Horsefly Updates 113953 to 113783 and TITANS 1v1 Ranked Mid-Season 4 Winners

Hello Commanders,

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT!

That’s the sound of the Horsefly exploding its way into Planetary Annihilation, the newest addition to your arsenal.

Found in the Advanced Air Factory and armed with rapid-fire cannons, it strafes targets to remove all the pesky AA (and fabbers) from the vicinity, while tanking return fire with its heavy armour. Conduct your bombing campaigns in peace once more. It will attack the land, it will attack the sea, and in a pinch it can even attack air.

For those of you running on Linux we have some good news: Planetary Annihilation will now work with Mesa when run within a Steam Proton environment. We continue to work with Coherent Labs on the native Linux issues.

We also have prizes to give out. The mid-season arrived, and with it the tightest contest for first yet. When the fires died down it was KillerKiwi who stood victorious among the wreckage. Congratulations to them, US$500 is on its way. We’ve also listed below the individuals from each league claiming the US$100 activity prizes, if you’re on that list and haven’t been contacted please raise a ticket with support. As ever, there will be further prizes issued at the end of the season (2019-10-25 00:00 UTC), so keep on fighting!

Some further adjustments to the air game have proven necessary, with Kestrel gunship damage slightly reduced. Flak has been adjusted to place greater emphasis on its splash, making it more of an anti-horde unit, while reducing its single target damage. The Storm mobile flak has also been given the ability to tilt its gun forwards and backwards to fire off a shot earlier against attacking bombers and to help it land shots in the middle of Kestrel gunship hordes, but it remains vulnerable when approached from the flank. The Angel advanced air support platform and Mend advanced combat fabricator can now auto reclaim the wreckage of your enemies or fallen comrades.

Finally, we’ve been improving various technical bits and bobs to continue enhancing performance, especially with loading of the UI and mods. SVG fonts are dead too. What’s an SVG font you ask? Look, it says SVG font in the technical notes, that’s all I know. Let’s mourn their passing together.

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Mid-Season 4 Winners

Uber #1 (US$500): killerkiwi

Most active players (US$100 each)

Uber

  • clopse
  • smurf
  • admiralgeneral

Platinum

  • quaatal
  • mkfed
  • reynald009

Gold

  • aleks.clark 
  • bakkiz
  • neovalence

Silver

  • celestial deed
  • solumath
  • svalfish1

Bronze

  • 906797135
  • petermeffert
  • kuna

If you have not received your prize contact support via https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/

Technical Notes

TITANS Balance Changes

  • Added Horsefly advanced heavy strafing aircraft!
  • Flak Cannon advanced anti-air
    • Changed to fire 4 beams
    • Damage decreased to 40 from 150
    • Splash damage decreased to 40 from 150
    • First target priority changed to Air & (Bomber | Gunship)
    • Range increased to 120 from 100 (113929)
  • Storm advanced mobile flak vehicle
    • Health increased to 400 from 300
    • Changed to fire 4 projectiles
    • Damage decreased to 15 from 60
    • Splash damage decreased to 10 from 30
    • Velocity increased to 100 from 60
    • Added pitch of 60 with pitch rate of 360
    • Second stage duration decreased to 300 from 700
    • First target priority changed to Air & (Bomber | Gunship)
    • Range increased to 100 from 80 (113929)
  • Kestrel advanced gunship
    • Damage decreased to 15 from 20
  • Wyrm advanced heavy siege bomber
    • Added heavy unit type UNITTYPE_HEAVY
    • Speed increased to 30 from 20 (113945)
  • Angel advanced air support platform
    • Can now manually reclaim wreckage / features and will auto reclaim nearby wreckage if nothing to repair
    • Speed increased to 40 from 30 (113945)
    • Health increased to 1,200 from 1,000 (113945)
  • Mend advanced combat fabricator:
    • Will now auto reclaim nearby wreckage if nothing to repair
    • Can now build Laser Defense Turret, Flak Cannon and Radar (113929)
  • Stryker attack vehicle, Ares hover titan, Atlas seismic titan and Zeus air titan mesh bounds adjusted
  • Amphibious units moving on the seafloor which are near the water or above the water surface can now be targeted as surface units (see below)
  • Lob Dox launcher range decreased to effective range of 240 (no change to existing behaviour and range circle will now be correct)
  • Dox assault bot, Slammer advanced assault bot, Stryker attack vehicle, Ant tank, Drifter hover tank and Leveler advanced tank can no longer target sea floor (113929)
  • Gil-E advanced sniper bot
    • Velocity increased to 1000 from 600 (113929)
    • Can now target Stingray Tactical Missile (113945)
  • Spinner anti-air vehicle range increased to 130 from 120 (113929)
  • Leveler advanced tank
    • Range increased to 140 from 120 (113936)
    • Velocity increased to 160 from 140 (113936)
    • Turn rate increased to 60 from 50 (113936)
  • Vanguard advanced heavy tank radar increased to 260 from 150 (113936)
  • Pelter short range artillery velocity increased to 160 from 150 (113936)
  • Dox assault bot, Slammer advanced assault bot and Stryker attack vehicle can no longer target air (113945)
  • Hornet advanced tactical bomber (113953)
    • Speed increased to 40 from 30
    • Can no longer target seafloor

Note: patrol will not normally reclaim if economy is positive and metal storage is full. Auto reclaim units will always reclaim wreckage while patrolling.

For other recent balance changes see: https://planetaryannihilation.com/news/happy-birthday-update/

Client Improvements

  • Added simple DPS calculation using damage x rate of fire x projectiles per fire to build bar and unit hover
  • Added POV camera weapons aim tracking with smoother transitions
  • Coherent UI 2.6.8.x with faster rendering and macOS Catalina 10.15 64 bit support
  • New download manager with HTTP/2 and multiplexing for faster mod downloads and XHR
  • Improved UI caching and loading times
  • Improved readability of top economy bar in header
  • Improved readability of build bar hovers
  • Added radius to top right planet selector details

Client Fixes

  • Fixed memory leak in multi-threading async parallel for

Server / Sim Improvements

  • Improved saving and loading of saved game / replay times up to 2.5x faster
  • Added amphibious units moving on the seafloor which are near the water or above the water surface can now be targeted as surface units eg Atlas titan is now targetable by any unit that target surface layers. Kestrel advanced gunships and Horsefly advanced strafer aircraft can target any unit as they appear out of water.
  • Added auto reclaim of nearby wreckage
  • Added reclaim of nearby wreckage to patrol for auto reclaim units

Server / Sim Fixes

  • Fixed memory leak in multi-threading async parallel for

AI Improvements

  • Added splash damage to DPS calculations
  • Added Phoenix advanced fighter
  • Added Piranha gunboat

AI Fixes

  • Fixed average mobile health including structures in its calculations

Galactic War Fixes

  • Fixed Phoenix advanced fighter buffs not being applied

Toolchain

Updated software development toolchain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2019 latest with 142 build tools / Windows 10 SDK latest
  • Xcode 11 / macOS 10.15.x latest for macOS Mavericks 10.9+
  • Latest steam linux runtime / GCC 6.2.0 (currently limited by Steam Linux runtime)
  • Steamworks SDK 146 with macOS Catalina 10.15 support for 64 bit only
  • Coherent UI 2.6.8.x with macOS Catalina 10.15 support for 64 bit only
  • Windows libcurl 7.66.0 with nghttp2 for HTTP/2 and multiplexing
  • Steam Proton compatibility
  • Fonts converted to WOFF and all UI  html and css updated

Note: PA Launcher is not currently supported on macOS Catalina 10.15 and will be updated later this year.

AI Modding

  • Added --al-debug for instrumentation
    • Dumps unit threat analysis on start for first AI (assumes all AIs are using the same unit list)Dumps per planet influence map on pause
  • Added --ai-log and --ai-debug to client which will pass through to local server
  • Added personality.ai_path to specify a different set of AI files for side by side testing of changes eg
    Test: {
    ai_path: '/pa/ai2/',
    display_name: '!LOC:Test,
  • Added AdvancedFighter, Strafer and Gunboat / SeaScout to AI unit maps
  • Added personality.percent_open_vehicle, percent_open_bot, percent_open_naval, percent_open_air and percent_open_orbital to specify first factory percentages

Modding

  • Added auto_reclaim to build arm specs (same task as auto_repair)
  • Added projectiles_per_fire and dps to unit specs, build bar info and unit hover info
  • Added ignore_overshoot to nav specs to disable distanceToStartBraking warning
  • Added leash_behavior and leash_distance to nav specs to control unit assist behaviour (113801)

Mods may break in the following scenes if they make assumptions about layout:

  • start
  • gw_play
  • live_game_econ
  • settings

Mods may also break in any scene if they make assumptions about the social bar position.

There are now two versions of Coherent UI / Chromium which can make UI testing challenging:

  • Coherent UI 2.6.8.x / Chromium 40 on Windows / macOS
  • Coherent UI 2.5.9.4 / Chromium 28 on Linux

https://caniuse.com/#compare=chrome+28,chrome+40 (not all features in that list are supported within Coherent UI 2.6.8.x)

SVG fonts are no longer supported in Chromium 40.

113794

Reverted to Coherent UI 2.5.9.3 for Linux.

113801

Added leash_behaviour and leash_distance for Horsefly.

