Planetary Annihilation Brings RTS Action on a Massive Scale

[WMDogma]

Planetary Annihilation Brings RTS Action on a Massive Scale

Interplanetary war has never looked so good - or chaotic.

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[major_chaos]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.
OT: I'm really looking forward to this one. Its been a long time since I cared about a RTS but PA looks like a mix of new ideas and a very solid core of standard RTS design.

 

[Zontar]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.

Well, it IS a legitimate complaint that they wanted double the price of a brand new triple A game for an unfinished, for the longest time unplayable, game. Especially with their track record of all their games being abandoned shortly after release.

OT: I'll wait for this to be 75% off on a steam sale before even considering it. No way Uber earned 40$ for this in its completed state, let alone more for it unfinished.

 

[major_chaos]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.

Well, it IS a legitimate complaint that they wanted double the price of a brand new triple A game for an unfinished, for the longest time unplayable, game. Especially with their track record of all their games being abandoned shortly after release.

Except that the reason it was $90 was because that was the KS tier that gave alpha access as a reward. They wanted to offer more really passionate fans access to the intentionally small alpha feedback pool without stabbing their Kickstarter supporters in the back.

 

[Zontar]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.

Well, it IS a legitimate complaint that they wanted double the price of a brand new triple A game for an unfinished, for the longest time unplayable, game. Especially with their track record of all their games being abandoned shortly after release.

Except that the reason it was $90 was because that was the KS tier that gave alpha access as a reward. They wanted to offer more really passionate fans access to the intentionally small alpha feedback pool without stabbing their Kickstarter supporters in the back.

I've herd this argument time and again, and like every time I have I'll say this now: I'm a costumer, not a donator. My only concern is this: is the cost justified by the content? That's the only question customers should care about, and even at 40$ for a complete game the answer isn't curtain.

I also want to know how many would offer the same defence if it was EA doing it, or Ubesoft.

 

[Raven_Operative]

Ok, thats cool and all... But how the hell do people manage to micro this amount of stuff well? It's certainly beyond my capabilities.

 

[Compatriot Block]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.

Well, it IS a legitimate complaint that they wanted double the price of a brand new triple A game for an unfinished, for the longest time unplayable, game. Especially with their track record of all their games being abandoned shortly after release.

Except that the reason it was $90 was because that was the KS tier that gave alpha access as a reward. They wanted to offer more really passionate fans access to the intentionally small alpha feedback pool without stabbing their Kickstarter supporters in the back.

I've herd this argument time and again, and like every time I have I'll say this now: I'm a costumer, not a donator. My only concern is this: is the cost justified by the content? That's the only question customers should care about, and even at 40$ for a complete game the answer isn't curtain.

I also want to know how many would offer the same defence if it was EA doing it, or Ubesoft.

Of course they wouldn't, but they'd be wrong for not doing so.

As a customer, you should know that it's not a safe investment to buy an early-access game. It would have been hugely unfair to the early backers (who WERE donators) to let them buy their way into an alpha and then drop the price a short while later. By paying for early-access, you are donating to the developers as they work on the game. You're not buying a finished product, and so the burden is on the customer to choose whether or not to take that gamble, or play it safe and wait.

 

[major_chaos]

I've herd this argument time and again, and like every time I have I'll say this now: I'm a costumer, not a donor.

Good for you, don't buy it then. I'm not trying to claim that everyone should run out and buy PA at $90, I certainly didn't and I suspect the devs didn't expect many sales at that price point. I don't object to "I won't buy it at that price" I object to "OH EEM GEE GREADIEST DEVZ WORSE THAN EA, WORSE THAN HITLER!!! BOYCOT!!!! RAEGE!!!"

I also want to know how many would offer the same defense if it was EA doing it, or Ubisoft.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I certainly would.

 

[DSK-]

I've been following PA since I found out it was being made. It actually fits the aesthetic to TA, and I'm somewhat optimistic that it will be a great game. I wasn't overly keen on SupCom if I'm honest, and SupCom 2 was terrible.

I still play TA with my original disks from 1997. Game was so far ahead of it's time.

 

[LetalisK]

The ground stuff looks almost exactly like Supreme Commander 2. Let's hope they do a much better job than that game did, because this looks really interesting.

 

[TheSYLOH]

The ground stuff looks almost exactly like Supreme Commander 2. Let's hope they do a much better job than that game did, because this looks really interesting.

Just judging from the trailers, I think they may have resolved Sup Cmdr 2's problem.
Sup Cmdr 2 problem was that it just didn't have the scale of Supreme Commander or Total Annihilation.
It was just Star Craft real time tactics, minus the polish.

But i haven't played it, and I haven't seen a finished product so I'm putting off judgment until I see some actual reviews.
I would really like to see another game with hundreds of units going at each other at once.
Still i find the tiny planets thing slightly off putting.

 

[Tohron]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.

How would an uninformed person know what the price used to be?

As an informed consumer, I know the price is currently $49.99USD for Early Access. And the latest "Gamma" patch released March 20th has caused widespread reports of game freezing and crashing.

PA is a great idea for a game and it has a lot of potential. You know, just like Spore.

As someone who has played Spore and is playing PA, I can say that PA is already a better game. The game has been mostly stable, even when I have thousands of fabricators spread out across multiple planets. Managing the defense of those planets while gearing up my econ is fun. Admittedly, there are some balance issues - the game is short on planetary invasion methods, T2 Air and static defenses are both too strong - but these are all things that the developers can address before release.

Meanwhile, many of the new control features like Area Commands make managing everything much smoother than any other RTS I've played. Overall, I'm looking forward to how this game turns out.

 

[LetalisK]

The ground stuff looks almost exactly like Supreme Commander 2. Let's hope they do a much better job than that game did, because this looks really interesting.

Just judging from the trailers, I think they may have resolved Sup Cmdr 2's problem.
Sup Cmdr 2 problem was that it just didn't have the scale of Supreme Commander or Total Annihilation.
It was just Star Craft real time tactics, minus the polish.

Not to mention it looked bad. I remember playing and enjoying Supreme Commander, saw that there was a second one, and immediately buying it. As soon as I started it up, I thought "Wait, why did the graphics go backwards? And why does everything look like it was built with legos?" Doesn't it take effort to actually go backwards with how your sequel looks, both graphically and aesthetically?

Edit: Though looking at some screenshots, they're not as bad as I remember. I specifically remember the first mission looking like a 5 year old with a box of legos made it and I couldn't quite get over it. Maybe I'll have to give it another try.

 

[major_chaos]

Inb4 uninformed people shrieking about what the price used to be.

How would an uninformed person know what the price used to be?

Uninformed about $90 being the Kickstarter tier that unlocked alpha access, meaning that instantly offering alpha access for less to others would be a backstab of epic proportions.