New Developments in Planetary Annihilation

[Stuart98]

There are a large number of developments happening in Planetary Annihilation right now that might reinvigorate you interest in the game if you had lost it (and it seems pretty much all of you have since you're here and not on the PA forums).

First of all, public test builds of the next update are out. This update introduces asteroids, or smashable planets that respawn after being used to end stalemates. Additionally, all planet smashes now result in both planets being destroyed whereas previously that would only happen if both planets involved were of similar size.

There were a couple small UI tweaks added to make it easier to tell if a structure was going to block construction of a metal extractor. Additionally, the UI API has been greatly expanded, which has opened up new possibilities that former FA player Cola_Colin is taking advantage of. His minimap mod, Ubermap, previously only possible via memory hacks, is being updated to run without any additional applications or memory hacking nonsense. Additionally, he is also working on a mod to add line move functionality. For those not familiar with games in the Spring Engine, line move is the ability to have your units move to assemble in a formation that can be used to space out your forces and minimize the impact of aoe weapons.

Now, let's move on to the server modding scene.

There are currently three major mods in development.

ModX, a mod made solely by jack of all trades modder ZX0, was started a year ago and was long a mod that simply added more stuff. More units, a new technology tier, various types of megaunits, etc. The next update, however, which is slated to come out by the end of the month, adds in a sort of psuedo faction system. The number of factories in the game has been doubled, but each commander only has access to half of them and which set of factories you have is determined by which commander.

Galactic Annihilation, a mod made by myself (Designer), ZX0 (Models, textures, animations), and KillerKiwiJuice (FX and Promotional Art), is an upcoming mod that is designed to add more to the game than simply more units. Although it increases the roster a bit, each unit is carefully thought out to have a place in the game and although experimentals are added (More prominently than in ModX, although for the most part the models are the same), they are not the focus. Instead, Galactic Annihilation is meant to open the game up to more strategies. Battles last longer with more room to micro units around, and units once again leave wreckage around after destruction, allowing a losing player to make a comeback so long as they control wreckage fields after battles. Galactic Annihilation has a long history, being started 7 months ago in the aftermath of the deaths of mods in the similar vein Statera and the Realm Community Balance Mod. We'll be releasing on August 1st, with more to come soon after.

Imperial Legion is an upcoming mod by NicB1 (Design and models), KillerKiwiJuice (Modeler, FX Artist, and Animator), Crembels (Concept Artist), and MGMetal13 (Texturer) that adds a new faction to the game inspired by various units in Total Annihilation and SupCom FA without changing the vanilla faction at all. It aims to release somewhere between September and November.

If you had PA written off, these developments might revive your interest in the game.

[justmakenewgame]

[Cuddles]

The reason i'm not playing it is the lag. It's not playable in my part of the world.

[Col_Walter_Kurtz]

This thread could use some pictures or video's of what you are talking about. As long as I have this image in my mind of Supcom 2 on a round ball, I will not even come near PA again. Sorry.

[Zock]

They didn't even send me my reward for donating. And they made a huge fail decision with the scale of units..

[ZeRen]

They didn't even send me my reward for donating. And they made a huge fail decision with the scale of units..

what you mean? units are too big for those planets, or ...?

[Zoram]

They didn't even send me my reward for donating. And they made a huge fail decision with the scale of units..

what you mean? units are too big for those planets, or ...?

Well it feels a bit like that :

[Stuart98]

They didn't even send me my reward for donating. And they made a huge fail decision with the scale of units..

You mean physical rewards?

They started shipping those a month ago. I'd open a support ticket if you feel like you aren't getting your rewards.

Unit scale is modable, although it's not really feasible for multiplayer mods due to a bug in file shadowing (Basically you have to include not only the model but also the fairly large texture files for resized units in the mod, which bloats the size and makes it difficult to fill a lobby).

Asteroids:

That vid is slightly outdated (SFX have been changed since then)

Line Move:

Still some adjustments beind made in this department with regard to the move order lines crossing.

The best way to sum up the next ModX update is with this image of the bot tech tree:
The red square is for a unit that lacked a model at the time of that post.

So basically there are two vehicle, bot, and air tech trees (Naval is still one tech tree for now although that will be changed in a future update). Each commander has access to the naval tech tree along with one of the bot tech trees, one of the air tech trees, and one of the vehicle tech trees. I assume all of the fabbers/engineers will have access to the same build options (so only units are factionalized), but I could be wrong. If you follow the link I posted for the new update, you'll see some more screens of new stuff.

As for Galactic Annihilation, just keep checking the OP every day for the next week or so and you'll see a new piece of media.

[ZeRen]

They didn't even send me my reward for donating. And they made a huge fail decision with the scale of units..

what you mean? units are too big for those planets, or ...?

Well it feels a bit like that :

I remember first video I saw about PA and it looks just like this picture I were like wtf!?

do you know what is funny? when you destroy a ship it sink, but when comm walk in water only his legs are under water. that is so weird

[Stuart98]

Wait what?

When you destroy ship it explode. Boom. No wreckage, like every other mobile unit in the game.

When a commander walks in water he goes as deep into the water as the sea floor is.