Planetary Annihilation

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Unread postby icycalm » 30 Aug 2014 15:36

Ok, let us know when you are ready.
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Unread postby icycalm » 30 Aug 2014 18:43

Kirill (ksevcov) is downloading the game right now, so he'll be the eighth clan member.
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Unread postby icycalm » 31 Aug 2014 15:08

Yesterday it was pretty cool because me, Qpo, infernovia and ksevcov started playing, then recoil joined us, then infernovia dropped out and Masahiro joined us, then ksevcov dropped out and Some guy joined us, then Qpo dropped out, then me and recoil dropped out and finally Masahiro and Some guy wrapped up the night by moving to Europa Universalis IV, so basically the entire team got to play apart from The Hanged Man who hasn't started properly playing yet. This went on from around 3 or 4PM my time, to around 2:30AM my time, which is basically half the day. My wish is that one day there will be enough people in the clan that someone can play 3v3 and up all day every day if they want to (looking at you Masahiro, lol).

The other interesting thing is how skill, so far, really seems to scale pretty much with play time, which means two things, 1) That we are all very capable players who can improve with time, and 2) That the game really is very deep and learnable, in order to allow such linear improvement. So I'll take a stab at ranking everyone's abilities so far, hopefully without anyone taking offense:

Screenshot (1).png


Rank 3
Masahiro9891 85.3hrs
icycalm 64.7hrs
Qpo 49.6hrs
infernovia 35.3hrs
recoil 26.6hrs

Rank 2
Some guy 13hrs

Rank 1
ksevcov 3.9hrs

Rank 0
The Hanged Man 0.8hrs

I also see on PA's store page that dinopoke has the game in his library and shubn in his wishlist, so if you guys want to try playing the game with us let us know and don't be strangers. When we get to ten members we should celebrate by an internal 5v5 match, and record it for the forum.
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Unread postby jeffrobot494 » 31 Aug 2014 22:23

I have this game now, but I don't have a good internet connection right now. I'll let you guys know when I get a good one. Would love to play some games.

I've only dabbled in RTS before, so I'm definitely a beginner. This game is so much more complex than what I'm used to, after my first game I couldn't imagine playing a second one and I needed a few hours just to process what had happened and begin thinking of strategies. Fun though : )
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Unread postby icycalm » 31 Aug 2014 22:46

Ok, you'll be our ninth clan member.

And it's a bad idea to try this game alone. It could discourage you if you don't know how co-op RTS works. Besides, anything less than 3v3 in this game is boring. If you want to play RTS alone, play an old game. Play Dune II or WarCraft II or something. Even better, play the Total Annihilation campaign, which will prepare you for joining our team, because a lot of the concepts and even units and buildings are similar. Welcome to the team.
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Unread postby icycalm » 31 Aug 2014 22:54

I see danjiro just bought the game too, so I am guessing he'll be our tenth clan member! Cool shit, dudes. Really happy about how all this is turning out. When I first made this thread I was dubious I'd get even a couple people to join me.
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Unread postby icycalm » 31 Aug 2014 23:20

By the way, Jeff, I don't see the game in your Steam library, so you have to ask Uber to transfer your license there. It's much easier to play when we can see who is online and playing the game via the Insomnia Steam group page.

So here are some things new people should make sure to do:

1. Either get the Steam version of the game, or bug Uber to transfer your license to Steam (it can be done, Google it)

2. Try to get the same username in the game as you have in the forum (or in your Steam profile). Don't worry about the clan tag -- we'll add that later

3. Make sure you have a working headset w/mic before you try to join us online. We can't coordinate shit without it
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Unread postby danjiro » 01 Sep 2014 19:40

I'm definitely up for playing, but I gotta get myself a good mic first. Hooked up my old one for the first time in a while and it was totally dead. I've got Amazon Prime so I'll order a good one tonight. Should have it by Thursday at the latest, which works out for me since I won't have too much free time this week until the weekend anyway.

Also got a hold of TA and SupCom as recommended. I've played quite a few RTSes back in my day but somehow I skipped over TA, so to catch up I'll play through the campaigns on my own time.

