MOST WANTED

[schadenfreude]

I just saw this was announced on the PA: Titans' Steam page: https://steamcommunity.com/games/386070 ... _9_100000_

Introducing Industrial Annihilation - Pre-Order Today!
Deep factory building meets world-class RTS gameplay in the upcoming Industrial Annihilation.

The team behind Planetary Annihilation, which has sold over 3 million units and is still beloved and played by fans almost a decade later, is back with a new twist on the popular franchise.

Industrial Annihilation blends the iconic real-time strategy of the beloved Annihilation series with deep factory-building to deliver a blend of genres unlike any you've experienced before.

Industrial Annihilation is available for pre-order or for investment on the StartEngine investment platform! You can invest in the company behind the game today to become a shareholder and partake in Industrial Annihilation’s potential galactic success.

Learn more here: industrialannihilation.com

So I went there to learn more: https://industrialannihilation.com

Latest Game in the Franchise

The team behind Planetary Annihilation, which has sold over 3 million units and is still beloved and played by fans almost a decade later, is back with a new twist on the popular franchise.

Build the Ultimate Factory for RTS Battles

You don't want the weapons. You want the machines that make them. Become a master constructor. Feed resources into giant Titan-level units, or go all-in on game-ending planet crushers. Create the ultimate kill squad or build artillery to devastate opponents with nukes.

Galactic Single Player Campaign

Chaos is hellbent on wiping out the galaxy with their diesel-fueled armies that shred and burn any who dare oppose them. Play as the Commander who rises to stop the destruction and claim the galaxy, one thrilling mission at a time.

Multiple Factions

Choose from two unique factions to play as or battle against - Chaos, and Machina. Each faction presents their own unique combat units, playstyles and strategies.

Unshackle Combat AI. Or Don't.

Build impressively productive bases as your primary focus and delegate advanced artificial intelligences to do the fighting for you. Or, roll up your sleeves, and get hands-on by leading the real-time strategy action yourself.

Announce Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB49yJp ... XVyolQO3wj



There's also a FAQ page that was down the first time I tried it, but it's working now: https://industrial-annihilation-faq.xso ... 4166089742

Where and when does Industrial Annihilation Release?

Industrial Annihilation is planned to release into Steam Early Access sometime in Q2 of 2024 at $29.99. The full launch of the game will be released about a year after that, and the price at that time will increase to $39.99.

Then there's a link to their page on StartEngine, which is where you can invest in their company for a minimum investment of $499.80: https://www.startengine.com/offering/in ... 4166089742

I scrolled to the bottom to see if I could find any names, and holy shit Jon Mavor is there!



When I saw the "team behind Planetary Annihilation" earlier, I thought they were bullshitting because he stopped working on PA years ago, but in addition to Mavor, the CTO, Art Director, and Design Director are all listed as working on PA, so this does look like members of the original team are back.

There are more details on the page about the company that aren't mentioned on their main site:

At Galactic Annihilation, we develop and publish unique video games based on our hit real-time strategy title, Planetary Annihilation, which raised over $2.2 million on Kickstarter and sold over 3 million copies worldwide. We believe Industrial Annihilation has the potential to be even bigger and more successful.

Introducing Industrial Annihilation, the sequel to Planetary Annihilation. With new unique features like our factory building & Real-Time Strategy (RTS) hybrid gameplay that creates near infinite replayability, Industrial Annihilation is designed to redefine the RTS genre. According to our research, we are constructing the next-generation of RTS in a way players have never seen before. It's Annihilation-inspired gameplay on a planetary scale.

Industrial Annihilation blends the iconic real-time strategy of the beloved Annihilation series of games with deep factory-building to deliver a blend of genres unlike any you've experienced before.

Build a unique working factory-sim to extract resources, lay production pipelines, construct units, and erect defenses against the corruption of Chaos in an epic singleplayer campaign featuring world-class RTS combat. Or, match wits against other Commanders online in intense co-op and PvP battles.

Notice the IP is listed as "Annihilation Universe".

What sets Galactic Annihilation apart in today's gaming industry is the scarcity of competition in the unique blend of genres that we're pioneering. Our advantage? A team brimming with rare and elusive RTS expertise, honed over years of crafting iconic games. With a loyal community eagerly awaiting our next Annihilation game, we believe we're poised to meet pent-up demand head-on, infusing the franchise with a fresh and exciting perspective. Industrial Annihilation's target market sits at the thrilling crossroads of assembly line and factory games (think Dyson Sphere Program and Factorio) and the classic Annihilation-style RTS games (Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander, and Planetary Annihilation). We plan to build on the success of our previous title, Planetary Annihilation, which sold over 3 million units, and envision an even larger audience.

I looked through everything and didn't see anything about adding a space layer. The UI in the trailer looks like it's straight out of the original game, and a lot of the units look familiar. It's pre-alpha footage though, so there's time for things to change. For now I really wish they'd put up a Steam page so I can wishlist and follow it, but I suppose they'll continue to publish updates on the PA: Titans' page, so follow that if you're not already.

Early Access Q2 2024.

[icycalm]

THANK YOU NIETZSCHE!!!!!!

Now all I need to do is to stay alive until Q2. Nothing else matters.

[icycalm]

Moved thread to MOST WANTED section (note that the thread's eventual home, once the game is released, will be the Cosmic War section [ > ] along with PA and games of this ilk).