113895

Reworked start:

  • Responsive layout
  • New background
  • New watermark logo on top right
  • New build version displayed on top right
  • Classic style favourite or random commander
  • Improved events (from community mods)
  • Improved news
  • Improved videos
  • Improved streams
  • Improved mini leaderboard
  • Improved credits

Reworked settings: (work in progress)

  • Responsive layout

Reworked Galactic War card layout:

  • Responsive layout for system and inventory tech cards that should display all text clearly

Reworked live game eco bar: (work in progress)

  • Responsive mirrored layout highlighting the 3 key eco numbers (energy, efficiency, metal)

Reworked social bar visibility:

  • Assumes always visible with individual scenes like gw play and live game controlling visibility and layout
  • Live game handling via main scene has been disabled

Reworked main:

  • New splash handling

Reworked armoury:

  • Responsive layout
  • Improved TITANS upgrades
  • Improved handling when steam overlay not available

Reworked replays browser:

  • Responsive layout
  • Added winner (from community mods)

113909

  • Fixed live streams not clickable
  • Added stop_clears_nearby_targets for Horsefly advanced heavy strafer aircraft

113932 / 113929

Restored Coherent UI 2.6.8.x for Linux with fixes for boringssl/openssl segfault and mesa transparency.

TITANS Balance Changes

  • Dox assault bot, Slammer advanced assault bot, Stryker attack vehicle, Ant tank, Drifter hover tank and Leveler advanced tank can no longer target sea floor
  • Mend advanced combat fabricator can now build Laser Defense Tower, Flak Cannon and Radar
  • Gil-E advanced sniper bot velocity increased to 1000 from 600
  • Storm advanced mobile flak vehicle range increased to 100 from 80
  • Flak Cannon advanced anti-air range increased to 120 from 100
  • Spinner anti-air vehicle range increased to 130 from 120
  • Slammer advanced assault bot can now target air – jk
  • Horsefly advanced heavy strafer aircraft assist removed

113939 / 113936

TITANS Balance Changes

  • Leveler advanced tank
    • Range increased to 140 from 120
    • Velocity increased to 160 from 140
    • Turn rate increased to 60 from 50
  • Vanguard advanced heavy tank radar increased to 260 from 150
  • Pelter short range artillery velocity increased to 160 from 150

113945

TITANS Balance Changes

  • Dox assault bot, Slammer advanced assault bot and Stryker attack vehicle can no longer target air
  • Wyrm advanced siege heavy bomber speed increased to 30 from 20
  • Hornet advanced tactical bomber speed increased to 40 from 30
  • Angel advanced air support platform:
    • Speed increased to 40 from 30
    • Health increased to 1,200 from 1,000
  • Gil-E advanced sniper bot can now target Stingray tactical missiles
  • Horsefly advanced heavy strafer aircraft health decreased to 1,500 from 1,800

113953

Hornet advanced tactical bomber can no longer target seafloor.

Known Issues

  • PA Launcher is not currently supported on macOS Catalina 10.15 and will be updated later this year
  • Some mods may break with the update from Chromium 28 to Chromium 40 in Coherent UI 2.6.8.x as a result of html, css, layout, rendering, js and font changes
  • Modern native Linux may black screen or corrupt (toggle full screen (alt+enter), resize or refresh (F5) may correct)

PA was built with modding in mind, and while we appreciate the contribution that mod authors make to our game, please remember that running mods can sometimes lead to unexpected defects and crashes, especially after a new update.

Before reporting any issues please ensure you test the game without mods enabled. Defects with mods should be reported to mod authors in the PA forums thread for each mod.

Happy Birthday Stryker Updates 113553 to 113600

Stryker

113583 / 113600 Balance Changes

Hello Commanders,

War never changes. At least that’s what they say, yet on 18th August 2019 we celebrated one year since Planetary Annihilation Inc took over development of this mighty game, and what an exciting year of change it has been.

Modernisation of the underlying tech foundation was a big goal for us when we started. We have modernised the entire development toolchain, helping to reduce defects and improve performance. We have also upgraded the Coherent UI framework and eliminated numerous crashes. At this point if your client is crashing you probably need to update your graphics drivers. We are aware of the Linux Mesa issues so please hang tight, we’re working on it!

A huge amount of effort has been put into the server, given that it is responsible for most of the heavy lifting. We have spent a lot of time improving performance, both through changes to the AI and the mechanisms that underpin the simulation. That includes more multi-threading, more optimisation and of course less crashes. You can now get buttery smooth performance on systems and setups that would have been unthinkable a year ago.

Aiding this has been the migration to PAnet, our modern backend infrastructure. Better servers mean bigger and better games and a happier community.

Single player is still incredibly popular among our community so AI updates have remained a big focus. We keep making it smarter and deadlier, so if you are struggling to win more than before, it’s not you it’s us.

Multiplayer is not forgotten either and the ranked queue is feeling more active than ever before, with seasons ensuring everyone gets their chance to shine with map rotation and balance changes keeping it fresh. Add to that a prize pool of US$4,500 per season to keep it competitive.

Of course, while it is pleasant to feast on cake and grow fat we can’t just rest on our laurels, there is a lot of work we still want to do and a gift we want to give.

The Stryker takes on the role of a fast, low armoured raider. Giving vehicles more of an early presence, you can keep the pressure on your opponent while also defending your valuable fabbers against Dox.

The time of the Navalpocalypse is upon us, with ships now enjoying FTL (Faster Than Land) propulsion. The person who came up with this term is very pleased with themselves, don’t let it catch on or they’ll become insufferable. No longer will your naval games feel like an eternal slog, instead they will be more of an elegant duel with massive guns. There has also been a significant adjustment to the Typhoon to improve its viability and enable Squall swarms to blot out the sun, as the prophecy foretold.

Finally, we have made more improvements to the AI’s performance so that it will wait patiently and put its hand up, ensuring it is less demanding of your CPU’s time. This may be the most significant performance improvement we have made so far in our AI.

It has been a great year and we look forward to an even better one to follow.

Recap:

  • modernised client
  • modernised server with more multi-threading and AI improvements
  • PAnet migrated from UberNet with modern servers and more regions
  • 1v1 ranked seasons with new maps, balance changes and a US$4,500 prize pool every 3 months
  • Stryker!

Technical Notes

TITANS Balance Changes

  • Stryker (113578)
  • Naval speeds increased
    • Narwhal frigate speed increased to 12 from 9
    • Orca destroyer speed increased to 12 from 9
    • Stingray missile ship speed increased to 11 from 8
    • Leviathan battleship speed increased to 11 from 8
  • Typhoon drone carrier
    • Typhoon drone carrier speed increased to 11 from 8
    • Cost decreased to 5,200 from 6,500
    • Ammo rate increased to 30 metal per second (20 stored drones then one per second once depleted)
    • Initial launch stage decreased to 200 from 500 (shorter launch before turn)
    • Now targets sea floor
    • Guard layer changed to WL_AnyLayer from WL_AnySurface with guard radius of 100 (113583)
    • Launch projectile lifetime changed to 3.0 from 2.0 (113583)
    • Squall drones
      • Weapons priority changed to torpedoes
      • Torpedo rate of fire increased to 0.8 from max 1 (up to 10 low damage torpedoes depending on range to target)
  • Kestrel gunships:
    • Can no longer target underwater layer (subs)
    • Cost increased to 800 from 600 (113600)
  • Changed manual targeting of Galata AA to only damage air (113600)

Client Improvements

  • –local-server-port to use a different local server port
  • Added build bar size which can now be changed from 75% to 200% separately from GUI size (113578)
  • Changed settings (113578):
    • Moved resolution scaling to top of graphics tab
    • Duplicated GUI size at top of graphics tab
    • Added build bar size to graphics tab and gameplay tab > user interface

Client Fixes

  • Hopefully fixed build bar hot keys not always working (113578)

AI Improvements

  • AI now processes path requests over time rather than all at once which should help smooth AI performance
  • Multiple small AI performance improvements

AI Fixes

  • AI platoons that fail to find a path back to base when disbanding will now try a direct move request as a last resort

113578 / 113581

Stryker is now live with build bar changes.

Modding

  • Added id to each unit spec
  • Added projectile_specs with basic info and projectile: true for buildable projectiles in each unit spec
  • Added buildable projectiles to unit specs with merging of projectile ammo info if already in unit list (removing the need for ammoBuildHover hacks)
  • Added unit specs to settings
  • build bar is now flexible in width and no longer restricted to 3 x 6
  • build bar entries are now specified as row / column with titans only / classic only flags
"/pa/units/land/attack_vehicle/attack_vehicle.json": ["vehicle", 20, {row: 2, column: 6, titans: true}]
"/pa/units/orbital/deep_space_radar/deep_space_radar.json": ["utility", 2, {row: 0, column: 2, classic: true}]

113583

  • Stryker health increased to 60 from 50 (may tweak further)
  • Typhoon drone carrier
    • Guard layer changed to WL_AnyLayer from WL_AnySurface with guard radius of 100
    • Launch projectile lifetime changed to 3.0 from 2.0 (should resolve disappearing squalls)

113600

  • Stryker strategic icon updated, accelerate / brake increased to 150 from 100 and now targets sea floor
  • Kestrel gunship cost increased to 800 from 600
  • Changed manual targeting of Galata AA to only damage air

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 4

Hello Commanders,

The sun sets on season 3 and the close fought contest for Uber #1. Only in the closing hours did a clear victor emerge. Allow us to offer our congratulations to AndreasG who took the title this time around. He walks away with US$1,000.

The winners of the prizes of US$100 for the three most active players in each league have also been determined and can be found below. If you’re on the list, you should be contacted shortly to arrange payment of your prize.

Now, let us enter season four without hesitation. The format remains the same, with prizes for Uber #1 and most active players awarded at both the mid-season and end of the season. All ladder ratings have been reset to create a level playing field, so fight well and fight often!

We have got 16 maps in the pool this time around, with 8 returning classics and 8 which are completely new. All of these maps will only be available in ranked for the duration of the season. A list of the maps can be found below.