I'm excited to play with you guys!
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Unread postby icycalm » 01 Sep 2014 23:40

Okay, we'll see you on Steam later in the week then. There's always at least one other person to play with online now, so text them on Steam, or we'll text you when we see you come online.
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Unread postby icycalm » 02 Sep 2014 18:22

We kicked a high-ranked clan member out of a lobby yesterday:

mot9001 wrote:If you want a real challenge you shouldnt kick me out of your lobbys lol, i actually only wanted to talk yesterday but you could have asked me to play and i might have done that.


I wrote:First of all, I don't think I saw you yesterday, but I only played one match. My teammates played several of them, so you might have seen them. But my teammates don't know any of the other players because they don't read the forum, and we kick randoms out of lobbies all the time when a lobby is full and a teammate of ours is trying to join it. If I was online I would have recognized you and we would have talked and played together. Next time, dude! (But it would also help if you use your clan tag, because without it you look like a random to someone who doesn't read the forum.)


The community is not very big, and the community of good players is even smaller, so if we keep kicking people out of lobbies with no explanation we are going to get a bad rep. So, some rules from now on, that I want you to follow even when I am not around:

1. All lobbies will be titled "CULT GAME: EVERYONE WELCOME". If there are two or more teams making lobbies at the same time, call them "CULT GAME 1: EVERYONE WELCOME", "CULT GAME 2: EVERYONE WELCOME", etc. It doesn't matter if you can't find players to join quickly -- do not change this lobby name no matter what. Tab out to your browser and watch porn until someone joins, if you don't feel like staring at the lobby screen for ten minutes at a time. This approach will create awareness for our clan, and that will make it easier for us with tournament organizers in the future, and with other clans wanting to play with us.

2. Start with a private lobby, fill it up with our team and with an acceptable system, and only THEN make it public, so that we won't have to kick people out as often as we have to now (Do NOT use a locked lobby with a password for this purpose, because it creates a bad impression, and confuses people once the password is gone and they are allowed to join). And yes, I know you can't see a planet's size before the lobby is public, but you can estimate it by the number of players recommended for it, and in any case the only reason we are so picky with planet sizes is because of my shitty laptop, so that won't be a problem soon.

3. If you have to kick someone, make sure you explain the reason in polite terms in the lobby chat, and give him a reasonable amount of time to read it, and even better to exit the lobby on his own, before hitting the kick button.

4. Be nice to the other players, because you never know who you might be playing with. Have as much fun with them as you want, but make sure it is well-meaning, friendly fun.
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Unread postby infernovia » 04 Sep 2014 01:53

Sorry, something came up and I can't make it on Saturday.
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Unread postby icycalm » 04 Sep 2014 16:09

It's okay, Some guy stepped in. This is the event infernovia is reffering to, by the way, for everyone who doesn't read the PA forums:

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/clan ... -vs.63457/

I wrote:Clan Challenges (Challenge #1, Sep 6, 18:00 UTC, The Cult vs ???)

To celebrate the game's imminent release, and also to promote clan creation and clan play (which I believe is the best way to enjoy PA), I'd like to try instituting a new tradition which I will call Clan Challenges. On Saturday the 6th of September at 18:00 UTC, Clan Challenge #1 will take place, between my own clan (The Cult), and whichever other clan decides to accept our challenge.

This event is not a tournament or in any way affiliated with a tournament, but a straight-up one-off challenge. To accept our challenge, simply post your acceptance in this thread, which will function on a first-come first-served basis. Ideally it'd be a 5v5 match, but if you have fewer players available we are also willing to play 4v4 or 3v3 (we won't go lower than that, however).

If an established caster (i.e. someone who has made a number of videos already, so we can check his work) is willing to cast it, then let us know by posting in this thread and we'll arrange it.

The idea is to promote clan creation and clan play. My clan is tired of demolishing groups of randoms who -- even though they may have better players among them -- keep losing because they don't know each other, and hence are uncoordinated. I would love nothing more than for this challenge to encourage people to create a clan simply in order to participate in it, and would be just as delighted with facing a brand-new clan as I would be if The Realm or PAG decided to take up our challenge.

This will be a recurring event, and we plan to hold challenges more or less every week (which we will announce in this thread, at first, and on a dedicated site linked off this thread, in due course). If no one formally takes up our challenge, we will still assemble the team on the day and time indicated, in a lobby titled "CULT GAME: EVERYONE WELCOME", and we'll spend several hours taking on all comers. However, considering how unaffiliated players will flood such games, you would be well advised to officially accept our challenge in this thread well ahead of time, so we can set a proper lobby name (e.g. "The Cult vs. Clan X") and a password.


