Lead Writer here. Have lore questions? I have answers! Maybe...

Hi Matt

Thank you for coming to the Forums.

My question links back to a thread from a while ago which sparked a lot of (mostly interesting and productive) discussion about the Commanders' genders. Apologies in advance for the flamewar in that thread.

I also did a little bit of fanfic which I've been telling myself I'd to return to.

Basically - How human are the Commanders' consciousnesses?
Do they have free will?
Can they have genders?
Are they as sentient as you or I, or superior/inferior in certain ways (a lack of empathy, for example)?
I know there isn't a one-size fits all answer and such questions are probably best explored by experimenting whilst writing, but I couldn't help myself.

Thanks again
Mr EroticBurrito

I'll answer them in order:

How human are the Commanders' consciousnesses?
A: Humans created them. It is yet to be revealed just how much of themselves they put into the machines.

Do they have free will?
A: Tryphon rebelled against the Coalition (Progenitors) of his own free will, so yes, I would say they do.

Can they have genders?
A: Can machines have genders? They do have free will....

Are they as sentient as you or I, or superior/inferior in certain ways (a lack of empathy, for example)?
A: We will have to see....

Nice one Thank you Matt!

no answers for me ?

Sorry about that! Yes I will answer your questions best I can.

As far as what factions do all the Commanders belong to, I really cannot answer that one at this time. If you want a run down of the differences between the factions and why they are fighting? Read through the teasers on each faction found here http://www.uberent.com/pa/. You'll have to navigate through them to find all of them.

Lead writer? Any change you also write about steel?

I have a quick question or two about the metal planets; when were they created relative to the rest of the events, and can you give us any hints as to what they do/how we will eventually activate them in-game? About half the ones that I have fought on have had a area that looks suspiciously like where you would put a giant gun/the opening for the Death Star's main cannon.

The metal planets are remnants from a bygone era.....what exactly was their purpose? Answers to that will be coming!

Hello and welcome to the forums!

While PA, TA and SupCom share themes, it feels to me a lot like they're simply different versions (timelines/alternate realities?) of the same event.

As a question though, the humans fought the Xiphid hegemony (i hope i spelled that right). What exactly are these Xiphid? are they aliens?

Yes, the Xziphid are an advanced sentient race of beings. They also happen to be the first (and only) humanity has ever encountered. It has not been revealed yet however exactly what they look like underneath all that armor. I guess the only ones who know the answer to that question right now are Blogar and me.

What exactly is the Progenitor Commander? A prototype Commander? A loyalist commander?

I really want the Xiphid to be insectoid's in the lore.

Where is your team-badge thing? That was the first question that popped into my head. The second was "Why do people bother with string theory? It's not like you can test it." but I'm probably broken.

Nah, they should be bubble creatures that live in gas giants, obviously.

Edit: My quoted broke, and I'm on mobile so I'm too lazy to fix it.

The reason being i want to do a Xiphid race skin pack and commander, and i am almost finished modeling the commander

Hehe, well I was only kidding anyway. Also, it'd be great to make a mod at some points that creates all different faction units.

Do we have lore for how the weapons work? The tooltips say 'lasers' for Dox etc. but they look a LOT more like slow firing EMG rounds to me.

One of my favourite parts of TA was the manual with the detailed descriptions of how the weapons work.

I love this sort of thing

How do commanders travel from one solar system to the next, by ship or long range teleport ?
Do they teleport just the commander or a "short" range warpship carrying the commander ?

Is the method for leaving a solar system going to become part of gameplay ? as in maybe having to build a galactic gate for your commander after your victory ? would make the campaign feel more tied together

Do any of the commanders know how to make a new commander from scratch ? will they ever learn ?

Were the Xziphid entirely wiped out in the war or will we maybe see them again ?

The Xziphid think humans are tasty, are we ? have humans evolved to become tasty in the future ?

That's just because the ammo is WIP, it should look like lasers when they do a full pass on effects.