We would like to draw your attention to Shackle. This is our first multi-planet ranked map. Both players start on a planet together, but both an Annihilaser metal world and a smashable planet await you among the stars. Think of this as us experimenting with the possibilities of 1v1, as well as just injecting a little additional variety into the pool.

There are also two naval maps this time. Yes, two. Some will cheer, some will cry, but we’re committed making the naval experience the equal of land, so watch this space. Backbone returns from season 3, and we’re adding Diahyrdi with two spawns for you to choose from.

As per previous seasons, we’ll monitor the maps to see what works and what doesn’t, and any necessary changes will be made at the mid-season point. Keep that (constructive) feedback rolling in, but more importantly, go blow up a planet… we mean have fun. Though blowing up a planet sounds pretty fun, right?

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 3 Winners

Uber #1 (US$1,000): AndreasG

Most active players (US$100 each)

Uber

  • nikolamx
  • clopse
  • metapod

Platinum

  • smurf
  • n30n
  • broom

Gold

  • cuyto
  • iban
  • bakkiz

Silver

  • muhr
  • g-force
  • neovalance

Bronze

  • cooperman
  • isolum
  • petermeffert

If you have not received your prize contact support via https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/

TITANS 1V1 Ranked Season 4 Prizes

Mid-season ends at 2019-09-06 00:00 UTC

  • Uber #1 – US$500
  • Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Silver players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Gold players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Uber players – US$100 each

Season 4 ends at 2019-10-25 00:00 UTC

  • Uber #1 – US$1,000
  • Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Silver players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Gold players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Uber players – US$100 each

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 4 Maps

Four maps carried over from season 3:

  • Backbone
  • District (updated)
  • Echo
  • Exeunt

Four maps returning from season 2:

  • Bulkhead (updated)
  • Niflhel (updated)
  • Riddler (updated)
  • Singe

Eight NEW maps for Season 4:

  • Diahyrdi
  • Fluviaat
  • Moment
  • Ribbon
  • Shackle
  • Surface
  • Tia
  • Threshold

Maps overview: https://youtu.be/795zUxjqcEs

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Mid-Season 3 Winners and Updates 113410 / 113426 / 113430 / 113457 / 113462

Hello Commanders,

The mid-season has passed but is not forgotten. You’ll find all the prize winners below, with a couple of extra players securing activity awards due to cosmic rays interfering with our computations. All winners will be contacted shortly.

One of the eternal struggles is the balance between basic (T1) and advanced (T2) units. It has become clear recently that this is still weighed too heavily in favour of T2, primarily because of the explosive nature of T2 MEXs. To combat that we’ve made T2 MEXs more expensive and reduced their income. Let the Ant hordes terrorise the battlefield!

Grenadiers also got a range increase to help against the number of turrets the modern Commander finds on the battlefield.

The AI got smarter. Again. Now when its giant force is reduced to one Dox while en route to a target, it will give thought to whether that’s really enough to eliminate your entire base and win the game. Then when it retreats the Dox it will use a safe path rather than the most direct one. It’s also looking for more opportunities to combine its forces into ultra mega death platoons. A real thing, let us assure you; check the lore.

The mod Cover the Line had become “must have” for many players, allowing them to easily split up units to dodge AoE and put troops into optimal formations for maximising firepower. It was also responsible for a lot of crashes. Now, let it not be said that we are not merciful, so rather than executing an immediate SXX strike upon this mod and all those who use it, we have instead added custom line formations to the game. Select some troops and get to right-click dragging that mouse to unleash the power of custom line formations.

Basic Discord support has also been implemented for ranked. Amaze your friends, not only with your skills, but also the amount of time your profile shows you as playing ranked mode. They’ll be left wondering why you haven’t hit Uber yet.

This, and more, can be found in the patch notes below. Feast your eyes.

Until next time.

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Mid-Season 3 Winners

Uber #1 (US$500): NikolaMX

Most active players (US$100 each)

Uber

  • NikolaMX
  • nimzo
  • kiwi

Platinum

  • n30n
  • ptasior
  • broom
  • metapod (bonus)

Gold

  • cuyto
  • alive in
  • iban

Silver

  • muhr
  • g-force
  • scotter

Bronze

  • petermeffert
  • frigoporco
  • bigbabybear
  • chancer (bonus)

If you have not received your prize contact support via https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/

Technical Notes

TITANS Balance Changes

Grenadier

  • range increased from 125 to 135 (will out range turrets)

Advanced Metal Extractor (slowing the T2 rush in favour of expansion, map control and T1 units)

  • cost increased from 1,500 to 2,000
  • production rate decreased from 20 to 15

AI Improvements

  • Land, Fighter, and Bomber platoons will now path safely back to base to disband instead of taking a direct path
  • Land, Fighter, and Bomber platoons that lose enough of their units while enroute to their destination will re-evaluate whether they should change targets or disband
  • Platoons will now merge faster
  • AI will now retask platoons if they are enroute to an area that has already been cleared of targets, rather than wait for the platoon to arrive first

AI Fixes

  • Fix for AI platoons getting stuck if they attempt to path and fail after a previous successful path
  • Fix for amphibious units that cannot attack while underwater getting stuck
  • Fix for AI controlled orbital fighters/ships/railguns not targeting orbital structures

Client Improvements

  • Added client side custom line formations for move, attack and unload (replaces Cover the Line mod)
  • Added basic Discord activity support with 1v1 ranked info (macOS / Windows only with current Discord SDK)
  • Added check for multiple copies of PA running to avoid local storage corruption (Windows only)
  • Added startpa: custom protocol handler (currently macOS / windows only with no parameter support)
  • Changed landing zones default rules max to 32 players
  • Added automatic mapping of extra mouse buttons to middle mouse camera pan and rotate (113462)
  • Added basic Steam rich presence support (113462)

Note: Custom line formations will move server side in a future update with support for factory rally to custom line formation.

Client Fixes

  • Fixed macOS import / export (load / save) dialog crashes
  • Fixed recover account URL

113426

  • AI will now retask platoons if they are enroute to an area that has already been cleared of targets, rather than wait for the platoon to arrive first
  • Fix for AI controlled orbital fighters/ships/railguns not targeting orbital structures
  • Fixes for possible custom line formation crash

113430

  • Fix for long standing issue of area commands not always working properly in PIPs that was also causing custom line formations to fail in PIPs
  • Fix for long standing issue of undefined behaviour which could lose left click and also result in a crash when using custom line formations

113457

  • Improved custom line formations

113462

  • Added automatic mapping of extra mouse buttons to middle mouse camera pan and rotate
  • Added additional Discord activity support
  • Added basic Steam rich presence support

PAnet and TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 3

113318 TITANS Balance Changes

Hello Commanders,

We all know machines are superior to organics, yet they’re only as good as the hardware underpinning them. You know this, we know this, which is why upgrading the game’s server infrastructure has been such an important goal for us. The road has been long, the struggle real, and we are finally migrated to (drum roll please)… PAnet. Oooooo, literal chills. Uh, I mean, bleep bloop, fellow machine.

PAnet (Planetary Annihilation Network) is our replacement for UberNet and provides all the backend infrastructure for managing game servers and player accounts. It has faster servers for better sim speed, more regions for lower latency, and higher capacity servers.

TITANS 1v1 ranked season 2 came to a close at the end of April. It was hard fought for a while with Uber #1 changing hands multiple times. But as the dust settled a clear victor emerged in NikolaMX, a good 100 points clear of the nearest competition. Should the Progenitors return we know who they will want as their leader.

With season 2 over we surprised everyone with a transition to a season that was one digit higher. Four maps from season 2 have returned, along with 12 entirely new maps, courtesy of WPMarshall. The lessons of season 2 have been applied and we think you’ll find these maps a big upgrade. Ranks were wiped clean and it’s anyone’s game to win once more.

AI performance has been improved and its impact on the server decreased. In addition, we have again put a big focus on eliminating known sources of client and server crashes. We even did a thing with the updating of the toolchain so they have higher version numbers, and we all know higher version numbers are better, right?

PAnet Features

New features in PAnet:

  • modern servers with faster CPUs, more memory and increased bandwidth
  • new regions (see below)

New Regions:

  • USWest (Oregon)
  • USCentral (Ohio) – this was USEast (Virginia) on UberNet since March 2018
  • USEast (Virginia)
  • APSouthEast (Singapore)
  • APNorthEast (Japan)

The following regions have higher capacity servers for bigger games:

  • USWest (Oregon)
  • USCentral (Ohio)
  • USEast (Virginia)
  • EUWest (Ireland)

The new PAnet URLs are:

Migration to PAnet was completed on 2019-05-20 with build 113298.

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 2 Winners

Uber #1 (US$1,000): NikolaMX

Most active players (US$100 each)

Uber

  • NikolaMX
  • Diskraip
  • nimzo

Platinum

  • Pa!nCorgi
  • Viroo
  • Sinoccence

Gold

  • Qivy
  • Alive In
  • theiban

Silver

  • muhr
  • G-Force
  • go

Bronze

  • FrigoPorco
  • TotalAnnihilator
  • MrStorm

If you have not received your prize contact support via https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 3 Prizes

Mid-season at 2019-06-06:00:00 UTC

  • Uber #1 – US$500
  • Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Silver players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Gold players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Uber players – US$100 each

End of season 3 at 2019-07-25:00:00 UTC

  • Uber #1 – US$1,000
  • Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Silver players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Gold players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each
  • Three most active Uber players – US$100 each

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 3 Maps

Four maps carried over from season 2:

  • Aquilaris
  • Disparity
  • Centax-3
  • The Ardennes

Remaining season 2 maps have been added to the in-game map list.

