AndreasG has setup a Discord server for PA called the PA Community Centre. This is free for everyone to use so that you can have in-game voice, either with your friends or teammates.
Let’s keep it a friendly place. Hope to see you there.
Legion v0.17.0 released
We’re continuing to process your reports, monitor your games, and just generally improve the polish of the faction. So there’s a lot of little balance improvements here to improve the viability of some of less common units, and also some potential minor disruption to existing metas.
The Stoke also has a new model. It’s mighty sexy.
Don’t know what we’re talking about? Check out the Legion Expansion article.
General
- Salamander banking angle increased from 0.25 to 0.5
- Havoc no longer prefers to be at the back of a formation
- Removed generic aircraft death explosion effect from Nova bubble
- Added idle and death explosion effects for Nova bubble
- Performance improvements to Nova targeting laser
- Reduced Loki formation spacing
- Reduced Meteor formation spacing
- Miniman no longer prioritises Commander
- New Stoke model
Balance
- Deathmark nerf:
- Rate of fire changed from 6 to 7
- Lockheed buff:
- Speed, acceleration and deceleration increased from 50 to 60
- Turn speed increased from 90 to 120
- Salamander buff:
- Health increased from 1000 to 1100
- Turn speed increased from 70 to 120
- Orbweaver nerf:
- Rate of fire changed from 2 to 1.75
- Imperator nerf:
- Drone aggression radius changed from 200 to 100
- Thor buff:
- Laser damage increased from 150 to 175
- Rocket damage increased from 50 to 100
- Rocket splash radius increased from 10 to 15
- Rockets more likely to impact in an area around the target
- Panzer nerf:
- Missile lifetime decreased from 8 to 5 seconds
- Nova change:
- Metal cost increased from 120 to 180
- Nova bubble now does 35 AOE damage on death after 1 second
- Loki buff:
- Turn acceleration increased from 20 to 30
- Turret pitch angle tolerance increased from 0 to 30
- Lancer nerf:
- Weapon range decreased from 80 to 75
- Meteor nerf:
- Health decreased from 3000 to 2000
- Turn speed increased from 40 to 60
- Havoc buff:
- Health decreased from 650 to 450
- Speed increased from 12 to 15
- Turn speed increased from 60 to 90
- Patriot nerf:
- Rate of fire per volley decreased from 1 to 0.83
Fixes
- Infiltrator now selects as a combat air unit
- Thor main cannon less likely to shoot into the ground
- Scout Bot Radar mode renamed to Investigator Radar mode
- Nova now properly auto-attacks targets
- Lockheed bullets now correctly exit from the gun barrel
- Lancer no longer fires above tall units at max range
- Spoiler land mines no longer block pathing
Andreas G Casual 5 Legion – the day after
So yesterday we attempted to break the record for the largest tournament in Planetary Annihilation history, which was held by the Commander of March tournament at 53 participants, with the second largest being Clash of the TITANS, with 44.
Unfortunately we didn’t quite manage it. While we had 89 participants signed-up we only had 35 of them show up to play, giving us a no-show rate of 60%. I bring this up because this, amongst other things, caused some logistical issues which disrupted the event. Thankfully the feedback from players has still been incredibly positive, but I want to cover what we’re doing to address these issues in the future.
Brackets
We have taken a mix of approaches to brackets in the past. Generally eXodus tournaments have marked no-shows as no-shows and given their opponent a bye, while non-eXodus tournaments trim the brackets, deleting the no-shows and recreating them, then reseeding. The line has become blurred these days to the point where every tournament is to some degree an eXodus tournament, but the divide in approaches remains between ones we stream ourselves and ones we don’t.
Yesterday I took the decision that we would just issues byes. I anticipated a no-show rate of around 30% and felt that while this would lead to some disruption in the first round, it would make it easier to get things started on time. It would also mean that late arrivals had a possibility of making it back into the tournament if their opponent hadn’t showed. While we ask that players arrive thirty minutes ahead of the starting time, the more casual the tournament the worse players are at doing this and we try to avoid unnecessarily penalising them. In addition I’ve seen numerous instances in past tournaments of a player being accidentally missed during bracket recreation and getting shut out from the tournament through no fault of their own.
