way, thanks for the clarifications, didn't know that.

    I searched in the forum before posting and always watched the streams but it seems it wasn't enough ahah



    Also sorry about the other topics, I did search but I guess not enough.
    and thanks for your replies guys, I'm relieved a bit
  12. Geers

    Geers Post Master General

    Messages:
    6,946
    Likes Received:
    6,820
    You sound like one of those people who buys into an alpha/beta/gamma/delta/epsilon/zeta expecting a full game. It isn't finished yet, and you have to allow for that.

    I'm probably just too cynical to be helpful here...
  13. Taxman66

    Taxman66 Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    567
    Likes Received:
    343
    At first when I played PA as a former TA and FA player I was like ehh this is alright I guess. But after playing for a couple more days I started to love it and got involved on the forums and watching the streams. I've seen the game come so far in the past few months in ways I could not even imagine and I'd place it above FA in gameplay.

    FA just ended up becoming a spamming Sim city style Real Time Strategy Game where there were <5 starting build playstyles that would end in victory and where t2 didn't really matter since if you had eco to go t2...you could just go t3. After playing on FAF for three months or so I started to die inside every single freaking time I only saw people playing Seton's freaking clutch and Gap of Rohan. :mad:

    But to answer your problems. No, PA's release date was abandoned around November (btw ive rarely heard of a game that was released on time in the past 5 years, which seems to be the trend these days). UI is a bit sticky but it's a massive improvement from the lame chat bug in the previous lobby.
    cptconundrum likes this.
  14. someonewhoisnobody

    someonewhoisnobody Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    657
    Likes Received:
    361
    They are still working on it

    I don't think the release date is a problem because it can bought at any time for the price of a regular game. If you look at the time cycle if a game this size it usually a lot longer.

    They are starting to pollish by increasing performance.
  15. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

    Messages:
    12,902
    Likes Received:
    5,385
    hehe are you an expert at false statements? because, try as I might I can't manage to cram an extra one in there.

    that's 8 different statement there, all of them the exact opposite of the truth, I find this quite amazing to be honest.

    just append a "to me" to this and we can both safely walk our own ways.
    hearmyvoice and Geers like this.
  16. arkounay

    arkounay New Member

    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    3
    Really ? I guess I should try to play it more then


    true
  17. doud

    doud Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    922
    Likes Received:
    568
    as far as i'm concerned the major disapointment is about Air Fighters flying model. I really preferred FA one.
    I would like planes to fly describing nice curves. Currently it's only about stright away then short break left/right.
    Dispointed, really disapointed. Bombers are far more exciting.
  18. Taxman66

    Taxman66 Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    567
    Likes Received:
    343
    FA was:
    1. A Spam Fest
    2. Sim City - Muh Adjacency and shields
    3. Few starting strategies/builds
    4. t2 was underused in most games (except for flak and missile launchers)
    5. People only playing Setons and Gap <<< You cant disagree with this.

    ^ All of these are true.
  19. cptconundrum

    cptconundrum Post Master General

    Messages:
    4,186
    Likes Received:
    4,900
    I agree with all of those except t2. You can basically just win as soon as you get those t2 rocket bots on a small map. For me it was t3 that felt wrong, because once you had the economy to spam t3 you would just make experimentals.
  20. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

    Messages:
    12,902
    Likes Received:
    5,385
    cringing... so... much... cringing... must... not... loose.... it...
    T2 rocket bots? what? why not titan while you're at it or flare or something?

    Simcity? what you never mustered the courage to play PvP in FA?

    Spam fest is a disgrace now? at that title PA is hurt much more than FA.
    T2 is my winning strategy so I believe FaF did it's job there.

    Setons and gap are the most popular maps they are not the only map people play. I can guarantee that. otherwise Mavor would never have been interested in making a phantom/muder party (or even wave of death) game mode.
    I'm not going to make the full list there's a bazillion of them.

Share This Page