Create your own solar system with the Procedural Map Editor
Playing on professionally made maps is great, but Uber is going to give players the ability to make their own maps and rate the best ones through UberNet. The Procedural Map Editor is expected to be an immensely powerful tool that will allow players to determine how big is the system, how many planets, how many asteroids, etc. Then individual planets will have slider tools for how much water versus land, forests versus mountains, and other broad parameters. Once those basic parameters are set, the general solar system is built, and players can go in-depth, editing finer details like roads, mountain ranges, etc. All maps can be saved and uploaded to UberNet’s servers to be voted on.
Multiple windows for a complete mission control display
Supreme Commander and several other RTS games supported multiple windows, and so will PA. The difference with PA is the limit to how many windows a player has based on your computer’s horsepower and network speed. Multiple windows allow players to see sections of the game map. “You can do whatever you want,” said Mavor with a funny grin. “If you open 20 windows, it’s going to go really slow, right? That comes under the heading of scalability.
“We’re not guaranteeing that [multiple windows] work on the minimum specifications by any stretch. The more windows you open up, the more bandwidth you need and the faster computer you need.” That’s because every new window reveals another section of the in-game map, which spans across an entire solar system. “That’s part of the reason why we’re supporting multiple windows. The bigger these battles are, the harder it is to manage.”
Players will be able to use both multiple displays (no limit to how many) and multiple windows (again, no limit), but each new window will require both additional computing power and Internet bandwidth to view properly. With more than four players, having multiple windows open will drive the minimum requirements up from a simple Sandy Bridge ultrabook to a very serious gaming rig. As of this writing, Uber hasn’t conducted enough testing to determine what the minimum spec will be for more players and multiple windows.
PC only today, but a future for tablets?
Mavor and I discussed the RTS genre and consoles, much to our displeasure, and he has no interest in bringing the PA to consoles, simply stating, “I don’t see how it would work.” What about mobile? “Not smartphones — they’re too small, but tablets maybe. It’s a possibility. It’s not the focus. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. I can see it down the road …. I think it could be pretty cool, actually.”
It isn’t Total Annihilation, but not for a lack of trying
Total Annihilation is a brand that, unfortunately, disappeared. The simple reason is that Atari owns the franchise. GT Interactive, the original publisher of Total Annihilation, was bought by Infogames, which ultimately bought the Atari name and became Atari. Yet the newly minted Atari hasn’t attempted to sell the franchise, and Mavor has spoken to the company about ownership of the brand, but they never reached an agreement.
“A lot of people have tried to get the rights to [Total Annihilation] from Atari over the years, but nobody has succeeded. I think it’s because they want too much, but they have never given me a number.”
That means that for TA fans, the names of the units will change, but the general style of gameplay will not. “They didn’t [sue us] with Supreme Commander. We’re not trying to make a sequel; we’re not saying this is Total Annihilation 2.”
Why use Kickstarter and not go with a publisher?
“We wanted to make the game for the fans. We don’t make it for a publisher. We don’t sit down and say, ‘What’s the game that would make the most money?’ We say, ‘What’s the game that we can make that would be the most fun?’ And I see the game as fan service, and me being a fan, I’m one of the people getting the service.
“A publisher would muck it up. I guarantee it. I mean, maybe there’s a publisher that wouldn’t. I haven’t met them yet. Our concern is making a fun game; their concern is making money.”
Planetary Annihilation is in its final days of Kickstarter funding, which ends on Friday, Sept. 14 at 12:20 PST.