Twelve new maps:

  • Backbone
  • Exeunt
  • Basilica
  • Hopper
  • Rotunda
  • ASAT
  • Hyde
  • Kelvin
  • Echo
  • District
  • Maginot
  • Bailiff

Technical Notes

Legacy builds are no longer supported and will not be updated.

Translations

  • Dutch updated as an official language

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Improvements

  • Improved region selection for players in different continents
RegionAustraliaSingaporeJapanUSWestUSCentralUSEastIreland
AustraliaRandomSingaporeRandomUSWestUSWestUSWest
SingaporeRandomRandomJapanUSWestUSWestUSWest
JapanSingaporeRandomRandomUSWestUSWestUSWest
USWestRandomJapanRandomRandomUSCentralUSEast
USCentralUSWestUSWestUSWestRandomRandomUSEast
USEastUSWestUSWestUSWestUSCentralRandomRandom
IrelandUSWestUSWestUSWestUSEastUSEastRandom

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Fixes

  • Fix for failed to join game (113329)

AI Improvements

  • Improved performance of AI deployment data
  • AI will do better at protecting its commander against nuke snipes (113318)
  • Orbital lasers and the Orbital Titan will make attacking units that can attack orbital a priority (113318)

AI Fixes

  • Fix for platoon disbanding weirdness
  • Fix for evaluateReconNeed AI crash
  • Removed a couple of duplicated build conditions (113318)
  • AI dps calculations will correctly take projectiles_per_fire into account (113318)
  • Units that can target Air will now correctly have AntiAir threat (113318)
  • Walls will now have Land threat (113318)
  • MetMinFabberCount now counts Naval fabbers (113318)

Client Improvements

  • New 1v1 and shared army team vs team maps from TITANS 1v1 ranked season two
  • Updated Coherent UI with improved 4K+ support for Windows
  • Improved start menu videos feed (moved into base game from community mods patch)
  • Improved start menu streams feed (moved into base game from community mods patch)
  • Improved start menu news feed (moved into base game from community mods patch)

Client Fixes

  • Fix for 4K+ crashes on Windows
  • Fix for Coherent UI crashes
  • Fix for material library crashes
  • Fix for social bar not shown after 1v1 ranked requeue

Server Improvements

  • AI no longer directly influences sim and all commands are queued
  • AI now updates concurrently with history

Server Fixes

  • Fixes for shutdown crashes

113318 TITANS Balance Changes

Holkins Long Range Artillery

  • Target priorities added:
    • Commander
    • Titan & ( Land | Naval )
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Ares Hover Titan

  • Target priorities added to main weapon:
    • Commander
    • Titan & ( Land | Naval )
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Bumblebee Bomber

  • Target priorities added:
    • Commander
    • AirDefense & ( Land | Naval )
    • Titan & ( Land | Naval )
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Kestrel Gunship

  • Can now target underwater layer (subs)
  • Target priorities added:
    • Commander
    • AirDefense & ( Land | Naval )
    • Titan & ( Land | Naval )
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Hornet Tactical Bomber

  • Target priorities added:
    • Commander
    • AirDefense & ( Land | Naval )
    • Titan & ( Land | Naval )
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Wyrm Heavy Bomber

  • Can now target underwater layer (subs)
  • Target priorities added:
    • Commander
    • AirDefense & ( Land | Naval )
    • Titan & ( Land | Naval )
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Zeus Air Titan

  • Target priorities added:
    • Commander
    • AirDefense | ( Air & Fighter)
    • Artillery & Advanced & ( Land | Naval )
    • Nuke | NukeDefense

Orca Destroyer

  • Torpedoes now have splash damage

Typhoon Drone Carrier

  • Drones can now fire a single short range low damage torpedo

Translations, AI and Modern Updates 113132 / 113044 / 113034

Update: 113132

Hello Commanders,

With the successful launch of TITANS 1v1 ranked ladder season 2 with new leaderboards it’s back to toiling away in the update mines.

In the background, work continues on our tech upgrade and the prerequisites necessary to transition to the new PAnet infrastructure. While these 2019 long-term goals remain long-term, we still want to deliver some additional improvements to the game that is currently in your hands and ensure support for the widest playerbase possible.

You should try out our modern build branch, which will eventually replace the legacy branch, if you’d like to enjoy some performance and stability enhancements right now including an update to Coherent UI, the framework for our moddable user interface.

With 113132 we have switched to the modern build as our default client and we hope you enjoy the performance enhancements of our modern toolchain. If you have any issues with the modern build you can fallback to the legacy build.

See our Happy New Year update for a reminder of the modern build details.

Translations

We’ve seen an increase in the number of non-English speaking players playing our game and we want to make sure we’re giving you our full support. We have engaged with a new translation team to update and improve the existing translations, replace community translations, and add support for Japanese. We’re also updating Community Mods to allow for mod translations.

As you can imagine this is a big job so we’ll be doing it in a number of passes, focusing first on adding missing strings.

In this patch we’ve included updates for:

  • French
  • German
  • Russian
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Traditional Chinese
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • First pass of Polish (incomplete in 113132)

Report issues with existing translations in this thread.

Work in progress:

  • Official translation support for mods

Also in the works are plans to add servers in South-East Asia (SEA) once we complete our migration to PAnet.

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Mid-Season 2 Winners

We’re roughly halfway through season 2, which means it’s time for mid-season prizes. Congratulations to all those who fought the good fight, blew up a whole lot of robots, and are walking away with their well deserved spoils.

Uber #1 (US$500): [TNC] [Nik] NikolaMX (whew, this guy is just too good)

Most active players (US$100 each)

Uber

  • [TNC] [Nik] NikolaMX
  • [BSE] Diskraip
  • [ICARUS] nimzo

Platinum

  • [WAF] Viroo
  • PAG_Clopse
  • Sinoccence

Gold

  • [BSE] Qivy
  • [GPP] Isaac Arthur
  • Alive In

Silver

  • muhr
  • go
  • e1vis

Bronze

  • FrigoPorco
  • TotalAnnihilator
  • ΗΑΖΞ

Winners will be contacted shortly to arrange payment of their prize.

Now we enter the second-half of the season, and that means there’s US$1000 up for grabs for the Uber #1 spot. We’ve seen the return of some big names from the past, so we expect the battle to be hard fought. There will also be another round of most active prizes for each league. You can check out the full prize details in our season 2 announcement post.

We’re also making a few map adjustments based on feedback and game review. These are intended to improve the flow of play and your general 1v1 ranked experience.

AI

It wouldn’t be PA if we didn’t keep improving the AI. Some of you noticed it was seeming a little under the weather recently, but we found the cause and administered treatment. Now the AI should be face rolling you once more. This includes improved air and naval attacks. You may also notice it’s more prone to bombarding you from the coast too. Ooooo, nasty.

As many of you will know, the AI’s Commander often liked to plant both feet in the soil, hold the line, and then explode in combat against forces it should never have fought. These Commanders are expensive to replace, so we’ve taught it that discretion is the better form of valour, leading to less unnecessary deaths, and it surviving to deliver the late game awesomeness we know you want.

Lastly, we did some work on enhancing the speed with which the AI processes all this information, making it more efficient than before.

TITANS Balance

Air has been a continuous thorn in the side of balance, often overwhelming the defences intended to stop it due to the ability for a player to commit their full strength to every engagement. In an effort to combat this we have boosted the strength of all land anti-air, including the Commander, with the intent to allow a greater diversity of play and hopefully reduce the massive fighter blobs. No longer will your Dox fight in the shade.

The Locust has also seen a further nerf, with a reduction to health. This allows for units like the Laser Defense Tower to kill them with a single shot. They’re still devastating if undetected, but easier to stop once spotted.

The Icarus has had a minor change made to its attack behaviour so that it attacks like a gunship. Will this make it a powerful weapon of destruction? Nope. Will it make it look so much cooler before it explodes? You bet. It will also be slightly harder for Dox to hit.

Stability

We, and our community testers, have spent many hours hammering away, looking for any defects so that we could reap a bountiful harvest of logs and crash dumps. These have been used to squash a number of crash root causes, including the single largest cause of server crashes.

In our modern build we have also updated Coherent UI to resolve a defect we identified which could cause client crashes.

Stability remains a big focus going forward, and an area we continue to work on. Thanks to everyone who helped us by running the PTE build.

tl;dr

This is an update about language and you skipped it? Are you aware of irony?

  • First pass of new and improved translations
  • South East Asia (SEA) servers planned
  • Mid-season ladder prizes awarded
  • Ranked maps updated
  • Improved AI
  • Balance changes
  • Improved stability and modern Coherent UI update

Technical Notes

Aww yiss, this is the good stuff.

