Planetary Annihilation Megathead v2 - Games

So is it good?

I just don't think it's a good idea to assume that kickstarter donation teirs = actual pre-order Kickstarter already kind of has this bad stigma where people think they are pre-ordering when they kickstart something, when in reality it's just a donation and the reward teirs are in there to incentivise you to donate more But uber is basically saying, "no, our kickstarter was a pre-order and that pre-order was valued at $90 for early access" It just kind of throws away the idea that kickstarters are funding drives where you donate money and the rewards are secondary when you just end up selling that very reward as an "early access preorder" for the same amount as a very high donation reward. It's that type of thinking that'll completely destroy kickstarter's legitimacy in the eyes of everyone who donates when the first inevitable failure comes. I.E. a successful kickstarter that is big ends up failing and never coming out and people feel like their "pre-orders" they paid $90 for to get alpha access were duped... when in reality all they were doing was donating money anyways for a project that may or may not work. That's the whole point of crowd funding, but gamers mistakenly treat it like a means to pre-order and I just don't like how Uber is reinforcing that stigma. I'll be getting the game when it actually comes out no doubt because I love the concept, I just can't agree at all with them doing a steam early access in the first place.

[QUOTE=Maruhai;41040649]So they're going the opposite way of Minecraft, one of the game that has sold the most copies ever. that's some good marketing huh[/QUOTE] Marketing has little to do with Minecraft's success. One piece of the puzzle isn't going to make a game millions.

[QUOTE=KorJax;41041169]I just don't think it's a good idea to assume that kickstarter donation teirs = actual pre-order Kickstarter already kind of has this bad stigma where people think they are pre-ordering when they kickstart something, when in reality it's just a donation and the reward teirs are in there to incentivise you to donate more But uber is basically saying, "no, our kickstarter was a pre-order and that pre-order was valued at $90 for early access" It just kind of throws away the idea that kickstarters are funding drives where you donate money and the rewards are secondary when you just end up selling that very reward as an "early access preorder" for the same amount as a very high donation reward. It's that type of thinking that'll completely destroy kickstarter's legitimacy in the eyes of everyone who donates when the first inevitable failure comes. I.E. a successful kickstarter that is big ends up failing and never coming out and people feel like their "pre-orders" they paid $90 for to get alpha access were duped... when in reality all they were doing was donating money anyways for a project that may or may not work. That's the whole point of crowd funding, but gamers mistakenly treat it like a means to pre-order and I just don't like how Uber is reinforcing that stigma. I'll be getting the game when it actually comes out no doubt because I love the concept, I just can't agree at all with them doing a steam early access in the first place.[/QUOTE] But it's not that simple. It isn't. They HAVE to incentivize to make investing worth a damn, who would bother dropping money on a product they as funders have no input in and still have to buy. These people are serious fans and people that you don't want to fuck with because they funded your game and will spew forth a wave of shit once they feel fucked over. Steam having a cheaper copy of the game would do just that. Why should they structure it for you? You're not a customer yet. You're not a backer. You're a potential that they can't do shit about. The fact it's even on steam is worse than the price, but the fact people feel [i]entitled[/I] because you have to pay what someone else paid. See, you feel entitled to pay less because you're not a backer. This logic makes no sense. You do not deserve to play a game early for less when that game had a risk of never being made due to the nature of crowd funding. Fucking "gamers"

