The real possibility of a large PA esports community

I think PA has some serious potential.
I don´t think balance is the problem right now.
Unit behaviour and the control ui have at least imho higher priority.

i agree. movement has to be 100-percent reliable.

We can't completely ignore that PA is coming at a time that is ripe for a new world-popular E-sport RTS since StarcraftII has sorta reached the end of is steam and it's players are looking for it's successor.

And If you look around it's evident people are trying to take the throne (Grey Goo/Homeworld shipbreakers) and even breadcrumbs (Etherium/Universim).

But let's not lure ourselves now, these games don't have as big as a shot at it as PA, PA is the only one out of those that is as evidently competitive-oriented (because of the fast-pace and fast UI) and with such a good catch (spherical maps).

Time will tell, but right now the cards are lined up just right.

I'd say the only thing that could screw this up are bugs and lag, bugs and lag, bugs and lag.

Although I really really wish PA had strong e-sport community I doubt it will happen. The game is just a bit too hardcore RTS. It makes it so good and special, but the backbone of E-sport is viewership are casual viewers. I've shown PA to 10-15 people, even good Starcraft 2 players the game feels too complicated for them.
Casual players -> big stream viewership -> sponsors -> e-sport.
Starcraft 2 is already struggling with inviting casuals, most of them went to MOBA games. It took me 2 weeks to get used to Planet 3d sphere instead of 2d maps. And I'm pretty competitive guy. You have to construct a crapload of buildings during the game, it's just too hard for casuals. Planet smashing is epic and fun, it's a bit too little to offset the difficulty of getting into the game. So the only way for PA e-sport to grow is to steal Starcraft 2 viewers because they are hardcore RTS fans. And that's not gonna happen in big numbers because starcraft is blizzard game and blizzfans are pretty fanatic. A lot of people watch and play sc2 only because of their nostalgia from broodwar - this means they won't switch to other RTSes. Starcraft players also quite like their micro and there is not much of it in pa.
From watching perspective most of people that just looked at PA a couple of times tell me that they see it a war of dots, they don't understand strategic icons and it's weird for them that you barely see units. The only thing that makes every casual player go absolutely nuts is the planet smash. So if the game has more of it, it might make it more e-sport friendly but I don't think its enough.(and the "wow" factor in general - people go crazy about sick micro in sc2, not about macro) Plus naturally the things that guys in previous posts mentioned. (especially elodea, listen to this guy, most of his posts are smart)
Don't get me wrong I really love Planetary Annihilation and I want PA to succed, it would even benefit me greatly as there would be more tourneys but I try to think realisticly. I hope I'm wrong though
PS. Also, free to play. I understand it's probably impossible for Uber to implement it. They probably can't afford it and it would dissapoint kickstarter backers, but currently the market is shifting definitely towards Free2Play games, paying for games scares off hordes of 13-17 year old people and they are most of E-Sport fanbase these days. (Even in Starcraft 2, most of likes on my fanpage are from guys at this age). Without F2P games just not enough people play the game.

And that why strategy comes into this

I think complexity is what makes watching games fun.

Although i do agree that it also scares away people from trying to learn.

We can dream! And until and unless PA actually makes it big we can still enjoy being a part of a smaller eSports community. Just having small prizes, less competitors, and less fans doesn't mean we can't still have professionally quality eSports in PA.

Won't tournament-mandated server mods ultimately be the way balance is achieved? Isn't that concern moot?

Very much this! The quality of the game (and the community) comes before 100k viewers in my opinion! And more people playing PA as "pro's" will invite more people to watch!

Granted, the game takes some getting used to, but is that bad? I don't think so. We don't need any of the prefab stuff that is a MOBA game... I have a few friends in my clan that play LoL and DotA (semi-) competitively and i've seen some of their matches. Alright, so LoL and DotA are quite alike, but guess what: enter Blizzard with Heroes of the Storm... Except some map-driven events this is THE SAME GAME! The mechanics are EX-ACT-LY the same!!! I find this shameful, especially from a company like Blizzard...