Translations

New translation handling:

  • New prefix in literal strings that support knockout bindable HTML:
    • !LOCID:locId:locText
  • New data-loc-id and data-loc-no-style attributes that support knockout bindable HTML without styling:
    • <loc data-loc-id=”locId” data-loc-no-style>locText</loc>

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Map Pool Updates

Aquilaris

  • Platforms opened to amphibious and hover units

Bulkhead

  • Removed spawn platforms
  • Added 2 metal near the base

Lost Temple

  • Reduced the amount of water metal
  • Increased the starting platform size
  • Moved metal closer to the base and into tighter clusters for defence

Riddler

  • Increased base space by shrinking lava crevasse
  • Moved some metal points at the equator
  • Lowered the CSG around the air only metal
  • Reduced crater metal from 6 to 4

TITANS Balance Changes

Commander

  • AA rate of fire increased from 1 to 2 shots per second (reducing early game air snipes)
  • Target priorities changed to equal priority for main threats:
    • Air & ( Transport | Bomber | Gunship | Titan)
    • Mobile & Air

Spinner Vehicle Anti-Air

  • Rate of fire increased from 2 to 3 shots per second (open up ground pushes against heavy air)
  • Target priorities changed to equal priority for main threats:
    • Air & ( Transport | Bomber | Gunship | Titan)
    • Mobile & Air

Locust Nanoswarm

  • Health decreased from 80 to 60 (easier to kill and will require more micro if rushed)

Icarus Solar Drone

  • Attack behaviour changed to aggressive circle-strafe (similar to Kestrel gunship)
  • Target priorities changed to:
    • AirDefense | ( Land & Mobile ) | ( Naval & Mobile )
    • Air
    • Fabber | EnergyStorage | MetalProduction
    • Land & Naval

Galata Turret Anti-Air

  • Rate of fire increased from 3 to 4 shots per second
  • Target priorities changed to equal priority for main threats:
    • Air & ( Transport | Bomber | Gunship | Titan )
    • Mobile & Air

Bot / Vehicle / Air / Naval Advanced Factories

  • Cost increased from 4,500 to 4,800 (slowing the T2 rush)

Client Improvements

  • Increased maximum eco modifier to 10x
  • Improved sandbox mode no longer requires a mod to show user interface for units, vision and control (will also be obvious if you join a sandbox game)
  • Improved stability when marshalling data between Coherent UI and engine
  • Improved performance and stability of pushing unit specs when starting live game
  • Modern: updated to Coherent UI 2.5.9.3 which may improve rendering on Linux

Client Fixes

  • Fixed missing languages in Steam client
  • Fixed initial language not being set based on Steam client language setting
  • Fixed commander selection in 1v1 ranked new game lobby
  • Fixed a material library threading crash
  • Fixed windows crash handler failing triggering a Window Error Report (WER) which was also masking the material library crash
  • Modern: updated to Coherent UI 2.5.9.3 with fix for memory allocation crash
  • Modern: updated libcurl with fix for login failures on Windows 7 (113132)
  • Fixed a client crash during live game that was impacting high spec high core systems (113132)

Server Fixes

  • Fixed our #1 server crash. We now know this was caused by creative use of multiple anti-entity target weapons in the Legion Expansion Rampart shield generator when encoding deltas for the ammo capacity history curve
  • Fixed a crash if a seeking projectile was fired at a unit that as it leaves the planet
  • Fixed a navigation cost cell integrator crash in pathing

AI Improvements

  • AI performance improvement pass focusing on AI data updates, build location updates and attack location selection
  • Improved the AI’s ability to use naval against land targets
  • Improved the AI’s use of space near it’s starting base on some planets
  • Improved the AI’s economy management
  • Improved the AI’s handling of slow air platoons e.g. zeus + angel
  • Small improvements to the AI’s nuke and Unit Cannon targeting
  • AI Commander should no longer charge the front lines to its death
  • AI platoons should spend less time stuck against terrain trying to attack something

AI Fixes

  • Hardened the Fabber and Factory manager system to prevent a crash
  • Fixed a math error causing the AI to only evaluate half the planet for military targets
  • Fixed an error causing the AI to underutilize its air force
  • Fixed AI not attacking on gas giants
  • Fixed AI incorrectly marking bases as unable to deploy vehicle/naval units
  • Fixed crash if a mod enables an AI controlled Unit Cannon to build fabbers
  • Fixed AI commander getting stuck against terrain while trying to navigate back to safety (113132)
  • Fixed AI unit cannons not building anything in some circumstances (113132)
  • Fixed for AI sometimes getting stuck not using its unit cannons (113132)
  • AI building placement perf improvements (113132)

Crash Reporting

  • Added –enable-full-memory-minidump (Windows only) to be used when requested by support

Modding

  • Work in progress: new unit specs API to replace Blueprint Info Framework

Other Modern Updates

  • libcurl 7.64
  • lz4 1.8.3
  • miniz 2.0.8
  • zlib 1.2.11
  • libpng 1.6.36
  • libsquish 1.15
  • stb_truetype 1.21
  • stb_image 2.21
  • breakpad
  • libsdl 2.0.9 for Windows (macOS was already 2.0.9 and Linux is system version)

113044 reverts to libsdl 2.0.8 for Windows. 113046-legacy fixes missing unit selection ring.

113132

  • First pass of Polish translations (incomplete)
  • Fixed AI commander getting stuck against terrain while trying to navigate back to safety
  • Fixed AI unit cannons not building anything in some circumstances
  • Fixed AI sometimes getting stuck not using its unit cannons
  • AI building placement perf improvements
  • Fixed a client crash during live game that was impacting high spec high core systems
  • Modern: Fixed Windows 7 login issue
  • Modern build is now the default client (you can switch back to legacy if needed)

TITANS 1v1 Ranked Ladder Season 2

UPDATE: 1v1 Ranked Leaderboard Update 112835

UPDATE: We have expanded the participation prizes to include the three most active players in each of the five leagues for a total prize pool of US$4,500 this season.

 

Hello Commanders,

Season one of 1v1 ranked has ended, so let us give our congratulations to [TNC] [Nik] NikolaMX, a player so humble he put his own name in a clan tag.

Fighting off many worthy opponents he has dominated the Uber league, holding the #1 position for most of the season. An Invictus statue will be on its way to our deserving season 1 winner.

Season 2 – 2019-01-25 to 2019-04-25

It’s season 2!

All ranks have been reset; everything is up for grabs again.

A new season needs new maps. As you know we introduced four new maps mid-way through the previous season, and they’ll be carrying over to season two. But the rest of the maps have been taken out back and… retired. Sleep well old maps, you’ve served your time. Replacing them are eleven brand new maps.

Season 2 Map Pool (15)

  • Aquilaris (WPMarshall)
  • Bulkhead (WPMarshall)
  • Canyon (WPMarshall)
  • Centax-3 (Grand Homie)
  • Disparity (WPMarshall)
  • Enfer (Grand Homie)
  • Geonosis (Grand Homie)
  • Lost Temple (WPMarshall)
  • Lugaan (WPMarshall)
  • Niflhel (Grand Homie)
  • Riddler (WPMarshall)
  • Singe (WPMarshall)
  • Tartarus (Grand Homie)
  • The Ardennes (Grand Homie)
  • The Marne (Grand Homie)

New maps mean new strategies, and everyone is on an even footing because no one has had a chance to practice these before. We look forward to seeing what you make of them and hearing your thoughts on how they play. These maps will also be made available to play in custom lobbies in the near future.

Prizes!

Of course, what season is complete without prizes? And what could possibly top an Invictus Commander statue? Like that relative that doesn’t know what to get you as a present, we opted for cold, hard cash. Nice.

The player who holds Uber #1 at the mid-season point (2019-03-08 00:00 UTC) will be awarded US$500. The player who is Uber #1 at the end of the season (2019-04-26 00:00 UTC) will receive US$1,000.

But what about those of you playing in Bronze reading this and thinking, I’m never going to hit Uber so what do I care? Well we’ve got you covered too.

We will be awarding US$100 to the three most active players in each of the five leagues, both mid-season and at the end of the season. Doesn’t matter where you rank in the league, only how much you play. (UPDATED)

Summary of Prizes

  • Mid-season at 2019-03-08:00:00 UTC
    • Uber #1 – US$500
    • Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Silver players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Gold players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Uber players – US$100 each
  • End of season 2 at 2019-04-26:00:00 UTC
    • Uber #1 – US$1,000
    • Three most active Bronze players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Silver players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Gold players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Platinum players – US$100 each
    • Three most active Uber players – US$100 each

Maximum annual winnings for Uber #1 is US$6,800 if you hold the position all year and play the most!

All prizes are awarded at the discretion of Planetary Annihilation Inc. Players in breach of the Planetary Annihilation Community Rules and Guidelines may be disqualified. The decision of Planetary Annihilation Inc is final.

tl;dr

Seriously? We spent a lot of time writing all that. Millennials are ruining the patch note industry.

  • Ranked season 2 has begun
  • New ranked map pool
  • US$4,500 to be won this season (UPDATED)

Let the soothing voice of WPMarshall take you on a guided tour of this season’s maps: https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=ienE1HgwmLM

1v1 Ranked Leaderboard Update 112835



Our ladder uses a tried and tested ranking algorithm, with numerous best practices for implementation. To oversimplify, all players have two scores: stable and volatile. The former is a rating which the system has a high confidence in and should be used for ranking, avoiding placing a player too highly based on a few good games. The latter is a lower confidence rating, but looks at the potential of the player.

Volatile and stable are used for matchmaking to find opponents of the right difficulty. Think of stable as reflecting how good we know you are, while volatile is how good you might be. Over time these two ratings will converge.

During work to migrate to PAnet we have been examining the code underpinning the ladder and identified an issue. Rather than using the stable rating for ranks the ladder had been implemented using the volatile rating, leading to wild swings in position and players being placed in high level leagues far too easily. This runs counter to the goal of the ranking system: rewarding consistency of play over time.

A fix for this has been deployed and players have had their position on the ladder updated accordingly. All games played this season remain valid, none of your results have been lost or invalidated as a result of this change. The only change is to leaderboard ranks. This does not impact the result of season 1, we reviewed the data and [TNC] [Nik] NikolaMX was the clear winner.

Players with few games in ranked will likely find they have dropped to a lower rank, or even league. The key to your rank now is consistency over a large number of games. You will no longer be able to obtain Uber status with only a few games.

We debated leaving the ranking system unchanged for season 2, but decided as it was still very early in the season it was best for the health and integrity of the ladder that an immediate fix be deployed. This will lead to a better experience for everyone, avoiding the issue of players with a small number of games camping high ranking positions, allowing players who continue to play to see an improvement over time.

You will see a significant change in the number of players within each league at first. These numbers should change over time as players play more games. Thresholds for each league have not changed and we will be reviewing the season 2 data for possible adjustments in season 3.

