Frequently Asked Questions

The purpose of this thread is to provide answers, sources, and discussion threads for many of PA's frequently asked questions. Please use control+f to find the question you're looking for.

Remember, always use the forums search feature before creating a new topic.

For more frequently asked questions, check out Uber's FAQ.

General Questions: see this section
Unit/Building Questions: see 2nd section
Bug Questions: see 3rd section
Mod Questions: see 4rd section
Improving framerate.

When will the game be released?
"When it's done" – Sometime early 2014. (source)

Will the game receive updates?
Yes. Uber has stated that they plan on constantly updating and improving PA. Think Team Fortress 2 or Counter Strike: Source.

I'm having issues with my account, game key, etc. Where can I get help?
Most help takes place on the forums, but when it comes to a player's account, only Uber Support can help there.

What are the system requirement for PA?
The system requirements are subject to change.
• Dual core processor
• Shader 3.0
• A decent OpenGL driver – if your card doesn’t come with one you might want to look at some of the 3rd party OpenGL drivers out there.
• At Alpha Start, the following are also required:
- 64-bit operation system
- An internet connection
Source

Is there Offline Mode?
During Beta, an internet connection is required to play PA. When the game releases, offline play will be allowed, as well as LAN. (source)

Will there be a pause feature for single player gameplay?
Of course.

Will there be DRM?
Yes and No. PA will be DRM free after launch, but players will need to login to play online. (source)

What Operating Systems will PA be on?
PC (Vista and newer), Mac, and Linux. (source)

Will PA support Windows XP?
Sorry, but no. XP came out 12 years ago, and Vista came out 7 years ago. XP is just too old. (source)

How much will PA Cost?
Uber hasn't released a final sticker price yet.

Game keys for Steam Buyers and Upgrading for Steam Buyers.
Users who purchased Planetary Annihilation through Steam are not expected to have game keys. Only users who purchased PA through Kickstarter or the Uber store will have game keys listed in their "My Keys" page. This is because with a Steam purchase, Steam itself is responsible for tracking the ownership status of the game, whereas with Uber purchases ownership of the game is tracked by activation key. We're unable to upgrade Steam purchases through the Uber Store, but we are looking into adding more to the Store so Steam users can "upgrade" in other ways.

How much bandwidth will online play use?
We don't know yet. Naturally, larger and longer games will use more bandwidth. Right now a 6 man 1 hour game takes less than 1mbit download and very little upload. (source)

Where can I purchase PA?
The Uber Store or Steam.

I purchased PA on Steam, or Humble Bundle, or somewhere else, will I get the rewards?
Yes, you will get the corresponding Beta backer rewards no matter where you purchase it from. The Beta backer rewards are the Theta Commander, Soundtrack, and Desktop Wallpaper. For additional benifits like the Delta Commander or Planetary Naming, you'll need to upgrade to the Cosmic Edition. (source)

Why does PA cost so much right now for Beta access?
During the Kickstarter campaign, Alpha and Beta access were some of the rewards for higher level backers. It wouldn't be fair for people to get Beta for less or free than the people who made PA possible.

Will there be saved games?
Yes. But not only will there be saved games, there will be downloadable and sharable game files. Want to replay that multiplayer match you lost? Fire it up, rewind to where you made a mistake, and keep on playing. Want to replay someone else's a tournament match? Download, rewind, fire up. (source)

Why can't I play on my custom system?
There are some requirements to custom systems due to beta.
1: Can't play on planets tagged "experimental"
2: Can't use planets with a radius of 1200 or more
3: Must be less than 12 planets in a system

Why can't I set spawn points on different planets?
Because this feature hasn't been implemented yet. It will be added.

How do I lock poles?
You can lock poles through the game settings. Or you can align to the poles by tapping "n" while playing.

What are the Keyboard Shortcuts?
Here's a full list of Planetary Annihilation Keyboard Shortcuts. The shortcuts can be configured in settings > keyboard.

