Personal fan of RTS games like Total War, Company of Heroes, Starcraft, etc. Here's my input: *The following are key issues that MUST be addressed* 1. Camera Angles. You restricted camera to only one angle, which wouldn't be bad if units didn't layer each other, or if the angle wasn't so steep. Some of the nicest features of Total War and Company of Heroes was the ability to shift camera angle easily. This was mostly for aesthetic purpose, but this game needs this feature due to hectic unit management. 2. Unit Selection. No Army View bar? I understand how there could be literally thousands of units on screen at a time, but unit management is terrible. Shifting the "Army View" bar to a tiny little screen in the bottom left corner was a terrible idea. There's some aspects of RTS games that need to remain the same simply because they work. Army View bar is important as it displays crucial unit info as well as allowing for deselection of units. Non-critical Idea Suggestion: when you group units, make them appear under one icon. Think of it in terms of a Total War game, where a "unit" consists of hundreds of soldiers. This would streamline unit selection. This would allow for infinite groups to be created as they wouldn't have to be assigned to a hotkey. 3. Planet view. I understand how "unique" view of the entire planet is, but could you implement a feature that makes the battlefield (AKA, the planet that you're on at the time) flat? Make the map flat! Fighting on a beach ball is more annoying than I thought. This ties into the whole issue of unit management, as your units could be halfway across the planet and you have to scan the celestial body like you're looking for ticks (since there's no Global Unit Select Bar like in Company of Heroes). This feature will help with scouting, resource management and unit management. Am I suggesting to make the planets flat? NO! Make the view of them flat (like the map of Earth) until zoomed out beyond orbital view (or whatever its called when you can finally view your satellites). ^While we're on the subject of orbital units: I don't know how you're gonna do it, but there has to be an easier way to select orbital units without selection interference with your ground units and vice versa. Maybe make the unit icon appear above the unit instead of right on top of it. However you intend to fix the clunky selection system, until it becomes easier to select and manage the different "layers" of your units, the fighting efficiency of your forces will always be hindered by the under-developed interface. Biggest Takeouts: - Improve Interface. Improve Interface. Improve Interface. - Better. Map. View.
First off, the game isn't done. The interface, gameplay, and balance isn't done. You can rotate the camera and enter into free camera mode. I'm not sure what you mean by army bar view. A quick googling yeilded no results for that turn. Care to expand? I'm opposed to adding an icon to the hotkey. I have a hotkey, I don't need an icon. It is impossible to turn a sphere into a flat surface without any form of distortion. Converting the sphere into a flat surface is simply not going to happen. It can't happen. Playing on a sphere takes getting used to, but it's epic once you do. The ability to go anywhere and do anything is epic. A flat map view simply 100% cannot work. Turning a sphere into a flat surface is not physically possible without some form of distortion, which makes the map useless. Saying "make the view" flat also doesn't work. Spheres simply do not convert into flat surfaces. This is what it would take to turn a sphere into a flat surface without any distortion. A global unit select bar would be pointless since we're going to have thousands of units across multiple planets. In Company of Heroes it works because there are so few units. It wouldn't work in PA. There is an easier way to select units. I'm not sure why it isn't on by default, but turn the orbital view to "modal" in the settings. When you zoom out, all of the ground units go away, except for Orbital Factories, Commanders, and Umbrellas. That way you're not selecting ground units when you're working with Orbital units.
1. "You can rotate the camera and enter into free camera mode." ****, that'll help a lot. Thanks! 2. "I'm not sure what you mean by army bar view." Uploaded file. Outlined in red is the Army View Display. Starcraft 2 has a very clever implementation of the display for a large quantity of units. This game could use just that. Really, really badly. 3. "It is impossible to turn a sphere into a flat surface without any form of distortion." I'm aware of that, but i'd rather have a flat map (like the one attached) than be scrolling around on a planet of such relatively tiny size. We're practically playing on asteroids. 4. "...turn the orbital view to "modal" in the settings." Well, I'll be damned. Thank you!
UPDATE: 1. Free Camera Mode prevents you from doing all other actions. Meaning that you can only command units in the default camera, so this is completely useless. Henceforth, I suggest that the free camera feature should let you change the angle of the camera AND allow you to select/command units. 4. I already had my settings on "modal".
