Planetary Annihilation LiveStream: April 19th, 2013

I just need to say I am sooooo digging those green wireframes of the under construction units.

Please don't change that!

Anyone else notice the Total A style move, attack, and reclaim icons?

I am really impressed so far! Getting more and more eager to play for every livestream!

Thank you Jon Mavor for this nice review.. I believe the things you, and your team, got going with right now is pretty good so far. I'm a pretty big fan of your game Total Annihilation game and I have some good memories of playing that game with my cousin (Believe I was about 15 yrs old,we had some pretty good battles).
Keep up the good work guys, and don't stop listen to the community y know.

*Suggestion: You should maybe make the mini-map as a research requirement. You would have to research it AND future developer it, I would like to see some different tech & researches paths and of course weapons upgrades.*

You won't see any of these things outside of user Modifications.

May be so who knows

I think that once they do a livestream with multi-window functionality implemented, it will silence the inane muttering about mini maps. I'm only hoping that it will be very quick and smooth to say, have a small window (PiP?) and click on it to swap with the main window.

xnavigator - as far as limiting the zoom, don't worry so hard about it. I guarantee there will be a mod called 'Shoutcast Mode' which will limit the camera as you like. It only makes sense - any careful producer will want to show off things in the best light, and each recorder will have his own style and settings.

Did nobody believe me when I said we were inspired by TA?

Neutrino knows. And he's pretty adamant that there will be no "during the match weapon upgrades" and in the livestream he pretty much spelled out that he thinks Minimaps are too mainstream.

He's a hipster like that

(Neutrino is Jon Mavor, by the way)

Very cool, love the way things are already heading. Not sure if this has been asked but will mods be divided into UI vs gameplay mods like with SupCom?

I´d believe in your words, because you said it very often and sometimes with some emotions
And I have also seen some similarities with TA .

Yeah, I'm a total hipster with my Spacex t-shirts.

I think we'll have minimap like functionality but not a traditional minimap. If you want more views into the data at different resolutions then split your window.

Here's a question, regarding animation.

Obviously the standard in-dev disclaimer applies, but do you guys have any plans on what you'd like the final state of animation to be like? I'm especially interested in whether or not you're happy with the classic 'Stiff upper body' look as showcased in Supcom - where the torso simply rotates, and the arms don't actually bend.

I was thinking today that some kind of simplistic IK system for animating the arms extending and pointing at the target would improve the look immensely.

So I did math, using his 650m radius figure on the planet, came up with apx 5,300,000 square meters. THATS 5,300 SQUARE KILOMETERS NO WAY. Oh wait, its actually 5.3 square kilometers.

Then I remembered I'm a historian.

Yuuuuck. Strongly disagree. They've been experimenting with higher zoom levels in HoTS spectating anyway.

You realize that strategic zoom is one of the key features of the game right? This is not a Command and Conquer style RTS.

First thing I thought when I saw in game was "this is the true sequel to ta" the way everything looks, the use of higher ground, can't wait to see a full on battle!

BEHOLD!

Your argument is invalid.

I would say the bigger reason is.. multiple planets, big solar system. If you don't have a pretty flexible zoom, you're gonna have a hard time getting enough info.

At the end of the day, this is NOT Starcraft or anything like it. It is much closer to TA and Sup Com and is intended to be the next iteration in that style of wide ranging, macro game play. Being able to get a lot of information is very important.

Dare to touch the zoom guys. I's essential to supcom crowds.

BTW i liked the selection boxes amd their rolling for airplanes.