Mods in ranked games.

Banning mods in ranked play strikes me as throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It would cripple the UI for a sizable number of players, often even forcing them to adjust to a different hotkey system (You can pry hotbuild2 from my cold, dead fingers), all for a negligible perceived gain in the 'fairness' of competitive play.

This might be worthwhile consideration if Planetary Annihilation had a serious problem with 'cheating' mods that reveal the entire map or micromanage armies for you, but it doesn't. As far as I know, most of those mods would be impossible to make anyway. Revealing the map is almost certainly a server-side modification, and Planetary Annihilation isn't exactly the type of game that benefits from unit macros.

So please, if you're going to take such a drastic step, make sure it's actually warranted. As the multiplayer scene is now, it isn't.

if the game offers everything mods provided before they would be uneccesary later anyway ...

.. make mods to show ideas/features/content to the devs to possibly have in game permanantly later on .. it is not the mods but the features/content of them you want ..
they are then either there or they are not .. i don´t want to have to install dozens of mods because someone else is using them ... if it is only my oponent to use them and wins because he knows how to use them to his advantage no matter how insignificant it would even be
(and me or someone else in that situation being a bad player) i would accuse him of cheating .. in a ranked game .. do you understand the problem?

Damn responsibilities.

The reason I think about the game more than playing the game.

Contemplating varying easy to execute builds for multiple strategies is where 70% of my enjoyment for this game comes from.

Creating ways to circumvent the higher skill level of a player with superior APM is entertaining/exciting and creates a sensation of accomplishment when achieved.

Yes your moves where more complex, yes your decision making was faster, It took an immense amount of skill to build your base the way you did and pull that micro off, yes your are inherently a better player at a base level; but I, I am one who innovates, creates originality, contemplates, simplifies, and plans your downfall and thus am I the reason for your fall from glory.

I planed meticulously to allow me to have a smoothly running economy, with little focus. My opponent with superior apm now does not have to eat up some that apm to pay for poor innovation, creation, and planning and can now let his/her economy fix itself and focus all the apm on the battlefield.

Simplifying the execution of economy management with mods would destroy a huge entertainment factor for me.

I would use them to stay competitive. I would use them to maintain my uber status. I would also hate it.

To those arguing for the use of these mods in competitive play, I say use your imagination to find ways to avoid the roadblocks created by your APM. They can be better scouting to not lose those precious buildings, It can be better builds to protect those buildings, it can be innovation of ways to minimize the apm need to run your build. Be imaginative, but please don't make it where those of us who find enjoyment in this facet of the game must jump on the mod assistance bandwagon to stay competitive.

UBER pls leave these mods out of your official competitive gameplay. Create an environment where those who use them are frowned upon.

Can we just design the balance around mitigating the effects of micro?

Micro just increases the effectiveness of automation.

If micro is essential then .....*sigh* we need more automation.

The more I think about it, I'm really not bothered by auto-factory. I used it a few months ago as an experiment and found that it didn't help me at all

What a boring game this would become if everything was macro. no thx

I personally think that more micro makes it more boring, I hate micro.

Well at some point it just turns into watching a movie. :/

It's impossible to make the game not have micro unless you really do make the game into a gif.

Micromanagment is going to happen whenever the player intervenes.

EDIT: DAMN YOU SQUISHYNINJA!

yes, but in PA it's gonna get to that point, micro or not...

No, it doesn't. It's exciting to watch someone out-play someone else with their brain and not their hands.

Micro should be about how well you can multitask, not how wiggly you can make your bots

This is what I mean.

But can you multitask 50 wacky waving inflatable tube dox?

You should't have to at any level of play.

And that's the key "Have to" yes, you shouldn't have or need to do it, but you probably should be at least able to do so if you want too.

If you CAN do it, someone will stretch the limit and exploit the micro at a high level of play to get an edge.

Then the only thing that needs to be done is to make sure that that edge is only small and not game changing.

Obviously, the game can't play itself. The parts it can't play, is the only parts the player should play, and is the only part that should affect the outcome.

Choosing what units a factory builds, where the units go, is easily very important and STRATEGICAL choices.

Making the friggin dance isn't tactical, its the Fox Network reality tv show concept. "Dancing with the Dox"

Choosing where to build base at, in what order, is strategic, but doing so as quickly as possible by hand isn't strategic, you should be able to automate quick building placement in a reliable pattern if desired. Managing economy is strategic, but muscle memory to select and turn off units isn't strategic, you should be able to choose ahead of time what will turn off in an energy shortage.

I seriously don't understand how people think the game right now is so micro intensive. I agree we need expansion play back in the game. As that would require attention and also reduce the amount of time you are microíng because frankly.. I am micro'ing my units. Because there is nothing else to do, My fabbers have huge queue's my comm has, my factory's all know what to do, only thing left is to use my units to kill my enemy.

Thus adding in expansion play and (now with the first balance patches) players have more things to do than only micro'ing the units. It's not that there is much micro, There is just very little macro to do.

Edit: Damn I Burned myself so hard in this post with so many contradictions haha! Yes it is micro intensive because of above reason.

*le facepalm*

Dancing with the Dox? Dude. BurntCustard would be proud.