Lots to analyze here, I wrote basically a multi-page essay in my head that will serve as prologue to my eventual review while sitting in the toilet just now. But I need to finish first my UE city-building updates, then we have CitCon this weekend, so it'll be next week before I get around to writing and publishing it. And it will be published on http://cosmicwar.net, which will be cleaned up and resurrected for the occasion. Expect many cool things, including some PA events soonishTM.

[icycalm]

Invest with StartEngine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxAHEjP ... XVyolQO3wj



The second video on their new YouTube channel, published two hours after the first one. It's the same images/assets/video mostly, but you do get to see a couple seconds of new stuff towards the end. The highlight of the video for me though are the couple of Nietzschean destruction jokes they make. Worth watching the video for them, though I would watch anyway for the remixed content.

[icycalm]

Meet the Team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb5coDwuN8w



Posted this:

"Meet the team", but we only see 2 people, and the same subpar footage. I am your biggest fan, but you have to do better guys. If the video isn't kickass, don't publish it. You don't gain anything by putting out a bunch of subpar videos. The initial trailer was decent, but every one after that has been worse.

[icycalm]

https://www.firesofheaven.org/threads/i ... st-4600983

This could possibly be the spergiest game ever

This guy gets it. Well, considering he hasn't seen my game, that is.

[icycalm]

Flat maps, according to someone from some Discord.

I am considering moving it out of the MOST WANTED section.

It's more complicated than that, and I'll write more later, but with a single square map surrounded by invisible walls, this won't even be 1/10th of the game that PA is.

As soon as I can afford a server, I will restart all the PA events. I was planning to do it anyway, and this was the last nudge I needed.

Mavor will let down the entire community for the first time in his life. Mark my words. I am never wrong about these things. I was telling the Factorio director about fusing his game with PA back in 2017, years before Dyson Sphere launched. But the main thing to keep is the PLANETS. If you toss them out, doesn't matter what else you do to the formula, the game will be inferior. At this rate, even the chink Dyson Sphere will be superior to this game lol. I am genuinely more hyped about DSP's Darkfog update [ > ] than about this now.

[icycalm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxAHEjP ... lgd4AaABAg

[icycalm]

Finally some news. They just launched a Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/in ... nihilation

There's a new trailer that contains all the old stuff, plus some new play footage that's not exactly inspiring.

Kickstarter Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiU8-8t ... XVyolQO3wj



I posted a comment (YT kept removing the link, so the comment lacks the link below): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiU8-8t ... PMN4AaABAg

We want planets, bros. Put in planets, and you have a sale. Otherwise we'll stick with Star Citizen, which is the real Planetary Annihilation 2. Read why in "Videogame Art: Star Citizen - Citizen Annihilation": https://culture.vg/forum/topic?p=39460#p39460

The only real news is that instead of Q2, the Steam Early Access has been pushed back to "End of Year 2024".



They are expecting to release 1.0 "within two years" of the EA launch, which means 2027 at the earliest they could start working on a sequel with planets, which means 2028-'29 before we're playing with planets.

Which means plenty of time for someone else to get there first.

[icycalm]

Steam page is finally up: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1796 ... nihilation





The new assets just do not look good at all. They look worse than the original game's decade-old assets.



Except the Chaos faction stuff. That looks awesome. So the question is if the legacy stuff is placeholder and will be replaced. Since the devs aren't answering questions, we have no idea, but we can hope. I am not hopeful though. The Kickstarter has been going very slowly and they might just about hit their tiny goal of 200k. It doesn't even have any cool stretch goals. That said, their StartEngine crowdfunder did bring in 820k, so you have to add that for the overall sum, which should be about a million. But that's still less than half of what PA brought in. And the reception on social media is next to nil. I don't sense any enthusiasm for the project, and I am not enthusiastic myself in the least. So I doubt they'll scrounge the cash to properly dress up the game.

They could multiply their earnings and hype by adding next-gen planets. But they just don't seem to have the energy and resources for it.

[icycalm]

Made a thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1796720/ ... 4068649882

[icycalm]

13 days to go in the Kickstarter and still at only $153/200k. Even if it succeeds, it won't be unlocking any stretch goals. Which is fine because they're crap. But it looks like it won't succeed anyway.

I am sure the project will keep going despite this failure. And keep in mind they've already raised 820k from their previous crowdfunder.

I would be pledging if I didn't have cashflow problems. As things stand, I'll just buy it when it hits Steam.

If anyone pledges, let us know here to drum up what little support we can.

[icycalm]

RTS Combat and Factory Clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUtqRWIEbms



The KS just made it with $202.5K (it needed $200K). Five days still left, and I don't know if refunds and failed card transactions can push it back below the threshold.

So I am not sure what this clip is meant to accomplish. Prove there is a working game? Because it doesn't look very inspiring. (The music is an interesting choice though. Clear step away from the bombastic PA soundtrack and towards something more suited to building than destroying. I wonder who the composer is.)

Here are two new pieces of info I recently learned. 1) You'll be able to use blueprints to lay down your factories. Will be useful in allowing you to concentrate more on the strategy and tactics. This is a confirmed feature by the devs. 2) There might be a third faction if the KS does well enough. This comes from some commenter on YT, and I can't see any mention of it on the KS page (though I didn't look very hard). And anyway, the KS is doing badly, so it doesn't matter. But still, it's an indication that the devs are open to adding a third faction if and when resources allow for it.

[icycalm]

The fact that the music is GOOD tells me that the devs are serious about this game. Also the Chaos faction looks amazing. So there are good elements here. It's just a matter of waiting to see how the rest of the game shapes up.