Clock

This game, like many products, has many components/potential components. They can be categorised as such:

Features - Awesome stuff to wow consumers, not actually required but a selling point anyway. Example: Asteroids into planets!!!

Requirements - Things that consumers expect the game to have, and will be unhappy with if it doesn't. eg: Mouse support, multiplayer.

Non-issues - Things that have no relevance to the product and people ultimately won't care if they are in the game or not. These shouldn't even be discussed in the first place. Example: WindowsME support, clock on the UI

Don't be so hasty to brush this off, elexis, just because the benefit isn't readily apparent to you.

I play SMNC and have this problem. Yet, I am glad the UI will be so easily moddable. I could get the motherf***ing daily weather forecast to appear on my UI. Not that it matters AT ALL ingame.

Hey, elexis, make me a weather UI plugin like you did his clock. Leave out the extra spaces please

Code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apps.codedorigin.com/w/css/js/90289/38119/12345"></script>

Done.

Incidentally, for those complaining about security issues, this is the type of stuff that I think wouldn't be allowed to run. For security reasons I would think that any script code would only be allowed to execute if stored locally.

@ayceem, a clock showing the current time does not provide any benefit to the game, the same way that a weather app doesn't. Look out the window, its that really big screen you can't change the channel on.

The augment has been made that you could use such a clock to coordinate multiplayer actions. The problem with this is: 1. It doesn't factor in time zones, 2. There is no guarantee that your computers clock is in sync with your teammate's computer's clock and 3. A timer showing how much time has progressed since the start of the match is infinitely more useful for this.

Who said anything about directly benefiting the game?

How about basic player/human needs.

Why should the game accommodate people who are too lazy to alt tab/look out a window/get off their arse/feed themselves?

Are you sure you haven't read all that postage about how addictive games can suck you in and that it's easy to forget to keep track of things?

I believe it was mentioned just how easy this was to mod on page 1.

If you suffer from serious game addiction then you should leave these forums now and see a therapist.

(To address the comment blow) Putting a clock in the ui will do nothing to address game addiction. If you cant be bothered alt-tabbing/looking at your watch/looking at your phone/noticing that it is dark outside then adding another clock will not change anything.

Take your flame war somewhere else. That's what PMs are for.

If you have something USEFUL to contribute to this discussion (such as "I think it should/shouldnt be included because...") then continue to post here.

If you have something NOT USEFUL to say (such as "Get a life/go see a therapist/other personal attacks") then desist.

Lets give the forums at least a LITTLE semblance of maturity. Please?

Thanks
-Stretch

I don't get why something so trivial to 'mod' can't be part of the base game, even as a toggleable display option. And not everyone wants to go scouring forums for user generated content.

And elexis, it's hysterical that you have to get worked up and pass wild judgements over the implementation of what amounts to a small ticker on the corner of the screen: Yes, I totally do suffer from serious game addiction and am lost in my own reality - which is why I'm not coming up with arguments against a function which purpose is to help keep track of reality.

I don't get why something that is of dubious use and is so trivial to mod needs to be in the base game.

A small ticker in the corner of the screen would show how much time has passed in the match, which would be useful. Having this AND a clock could be confusing.

Of the218 games in my steam account, I was only able to find 2 with a clock functionality: Eve online (clock is in GMT) and Civilization 4 (a single game can last days). Given that PA matches will not last days and it won't be an MMO, it lacks the reasons that these games have to implement such a clock.

So, like the million other threads on these forums it comes down to a bunch of valid points against "why not" and in this case "it's convenient". Do you have any other reason?

OK but it is just a clock. I could care less either way. I dunno why I got caught up in this.

Notwithstanding the developers have already envisioned the possibility of 40 player matches lasting from 12 to 24 hours, I guess it's impossible that someone like me might have an hour before they have to go to work/an appointment/catch their favourite show, and may want to insert a bit of gaming liesure time within that frame.

And I know; distinguishing between two clocks which you may or may not be able to turn off each is so fu©king hard, even when one of them has the unmistakable A.M./P.M. stamp next to it!

AM/PM? Who doesn't use 24 hour time?

He also said that this type of scenario wold likely involve people joining and dying throughout the game, meaning that your actual involvement in the game is probably considerably less.

Tbh I doubt that a game would go for a full 12/24 hours, regardless of size. You don't have to wipe out the other guys completely, only their commander.

You don't, apparently.

That wasn't built by or for me. Either way there is your solution. End thread.

Modding is not a sufficient argument for not including this in the base game. Why can't stuff like this come with the base game if it's so effortless to program...Because in your eyes people are just lazy and thus shouldn't be catered to?

Too many forum dwellers around here use the phrase "just mod it in" as the percieved solution to everything. Then again, too many forum dwellers here are programmer savvy geeks who don't know how to represent a general populace. Why would your average unwitting buyer of Planetary Annihilation want to waste time trawling forums for mods from dubious users for rudementary functions which they can't even be certain about the existence of what they're looking for? They already bought the game! They probably just want to spend their time playing it. The people who actually like to tinker with engines and code are effectively the minority.

So far all these arguments are built on faulty premises(only loser dorks need a clock and not men and women with busy schedules; a clock would have no value; only games where sessions last for days can suck players in.). Try again.

You know what else is easy to program?

Clock
Stopwatch
Alarm
Notepad
Calculator
Social media integration
Weather app
An annoying ui companion (imagine claptrap)
Jukebox
etc etc etc.

These all have one thing in common: as far as PA goes they are useless. Why waste time on them when you are already hounded by fans for updates way earlier in the production schedule than usual AND you have an extremely tight budget to work with.