Me, Masa, Qpo, recoil, and now Some guy are going to be playing, because I want to have the more experienced players give everyone a good impression, so that they'll respect us and be willing to play with us again. However, if any more players are going to be hanging out on Steam around that time, and for the rest of the day, we will definitely include them in later games we play. I certainly plan to be playing PA all day on Saturday, and when people start dropping out, other people can take their place. Or, in the unlikely case that no one drops out, we'll split up if we are more than five and play multiple 3v3s, or 4v4s, etc. It's only for that one game (or also for a rematch, if we agree to one), that the rest of the team will not be able to play. From then on everyone's welcome, and the more the better.
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Unread postby icycalm » 04 Sep 2014 18:31

It looks like we might be rejoining the Clan Wars tournament:

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/clan ... ost-991180

I wrote:Thanks to the tireless efforts of Realm member mot9001, my clan is considering reentering the tournament, and Exodus is considering allowing us to do so. The problem remains the color choices, on which Exodus is not willing to budge. In view of that fact, I am asking each clan individually whether they would agree to accommodate us on this matter, before signing up my clan to the tournament again. Here are the allowed color combinations:

orange vs. light blue
green vs. purple
white vs. pink

We would like to use white in all our matches, but we would also be willing to go for light blue in a pinch, in those cases where our opponents would prefer to not use pink. The way I understand it -- and correct me if I am wrong -- PAG and The Realm are okay with this. Is everyone else okay with it too?


If so, we won't be playing in next week's slot, because that is taken up now, but that's a good thing since we'll get more time to improve our skill and make a better entrance. Fingers crossed then, and in the meantime please buy the game and fire it up as soon as possible to make an account, if you haven't yet, because I want to sign up everyone's name to the roster (sing up ends September 8th, and then we have until the 11th to submit our home system).

This coming Saturday's session remains unaffected either way.
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Unread postby icycalm » 06 Sep 2014 07:02

Played a couple of games with Masa and danjiro today, on a new, much faster laptop too. The latest build is pretty great. We should definitely try to push it with multiple planet systems tomorrow.

On that note, my contact with The Realm has not yet confirmed that they are playing, so I am going to assume that they are not. So don't bother waiting for 18:00 UTC to start -- just go ahead and start whenever you see other people come on Steam. There should be plenty of us online tomorrow, so we should have a lot of fun.

Note also that there is now a limit to the size of the lobby names, and the "CULT GAME: EVERYONE WELCOME" does not completely fit. So from now on make it "CULT GAME: WELCOME".


EDIT: Also, we are definitely back on the tournament, by the way. I am just waiting for The Hanged Man to add the clan tag to his name before I sign us all up again.
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Unread postby icycalm » 06 Sep 2014 15:45

Guys WAKE UP WAKE UP THIS SHIT IS OOOOOOOON!

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/clan ... ost-992983

burntcustard wrote:The Realm accepts this challenge (sorry for being last minute!), and will have at least 4 people around for a 4v4 when this starts.

We'd like to do a best of 3 set of games, you guys can chose the first system, and then the team that lost the previous game chooses the second and third systems?

We might also be able to get WPMarshal to cast, gotta do some poking...


I'll be online in 5 minutes for some warm up games, so join me if you can. Hopefully the entire team can make it (me, Masa, Qpo and recoil).

P.S. The dude that replied is one of the top 10 ranked 1v1 players lol :( Hopefully he won't be playing.
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Unread postby Qpo » 06 Sep 2014 15:50

I'm on standby on Mumble, red lights and all.
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Unread postby icycalm » 06 Sep 2014 21:49

Well, we lost all three games. The first and the last were complete stomps, but the second one went on for about an hour. We killed one of their commanders and destroyed some of their buildings too.

Apologies to Some guy for not being able to include him. Thanks for showing up as a reserve. The dudes had like 1,500 hours on the game on Steam per player, and at least one of them was top 10 ranked. They didn't use any noobs at all against us.

