LiveStream: May 17th, 2013 & Post Livestream Q&A Thread

It even looked like the arty piece targeted the aircraft. Possible bug?

That was standard in TA. If we disregard targeting priorities why wouldn't that be the standard in PA?

It didn't, it was just looking for a high arc solution to fire on. It was aiming at the new artillery unit I had started to build. Poor air fabber just was unlucky enough to get in the way.

I loved it when I saw that, this is what I want... hehehe

I think you are missing the point of the forum paprototype. It is a general discussion board, not an ask the devs thread. Posting here invites commentary from the whole community not just the developers. It is a place where we can interact with one another and the developers join in when they are able to.

We may be 'merely backers' but the discussions here in the community have actually helped influence aspects of PA and Uber even put questions to us to see what we think. It is one of the advantages of having a crowd funded model for PA's development.

If you can't handle other people making polite commentary on your questions on a general discussion board you might want to reconsider posting. Because it is what we are all here for.

I didn't catch that the first time but that was great! Happy to see the simulation in action : D

So at around 30:00 in, on the subject of lore.

I know you hired a writer, they are probably great, and everyone has bills to pay and all that. But I was kind of hoping that the lore would really come down to the modding community.

The reason is that game lore really shines in a single player campaign. And it sounds like Uber isn't going to be making any sort of story driven campaign. So it'll all have to come from the modding community. The problem is that everyone is going to have their own story they want to tell. If there is already an official lore set up I don't think the people who want to make single player content are going to want to tell someone else's story, even if it is very well written.

Personally I was quite happy to hear that there was a lore being put together. I was happy with the decision to forgo a single player campaign in favour of spending the time working on the core game mechanics but having a lore in the background is very nice.

I don't think that this will hamper the modding community like you suggest. If modders had something specific in mind and it doesn't fall in line with Uber's lore they can continue to make whatever lore they had decided on for their campaigns. They don't have to stick to Uber's lore any more than they have to stick to original mechanics, modes, units or anything else the mod is altering about the game.

Don't you dare strip Planetary Annihilation of its lore! I need to know what the Progenitor is called the Progenitor damnit!

Space Aliens... AI council... Is he taking credit for the War? For the creation of the Commanders? Was he the first AI?

Does he even deserve that title or is he using it just as scare tactics? Is he like the Dread-Pirate Roberts? Does he pass it on? Did he take it from another Commander? Is it a prestigious title?

Who does this Commander think he is?!

TELL ME UBER!

I am pretty certain The Commanders are a race of God-AI's that outgrew the planet they were made on, set their eyes on the stars and unhindered by the flesh, went on to become a great race. The Progenitors are the Original God-AI's that escaped the solar system and didn't adapt, while other former Progenitors and their machinations adapted to other circumstances and ideas and changed.

I don't really believe the TA "eternal war now fought by machines" is an effective story anymore.

Given that commanders always have been this unique unit with unique powers, i would say they use some kind of rare substance that powers them. Since everything can be nanolathed from raw metal and energy, this "Uberium" rare resources is the only thing wars are fought for. Factions would be formed by commander-groups forming alliances to get more Uberium and thus ensure their existence and allowing their group to grow.




As for the livestream: I really like the whole defensive Arty thing. However, it seems arty can rotate 360 while they are placed with a certain direction. Is only the Unit Cannon directional? Are the regular Arty's omnidirectional?

Definitely a case of "General Buttnaked"

General Budd Nayket?

This livestream convinced me to upgrade to the alpha, CANT WAIT!

Question:
What does Uber think about simulated environmental interactions, like rocks and trees being able to block fire?

Like this: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=45992

I would take a closer look at that arty strike on the plane - to my mind that is clearly tracking the plane & shooting at it. You see the first strike hit the building the engineers are working on. But look at the arty unit, it tracks the plane - fires 2 shots, first hits, the second misses and doesn't carry on to shoot the new building the engineers are working (out of range)

See this time encoded URL link - full res & watch the arty unit turn to fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... WQ#t=1610s

After it kills the plane, is turns away because it can't hit anything else, out of range.

Agreed with ephoscus, that's what it looks like to me.

Any idea of how much before? Couple days or a week or?

I just re-watched that strike and the artillery could not target the second build site. It tracked and targeted the aircraft it hit, and then tried to hit the second one that was near the one that was destroyed. That shell missed and impacted the ground. It then did not track the new build site since it was out of range.

I think this is not a bug, if you look up one of the most famous german anti-tank guns, the "88", you will see it started as an anti-aircraft gun and was used later to great success as an anti-tank weapon and artillery piece.

The usefulness should be limited to direct contact on slow/breaking targets, however. Trying to implement air-burst flak shells is outside the scope of what the artillery pieces seem to be designed for as there are more specific anti-air platforms available.

I cannot wait for the Beta to start. This just keeps looking more awesome with every stream.

My only real concern at this point was that I don't think you can get full strategic zoom functionality without some kind of unwrapping. So when you said you're open to experimenting with unwrapping I breathed a sigh of relief, then tried really hard to find anything else to bitch about and realized... I got nothing.

All I can say is, awesome job guys