I want to play with people and join a clan. How?
Check out the Looking for A Clan sub forum or the list of Clans on PA Matches. Also check out the Teamspeak Servers or the IRC chat.

What is the Army game type? What about Alliance?
The Army game type is a very cool team game mode where all players share units and economies. This allows for fast paced large scale gameplay. The Alliance game mode will be a more traditional RTS team game with different units and economies, but shared vision. There will also be the ability to gift resources and units to your allies. (source)

Will there be flat maps?
Uber hasn't said anything about adding flat maps, although flat maps is possible within the engine. (source) My personal speculation is that there will not be flat maps at the initial release, but it will be added down the line through mods and/or officilal release.

Will there be different AI personalities? (defensive, agressive, etc)
The AI is under heavy development and has a lot of work to go. Yes. This is a confirmed feature and will be added down the line.

Will there be a slider to adjust metal spot quantities?
Yes. This is already in the system builder UI, just not useable yet.

How big will planets be?
Well, we don't know. But, BIG. Check out this or this thread.

How many players will be supported?
Once again, we don't know. This will mostly be a server limitation. So the best answer possible is, "how big of a server do you have?"

What is Galactic War?
Galactic War will be a randomly generated immersive single player and multiplayer experience. For more info, check out this thread.

Where are the keyboard shortcuts saved?
Windows:
C:\Users\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\ocalstore\Local Storage
Linux:
~/.local/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/localstore/Local Storage/
Mac:
/Users/ YOUR_USERNAME /Library/Application Support/Uber Entertainment/Planetary Annihilation/Local Storage/

Will there be in game voice communication?
It doesn't look that way. However there are several free TeamSpeak and Mumble channels available.
Teamspeak: teamspeak.paceleague.com / no password
Teamspeak: swingschlampen.de / no password
Mumble: Server: TenForward / Address: fish.mumbleboxes.com / Port: 36063

Unit/Building Questions

Will Feature X be in the game?
Quite possibly. There is much to be added to PA. Check out the Confirmed Features List 2.0 thread.

When will Feature X be available?
Soon. Uber doesn't give release dates. Development is a complicated process and completion times for features are very difficult to guestemate. Rather than get the community's hopes up only to have them dashed due to a particularly tricky bug or because of a feature re-alignment, Uber prefers to surprise us. Think of Uber as our boyfriend that likes to surprise is with gifts all the time.

Why isn't X Balanced?
PA is still in Beta and under heavy development. The devs are focusing on adding new features, rather than balancing when everything will just have to be re-balanced when new features come out.

What units will be in the game?
The planned unit roster will be 100+ units. Source
Unit suggestions thread
List of units that may or may not be added to the game

Will there be shields?
No. They may be added later, but if they are, they likely won't be traditional bubble shields. (source)
Discussion threads and threads.

Will there be multiple factions/races?
No. (source)

Will there be dual/multiple monitor support?
Yes. (source)

Will there be space combat?
When it comes to Star Wars/Star Trek style space combat, no. Not at launch. This may be added down the line.
source. source.

How do I use the Halley to smash planets?
Here's a tutorial.

How can I launch nukes at other planets?
Interplanetary Nukes are regular nukes. To use them, simply select and fire your nuke like you would regularly, but select a different planet. Interplanetary nukes can only fire at planets that share orbits. So nukes can be fired at moons that orbit a planet, and from those moons back to the planet, and to moons that also orbit the same planet.

How will we be able to invade planets?
There are many additions to be added to PA. In the future, we will have the Unit Cannon, Teleportation Gates, Interplanetary Nukes, and the ability to get moons to change orbits. There may be more features as well. Just hang in there, PA is still under development.

Will there be support commanders or upgradeable commanders?
No. (source)

Will Commanders have different abilities?
Kind of. There will be a set of abilities that commanders will have. (source)

Why don't submarines work?
Submarines currently are not submersible. They act just like boats, but their torpedoes can hit underwater commanders. The advanced sub does not build nukes – yet.

