Hey I was wondering if anything has come down yet about a 2d map, something that we can build sprawling bases on and fight the old school RTS way.
I don't think there will be any official 2D maps since the name is 'Planetary Annihilation', but i do remember some people talking about making a mod with it. I think we would have to have more tools available though, like the engine.
In a way the systems map is your "2D map". And with really large planets (once they are implemented) travel times alone will make most directions infeasible.
If we had the engine it would be possible, heck it's even possible make ring worlds, sadly no mobius strip.
Yeah, ring worlds, or even the inside of a dyson sphere would be wicked cool to see. Might be a tad odd of planes being able to fully orbit a ring world, but it'll all be in good fun I am sure.
How about this instead? https://forums.uberent.com/threads/minimap-discussion-from-ign-review-thread.64363/
I'd suggest one of the SupCom games, since the idea behind this game is spherical maps. However, I'd be shocked if a mod isn't created that turns this into a more standard flat RTS. (As far as I've heard, Uber is sticking with the spheres)
Spherical maps and overall anti turtling ideology is what makes this game great (or at least different). On planet there are no corners where you can turtle, so adapt or die. However I know where are you coming from, I have friend that loves to turtle. He refuses (or gets angry at me) when I do any rush tactics, turtling and building his small sim city is what he loves most. Its pain to play with him in coop because all resources are drained to endless layers of towers. I wonder if flat maps will be ever possible to implement by modders. It is not trivial task. I also would love flat, ring world or dyson sphere maps sometimes, this would add variety.
The game doesn't have a anti-turtling ideology, modern warfare just doesn't revolve around building fortresses.
You are mixing real thing which is "modern warfare" with game that is made for fun not as simulation. So i disagree with you, fact that PA design "dislikes" turtling and making fortresses is ideology not something that is result of technological evolution. We do not turtle here because its more fun (or at least devs decided that) not because technology and economy is forcing that. Also calling robots and planet lolsors a "modern warfare" is slap in the face for any commander. This is "future of future warfare".
No it really really isn't. In PA we use tanks, bombers fighters, gunships, we more or less have infantry with bots, and the asteroids/planet laser essentially serving the same purpose of conventional nuclear weapons. But you are right, this isn't modern warfare, this is the cold war. And it really is the result of how the economy works and the units work. Standing still leaves you vulnerable, and the economy makes casualty's trivial to consider. PA is based on the cold war mobile warfare kind of battle, equipping units with flashy weapons doesn't change that. Artillery killed the fortress, the games flowing economy killed attrition, tanks killed the trenches.
I wonder about flat maps. Hacking something in might be possible but hacky when servers are released. It's dependent on whether we can make air barriers, otherwise air units will just be able to escape from one edge and appear on another. Gravity might be troublesome too. I predict the first flat maps will actually be large spherical maps with a small square play area, and rather limited.
Not quite what you were thinking but maybe you could do this on a larger scale (see ~17:25) Works a bit more like a traditional flat map. Think it says in the video who built it, but I can't remember.