There might be casted videos to link later. I'll ask them about that.
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Unread postby icycalm » 07 Sep 2014 16:02

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/agai ... ost-994508

I wrote:One thing this thread has helped me understand so far is the distinction between what people in the esports community call "competitive" and "casual" players. Competitive players follow the metagame and casuals don't. So by this distinction, I and all my clan members are indeed casual players. Which makes me wonder if I really have any business joining that Clan Wars tournament after all...


This wasn't sarcastic, I really mean it. We have no hope against these guys in the tournament (as our matches yesterday overwhelmingly showed), and I can already feel a fight raging inside me between my side that wants to win matches -- and is tempted to read strategy threads (which has already sort of happened if you've seen the "megabase" thread on the official forum) and go on YouTube and play the game far more than I would normally play it -- and the side that wants to ignore that entire dimension and keep playing the game the way I always play such games.

What do you guys think? I still have 24 hours to sign us up. Here are the pros and cons as I now see them:

PROS
-We get a number of prearranged matches against large, coordinated teams
-These matches are recorded and casted with high standards of quality for our later viewing pleasure


CONS
-We have to make a lengthy time commitment to play even at times when it might not be optimal for us, or even downright inconvenient
-There is the very real chance of losing every single game, which could prove dispiriting to even the most enthusiastic among us
-Some of us, including me, might be tempted to fall into the "metagame" rabbit hole
-We might end up playing the game more and more often than we enjoy it in order to practice, just so we can get a win in


If we don't join, we can still try to dominate the 2v2 ladder, which we currently almost do, and the 3v3 ladders and above once these come online (the guy who did the mod told me he is working on that), so that should provide a decent challenge. We can also keep arranging clan matches on an individual basis (just go on their TeamSpeak, now that we have its address, and ask them for a game whenever we want), and inviting coordinated teams in the lobby by naming the lobby accordingly. I mean it's not like we get NO CHALLENGE AT ALL by starting random games in the MP lobby. Some of them can be quite challenging, and clan teams drop in on our games now that they know us.

I want to know what you guys think. I'll make a decision when I wake up and see your responses.
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Unread postby Qpo » 07 Sep 2014 18:23

After we lost those games last night I had that fight raging inside of me full flame, but instead of reading the strategy of other people I'd want a partner for a 1v1 where we try out different army compositions, build orders, defense building, etc. Not exactly "math craft", i.e. actually crunching the numbers, that I know some people do, but very much "mapping the game out". (Though frankly it probably wouldn't be long before I'd crunch some numbers as well, as the obsession would soon be a fact.)

I'd lie if I said I wouldn't find this fun at all. Especially with you guys, that I love playing with, but once you start down this path there's not really any end in sight. So even if getting the "It's ON!" text from icy last night was very nostalgic for me and I loved it, I'm still against us joining.
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Unread postby recoil » 07 Sep 2014 18:43

I wouldn't mind signing up for a season of Clan Wars. It was fun playing against the top players and seeing some of the optimal strategies, even if we were on the receiving end of it. Just because we're in a tournament shouldn't stop us from playing how we want to play, we'll just have a few clan battle losses under our belt in between our normal sessions.
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Unread postby infernovia » 07 Sep 2014 20:01

I would love to play the clan wars but I can't guarantee that I will be able to make it to all the games.
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Unread postby icycalm » 07 Sep 2014 23:23

I am signing us up again now. We'll talk strategy in the other thread. We have to design our system and submit it before the 11th.
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Unread postby Qpo » 09 Sep 2014 02:50

recoil's calm attitude has made me look forward to the clan games, so it sucks that I can't attend on the 13th as something has come up. It's possible I'll be home by 18:00 UTC, but it's a long shot — much more likely is that it'll drag on and I'll be home considerably later.
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Unread postby icycalm » 09 Sep 2014 03:18

We are not playing on the 13th. It's gonna be The Realm vs. PA Gods. But I plan to be watching the matches if they stream them, so I'll be on Mumble with some drinks and snacks, if anyone wants to join me. Really looking forward to them too.
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Unread postby icycalm » 09 Sep 2014 23:00

Just got done playing a few games with Masa and The Hanged Man. The latter has the economy thing handled pretty well, so as long as he keeps playing he should be able to take part in a tournament fight in a month or two if he wants.
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