Dream RTS - A One Man Show of sheer brilliance...

[Rman Virgil]

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From the very begining, 15 years ago, I've been as much interested in what WZ Creators finished as in what they left unfinished in thier retail release.

Over the years I've given a lot of attention to thier unfinished GPMs. Specifically, "Commanders and thier Command UI / Control Schema", "Transformations" and "Drive Mode" (aka "Battle CAM" mode in the PS One ver of WZ).

* (Also see NOTE @ the bottom of this post on a 4th unfinished GPM.)

I thought thier original design concepts, left unfinished, were powerful and if added to thier completed original GPMs would make WZ an undisputed classic RTS for the ages.

In these intervening years I've also kept an eye out for RTS developers taking up these unfinished WZ GPMs in thier own RTSs and fully realizing thier potential.

Last year, in looking closely at Planetary Annihilation, it came to me that in this RTS the whole WZ unfinished "Commanders and thier Command UI / Control Schema" had likely been nailed. Since this game is soon to be released we'll be able to make a hands-on judgement if that is a fact.

Now the other 2 areas of unfinished WZ GPMs, so called "Transformations" and "Drive / Battle Cam" mode, and the actual reference in the title of this thread, is an RTS in dev by one man working with the Unity 3D engine. He's done everything single handed. Everything. I'm starting to think of him as the Leonardo da Vinci slash Michael Jordan of RTS game creators. Amazing. He's even got the whole business model worked out brilliantly.

First check out this in-game vid related to "Drive / Battle Cam" mode and "Transformations":

http://universumwar.com/forum/2-257-1

Next check out this set of 4 vids getting into other aspects of his RTS (or "ARTS", an acronym we created in Pumpkin's bbs 15 years ago. An interesting coincidence, we'll say, him coming up with it too. It happens.) :

http://universumwar.com/index/video/0-4

His name is Cyril Megem. His ARTS is entitled "Universum: War Front". The name of his one man development org is "Starworks Art Studio".

"Planetary Annihilation" has been getting a lot of publicity because of its lineage to the universally acclaimed classic RTS, "Total Annihilation", but keep an eye to Cyril Megem's "Universum". His time will come.

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* NOTE: I didn't include Pumpkin's unfinished ECM codeing because even in 1999 it was not an uncommon GPM in the RTS genre. Though, in hindesight, its absence has profoundly shaped MP map making and GP style in the direction of Arcade, esp after the removal of thier interim solution, the FoW peek screen in MP mode.

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[vexed]

From everything I have read about Planetary Annihilation, it seems they just lost their way, and attempted to create something that is something other than what most people have hoped.

Lots of the in the forums also pleaded with them that the game wasn't finished, and needed more time to fine tune. (Though, I suppose all games have those kind of posts).

I still want to try this game, and see what it is all about though... maybe one of these years.

[Rman Virgil]

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I think it's being rushed too. And to be honest vexed, there's stuff about it that just doesn't appeal to me. However, I'm still up for a close look at the Command & Control mechanics they came up with, and if they nailed it. Might even save thier bacon if they did.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Steam Greenlight site for "Universum War Front" with lots of in-game eye candy, UIs and GPM insights:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... /182740106

Über in every aspect, for me.
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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

I like the looks of this one. VERY nice indeed.

Will watch with interest.

[ EDIT ] AND it got the Greenlight! EXCELLENT!

[vexed]

From everything I have read about Planetary Annihilation, it seems they just lost their way, and attempted to create something that is something other than what most people have hoped.

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2014/0 ... ihilation/

Planetary Annihilation, an arguably incomplete and poorly made game, is a worst case scenario for crowdfunding.

[Rman Virgil]

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Can confirm, vexed, sadly. Had an opportunity to try out the SP mode. An unmitigated disaster. So many shortfalls. One in particular stuck out for me because it's at the heart of any RTS and was my main interest in checking out how it was designed in PA - the Command and Control mechanics. Most egregiously, these mechanics promoted unrelieved disorientation. How could they have lost thier way in this most fundamental design component is beyond my ken. I have to believe thier fan / beta testers caught and reported this, among other things. Why push for release when this state affairs needed more time to resolve to a better place ? There was no distributor / publisher they had to knuckle under to release prematurely which is a huge advantage in crowd source funding. I don't get it. Maybe some honest post mortem will speak to these questions someday.

