Upcoming work - 5/6/15

Hello!

We’ve been so busy working in the game that I’ve nearly forgot to let everyone know what’s coming up and what we’re working on!

Currently in our Public Test Environment (PTE,) we have a lot of cool stuff coming in. There are balance changes, adjustments to naval firing arcs, factory placement adjustments, adjustments to the Normal AI, introduction of an idle AI, and a biggie; Resume Anywhere!

We’ve heard many newcomers to PA mention how hard the Normal AI is in the AI Skirmish. To help out, we’ve adjusted the Normal AI to allow new players time to build their base without being bombarded with attacks.



We’ve also introduced a new AI difficulty; Idle. This AI will sit idle in its base and not do anything, allowing players to explore the menus and build new units without worry of impending annihilation.

Resume Anywhere!
This is a new feature we’ve been excited to introduce for a while now. If you’ve played with Chrono Cam, you’ve seen how you can go back in time and find that moment where one change could have made all the difference. With Chono Resume, you’ll be able to use Chrono Cam to go back in time and resume playing from that spot or from, well, anywhere!

Currently in PTE, we have the ability to go back in time on games that haven’t ended yet. Soon, you’ll be able to use Chrono Resume for games that have already ended as well as picking up and playing from a Replay that you’re watching!

Coming up in the next few months, we’ve got:
Linux fixes!
System Designer fixes!
Save/Load fixes!

We’re also experimenting with Galactic War to improve user experience and in the future we’re looking at: Asteroids! These require a lot of work so we’re looking around summertime to get these in the game.

As you can see, we have a lot going on and more to work on for the future!
Thank you for supporting Planetary Annihilation and we’ll see you in game, Commanders!

To learn more about PTE and how to access it, check out the guide at eXodus eSports here: http://exodusesports.com/guides/exodus-explains-planetary-annihilation-pte/

Gleee!

Asteroid confirmed - great.
Please don't make the mistake again and stop developing this feature too early (like the unit cannon with its missing indicators on how many units are stored etc....).

Brilliant. This will help modders and noobs alike.

Bravo, guys.

I see this as the most important update to the most revolutionary feature introduced in an RTS, ever.

yay!

@mkrater: The Idle AI does, in fact, do nothing. But if you copy-paste them some power plants and metal extractors, they still make no income. It looks like the "doing nothing" part was included in income as well.

This makes it impossible to test building on the enemy side when you take control in sandbox mode.

HYPE

btw, it would be nice if you could spend week to improve smaller stuffs after you finish you current things, for example ladders still needs some love (profile pages and social things), I assume that it woudlnt take much time make that.

Can you describe what you're trying to test? Copy/pasting power in the game should only add to your own economy and not the enemy's.

was gonna say the same.

This confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt and once and for all that asteroids are being worked on.

This way we can stop debating over whether they are a thing or no. And can resume debating their correct implementation.

Looking forward to fixes and new gameplay additions!! Really hope the new Galactic War will be awesome ^^

Flatter or higher? Does this have anything to do with battleship shots sometimes covering half the planet?

Sure we can. What she said was "we’re looking at: Asteroids". Just looking at something doesn't mean actually implementing it. There's you shadow of a doubt!

(Just pulling you leg btw )

grrr!

I believe the ammo velocity was decreased on 3 units; the narwhal, orca, and leviathan.

Can't wait for bug fixes! I'm also curious, will there be much more bandwidth optimization? I'm probably on slower internet than most of the world and would love some love on network optimization! (By the way, I have wireless broadband at 4mb down and 1.3mb up on days that we don't drop connection)

Awesome news ! Can`t wait to the asteroid update =D

This! I have no idea what is in my unit cannon or how many!

Sorry, I wasn't explicit enough. I'd expect that copy-pasting anything would assign that thing to the player you are currently controlling, which can be the "enemy" in sandbox mode.

Here's how to reproduce:
1. Start a Sandbox PTE game with an Idle AI, where you and the AI both have standard 1.0 economies
2. Build some power plants as yourself
3. Take control of the AI player
4. Mouseover the powerplants and press CTRL+C to copy
5. Paste those power plants with CTRL+V and observe that they are the AI colour and "owned" by the AI
6. Notice that they don't contribute to the AI player's economy

Even if you start building a factory as the AI, and abandon it during construction, you'll notice that it doesn't contribute to the AI player's economy.

It seems like the "Idle" AI isn't really an AI, it's a hack that makes the AI and its economy do absolutely nothing. That'll need to be fixed so the AI is equivalent to a human player who's gone to the bathroom for the whole game.

Can we also get an AI difficulty harder than Absurd ? maybe one that cheats or something ?
Setting the resources on the AI higher than 1.0 doesn't make him better, it makes him compensate by expanding even less which is boring.