Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS

Couchpotato

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In light of EA ruining C&C Generals 2 I came across this kickstarter game. It's called Planetary Annihilation. The game looks good as has some serious talent who have made other games.

The goal is $900,000 and seems a bit high but I hope they reach it.

Link-http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659943965/planetary-annihilation-a-next-generation-rts

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They did a great job with the video. It looks awesome and epic, but my biggest concern (to go with a couple minor ones, like the scale of the planets) is that the scope of this project might be too big.

Total Annihilation is one of my favorite games of all time. What made it so awesome was your involvement in huge battles on massive maps. I think they're absolutely right that most RTS games lack any sort of massive feeling and the genre isn't really trending that way. However, as much as I loved Supreme Commander, it was far too easy to become uninvolved with the crazy tactical zooming in and out. I'm afraid that if they did manage to pull it off that I would end up playing without any emotional investment because I would spend my time on the tactical maps instead of buried in the action like I was in Total Annihilation.

In summation, three issues/obstacles:

1. The project's scope could be too grand, even for a $900,000 budget.
2. Because of it's grand scope, including multiple battles that could presumably be taking place on the opposite sides of the galaxy, players may end up playing from tactical maps rather than commanding battles, which would diminish emotional involvement and the "wow factor" that would come from the awesome explosions.
3. Judging from the video (which means very little), it doesn't look like they plan to give us huge planets to play on.

If they end up with a lot of funding, I would say this would be a project to watch as a potential Kickstarter game failure, just based of the incredible scale they are aiming for. That being said, I will most definitely pledge on the hopes that it turns out as well as it could.

P.S. Why hasn't anyone ever focused on making a historical RTS on a truly grand world-sized map? That's what I would like to see, something that combines Empire Earth\Total Annihilation\Civilization. Give us a massive world to play on, a bunch of civilizations to populate it with, and where the only campaign is to conquer or play around on that world (in depth diplomacy being a must). That's been a dream project of mine for a while.
 
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Just an update.

14,048 Backers
$542,886 pledged of $900,000 goal
24 days to go

Keep the donations coming it's safe to say they will meet there goal.
 
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This game looks epic and MUST be made! Linux support too! :D

The stretch goals seem a little weird though….

Naval units and water planets hardly needs another 200,000$! I mean, if you pledge $1000 they build you a custom commander, right? So will we be getting 200 naval units here? Surely you just take the basic unit template, restrict it to water and make it look like a boat? And water planets are hardly hard do do if they're all water. Just don't add land? Likewise with gas giants? And whats this talk about mountains on gas planets?

Still, very keen to see a new iteration of Total Annihilation; one of the best games ever.
 
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It does not work that way. Stretch goals are not coupled to the costs of productions as a first concern: they are conceived to make the best out of backers.

Backers come loosely as two groups: hardcore backers who pledge from first days and late term backers.

Usually, the latter are less numerous than the former but much more inclined to throw in bucks. The latter will join en masse if the "final" offer looks good.

The best strategy is manage well the fluxes of backers to achieve a set funding target.

During the kickstarter days (save the last week), incentives must be extremelly attractive so that hardcore backers give the most as they are ready to do that. They will make huge pledges and build the final offer.
During the last few days, the raw numbers of new backers who consider the final offer appealing will keep the momentum through numerous smaller pledges.

A good example of that is the Reaper miniatures KS: the final offer was built by a core of 3000 backers who kept increasing their pledges (going from $60 to something like $300) In the final days, backers flow increased violently going threefold and pledging for a lot the mid offer($100) Thanks to hardcore backers, this offer went from offering 61 minis at start to nearly 200 minis right now.

Best KS success I followed. Very well managed.
 
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They're being quite generous with their time answering questions on their live-stream. They've been on there for the countdown and are still on live answering questions about 3 hours past the close of the campaign.

http://www.twitch.tv/uberchannel

Hearing a completely drunk programmer describe coding is kind of amusing.
 
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I realize that some of these devs are the same guys that worked on Supreme Commander, but I'm still surprised by how similar this game is. It's almost a complete ripoff. At least that's the impression I get from the pre-alpha footage.
 
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I realize that some of these devs are the same guys that worked on Supreme Commander, but I'm still surprised by how similar this game is. It's almost a complete ripoff. At least that's the impression I get from the pre-alpha footage.

High similarities are to be expected since core team worked on Total annihilation and Supreme commander and from kickstarter it was obvious that they plan to make unofficial sequel with some new things like interplanetary battles and galactic conquest campaign and from comments on kickstarter you can see that it's what fans wanted.Personally I am fine with more of same but I would like to see some innovation.
 
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Yay - that makes for the 4th version of pretty much the exact same game, or?
 
I'm fine with the direction of the game. The only negative part is there will be no campaign or story mode. They made that perfectly clear in a recent interview. It's to time consuming and cost to much is there excuse.
 
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Ha ha "Next Generation"... I don't understand, isn't the forum is very traditionalist and conservative… and all best games was done in past? Or is it just for RPG not for other game genres?

Also why "Next Generation" attract the attention? What's the fuss? Why the hell I couldn't resist open the thread despite I dislike the lot RTS? :biggrin:

Sorry for this little out of topic, I'll watch the video to get an absolution. :)
 
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Ha ha "Next Generation"… I don't understand, isn't the forum is very traditionalist and conservative… and all best games was done in past? Or is it just for RPG not for other game genres?

Also why "Next Generation" attract the attention? What's the fuss? Why the hell I couldn't resist open the thread despite I dislike the lot RTS? :biggrin:

Sorry for this little out of topic, I'll watch the video to get an absolution. :)
I can honestly say your forum name fits you then. I guess you really hate rpg's and now RTS games. What's next adventure games?:p

Don't bother replying as I doubt you would understand.(Referring on your previous post to me) Sorry for this off topic myself good day.:movingon:
 
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It looks good to me. No campaign doesn't even really bother me as all I really played in TA was skirmishes anyway. Any have impressions from the alpha?
 
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Ninety dollars? Seriously, lol.....do they bring you pizza for like a week or something?? That's just a silly idea. It's one thing to give that money to a Kickstarter, quite another to do it on Steam.



-Carn
 
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Ninety dollars? Seriously, lol…..do they bring you pizza for like a week or something?? That's just a silly idea. It's one thing to give that money to a Kickstarter, quite another to do it on Steam.

I agree. They need to knock it off before other video companies notice and decide that price point is a good idea.Oh well, steam sales are coming and it will get buried in the charts.
 
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