You can edit the planet type definition - open <Planetary Annihilation install directory>\PA\media\pa\terrain\tropical.json, and change the "biomes" section to just the following: Code: "biomes": [ { "elevation": [ -1, 0.6, 0 ], "spec": "/pa/terrain/ice/ice.json", "temperture": [ -1, -0.5, 3 ], "water_distance": [ null, 10000, 0 ] } ], This prevents all other biomes spawning except Ice and the default (which includes the metal patches).
There are a couple of known issues with how our planet generation happens that I'd like to see fixed sooner than later. THings like size being a 0 - 100% slider, rather than a meter radius, temperature not being a -X to +X slider that represents temperature, etc. Hopefully it will make the planet editor a bit easier to understand, and also easier to make certain types of planets without modding.
? Then choose a negative value, minus 50 or less. Click the text box next to the slider to enter custom values outside of the range of the slider.
I'm very much in favour of tidal generators, but in conjunction with other options. I tend to think of the existing P-gens as nuclear in some capacity. If so, they are best used as a kind of default power supply, preferably tuned to be more compact than now, but with a similar amount of expense. However, I'd also like to see tidal, wind, solar and geothermal, each with their own niche where they can be more efficient, but at the trade off for space and requiring the right environment for working to that efficiency. For example, I imagine tidal would be subsurface, low energy density and cost effective only on worlds with high tides. The player would have clues as to how strong the tides are based on the presence, size and proximity of orbiting moons. The idea is to create granularity and choices as to how the player expands their energy economy, so that they may decide to fight over the gas giant orbits to build a gas mine, take over a lava world for it's geothermal vents, construct tidal farms on an oceanic world, or even mass produce solar arrays on world close to the sun. To me, perhaps the biggest opportunity to add difference in how naval bases function is by making use of the subsurface game. I would like to see a decent variety of submersed structures and units, which create counterplay with the surface fleet. I would also be interested in seeing experiments with being able to construct floating platforms which conventional ground structures and units can function on, but this could potentially end up being a bit silly. Either way, i'm looking forward to when it's time to do a few passes on the naval game.
A rich mix of submersed structures and units would make thing more interesting for the naval side rather than the standard floats on top implementation that lots of games have used before.
I agree and that would be what I consider ideal, but if that isn't feasible I'd like something like I described. Mike
So looking at the Current Naval in game we have: Naval Factory Advanced Naval Factory Sea Scout: Sun Fish Fabrication Sub Frigate: Narwhal Destroyer: Bluebottle Attack Sub: Dolphin Nuclear Sub: Barracuda Missile Ship: Stingray Battleship: Leviathan Fabrication Ship Advanced Fabrication Ship Sea Barrier Sonar Torpedo Launcher Advanced Sonar Advanced Torpedo Launcher Sea Metal Extractor Sea Energy Storage Sea Metal Storage Sea Energy Plant Advanced Sea Energy Plant Advanced Sea Metal Extractor Sea Mine: Jellyfish Floating Laser Advanced Floating Laser Naval Warfare is all about Naval and Air Combat so here what I think is missing... Amphibious Factory - Builds underwater units and build the Fabrication Sub Submersible Aircraft Factory - Underwater while dormant but surfaces to build! Underwater Advanced Energy Plant Underwater Metal Extractor Advanced Underwater Metal Extractor Floating AA Tower Aircraft Carrier Torpedo Bomber - Might not be need since Bomber atm are cable of taking out Ships not sure about Subs Gunship - Something like the TA Brawler/Rapier I reckon having floating platforms to build on make the Naval game play pointless as ship are meant to be Mobile Weapon Defense Platforms anyway. You also could have the Nuclear Sub build Anti-nuke missiles as well. That my input so far for Naval Warfare majority of the idea came from Total Annihilation! As I love the Naval combat from that game but I am also like how this game is all about unique units that have the own roles. So maybe add the Depth Charge/Hedgehog to the Bluebottle and have it as a support frigate to help protect against Sub attacks. Anyway I like to see what you guys can come up with for Naval Warfare!
Ugh, gunships. The bane of my TA existence. Just when I thought my army was invincible, the enemy just HAS to spam gunships and blow my dreams to smithereens. Cast my vote in for no gunships in PA. Or at least balanced gunships that doesn't completely destroy an army without AA units.
Yeah, no gunships please, they're pretty boring. Or give them some more interesting mechanics then just a flying tank that can ignore terrain. --------------------------------------------------------- Imo, it wouldn't need that much to spice naval bases a bit up. First of all, no floating turrets. We have ships and they can outreach those turrets anyway. So, no laser or AA turret. The torpedo launcher is fine as it fills a nice niche to combat submarines. Also, remove the sea barrier, its not needed and would just slow down naval gameplay (which is supposed to be... fluid. ) If you want a tower, make it a coastal artillery. Buildable only by ships (why? because) it needs to be built on the shore (simple selection algorithm that says at least 25% of its building footprint needs to be on land or something like that, rest of it can be in water) with much longer range then a normal pelter. But limited to the shore as its counterpoint. So, naval relies on units for its base defenses instead of turtling themselves in. ------------------------------------------------------- As for naval units: Sea Lion Helicopter. Has a small sonar and some depthcharges it drops straight down. Only useful against subs and other underwater stuff. Very weak to air or anti-air, but great damage against sub-surface target. Torpedo Boat. Has 2 low range, high damage unguided torpedoes that can only fire straight forward. Uses a similar attack pattern as fighters/bombers. Weak when engaging frontally because of its low health/low range. Great to flank enemy units allready engaged in combat. Support Missile Destroyer. Has a missile launcher that can either fire anti-sub rockets or anti-ship missiles. Doesn't have its own sonar. Uses the bombers ammo system. Can fire 6 missiles or rockets. Nice alpha for some early damages but very bad during prolonged engagements due its need to reload. ---------------------------------------------------------- Also I'd like some naval terrain. (Those are just some ideas. They may be a bit complicated but they're just an indication of how one can make pure water a bit different.) Shallow water. Land units can cross it and small ships too (no submarines or large ships like the battleship though). Will need some obvious textures to make it stand out from normal water so that there's no confusion. Reefs. The negative crevice of the sea. Again, small ships can float over it while it blocks large ships and submarines. Also blocks torpedoes. Underwater alien algae forest. Can't build in it. It blocks sonar for non-moving underwater units. Any moving units show up fine and can use their sonar too to see other stuff moving in it. But something that sits still in it can't be detected (while it also can't detect others). ------------------------------------------------------------- Just some random ideas.