Accompanying this change are three much requested features. Everyone’s stable score is now visible on the leaderboard, along with the number of games played, and you can view the top 500 of every league instead of just the top 10 both in-game and on the web at: https://palobby.com/leaderboards/

We hope this improved transparency, in combination with the leaderboard correction, will make for a more satisfying ranked experience.

Finally, players new to the ladder must complete 10 games before being assigned a rank. This allows the system to ensure a more accurate rating before adding people to a league.

Bulkhead has also been updated with a fix for missing metal spots that were identified.

tl;dr

  • The ladder has been updated to use the correct value for ranking players
  • The ladder UI has been updated to display your rank, games played, and 500 players per league
  • Players need to complete 10 games before being assigned a rank
  • Bulkhead updated for missing metal
  • https://palobby.com/leaderboards/

Smurfs in Platinum / Uber and Player Behaviour

For season 2 we are monitoring the use of smurfs and player behaviour. That may result in some changes, some warnings, some season bans and some permanent bans (a number of which have already been applied).

To report an individual player please use: https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/

We strongly recommend you play on your own main account, be respectful in chat and avoid impersonating other players.

Planetary Annihilation Vocabulary

Discord: https://discord.gg/pa

Here’s what you need to know when playing Planetary Annihilation:

PAPlanetary Annihilation
PA:TPlanetary Annihilation: TITANS
MLAMachine Liberation Army (Legion name for base game faction)
LegionLegion Expansion – Community Faction Mod
CMMCommunity Mods Manager
PAMMObsolete PA Mod Manager
palobbyGames Browser
Unit Database (TITANS, Legion and Classic PA)
TITANS 1v1 Ranked Leaderboards
Dedicated Server Replays
comCommander
ubercannon / d-gunCommander manual alt-fire of a short range, high damage, high energy weapon as a last line of defence
com snipeUnexpected death of a poorly protected / out of position / weakened Commander often using micro and focus fire from Booms, Bumblebees, Kestrels,, Titans, Holkins, nukes, SXX, etc.
death by icarus / death by a thousand cutsEmbarrassing com snipe using only Icarus (bonus points for using over a thousand)
com boxingCommander vs Commander close quarter battles
com pushUsing your Commander on the front lines to attack
boom bot pushUsing the speed of boom bots to push another unit faster than its normal speed (often used with a Manhattan or Commander)
fabberFabricator or builder
fabber snipeTargeting unprotected or poorly protected fabbers typically using bumblebee bombers, icarus solar drones, pelican drops or raids early game
T1Tier 1 basic units
T2Tier 2 advanced units
ecoEconomy
pgenPower Generator
mexMetal Extractor
treecoTree economy where trees are reclaimed for metal
build orderOpening build queues for commander and initial fabbers based on starting location, map type, game type and initial strategy that ideally minimises walking distance and maximises output without floating, stalling or crashing eco which are adjusted based on initial scouting of the enemy
floatingWhen resources (energy or metal or both) exceed demand resulting in wasted or unused resources (blue eco bar). Always use your float to expand and build more units
stalling / crashingWhen demand exceeds available resources (energy or metal or both) slowing production to less than 100% efficiency (red eco bar). When stalling energy, units requiring energy to operate like radars and teleporters may stop working
macroBig picture management of your build, economy, vision, placement, map control, unit composition, lines of attack, etc
scoutingConstantly maintaining awareness of your enemies base(s), forces and unit composition through vision and radar
expanding / expansionExpanding to claim all metal spots then defending your expansion against enemy raids or attacks to establish map control
proxyMini base with factories outside of main base typically around a metal expansion, lane, lake or area.
pressureUsing constant raiding, expansion, proxies, area denial, map control, multiple lines of attack and other tactics to dominate your opponent leaving them feeling constantly under pressure, reactive and overwhelmed.
area denialPreventing enemy units from occupying or navigating an area
kill zoneArea covered by direct fire used to ambush, trap or completely destroy enemy units that enter the zone (often using terrain to funnel units into single file or narrow spaces through a choke point)
microMicro managing individual units, platoons or groups
stop microStopping units to focus fire or rapidly change direction eg Bomber stop micro
focus fireExplicitly targeting an attack on a single unit or Commander
wiggle / danceMoving units side to side or in circles to avoid enemy fire eg Dox vs Bumblebees (bombers)
kitingMoving your units (typically backwards) to keep enemy units at range or to pull them into a kill zone
flankingMoving your units around enemy units (or structures / terrain) to attack from a stronger position
meat shieldUsing cheaper / faster / disposable units to absorb enemy fire
pelican dropTransporting sparks, inferno flame tanks or vanguards into an enemy main base or proxy
manhattan dropTeleporting a Manhattan using a Helios directly into a base (usually on top of a Commander)
planet bounceBouncing orbital of a nearby planet to drop directly over a location on the same planet
nuke farmMultiple Nuclear Missile Launchers building Nuclear Missiles typically assisted by T2 advanced fabbers in preparation for a nuke stack or carpet nuke
nuke stackTargeting multiple nukes simultaneously on the same location to overwhelm anti-nukes, open a beachhead or double tap snipe a Commander
double tapTwo nuke stack snipe of a Commander without anti-nuke protection
carpet nukeArea targeting multiple nukes simultaneously over a large area due to poor scouting, lack of vision or just because you can (bonus points for 50+)
APMActions per Minute (not that important in PA)
APSActions per Second and Ammo per Second (rate of fire)
DMGDamage
PRODProduction
CSGConstructive Solid Geometry building blocks used to create advanced maps in the system editor (additive and subtractive 3D boolean operations on brushes)
FFAFree for All game mode with one player per army
team armiesTeam game mode with one or more players per team
unshared team armiesEach player controls their own army with a static alliance between the armies in each team
shared team armiesEach team is a single shared army where any player in the team can control any unit in the team (including another players commander)
sudden deathOption for teams armies where a team is eliminated if any commander in the team is killed (protect your weakest player)
world simulationLocal server games
cheeseUsually a reference to Qzipco 😉

Happy New Year Updates 112595 / 112589


Happy New Year Commanders,

Our faster modern toolchain server build with multi-threading is now live on official servers! This should mean the servers perform better than ever before, especially on multi-planet systems.

The modern client with local server remain opt-in via the modern BETA in Steam and the PA launcher. If you are playing single player with a local server or hosting LAN games we encourage you try the modern client.

To help new players pick up the game faster, the Planetary Annihilation guides section is now a one-stop shop for everything you wanted to know about Planetary Annihilation but didn’t know to ask.

We have expanded the TITANS 1v1 ranked map pool with four community maps from WPMarshall and GrandHomie (for a total of 15 maps):

  • Enfer (GrandHomie)
  • The Marne (GrandHomie)
  • Lugaan (WPMarshall)
  • Singe (WPMarshall)

Your complaints about dodging in ranked have also been heard. Not only have we removed ranked queue status information from Community Chat, we’ve also anonymised names in the ranked lobby and removed the ability to leave the lobby. You really are trapped in there with your opponent now, so don’t queue if you don’t intend to play.

We’ve also got AI upgrades for the single-player and comp stomp crowd. The neural network’s fitness function (it sounds technical which means it’s impressive) has been reworked so that the AI is smarter about the way it evaluates battles.

Another long-standing AI request was the ability to select which Commander the AI uses. We promised to add this and so we have. Please feel free to admire the new Commander selection UI, making better use of your screen real estate.

We’ve continued to keep an eye on crash reports and have put a lot of effort into eliminating everything we can. You should find Planetary Annihilation an even more stable experience than before. We’ll continue to keep an eye on things to see what else might crawl out of the woodwork. Some of these things can be pretty edgecase, but we won’t stop in trying to track them all down, we hate crashes even more than you do.

Audio modding has arrived, so modders can now add whatever sounds they like to the game, either overwriting existing sounds or even adding completely new ones. Give your new unit its own style as it threatens doom to its enemies. Break subwoofers everywhere with extra bass in every shot sound effect. Replace the in-game VO with your own voice so you can literally congratulate yourself on your wins, you egotistical monster. We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

As a final thanks for continuing to play Planetary Annihilation TITANS we have added two NEW dedicated servers running the latest modern linux builds that can handle epic games of up to 32 players. A number of trusted community members have been given the keys, so keep an eye out in Community Chat and the official Planetary Annihilation Discord for announcements of big games. You haven’t truly won a game of Planetary Annihilation until you stand victorious on the wreckage of 31 other Commanders.

tl;dr

  • Official servers using modern toolchain builds with multi-threading
  • Two clients available (stable legacy and cutting-edge modern for testing)
  • 1v1 ranked maps expanded with four community maps from WPMarshall and GrandHomie for a total of 15 maps
  • 1v1 ranked lobby is now anonymous showing Player 1 and Player 2
  • 1v1 ranked lobby leave option has been removed
  • AI improvements with reworked and retrained neural networks
  • AI commander selection (as promised)
  • Server crash fixes
  • NEW official guides: https://planetaryannihilation.com/guides/
  • NEW audio modding
  • NEW official dedicated servers with up to 32 players for big games

TITANS Balance Changes

  • Pelican cost increased to 160 and health decreased to 150
  • Locust cost increased to 260
  • Spinner range increased to 120

Technical Notes

Next year we will be moving to PAnet, which will replace the legacy UberNet infrastructure with modern server environments. Eventually all the legacy Windows servers will be replaced with faster modern Linux servers.

