Planetary Annihilation on sale

[coffeejunkee]

The key to select idle fabbers is 'f'.

But the problem is it selects all idle fabbers of all tech levels. I want to be able to select the nearest idle fabber and also be able to select fex. just a T2 level air fabber. You can however select fex. all idle T2 vehicle fabbers by selecting them from the unit group menu in the lower left after clicking f.

Supcom had a good system for this with icons for idle engineers of different tech levels. Click the icon once and it would select just 1 idle guy, click twice and it would select all idle guys.

 

[coffeejunkee]

OK, I played some more and I'm starting to get the hang of it.

That one star review is just sad. All it shows is the guys inability to make even the smallest effort at learning to play a game. Like a little kid throwing his new toy in the corner if it doesn't do exactly what he expects it to. While actually it's a pretty nice toy.

Yes, there is stuff missing. But it has been fixed by the community. Download the PAMM mod manager here: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-pa-mod-manager-cross-platform.59992/. Next install the PA Stats 1v1 Ladder mod as explained here: http://exodusesports.com/guides/pa-stats-system-sharing/ and come play online. There's a good number of players of varying skill level.

 

[Elixer]

Has the game improved at all?

I see steam has it for $4.49, and at that price, I might just pick it up...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/233250/

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Its a thoroughly Meh game. Not bad not good.

 

[CU]

They have made a good bit of changes since release. Unit groups, balancing, single player just got an overhaul. I wish they would include more planet systems by default instead of you having to make them. Away to teleport planes to other planes like you can ground units would be nice also. I don't really know what to do about ships. They just seem to limited unless you are on a mostly water world.

I don't play much multiplayer, but against the AI if you let it spread I think it is near impossiable to beat. The AI can monitor everything at once. But, as a human it easy to let him slip through and contruct a transporter on one of your worlds and flood it with enemy units while you are hunting for his commander on one of the many other planets. Now in a system with few worlds this isn't as much of a problem.

I think it is worth the sale price.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I may load it again just to check out the single player improvements. Not a bad game I do agree with the previous comment that the game has no soul. All the units seemed the same. I've had much more fun with Supreme Commander however $4.50 is a good price for this game.

Edit: I think its the curved map that bother me the most. I didn't think it would but it does.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Playing on a spherical map does take some getting used too. I was a little sceptical at first too but now I think it's pretty cool. What I think is great is that you can attack from every side and do some really strategic army movements. It can be hard though to keep track of what's happening on the other side of the planet but quickly navigating the planet is part of the skills required for this game.

To navigate spherical map I strongly recommend using middle mouse button and not wasd/arrow keys or edge scroll because those are too slow. Getting yourself used to using pip-map and camera anchors helps a lot too. Before starting a match I add a camera anchor (shift+#, alt+# to recall) to my spawning point so I can always get back to normal orientation if I get a little disorientated. On multiplanet systems I also add anchors on strategically important planets like metal and gas.

I played a ton of TA but sadly it finally died after 10+ years. Supcom to me was a boring successor (lame upgrades, lame experimentals, lame veterancy system, lame tech rushes). PA has more of that old TA feeling. It's a different game though with the planets. What I like most about PA is that there is no unit limit. This is the ultimate simcity macro rts.

1 piece of advice for beginners: eco works a bit different compared to TA/SC. It used to be that units cost metal and energy. Now units cost metal only and workers have a fixed energy usage. It doesn't matter what you build, workers always use the same amount of energy. What I see a happening a lot is that people build too many workers early on and stall on energy. Intuitively they put more workers on energy and stall even harder. What you should do is pause workers or factories until you have enough energy to build at 100% efficiency (actually you shouldn't have made too many workers or you should have build enough energy in the first place).

CU: naval is actually very good, especially T2 battleship. It has huge range and can clear out a considerable amount of land around lakes. But yes, obviously the more water the better naval gets.

 

[Craig234]

The game that inspired this, Total Annihilation, seems like an incredible buy still when it goes on sale for $1.79 (normal price still a bargain at $6)

 

[SERPENTINE]

Thanks, is it only PvP or can you play verse a computer opponent?

Yes, there is AI.
You can place AI on your team vs other AI as well, or you can even make multiplayer matches with AI.

 

[SERPENTINE]

Go for it. It is worth the five bucks.

 

[Lorne]

I will have to look into this, I like watching AI kick each others arse.