In any case, this subject of command disorientation is one Goth and I have discussed at length, begining last year, in his CAM 4 thread so I won't elaborate here any further on the subject.

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[Wolftrak]

I was a beta tester. I really like the game.

Do explain about command disorientation. I'm interested in what are your objections?

P.S. I'm not trying to troll, I am genuinely interested.

[Rman Virgil]

I was a beta tester. I really like the game.

Do explain about command disorientation. I'm interested in what are your objections?

P.S. I'm not trying to troll, I am genuinely interested.

I'll take you at your word Wolftrack and give you a carefully crafted response. The road to PA's command disorientation is one of several stages and I wanna be sure I clearly lay it out. But, since I'm at the begining of a very long work day, it's gonna have to wait till I'm back home, have had my supper, kicked back for a spell, collected my thoughts cogently and am in a place to write my best concise explanation. So be patient and you'll have a proper answer, for sure, though it will likely be in the wee hours when my today slips into my tomorrow.

- Regards, Rman.

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[Rman Virgil]

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When I said the road to PA's "Command Disorientation" went through several stages I meant from the very beginning, back to the game's initial conception. So I'm gonna start there with this speculative scenario involving TA franchise bros, who later became devs of PA, brainstorming new RTS design concepts over brewskis at some bar.

"How about we continue the TA & Sup Com tradition but with a new twist. Instead of everything taking place on one planet, one map, what about the player having to manage and battle on multiple planets, multiple maps, at the same time ?"

"Great concept ! Let's do it. We can even crowd source fund it at Kickstarter."

"Cool !"

So we have an innovative concept and I'm all for being innovative. However, innovation still comes with the same challenges of a more conventional game only more crucial to get it done right because you cannot bank on the familiarity of your audience. This is something different than the norm and there are certain basics you should provide players with to help them get the hang of the game's innovations without undo frustration, giving players as many opportunities to learn these fresh GPMs, to appreciate and have fun getting them down before venturing into competitive play. All these stock facilitators are MIA in PA.

Such as:

- A thorough game manual. And no, wiki's scattered across the Net and just covering rudimentary controls, just won't due as a substitute.

- Tutorials. And no, that lo res game promo vid is not even within a country mile of qualifying.

- In game help, sparse. If anything, as frustrating as none at all.

- An SP Campaign, even a little 10 mission one. There isn't any.

- Games can be lengthy. Hows about a Save Game. There isn't any. Not even in SP. Are you kidding me.

- SP A.I. - not even attaining the treshold of moronic. So its not even challenging enough to serve as a basic learning aid.

- Those innovative 2D mini-maps - let's make 'em to create disorientation. Woulda been better served with coventional ones.

All the above is just square one basic shortfalls abeting command disorientation. Now let me get to the weaknesses of the game's central gimick, managing multiple planets aka multiple maps, simultaneously without invoking perpetual command disorientation.

The challenge - how to create an elegant and intuitive UI that can provide for enough situational awareness of the players territories to make informed command decisions over MULTIPLE maps.....

Close but not nearly close enough and here's a couple reasons why it's a failure even though the picture within a picture is decently executed to sorta emulate multiple monitors on a single monitor.

When you start zooming out, even though you see more territory, you have to contend with the curvature of the planets by swinging the camera to the right angle. However, once you get that one angle right, because of the curvature, your eyes on the rest of the territory is bared. In other words you can only see a wee bit of the entire playing field at any given time. In essence your dealing with FoW that is never fully dispelled. And even with planet wide radar coverage your situational awareness is never adequate in totality because of this.

If the game had actual multiple monitor support, which it doesn't, maybe I could get all the angles covered with a bank of survaillance monitors to not feel handicaped in my command decision making.

I'm sure the devs and beta testers worked hard to make PA up to snuff within its prestigious TA - Sup Com lineage. Still, all of the above should have been addressed pre-release. And there is a bunch more stuff where the game falls short but I tried to stay focused in this one area. Its possible that these issues can be dealt with post release but its not very likely, with all the bad Press, that folks will have the where withall to persevere. I hope I'm wrong.

Anyway, I'm pooped for and have to leave it there for now.

- Regards, Rman.
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