Lead Writer here. Have lore questions? I have answers! Maybe...

Is the metal planet a/ The NEST ?

Before I get slapped.... The death star moved as well.

Loved Terry Brooks, I've read every book in the Shanara series

I haven't seen anything in the Galactic War system descriptions about planets being annihilated before time designation zero. Did this happen at all before or is it new? If it's new, who invented halleys? If it's something that happened during the pro-com war, will we get to learn about any of those battles?

Also; how many commanders were around in the pro-com war? I like to imagine that there were huge numbers of them all over with lots of ridiculously massive battles going on.

A bit off topic, but I've noticed that most 'robot apocalypse' science fiction that I'm familiar with features sentient AI as the initial cause of conflict. Which seems odd to me, since relatively 'dumb' AI could cause major problems long before the singularity, especially if they're capable of self-replicating with errors/variation (in which case they'd be subject to natural selection, and we all know what can happen then).

Bringing this back on topic: Since the PA commanders are capable of replication (and of altering one-another), I suspect natural selection would apply to them as well. Sentience, for giant robots in an endless battle, may not always be a beneficial trait. A non-sentient commander would not be subject to things such as bias, fear, pride, etc. Following an ideology means making decisions under its consideration, potentially differing from the best decision from a purely evolutionary standpoint. As such, could the evolutionary pressures of endless war potentially lead to the appearance of mindless, brutally efficient space-faring automata adapted solely to reproduce and out-compete?

You're probably right, but I play as a commander and I generally consider myself sentient. It would be a little weird to have to think of myself as just a meat blob with a bunch of algorithms jammed into my head and imagining my commander like that is just as hard to do. I think the sentience is important in the story because the game needs you to feel like a commander.

I'm just wondering if there might be commanders (or perhaps groups without commanders) that aren't sentient. There are advantages and disadvantages involved with these adaptations, chances are they'd both be present to some extent. Well, at least I'd like to think so

I'm sorry, but everytime I read this, I read "uhoh, didn't though about this, I need to create a bit of lore for this".

(it's OK to me, as the game is still in development, and you remind myself as a game master on a tabletop rpg when some of my players found a valid flaw in my script ).

Hadelman or Haldeman (writer of the Forever War, maybe the one SF novel I liked the most) ? No K. ****? No Gibson?

Yay for the forum obfuscating a very well known anticipation author .

The numbers of Commanders during the Pro-Com War was indeed large. There were several sites that actually produced Commanders and they were heavily contested between the two sides. What the Progenitors feared was the MLA gaining control of these facilities and producing more Commanders loyal to their cause. Their fears came true....

Are there any sort of dates for these events? When did the war start, end, TDZ, etc...?

The interesting question is what you are eluding to: what would drive a sentient machine, complete with emotion, to do what it does? Since humans created them in the first place, it is reasonable to assume that these machines would still have human "imprints" on them. With that being said, these machines, like humans, would always be trying to improve themselves. There is however a "wildcard" in this whole process that has not been revealed yet that changes everything. That is all I can say at this point.

Actually, there is a lot that has been written as far as the lore goes. It cannot all be released at once, especially when it involves a game still in production. There are a lot of stories I look forward to sharing with everyone.

I personally do have a timeline for the events that take place in the PA universe, but it has been purposely left vague for now until more of the overall story is revealed.

just at the idea of metal planets making new commanders... all I can think about now is a metal planet transforming into a huge commander and throwing planets at its smaller counterparts xD

I'd really like to see some stories about planet smashing during the Pro-Com war. I assume there was a lot of that going on!

I have an entire history written out for the PA universe, including the first instance of planet smashing.

Is there a race of Sharktopus Commanders which are plotting their conquest of the known galaxy as we speak?

I NEED to read that story, I bet it'd be horrifying to look up, as a progenitor, and see a giant planet breaking through the atmosphere before it hits you...

pls

It's actually a lot of fun reading the Steam forum whenever someone buys the game without realizing this is possible and discovers the feature when a planet gets dropped on them. I imagine their shock is the same thing the first victims felt in the Pro-Com war.