[QUOTE=KorJax;41041169]I just don't think it's a good idea to assume that kickstarter donation teirs = actual pre-order Kickstarter already kind of has this bad stigma where people think they are pre-ordering when they kickstart something, when in reality it's just a donation and the reward teirs are in there to incentivise you to donate more But uber is basically saying, "no, our kickstarter was a pre-order and that pre-order was valued at $90 for early access" It just kind of throws away the idea that kickstarters are funding drives where you donate money and the rewards are secondary when you just end up selling that very reward as an "early access preorder" for the same amount as a very high donation reward. It's that type of thinking that'll completely destroy kickstarter's legitimacy in the eyes of everyone who donates when the first inevitable failure comes. I.E. a successful kickstarter that is big ends up failing and never coming out and people feel like their "pre-orders" they paid $90 for to get alpha access were duped... when in reality all they were doing was donating money anyways for a project that may or may not work. That's the whole point of crowd funding, but gamers mistakenly treat it like a means to pre-order and I just don't like how Uber is reinforcing that stigma. I'll be getting the game when it actually comes out no doubt because I love the concept, I just can't agree at all with them doing a steam early access in the first place.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but no matter how overpriced it may be, this method is basically saying that the current customers are more valued then the ones that [I]helped the game to exist[/I].

[QUOTE=Mr. Tripp;41040828]So is it good?[/QUOTE] Yeah, it's pretty rough just now obviously but with some time and effort and some polish it'll be really fun. Although the Scampers, PA's peewee's are made of paper, like genuinely must be made out of the nanaogoop version of paper mache and laser defense towers can 1/2 shot them and the sheller artillery is a bit overpowered, but again that all comes down to balancing which will take a bit of time. [editline]15th June 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=KorJax;41041169]I just don't think it's a good idea to assume that kickstarter donation teirs = actual pre-order Kickstarter already kind of has this bad stigma where people think they are pre-ordering when they kickstart something, when in reality it's just a donation and the reward teirs are in there to incentivise you to donate more But uber is basically saying, "no, our kickstarter was a pre-order and that pre-order was valued at $90 for early access" It just kind of throws away the idea that kickstarters are funding drives where you donate money and the rewards are secondary when you just end up selling that very reward as an "early access preorder" for the same amount as a very high donation reward. It's that type of thinking that'll completely destroy kickstarter's legitimacy in the eyes of everyone who donates when the first inevitable failure comes. I.E. a successful kickstarter that is big ends up failing and never coming out and people feel like their "pre-orders" they paid $90 for to get alpha access were duped... when in reality all they were doing was donating money anyways for a project that may or may not work. That's the whole point of crowd funding, but gamers mistakenly treat it like a means to pre-order and I just don't like how Uber is reinforcing that stigma. I'll be getting the game when it actually comes out no doubt because I love the concept, I just can't agree at all with them doing a steam early access in the first place.[/QUOTE] If you put money to something on kickstarter and think that automatically means you're preordering something as opposed to putting money into it with an expected reward then you must be illiterate because you obviously can't read a tier list.

Someone asked about screenshots of alpha, here you go. [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/vibrn3rv1gyfwng/fancy.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/ttkxtxkgrndoluj/freeshot.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/bt2gdnh5o8277jx/MATRIX.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfdsglg0xx8ygvi/BUM.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/rszn464itia5ml7/Factories.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/45fdh0ije4zl68u/itaintevenmyfinalform.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/cox4bielvd0babt/TOTHEMOON.png[/url] (texture of moon is small, because you CANT go to moon yet. Well, without bugs ofcorse.) [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/ms8hjfh8ydk5ctq/arcticnight.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/irk9gbzrjqzridz/mountains.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8xz76le8rdtul4/coconday.png[/url] [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/n87wnn445x33o3u/moononnewplanet.png[/url] Remember that all this stuff is RANDOMLY generated, every planet is DIFFERENT!

[QUOTE=Mr. Tripp;41040828]So is it good?[/QUOTE] Did you ever play SpringRTS? That open source clone of Total Annihilation? It kinda feels like that. It's very barebones but functional with no current progession towards polishing the game or prettying the UI. Heck right now it's not a game, it's a test, a tech demo, an idea's board. It can't really be called "Good" or "bad" because it's not even ready to actually play yet. It being "playable" is a bit of a bad term to use. Yes you can look at hows it's supposed to work in much the same way that pouring water into a sand-pit is a good way of predicting tidal erosion. If you want to Jump onto a work in progress and make desicions that will affect the game on a fundamental level and not just "Bunnybot is a little weak, he could use some extra HP" THIS is what PA is. A project! Something that's not so much "not done" as barely off the ground. We're not just shooting the first few scenes for a movie, we're only just writing the script.