In hindsight though this was a mistake. 60% no-show led to instances of players sitting around for long periods of time waiting for an opponent. If we did the tournament again I would trim the brackets. In the future we will likely adopt trims – and the risks that come with them – as a matter of course as player attendance at tournaments has proven too unreliable for byes to be a good system. This will also mean that late arrivals (those that arrive less than 30 minutes before start) are less likely to be allowed to participate.
PA Chat
There has been an intermittent global rollout of PA Chat to the Planetary Annihilation community. This has been great for fostering a feeling of community, but has led to us hitting the 100 player limit in the main chat room, after which point no one else can join. A new backend is being developed by mikeyh but was unfortunately not in place in time for the tournament due to external factors.
Anticipating the difficulties this would bring we updated our PA Chat guide, as well as the e-mail communication that went out to players, to provide an alternate recommend method for connecting to the patournaments room using the friends list.
PA Chat being full may have been a significant factor in the no show rate (or it might have been irrelevant), but beyond providing guides via our rules and e-mail communications highlighting workarounds there is not much more we can do here. The new backend will ultimately solve this problem.
No-shows
60% no shows marks a record for eXodus eSports, and a personal disappointment for myself. The more no shows the greater the disruption and the later a tournament will start. While some players were kind enough to let us know they wouldn’t be attending through the withdrawal system, most did not. We will be reaching out to them to try and identify why they didn’t attend and see if we can do anything to improve attendance in the future.
We also have some players leave during the tournament. Sometimes life gets in the way, we understand. All we ask is that you try and ensure you’ve blocked out a window in accordance with the tournament’s estimated running time (we’re getting very good at these), and you let event staff know you have to leave before you go. It just makes our lives easier.
Rules
The clarity of the rules has also been tricky for us, trying to ensure they cover every situation while also being clear and concise. We think we’ve done a pretty good job, but we recognise that we need to do more. One area to be addressed is that we use a general set of rules across all 1v1 tournaments, but this is not necessarily suitable for our casual events which operate according to some slightly more relaxed rules in certain areas. We’ll be doing a pass over the rules to improve their alignment to the instructions given on the day.
In many instances though we find people have not read the rules at all, leading to questions like “What is Legion and how do I get it?”. We already highlight rules on the tournament page and in e-mail communications, but we’ll look to see if the sign-up page can highlight it too. At the end of the day if players don’t read the instructions we provide there’s not a lot we can do.
If you found any rules difficult to understand, confusing, or in conflict with the guidance provided during the tournament, we’d love to hear from you!
Double-Elimination
One area we overlooked was not accounting for numerous players not understanding that a double-elimination means that a loss does not mean the end of their tournament. In the future we’ll include a summary of the tournament type on the tournament page.
Summary
Despite all this, and an initial delay in getting things running, player feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We appreciate you all being incredibly patient during the initial delays, and we certainly don’t intend this to be the last casual. We’ll crack that 53 player barrier yet!
The biggest PA tournament ever is about to begin
We’re less than four hours out from the largest tournament in Planetary Annihilation history, with 89 players signed up to the Andreas G Casual 5 Legion. We’ve got 96 slots and hopefully we’ll fill them all, and if you’re interested you can still sign-up. The Pro’s will be having their own event, but today it’s all about the Casual.
If you’re not playing then you can find links to the various streams that will be running on the tournament’s page.
We wanted to take this opportunity to draw your attention to a nifty little playlist g0hst has put together, which walks you through all the maps featured in today’s tournament. Check it out and perhaps it will give you the edge you need.
Good luck everyone!
A Legion build for the ages
Mmmm cookies. Who doesn’t like cookies? Your opponent. When it’s a cookie cutter build!
