I full support each word in this sentiment. Nailed it better than I could have.
I have this fond hope that Triumph will do something like a tactical battles creation competition, the winner to get free dlc or posters or something.
I also think the time is perfect* for creating a tactical battles only arena mode, wrapped up in a tournament format.
Basically how Total War did most of it’s multiplayer, where you paid fixed costs for an army and then launched into a battle.
But with a singleplayer tournament skin, so you start with a small army, get experience etc, and then progress onto bigger battles etc.
And ofcourse a multiplayer component (pay x per unit, pay x per mod, pay x per level of unit)
And a last stand mode, where you have your army, and have to fend off waves of enemy units.
Would be quite robust, and a decent dlc imho.
*perfect because they have the know how, the fanbase and the resources to do this. Plus very few games offer entirely alternate game modes via dlc.
By the way, I have to commend Triumph for the SUPERB job they did on the multiplayer front. I posted multiple times in the AOW3 that what killed that game for my gaming group was how obnoxious we found the simultaneous turns to be, in terms of unresponsive UI. Planetfall has completely eliminated that, where the only time I get an unresponsive UI is when a player is deciding whether to manual or auto a battle. And even then, I get big red text informing me the game is waiting on a player decision. I played a game with three human players and it all played and felt great.
But that’s just getting to par with other games. What really impressed me is how the MP games are seamlessly stored online, I’m sure to support PBEM and the like. I was in the middle of an epic seven-army battle with a friend when my internet connection cut out for a minute or so right as we were wrapping it up (and having pulled off a really epic comeback against overwhelming odds). It was a little upsetting thinking we’d have to try to reproduce that battle outcome again, but we were able to log back in to our game on the server and continue the battle right where we left off. Even better, when I re-connected to the battle, it actually played back the battle events for me thus far. That would have been really handy if we had picked it back up a day or a week later instead of immediately afterword.
Anyway, that system is really slick. I’m super impressed with what they’ve done with MP, especially given the deficiencies that drove me batty in AOW3.
Yeah, my son and @ShivaX and I played four hours of a multiplayer game this weekend and we just had a blast. It’s a great game but it’s an excellent multiplayer experience. Except of course mid-last week when the online servers went down, that was a splash of cold water that was the only real weakness to their new system. Still, a one time outage isn’t a huge deal as the game is also an offline single player game, and it was just the one time. No reason to think it will be a real problem down the road or anything.
I believe this to be one of the benefits of being in the Paradox stable.
If so, it more than offsets the dislike people have of the Paradox dlc vampirism etc, IMHO ofcourse.
Oh, that’s…news to me.
Then again I don’t think any of the alleged people who may or may not have seen or experienced anything approaching this game beforehand had a disconnect in the middle of battle.
What I like in this regard is the more fleshed out modding system, and ease of ticking yes or no to use mods.
I also can’t say how much I like the inventory system for weapons.
Well it’s double good for me, because I prefer the Paradox development model anyway. Bring on a dozen new factions, damage channels, game mechanics, etc. Especially if it works like PDS games where only the host needs to own any of the DLC.
I know a lot of people want a “complete” game. For me, if it’s a game I love, I want more content for it.
I’ve had a couple of fights against marauder bugs (the tier 1 ground acid spit ones) where units resurrected the turn after they were killed. I had no idea they would do that, and there’s no obvious ability that’s causing it. Can anyone shed light on this?
Oh good so it’s not just me. I have no idea, I’d probably killed a dozen of them before it happened and I was left looking at their info card unable to find anything about them being able to revive.
Look on the unit card. Some units just have the ability innately, but there is also at least one Mod that can do it.
I know the Assembly Wrecker has it as an ability for example. But I’ve also seen it in the tech tree someplace as a mod.
This is an example of the whole “mods can make things confusing sometimes” thing I mentioned earlier. Tier 1 bugs, no big deal, but oh they have a mod that you didn’t know about cause you didn’t look because, they’re freaking Tier 1 bugs after all. But then they come back from death and you swear. A lot.
Oooh, I wonder if it was a particular mod. I think I just looked at the ability list, not the mod. And I only looked after it respawned, it might not have had the mod anymore like it did before death, so that might be why I missed it.
The ability should still be there? But maybe not after it’s triggered. No idea.
It’s a pretty rare mod most of the time, though stuff like Plague Lords can rez dead Xenoplague units, so that’s another possibility, but I think you’d have noticed if the rez came from a 3rd party.
It’s certainly possible I missed the ability, but I did look the two times this has happened and never figured out what it was. That’s why I thought maybe the “new” unit didn’t have the mod/ability anymore so wasn’t listed. No idea, but I’ll start paying more attention now each time I fight them because otherwise it’ll drive me nuts. Sometimes I can’t turn my brain off on some of this stuff until I figure it out. :)
It’s a mod those bugs get sometimes. Wish they’d share their secret!
Even fighting the Assembly, I couldn’t figure out which units could resurrect and when. Some units would die and then respawn as a “Spawn of Despair” or some such.
What’s the name of the ability or mod that lets units resurrect themselves?
Spawn of Despair I can help with! It’s a Psi ability, Devour Hope or something? Psi-based heroes get it, if the unit dies with that effect on a Spawn of Despair will rise from the ground.
It’s a mod they have.
Also, it should say in the battle log, accessed by clicking the scroll like thing top right of battle screen.
It’s not the clearest battle log in the world :P.
working as intended? :P
I agree - I will never express anything but love for every time the AI and the units surprise me, more of that I say.
I think you mean “mods can make things more complex” which is a good thing™ and should be celebrated. Every time something like this happens it’s kind of me to have taken the time to review my opponents at the start of the battle, which I don’t often do. Which leads to “why does this enemy gunship hit all my freaking units in an explosive AOE?” and then “Oh, this crazy fire burst mod is changing its fire attacks to deal 50% of it’s damage to adjacent hexes. That’s amazing. And I want it.” And so I built it, and now I have two of those gunships in my own army. It’s amazing.
Hah, put that on Assembly snipers along with the rail extension mod.
10 hex long fiery death.
I made vanguard void soldiers with jet packs. They dash toward the target, hit the jetpack, duplicate themselves, and both they and their doubles are in CC with a target with one attack each to get the party started, along with the distortion burst occurring in a hex around the clone unit as it appears.