But back to PA, as these are not the Blizzard forums right: PA has what it takes to become an e-sports, we (as the community) just have to help Uber achieve that status! A great community is a first step to a well-known game! Maybe some of the more dedicated clans (like TheRealm and Exodus) around here can host some Newbie Casts regularly or host some "coaching" for players wanting to get into the game. And inb4: i know you guys probably do this already to some extent, but get it more publically known

I really really hope that tournaments don't need to use balance mods. New players will learn nothing from watching and they won't have any attachment to the game. RCBM and Statera look promising but I have no interest in watching tournaments for them yet because the gameplay means nothing to me. Once I try them that will change, but casual viewers are unlikely to do that.

Exodus does have a guides section that people can contribute to, but I guess we don't really promote it quite as much as other sites. We aren't trying to make any money and we try to avoid doing things just for popularity, so sometimes promoting exodus content can seem a little self-serving. When it is relevant I'll point people to it, but it is surprisingly hard to feel good about constantly promoting ourselves when we really just want to put on good shows, organize fun events to participate in, and be a good resource for players that want to learn something.

If enough people think it would be useful to have a more casual "Training Day" exodus stream, we might consider that. So far we have preferred to let other groups and people do that sort of thing because there are some people out there that are really good at it and it's just not something many of us have a lot of experience in.

This was more of a generalisation really didn't mean to "force" you guys into anything... But Exodus and TheRealm are the clans that i see most players have banners from, so i'd expect you guys where the biggest clans I'd do it with my clan but 1. we are only a group of friends that very regularly play together and 2. we only have 2 people playing PA and thats me and my closest RL friend that is in the clan aswell so i'm not going to do any tutorials or newbie invitationals sadly...

And ofcourse you'll have guides for your own players, which is only natural, but most people stay oblivious to a game, unless they meet with the community in some way, or the game really really interests them and this is what we want to promote ofcourse!

Exodus is actually just 9 people.

We're also not really a clan, just a group dedicated to improving competitive PA through tournaments, events, guides, and player profiles.

I am also in The Realm, although I don't go on the teamspeak often enough. Realm is somewhere in between a clan and a general gaming community because it is so big.

Reminds me of my old clan WarriorNation at peak they had 1500+ members over 16 nationalities! Still was a clan as it was completely private and members had to vouch for newcomers as they wanted to enter...

But a big clan also means a very rigid and unsurmountable leadership... It was a bit too much rules for me to stay there

Big chance as an Esport
PA looks and plays like no other rts out atm yes some are similar but not the same will be a huge draw of intrest alone since it not seen as a "clone" it is "unique" planet smashing alone gets PA some attention.

The low micro but high apm will benefit greatly in since still require "skill".

What we really want from balance is ideally more the one way to take the comander out with out any cheese strategy.

I would like also no game over because you lost this structure early so your to far behind now wait for the grind til the end. (luckly you can do make or break assassination attempts as a last chance win)

Oh we know WarriorNation very well. They were on our server in Planetside 2 which is where we got started. They invited us to merge into them at one point, but likewise we decided that rules aren't fun

I agree overall, there's just a thing that puzzles me. Why is it people look at MOBA as "easy" games? I mean sure the premise is simple but if you're going to go at it competitively you'll need to learn several encyclopedias worth of builds and crap, and then be in absolute phase with the game. It's freaking ridiculous.
I know a whole bunch of people in platinum and some in diamond, they don't have any sponsors they're just playing at home, and they're literal GODS at the game and I couldn't even scratch their heel. But they're STILL peasants compared to pro sponsored players.

The skill curve in this game is freaking ridiculous.

I don't know how people manage to think they have a better shot at making it to the big leagues though DOTA rather than an RTS like PA.

People only look at league of legends as easy. The differences between dota and lol are quite substantial

ah. ok I wouldn't know. DOTA2 is much smaller than LOL isn't it?

yup, mostly because dota 2 is less accessible. I don't mean to debate one of them is better than the other, just one has more simple mechanics than the other.

As for why people would more likely migrate to dota instead of PA, it would be because of the prize moneys . We're talking people who make a living playing the game - they won't play games that don't pay out. So like matiz said, you need the casual viewership -> sponsors -> big competitive scene.

Hmmm, that said all of that simply stems naturaly from a big userbase.
of course it's a beneficial circle. but a mildly large userbase is where it all starts.

And in the current case I think that's what UBER should try to obtain for PA.

I really think they should do some advertising. maybe on youtube and on google.