Nice.
With the Legion Expansion now well established we thought it time to dig into the world of builds to answer questions like: how should I open, and what method is best to grind my opponents into the dust?
AndreasG is here to help with the Cookie Cutter Legion Build Order guide. Let him walk you through a rock solid build that will have you crushing your enemies, driving them before you, and hearing the lamentations of their programmers. And if you’re an MLA player then use this to know what to expect to see in the future.
We recommend putting this guide to use in this weekend’s Andreas G Casual 5 Legion tournament, for gold rated players and lower only. If you’re higher ranked than that then check out the Pro version of the tournament.
Andreas G Casual/Pro tournaments this weekend
The week has only just begun but we’re already looking ahead to Saturday, and it’s going to be a glorious day with not one but two tournaments. And I suspect every game will be higher quality than the Euro 2016 final just gone.
For those not familiar with the Casual/Pro format we host two sets of 1v1 double-elimination brackets. The Pro tournament is open only to players ranked Platinum or Uber, while the Casual tournament is for players ranked Gold or lower. The idea is to allow those of you who just want to have some fun games to come along and play in a tournament without worrying your first round opponent will be Qzipco. There’s no pressure, no stakes, it’s just all good fun. And because it’s double-elimination you’re guaranteed a minimum of two games. You might even get your game cast too!
We got some feedback following the last tournament that some casual players were intimidated by some of the players signing up. To fix that we’ve split the tournaments in two right from the start, rather than shuffling players around on the way.
Head over to the tournament page and submit your name now. We’ll see you on Saturday!
Legion Expansion v0.16.0 released
Another Monday and time for another update to the Legion Expansion. Hope you’re enjoying it so far! The big change here is that the Imperator has been updated; it now launches attack drones against surface targets rather than relying on direct fire weapons to get the job done. Try it out and see what you think, along with the other small balance tweaks and fixes implemented in this release.
Provided by CMM
Please continue to provide your feedback here, in the official thread, and through the beta feedback form. Remember, the more detail you provide the more useful your feedback is.
General
- Added ability to hold fire to Spoiler mines
- Imperator now launches drones against ground targets
- Performance improvements to Salamander and its turret
Balance
- Havoc buff
- Weapon starts fully charged
- Black Knight buff
- Speed, acceleration and deceleration increased from 14 to 20
- Deathmark buff
- Rate of fire changed from 7 to 6
- Stoke buff
- Speed increased from 13 to 14
- Mass Extractor buff
- Metal cost decreased from 240 to 220
- Imperator change
- Launches drones against ground targets
- Orbital to ground damage decreased from 300 to 50
Fixes
- Starcannon unit pods now always visible
- Epoch shots blocked by Ramparts
- Purgers from Necromancers now correctly grouped with Purgers built from factories
Global chat (PA Chat) active for all! [updated]
Unfortunately this has had to be disabled due to the 100 person limit on the PlayFab side.
As of Saturday morning (UTC), the global chat setup known as PA Chat is now enabled for all users. If you don’t have the mod PA Chat installed you will now see the JOIN PA CHAT button in the bottom-right of your main menu screen. Clicking this takes you to the global chat room, making it much easier to find other PA players to play with.
You can check out our PA Chat tournament guide for more information.
This is a weekend experiment, so let’s make it a successful one!
Legion Expansion v0.15.0 released – the balance build
The Legion Expansion has been out for over a month now, and in that time we’ve been not only running internal playtests, but also watching your games and listening to your feedback.
This build focuses around many of the balance concerns people have had, from elements which made no sense like the Tyr not being able to hit things underwater, to the Comet proving to be too difficult to stop on multi-planet maps. There’s a lot of little changes here but it all adds up to make a big difference.
One area which has been highlighted is ease of use and knowing what to build. While we’re looking at what we can do about this, we urge you to check out the full Legion Expansion article. It has a breakdown of every unit, its strengths and weaknesses, and a video showing how it works.