The latest patches have started to strain my laptop so that it has become difficult to actually run the game. ...and I dont get my gaming pc till September :c

[QUOTE=wulfe8857;41041170]Marketing has little to do with Minecraft's success. One piece of the puzzle isn't going to make a game millions.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure about any game that started cheaper in alpha/beta and increased the price gradually sold more than games that lowered the price near full release. Not saying Planetary Annihilation would sell millions, but it would probably sell more by spreading the word around.

[QUOTE=Maruhai;41044873]Not saying Planetary Annihilation would sell millions, but it would probably sell more by spreading the word around.[/QUOTE] They dont want milions on alpha right now.

[QUOTE=Xanoxis;41045668]They dont want milions on alpha right now.[/QUOTE] Exactly. Having a crapton of people playing the KSP experimentals ended up with the forums spammed with "OHMYGOD THIS DOESN'T WORK WHAT THE HELL WASTE OF MONEY REFUND PLEAZE" a million times.

[QUOTE=lockdown6;41055924]so they want people to pay them to bugtest their game? so they don't have to hire testers and they make money out of it?[/QUOTE] Or maybe they just want a small number of professional bug testers + a few devoted fans testing?

[QUOTE=lockdown6;41055924]so they want people to pay them to bugtest their game? so they don't have to hire testers and they make money out of it?[/QUOTE] So they don't get a shitload of people not realizing it's in alpha and calling it a piece of shit

There's also the point that they wanted this to be A Truly Crowd sourced game, not just for money but for ideas, direction and other areas of development. They want us to fund the game that we want to play, they want us making the "executive decisions" and telling them how we think the game should go. This all stared with the idea of "Total Annihilation on several planets." From there on it's up the the backers. You've got to understand the mindset here, the backers are not pre-orders, they're not even bug testers but a stage of development unto themselves. In most cases a Beta or Alpha boils down to "X is op! Y is UP! please make changes" and "If you do A and B it results in a bug where planes get stuck to the commanders arm." This here is a different kettle of fish, we can go to the forums and suggest things that will have a Major Impact on the game. For example I Like the idea of planets that have Incredibly powerful structures, such as a Metal Miner on nuclear turbo Steroids... or twenty, but the downside is you cannot build structures on this planet meaning that defence is Difficult. Leading to some risk/reward scenarios.

[QUOTE=lockdown6;41056821]maybe it's just me, but hiring people for that seems to make a million times more sense than selling it at a ridiculous price. surely they can afford it with the 1.1 million dollars extra they made out of the kickstarter?[/QUOTE] First the argument was "lower the price so they can make more money!" Now the argument is "lower the price because they have so much money!" Either way, it makes the most sense this way. Not only do they probably have in-house professional testers, but they also have the dedicated fans playing and giving real feedback, as opposed to thousands of people complaining about how it's broken as fuck without saying anything constructive.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;41042107]But it's not that simple. It isn't. They HAVE to incentivize to make investing worth a damn, who would bother dropping money on a product they as funders have no input in and still have to buy. These people are serious fans and people that you don't want to fuck with because they funded your game and will spew forth a wave of shit once they feel fucked over. Steam having a cheaper copy of the game would do just that. Why should they structure it for you? You're not a customer yet. You're not a backer. You're a potential that they can't do shit about. The fact it's even on steam is worse than the price, but the fact people feel [i]entitled[/I] because you have to pay what someone else paid. See, you feel entitled to pay less because you're not a backer. This logic makes no sense. You do not deserve to play a game early for less when that game had a risk of never being made due to the nature of crowd funding. Fucking "gamers"[/QUOTE] I think it being on steam is a good idea to be honest. In a way it's allowing people to continue to make donations towards the game if they feel and get involved with the development process. The real problem is idiots who seem to believe that this is just some pre order thing, which it isn't, it's and investment into the project that gives you access to the alpha, which will help them by both giving them money to spend on the project along with also bringing in more testers. If all people want to do is pre order it then wait until after the alpha stage and then preorder it. [editline]16th June 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=lockdown6;41056821]maybe it's just me, but hiring people for that seems to make a million times more sense than selling it at a ridiculous price. surely they can afford it with the 1.1 million dollars extra they made out of the kickstarter?[/QUOTE] I'm surprised they can even afford to make PA at all, people don't seem to realise at all how small an amount $2.5 million is in terms of game development, so really they need every penny they can get at this point, but at the same time they don't want to bugger over their original investors by suddenly giving the alpha away at a lower price since doing that would stifle any later attempts at kickstarter projects.