Gunships kicked my *** so please don't include them is a pretty week argument. Although I do think gunships should be a lot more vulnerable to ground fire than other air units. Maybe land units (but not artillary) can target them as well as anti-air units, also they should be 100% defenseless against fighters the same way bombers are. I'll be pretty disapointed if some form of gunship does not show up.
Heh, I didn't mean it in that way, I was trying to say that if gunships are in the game, they better be balanced better than in TA. 20 rockos against 2 gunships = 2 gunships and 0 rockos in my experience.
True. IRL the survivability in gunships is highly over-rated. In the 80s people thought they were the future of warfare and would make tanks obsolete. But it turned out that they were absolutely defenseless against fighters, and highly vulnerable against ground based anti-air. A skilled gunship pilot can skim below the tree line to avoid radar, and poke above hills to fire off an attack before vanishing again, but if they are sitting ducks against surface to air missiles and even lucky shots from small arms. It might be a good idea to allow normal ground units to target them (Like tanks can do now ) but not actual fighters.
Hi all, first post. I'd love to see oil or something similar available offshore that needs a rig or something built on it, and then some sort of pipeline back to the land that needs connecting to some sort of energy storage. This encourages players to explore the seas and build navy's to protect the energy source and infrastructure. It seems a shame that water is largely ignored in PA or it is only used in a way that is quite annoying...bombarding structures built close to land etc..! Having a way to physically link the marine environment with the land would be really cool and give a whole new dynamic to games. If building rigs is slow and costly and requires fabbers to drag it to it's location, this would also encourage early naval battles in order to fight over the resources. Just a few thoughts. Good thread and lots of good ideas. A good break from the orbital war too
Ground units already can target air units. I'm not sure how universal this is, but I notice enemy commanders taking out my bombers fairly regularly. I would also be sad to never see gunships in some form. I'm much more into the idea of ships taking the role of many "water structures", e.g.: Aircraft carrier for Air production, ICBM subs for nuke/nuke defense. The point isn't just aesthetic, although I'm not a fan of land-structures-with-floats either, but ships are fully capable of housing such facilities due to their size. I think this would also go a long way to preventing the "another layer with the same mechanics" problem which is already very one-sidedly debated with regards to Orbital, and instead allow Naval to complement land by providing additional(different!) methods of attack rather than just more guns from a different angle. Lastly, it would mean water worlds are a unique game type in themselves, not just a regular game but wetter/bluer.
I love the idea of under water structures / bases. Also there should be some metal at sea that is so deep you have to build underwater extractors to get to it. You should be able to start under water with your commander. There should be some units that can be built that are amphibious in nature. In general I want to have ways to defend and attack in to the different layers of the game. besides the commander if you are total in the water there is no way to build out of or get out of the water. This should be considered for each layer imo. Not tons of units but at least some that can help provide a mean of accomplishing things. For instances if you could build an underwater bot factory and bots could travel underwater it would be another distinct they have over vehicles, and allow amphibious assaults in part. Also I'm not sure that I agree with advanced fab units not being able to build at least their type of basic factory.
Nice Idea but too much building IMO the way it set out now is good you just need to defend it better! Also to make Naval Economy Unique Energy like a Underwater Geothermal Vent to build for higher Energy resource. Consider a full Water planet where there no Land. But I still reckon Underwater Metal Extractor and Floating Energy Plant (Tidal Generator) Instead of a Carbon copy of a T1 Energy Plant Floating...
Yes and that will and should be fixed at some point between now and launch. It's dumb to have a wing of bombers get shot down by a tankblob that contains no dedicated AA units. I'd prefer normal airplanes need dedicated anti-air defenses to shoot them down, but they can't hover and have to make more than one pass over the target. Gunships can hover and keep shooting at land units, making them really dangerous, but at the same time vulnerable to groundfire. They would basically be faster tanks that can ignore terrain, but also have less armor and cost more.
I don´t think Naval will be important here. No one use it and im not see how in future we will use it, on planets naval just wont fit here. Maybe in future we have the possiblility make flat maps . Wy not! To who like planets play on planets to who like plane maps like we are ust ,we make them. Actualy think in this will be good see on a mod, how this game run in maps like TA and SCFA. That way we have both options
After reading all that I am loving the Idea of "Advanced" navy been large factory ships, making water worlds a very fluid battle field where key structures can move about as they need to. With large t1 factory ships for air and navy reducing fixed bases down to the minim (fixed structures are going to have a bad day with stingrays...) and making torpedo raids something to fear. The only other thing I will say about navy is I hope it gets a health increase / cost increase. I loved the ships in FA for how they did this, as they embodied some of the raw power of the battleships of old, things that where the peak of technological warfare and an "oh ****" moment when somebody build one. The idea of a battleship battle been a thing to behold is something I look forward too, at the moment it feels a little to like patrol boat battles to me. (and yes its still Alpha so is likely to be just as enjoyable as the rest of the game when done ! even if I don't agree with it now...)