Will there be stealth/cloaking?
Maybe, but probably not at launch. (source)

Bug Questions

Here's some Windows Only Workaround for:
Black screen on startup.
Low FPS in game.

PA won't start! What do I do?
First, get your video drivers updated. If you don’t know how to do this, please web search for how. This has been the problem in almost all cases of this issue. If that doesn't work, head over to the beta forum and ask for help.

Where to I report bugs?
On the Beta forum or the Bug Tracker.

The game is running slow, why?
PA is still undergoing lots of optimizations – each update improves the stability and performance of the game. Don't forget, PA is in Beta – there's lots of work to be done. Here's some techniques for improving your framerate.

I can't move my camera view around, why?
You've likely entered into the "Free Cam" mode. This is achieved by hitting space on the keyboard. Simply tap space again to exit freecam mode, this will likely fix your issue.

Mods

How do I instal mods?
Check out the tutorial for Windows.
Check out the tutorial for Mac and Linux.

List of Planetary Annihilation Mods.
Planetary Annihilation Mods Forum.

Saved

If anyone else has any suggestions to be added to the FAQ, fire away!!!

When do you change your picture ,its scary
That picture keep me remind what i feel when i try play PA

Seems a little off topic, but to answer, I won't. I use it all across the web on all my online profiles. :-D

Good job.

Thanks!

Hopefully it will be of help to someone.

when i play with AI , no starting locations appear

Ok, seriously? Did you come here and just not read Brian's pretty amazing post?

Are you posting in the Beta forum?

Sorry if you feel this is rude but the guy obviously put a lot of work into this and your totally ignoring it!

Regardless, thanks Brian... you deserve all the likes you can get for posting this!

When will the game be released?
Short and simple answer is exactly what you said, we haven't a date. However the team has said numerous times, that they're shooting for late December. Technically that just means the base game though, that doesn't mean that all or even any of the stretch goals would be there. We know that some will be since they are already there, like naval and metal planets, but they're not finished.


How much will PA Cost?
Final price is believed to be $20, just like the original Kickstarter, which is also what they've been basing all the other prices off of so far.

Eh. There's a high likelyhood that the game will be delayed. With how many features still need to be added (in my opinion) there's no way it'll be released late December. I specifically left that one blank because people tend to throw a fit when delays happen – even if the delays are a good thing. We know little from Uber at this point, so there's no point in setting expectations that may not be met.

And actually, most speculation puts the game at $40. We'll see though.

Whether it's delayed or not really depends on if they want to have all the stretch goals mostly finished. I said that it meant the base game because back during the kickstarter, December is what they were shooting for with just the original base 900K game. Which is more or less pretty close to being done, really. If you were to take out all the stretch goals, and if they were just releasing the original pitch, then I'd say they're right on track.

But unfortunately that's not the case.

Possible, but Uber has been keeping with the original KS prices ever since it ended, and plus, if it were to be $40, that means beta access is only $5. A single $5 drop is a little strange based off their track record of dropping from Alpha -> Beta, and combined with them stating they want to keep true to the original prices. That one's a personal thing though.

Hold on a second!

KS Pricing up to $90
$15: Early Bird Combat Edition
$20: Combat Edition
$40: Warfare Edition
$50: Warfare Edition + Progenitor Commander
$90: Galactic Edition + Alpha Commander + Delta Commander + Progenitor Commander

Beta access price != KS Beta access price.

The $20 deal will cost less then the game on release. Part of buying that is the risk that you don't know how the game will turn out.

I think it will be between $30-40. That is most consistent with there pricing.

I am pretty sure they said 40 in one of the earliest livestreams.

I have a PM from Garat saying they haven't decided on a price yet.

Good work, Brian, although I wonder if it will really make a dent in all of the duplicate threads
This is why kickstarter and crowd funding in general is such a good idea. You have effectively cut out an hours work for one of the devs for providing an FAQ free of charge...makes me feel all warm inside

We certainly have a fantastic community here, that's for sure.

These past few days have been pretty devoid of duplicate threads... so I'm going to claim it's because of the FAQ. ;-)