[QUOTE=lockdown6;41055924]so they want people to pay them to bugtest their game? so they don't have to hire testers and they make money out of it?[/QUOTE] There are already ~9000 people in alpha. We made around 1200 bug topics. 661 are good, moderated and open. 42 major bugs were fixed in less than 9 days. Thats a lot. We dont need more people.

I haven't paid the $90 alpha access or whatever you want to call it, nor do I intend to, but I am real sick of people complaining about the price. If it bothers you that God damn much that they're charging $90 for a wholly incomplete game then just [I]don't buy it[/I] and shut the fuck up. Buy it later when there's actually something of substance to buy, or don't buy it at all and show those greedy developers at Uber what for. If that's really the way you see it then no, they don't want your money right now anyway. This isn't directed at anybody here, I'm just venting from having to deal with someone who has a real hateboner for PA because of the current $90 price tag.

Oh no I want to play an Alpha but don't want to pay the same price as Kickstarter people did!!!

I saw this on my steam yesterday and I just want to say that this looks amazing! If I wasn't a broke young father I would totally buy it lol. Does anyone know if the price is going to drop when it comes out or will it stay the same?

It'll be $40 on release.

the last patch has improved my fps so i'm glad i can actually play the game now i also like how it shows the range on static defenses

[QUOTE=frozensoda;41063639]I saw this on my steam yesterday and I just want to say that this looks amazing! If I wasn't a broke young father I would totally buy it lol. Does anyone know if the price is going to drop when it comes out or will it stay the same?[/QUOTE] They intended to lower price maybe even weekly-2weeks, but im not 100% sure. Also, beta is 60$ and you can buy each preorder on their page [url]https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4[/url]

[QUOTE=Xanoxis;41065501]They intended to lower price maybe even weekly-2weeks, but im not 100% sure. Also, beta is 60$ and you can buy each preorder on their page [url]https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4[/url][/QUOTE] no the price will not lower until beta is reached, then again when game comes out

Can't activate it on Steam with the key I got, I'am sad. :(

I still dont get why people whine so much about a game being "unplayable" and filled with bugs even though its explicitly stated as a ALPHA or BETA. Jeez, this is Battlefield 3 Beta all over again: a bunch of whiners and complainers not even helping the game development along like they were supposed to. This game has limitless potential and is a game I would definitely play if I could buy it, the whiners have no excuse.

Spent half an hour preparing myself to build a nuclear silo. I sent out a team of fabrication vehicles to just outside an enemy base and started setting up camp. Someone else attacked and destroyed the majority of my main base, but dammit I finished the nuclear silo. It acts as a fucking missile turret.

Total Biscuit addressed the Price today [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqUuCXcFr0s[/media]

Very good summary of the issue. On topic, TA and SC are my favorite strategy games of all time so I'm really looking forward to this game. I'll definitely be getting it on release, but we will see where it is when beta rolls around. If the beta is in a good place I might buy it then.