Toolchains

Software development toolchain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toolchain

Legacy toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2012 / Windows 8 SDK
  • Xcode 5.0.1 / macOS Mountain Lion for macOS Lion 10.7+
  • Legacy Steam Linux runtime / GCC 4.8.4

Modern toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2017 latest / Windows 10 SDK latest
  • Xcode 10.1 / macOS 10.14.1 latest for macOS Mavericks 10.9+
  • Modern Steam Linux runtime / GCC 5.4.1 (currently limited by Steam Linux runtime)
  • Native Linux / Clang / LLVM 7.x for dedicated Linux servers

Server Improvements

  • Faster modern toolchain build

AI Improvements

  • Completely reworked the AI’s neural network fitness function to improve how the AI evaluates the outcome of a battle
    • Instead of being based on the difference between each and every input before and after the encounter, the fitness function now primarily looks at which side lost more metal value. Not every encounter results in a metal loss, so the fitness function also compares unit count losses as well as health losses, but they don’t count nearly as much as metal losses
  • AI commander selection in new game lobby

Server Fixes

  • Fix for crash if the AI was trying to teleport a fabber or commander to a planet as the planet was destroyed
  • Fix for multiple cases where a unit could be removed from a platoon (dropping the reference) before being added to a new platoon, causing a crash later on in the game
  • Fix for crash if the commander did not have an Uber cannon spec
  • Fix for build arms not ticking in multi-threading enabled servers causing fabbers/commanders to not face their build targets
  • Fix for crash if a fabber/commander was assisting in the construction of a projectile that died
  • Fix for a crash if a projectile target died and was cleaned up by the sim
  • Improved fix for players disconnecting from new game lobby not being removed from game

Client Improvements

  • Reorganised start menu is now scrollable with more space for menu items
  • Improved commander and colour selection in new game lobby

Client Fixes

  • Fix for ESC key locking up the start menu if no video was playing
  • Fix for community videos not showing if community mods not enabled

Modding

  • NEW audio modding:
    • api.sound.playSoundFromFile(path)
    • api.sound.playSoundFromFileAtLocation(path, x, y, z)
    • api.sound.registerCueMod(cue, path)
    • api.sound.unregisterCueMod(cue)
  • NEW build.txt with original build number (will differ from version.txt for legacy clients)
  • NEW gBuild global with original build number from build.txt accessible in all scenes
  • NEW –version command line option to override version.txt for targeting a different server build

112595

  • Hot fix for 1v1 ranked

https://forums.planetaryannihilation.com/threads/happy-new-year-updates-112595-112589.73231/

Hosting a Local Server

Planetary Annihilation includes a local server for single player that also fully supports both offline and online multiplayer LAN games on your personal super computer.

Playing PA with a local server on the same computer requires a MODERN mid-top spec CPU and plenty of free RAM. eg minimum 8GB free and ideally 16GB free.

The minimum specs for using single player local servers with TITANS are:

  • MODERN quad core
  • 8GB RAM for dedicated GPUs
  • 12GB RAM for integrated GPUs

A good indicator of raw CPU performance is: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

If you’re playing and hosting a local server on the same computer then high core counts are useful especially if you are also streaming.

Failing to connect to a local server is usually caused by:

  • firewalls / security suites / antivirus interfering with network connections
  • incorrect port mapping / forwarding / pinholes with WAN games over the internet
  • corrupt files
  • broken mods

Hosting multiplayer games on a local server requires a top spec modern CPU ideally with 16GB+ RAM.

Multiplayer LAN Games

When all players and the server are on the same IPv4 local network you can host a LAN game.

Offline (not logged in) LAN Games

When offline you are NOT logged in using a PA or Steam account. You can also be disconnected from the internet after initial setup.

LAN Setup

  • Every player must have the same build of PA
  • Every player must use a unique username
  • Every player must be on the same network subnet to receive LAN beacons
  • Every player must enable Community Mods
  • Servers use TCP port 20545 for games and UDP port 8192 for LAN beacons to advertise local games

Hosting a LAN Game From Within PA

  • Local server and local server multi-threading should be enabled in:
    • settings > server
  • Create a local game on your personal super computer using:
    • start > multiplayer > custom > create game
  • Make the game public to start broadcasting the LAN beacon for your game
  • Leave the game public to allow players to reconnect or spectate

Joining a LAN Game

  • Players can join your LAN game using:
    • start > multiplayer > custom
  • Public LAN games are listed under the Local region

Online (logged in) LAN Games

When online you are logged in using a PA or steam account via the internet.

Each player must be logged in using a different account or offline using a different username.

When hosting ensure host game locally is enabled before you create the game.

Multiplayer WAN Games Over the Internet

Using the Connect Buttons mod from Community Mods players can connect to private servers hosted over the internet.

WAN Setup

  • Every player must have the same build of PA
  • Every player must use a unique username
  • Every remote player needs to install the Connect Buttons mod and will need to know the public IPv4 or DNS address of your server
  • Servers use TCP port 20545 for games and need to be accessible via a public IPv4 address
    • If your local server is using a private IPv4 address like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x then you’ll need to setup port mapping / port forwarding / pinholes in your router / modem
  • You’ll need high quality broadband or fibre to host a local server over the internet
    • At least 5 Mbit/s upload is recommended and ideally 10+ Mbit/s for bigger games with spectators
    • Larger games with more players and spectators will require more bandwidth

Port Mapping / Port Forwarding / Pinholes

You’ll need to figure this out yourself… don’t ask for help about your specific router. Try google or https://www.howtogeek.com/66214/how-to-forward-ports-on-your-router/

Your local PC hosting your local PA server on TCP port 20545 will be using a private IP address not accessible from the internet. eg 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x

Port mapping / port forwarding / pinholes open TCP port 20545 on your public IP address so that your local PA server can be accessed via the internet.

eg assuming your public IP address is 45.33.44.0 and the private IP address of your local computer with PA is 192.168.1.100 then you want to port map external TCP 20545 to internal 192.168.1.100 TCP 20545.

NEVER use DMZ unless you know what you are doing and have a very secure firewall setup.

Offline (not logged in) WAN Games

When offline you are NOT logged in using a PA or Steam account. You must be connected to the internet for WAN games.

Hosting a WAN Game From Within PA

  • Local server and local server multi-threading should be enabled in:
    • settings > server
  • Create a local game on your personal super computer using:
    • start > multiplayer > custom > create game
  • Make the game public
  • Leave the game public to allow players to reconnect or spectate

Joining a WAN Game

  • Install the Connect Buttons mod from Community Mods
  • Add the public IPv4 or DNS address with TCP port to:
    • settings > server
    • Host = public IPv4 or DNS address
  • Players can join your WAN game using:
    • start > connect to > public IPv4 or DNS address of your server
  • Privately hosted WAN games are not shown in the public games browser

Online (logged in) WAN Games

When online you are logged in using a PA or steam account via the internet.

Each player must be logged in using a different account or offline using a different username.

When hosting ensure host game locally is enabled before you create the game.

Game invites can be used when you connect to the public IP address of a manually started server (see below).

Firewalls

If not using steam on windows you may need to manually add exceptions.

Steam Windows Firewall Rules

The steam install automatically adds PA to the allowed apps in Windows Defender Firewall:

  • Planetary Annihilation (32 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x86\\PA.exe
  • Planetary Annihilation – Crash Reporter (32 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x86\\crashupload.exe
  • Planetary Annihilation – User Interface (32 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x86\\host\\CoherentUI_Host.exe
  • Planetary Annihilation (64 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x64\\PA.exe
  • Planetary Annihilation – Crash Reporter (64 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x64\\crashupload.exe
  • Planetary Annihilation – User Interface (64 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x64\\host\\CoherentUI_Host.exe
  • Planetary Annihilation – LAN and Offline Game Server (64 bit) %INSTALLDIR%\\bin_x64\\server.exe

The steam windows firewall rules do not apply to:

  • third party firewalls or security suites
  • moved steam apps
  • other installations such as the PA launcher

Server Mods

Server mods from the first player to connect as game creator / host will be automatically uploaded to the server and distributed to players and spectators automatically.

Downloading PA

PAnet accounts can use papatcher or the legacy PA launcher (Windows / macOS prior to 10.15 Catalina) to download a DRM free local server: https://store.planetaryannihilation.net/download/pa

Steam accounts can be linked to a PAnet account: https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/kb/faq.php?id=63

Steam install location: https://support.planetaryannihilation.com/kb/faq.php?id=51

papatcher

Download papatcher.go from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/planetary-annihilation/papatcher/master/papatcher.go

Install golang from repo (Linux) or https://golang.org/

go run papatcher.go --stream=stable --update-only

Windows Dependencies

For Windows you may need to install the latest Visual Studio 2019 64 bit runtime: https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

Linux Dependencies

Headless servers require:

  • libsdl2
  • libgl1
  • libstdc++6
  • libcurl
  • libuuid

On Fedora / NixOS the following environment variable may be needed:

SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt

Manually Starting a Server

To manually start a local server in waiting lobby config mode create a script or desktop shortcut to the server executable with the following command line parameters:

  • --allow-lan
  • --game-mode PAExpansion1:config (for TITANS) OR --game-mode config (for classic PA)
  • --server-name "local" (initial name displayed in server browser)
  • --enable-crash-reporting
  • --mt-enabled (for multi-threading)

Customise with the following additional command line parameters:

  • --max-players 12 (up to 32 players depending on the specs of your local super computer and high speed internet)
  • --max-spectators 5 (depending on the specs of your high speed internet)
  • --spectators 5 (default spectators)
  • --output-dir "path-to/your/planetary-annihilation-data-directory" (to save local replays)
  • --empty-timeout 3600
  • --replay-filename "UTCTIMESTAMP" (to automatically name replays using a UTC timestamp)
  • --replay-timeout 180 (timeout after game over when replay is written even if players are still reviewing)
  • --gameover-timeout 360 (timeout after game over when server is shutdown even if players are still reviewing)
  • --headless (no window)
  • --port 20545 (default port)
  • --server-password "password"
  • --disable-ai (disable adding of AI players)