So check out the latest version and please continue to provide your feedback here, in the official thread, and through the beta feedback form. Remember, the more detail you provide the more useful your feedback is.
Provided by CMM
General
- Miniman projectiles now show a trail
- Scorpion hit FX changed to better show AoE
- Improved Stoke textures
- Firebird now uses the same laser effect as the Scythe to improve performance
- Remove numerous redundant files
- Optimise Legion uber cannon sim performance
- Changed Firebird description to mention it’s interplanetary
- Enforcer now displays FX on death
Balance
Full unit stats – https://palobby.com/legion-expansion/units
- Tyr buff:
- Can now target underwater and seafloor units
- Scorpion buff:
- Increased lifetime of shots from 1.5 to 3
- Firebird nerf:
- Only damages air units
- Comet nerf:
- Health reduced from 2500 to 1900
- Planetary arrival cooldown increased from 3 to 8
- Rig buff:
- Health increased from 600 to 3600
- Energy income increased from 1080 to 10800
- Centurion buff:
- Increased rate of fire from 2.5 to 4
- Air Foundry buff:
- Metal cost decreased from 720 to 600
- Advanced Air Foundry buff:
- Energy usage reduced from 3000 to 1650
- Metal usage increased from 48 to 50
- Ship Foundry buff:
- Energy usage increased from 675 to 800
- Metal usage increased from 15 to 20
- Advanced Ship Foundry buff:
- Energy usage decreased from 2025 to 1750
- Guardian nerf:
- No longer amphibious
- Shredder buff:
- Check for target tick rate changed from 3 to 2
- Does not spread its damage output across multiple targets
- Iron Dome buff:
- Missile initial and max velocity increased from 500 to 1500
- Energy usage decreased from 9000 to 4000
- Metal usage increased from 45 to 60
- Peacekeeper buff:
- Vision radius increased from 100 to 105
- Fabrication Walker buff:
- Energy usage decreased from 675 to 650
- Advanced Armour Fabricator buff:
- Metal cost decreased from 2400 to 2250
- Supernova buff:
- Damage to orbital units decreased from 100% to 33%
- Energy usage decreased from 18000 to 6000
- Metal usage decreased from 120 to 90
- Fabrication Vessel nerf:
- Energy usage increased from 800 to 850
- Advanced Fabrication Vessel buff:
- Health increased from 450 to 675
- Advanced Ship Foundry change:
- Energy usage increased from 1750 to 1900
- Metal usage increased from 1900 to 65
- Tola nerf:
- Metal cost increased from 900 to 1000
- Health increased from 900 to 1000
- Miniman buff:
- Disabled friendly fire
Fixes
- Rampart textures now show when it’s built on the water
- Fixed bone structure of the Stoke
- Marauder muzzle flash now displayed
- Fixed animation errors generated by Black Knight
- All instances of armour now spelled the same
- Praetorian can now use teleporters
- Clots now correctly block all hover and large amphibious units
- Centurion plays sound when it fires
- Removed Tsunami duplicate weapon
- Tsunami plays sound when it fires
- Scorpion weapon charging FX now correctly align with firing sequence
- Investigator radar FX better aligned to model
- Lancer firing FX better aligned to model
- Miniman bomb explosions don’t end prematurely
Commander Reclaim Ruins Planetary Annihilation [updated]
UPDATE: a video demonstrating Com Reclaim Fix has been added to the article.
Over time every RTS develops a meta; units come into favour and fall out of it, people develop new tactics which defeat the old. An RTS doesn’t become stale until a strategy emerges that is so dominant is becomes required above all others.
In the article Commander Reclaim: How To Ruin PA, elodea makes the argument that Commander reclaim meets these criteria. A strategy which comes off the back of changes designed to make the Commander harder to repair or reclaim to death, earlier this year Qzipco discovered that it could be used as a means to jump start your economy.
Elodea walks you through what he sees as the problem and proposes some fixes for it. Check out the full article and let us know your thoughts.