Uber Weekly Update - August 13, 2014

Uber Update:
The Year is 2921
PA has become Self Conscious
The Unit Cannon our ancestors foretold has yet to arrive.
SMNC just got Rule Change 34.
Brad Nicholson is revealed to be Jesus but hella more buff.

Yeah I know all that - I am a developer myself.
PA was clearly and fully intentionally marketed as a TA sequel. The reason they called it a 'spiritual successor' was probably mainly because of legal reasons.
Wreckage is a feature which is clearly one of core concepts of the gameplay. In one of the earlier livestreams they actually talked how it was gonna be just like in TA.

There is not much left to drop from the core concepts...

The entire economy?

Already happened.

No natural metal sources except for metal spots.
No wreckages as metal source.
Trees don't really act as an working energy source.
Extremly fast paced eco with small default storages.
No implicit storages in factories and defenses, like it was in TA.
Only 1 type of pgen technology.

How much more could possibly be changed?
Yes, it's still a streaming eco. And it's still using 2 ressources. But that's about it.

Concept of dedicated storage buildings is still somewhat weird and counter-intuitive.

No natural metal sources except metal spots, did you forget about trees?

Also, I'm talking about the fact it has streaming economy.

(I'm wondering, is factory and building wreckage still in, or were both removed, it said unit wreckage.. I haven't tried out the latest build.)

I'd also add 'no geothermal vents' as a natural contested source of increased energy in the early game, although that counts as "Only 1 type of pgen technology".

That goes with the Only 1 type of pgen technology

Shouldn't trees be an energy source?...

I'm thinking of making a map where metal ore is scarce and you must reclaim trees as a primary metal source.
It forces expansion and you have to keep your combat fabs alive at all costs.

Can you imagine what must have happened to these trees? I mean, they look like they were made from wood, and they burn quite well.

So why do they yield metal, and not energy? And why are there no metal boulders?

I guess it's considered mass as supcom had it. Even though it's named metal as apposed to mass with the extractors and such.

Uhm, but SupCom trees did yield mass AND energy. Foremost the latter. In PA you actually have to pay energy to harvest trees for an neglectable amount of metal.

Yeah, I feel it was more the energy cost to reclaim that made it a hassle.

Not that I was ever a early game reclaimer kinda guy, I like it being mod-end game stuff, when fabbers are expendable.

What if when a group of units within a certain distance they, they instead of many piles of scraps, kinda turn into mountains of scrap. So like there is piles that dont clutter too much.

Or just have the wrecks sing into the ground a little, so it doesn't look weird when stuff drives over them.

Sink? Better grind them down, like it was in TA.

Keep them in "full state" until something collides with them (and reclaimable for "full" mass while in that state), but reduce them to rubble (pure texture) once they collide with ANYTHING. Still reclaimable for slightly less mass.

Unless nuked. In that case remove even the rubble entirely.

No impact on pathing, and aggregatable for reduced entity count as soon as units start to pile up.

Completely removing wreckages is the worst solution possible.

Well a compromise is a compromise.

Although the idea that they get damaged when rammed is cool, with proper effects it could look awesome to trample the dead on your way through.

uhm ....THIS ?

very much this.

Trees should be removed considering the huge overhead they put in the rendering process.
Let polys but more terrain variations, plus wreckages.

I have a sort of un-tested prototype on system share-er mod. Feel free to try it out!
I just played with some values, but if you guys like it, I'll get more involved.