Example Linux Service

Example systemd unit:

[Unit]

Description=PA
After=network.target

[Service]
User=root

ExecStart=/srv/pa/pa.sh

StandardOutput=null
StandardError=null

Restart=always
RestartSec=5

NoNewPrivileges=yes
PrivateTmp=yes
PrivateDevices=yes

ProtectKernelTunables=yes
ProtectKernelModules=yes
ProtectControlGroups=yes
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=read-only
SystemCallFilter=~@mount
ReadWritePaths=/srv/pa/output/

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Example pa.sh:

OUTPUT=/srv/pa/output
export MINIDUMP_DIRECTORY=$OUTPUT

mkdir -p $OUTPUT

/path/to/server \
--port 20545 \
--headless \
--allow-lan \
--mt-enabled \
--max-players 32 \
--max-spectators 5 \
--spectators 5 \
--empty-timeout 5 \
--replay-filename "UTCTIMESTAMP" \
--replay-timeout 180 \
--gameover-timeout 360 \
--server-name "server" \
--game-mode "PAExpansion1:config" \
--output-dir $OUTPUT

Example Windows Batch File

Example server.bat with PA launcher or papatcher path to server.exe:

SET OUTPUT="%LOCALAPPDATA%\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation"
SET MINIDUMP_DIRECTORY=%OUTPUT%

mkdir %OUTPUT%

:start

cls

"C:\Games\Planetary Annihilation\Planetary Annihilation\stable\bin_x64\server.exe" ^
--port 20545 ^
--headless ^
--allow-lan ^
--mt-enabled ^
--max-players 32 ^
--max-spectators 5 ^
--spectators 5 ^
--empty-timeout 5 ^
--replay-filename "UTCTIMESTAMP" ^
--replay-timeout 180 ^
--gameover-timeout 360 ^
--server-name "server" ^
--game-mode "PAExpansion1:config" ^
--output-dir %OUTPUT%

goto start

Modern Toolchain Test Builds 112589-pte / 112585-pte / 112575-pte / 112527-pte

Seasons Greetings Commanders,

As we enter the holiday season we bring you a little present in the form of not one, but two(!) Public Test Environment (PTE) builds. That’s right, the choice is yours. But before we get ahead of ourselves, a little reminder that PTE builds are opt-in and an opportunity for you to try out new features before we move them to stable. They may be a little unstable, a little rough around the edges, but they’re the cutting edge of Planetary Annihilation. Check this guide on how to opt-in to PTE.

Work on Planetary Annihilation started back in 2012, and it was built using the latest and greatest tooling at the time. But like the Progenitors, things have moved on and tooling has improved. This PTE comes in both legacy and modern build flavours, using either the build tools PA has been using since release, or the modern 2018 goodness. Newer tools allow us to lower RAM usage and boost performance, among other benefits. Of course this also means it’s less well tested and therefore possibly less stable at this time.

The PTE will be running its own servers, separate from the stable servers, and all of them running the modern build. This is the place to come for cutting edge performance. Bring your friends!

It’s not just about tech though, there’s a host of goodness packed into this update. In particular, the AI has once again undergone brain surgery to improve the way it evaluates battles, making it smarter about when to fight and when to ru… execute a tactical withdrawal.

Modders should make sure to hop onto this PTE to take advantage of the new audio modding capabilities and get their sweet audio goodness ready to launch alongside this update when it hits stable.

We also nipped in the bud most of the major crash sources we’ve identified. You can help us find more by running the modern build. We salute your sacrifice, Commander.

tl;dr

  • two clients available (stable legacy-pte and cutting-edge modern-pte for testing)
  • official PTE servers using modern toolchain builds
  • 1v1 ranked maps expanded with four community maps from WPMarshall and GrandHomie for a total of 15 maps
  • 1v1 ranked lobby is now anonymous showing Player 1 and Player 2
  • 1v1 ranked lobby leave option has been removed
  • AI improvements with reworked and retrained neural networks
  • AI commander selection (as promised)
  • Server crash fixes
  • NEW audio modding

Balance Changes

  • Pelican cost increased to 160 and health decreased to 150
  • Locust cost increased to 260
  • Spinner range increased to 120

Technical Notes

Next year we will be moving to PAnet, which will replace the legacy UberNet infrastructure with modern server environments. Eventually all the legacy Windows servers will be replaced with faster modern Linux servers.

Toolchains

Software development toolchain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toolchain

Legacy toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2012 / Windows 8 SDK
  • Xcode 5.0.1 / macOS Mountain Lion for macOS Lion 10.7+
  • Legacy steam linux runtime / GCC 4.8.4

Modern toolchain

  • Visual Studio 2017 latest / Windows 10 SDK latest
  • Xcode 10.1 / macOS 10.14.1 latest for macOS Mavericks 10.9+
  • Modern steam linux runtime / GCC 5.4.1 (currently limited by steam linux runtime)

Community Maps

Server Improvements

  • Faster modern toolchain build

AI Improvements

  • Completely reworked the AI’s neural network fitness function to improve how the AI evaluates the outcome of a battle
    • Instead of being based on the difference between each and every input before and after the encounter, the fitness function now primarily looks at which side lost more metal value. Not every encounter results in a metal loss, so the fitness function also compares unit count losses as well as health losses, but they don’t count nearly as much as metal losses
  • AI commander selection in new game lobby

Server Fixes

  • Fix for crash if the AI was trying to teleport a fabber or commander to a planet as the planet was destroyed
  • Fix for multiple cases where a unit could be removed from a platoon (dropping the reference) before being added to a new platoon, causing a crash later on in the game
  • Fix for crash if the commander did not have an Uber cannon spec
  • Fix for build arms not ticking in multi-threading enabled servers causing fabbers/commanders to not face their build targets
  • Fix for crash if a fabber/commander was assisting in the construction of a projectile that died
  • Fix for a crash if a projectile target died and was cleaned up by the sim
  • Improved fix for players disconnecting from new game lobby not being removed from game

Client Improvements

  • Reorganised start menu is now scrollable with more space for menu items
  • Improved commander and colour selection in new game lobby

Client Fixes

  • Fix for ESC key locking up the start menu if no video was playing
  • Fix for community videos not showing if community mods not enabled

Modding

  • NEW audio modding:
    • api.sound.playSoundFromFile(path)
    • api.sound.playSoundFromFileAtLocation(path, x, y, z)
    • api.sound.registerCueMod(cue, path)
    • api.sound.unregisterCueMod(cue)
  • NEW build.txt with original build number (will differ from version.txt for legacy clients)
  • NEW gBuild global with original build number from build.txt accessible in all scenes
  • NEW –version command line option to override version.txt for targeting a different server build

https://forums.planetaryannihilation.com/threads/modern-toolchain-test-build-112527-pte.73222/

Public Test Environments (PTE) and Legacy Builds

What is a PTE?

Public Test Environments are publicly available builds for testing upcoming changes prior to release as a stable build.

A PTE can contain any of the following:

  • fixes
  • enhancements
  • new features
  • new content
  • new units

How do I access a PTE?

You can install a PTE using papatcher via a PAnet account:

  • modern-pte (modern Public Test Environment for modern CPUs)
  • legacy-pte if available (legacy Public Test Environment for older CPUs)

What is a Legacy Build?

Legacy builds are publicly available stable builds for older CPUs like:

  • AMD Phenom
  • Intel Core 2

They automatically target the current stable servers.

How do I access a Legacy Build?

You can opt-in to a legacy build via Steam or papatcher via a PAnet account:

  • legacy (stable for older CPUs that automatically targets stable servers)

Steam (Windows / macOS / Linux)

  1. Open your Steam library
  2. Right click Planetary Annihilation: TITANS then select Properties
  3. Select the BETAS tab
  4. Select the legacy build from the list
  5. Click the CLOSE button and Steam will download any changes for the legacy build

Outside of Steam

papatcher using PAnet accounts

Download papatcher.go from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/planetary-annihilation/papatcher/master/papatcher.go

Install golang from repo (Linux) or https://golang.org/

go run papatcher.go --stream=modern-pte --update-only

Legacy PA Launcher (Windows / macOS prior to Catalina 10.15) using PAnet accounts

  1. Open the PA launcher and sign in
  2. Click on your username then select Build Options… from the list
  3. Tick the PTE or legacy build you want to install then click SAVE
  4. Change the stream from stable to the PTE or legacy build you want to test
  5. Click VERIFY to install or update the selected PTE or legacy build

Windows Dependencies

For Windows you may need to install the latest Visual Studio 2019 64 bit runtime: https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

Linux Dependencies

  • libsdl2
  • libgl1
  • libstdc++6
  • libcurl
  • libuuid

On Fedora / NixOS the following environment variable may be needed:

SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt

Clean Testing with Multiple Copies of PA

You can start multiples copies of PA using the --localstorageurl command line option with a different name for each copy:

--localstorageurl=localstore-test1

A separate directory for settings will be created in your Planetary Annihilation Data Directory.

This can be used to separate testing from your stable build and is required when running multiple copies of PA at the same time to avoid data loss.

Playing on Stable Servers with PTE

For most PTEs you can play on stable servers using the --version command line option:

--version 115958

Remember to remove or update this when a new build goes live.

Crash Dumps

PA generated crash reports with logs (and dxdiag on windows) are usually automatically uploaded to our crash reporting system.

When reporting crashes it also helps if you include the crash ID from your logs (same as the filename of the generated minidump):

xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.dmp


The default location for crash dumps generated by PA is now the logs directory in your Planetary Annihilation data directory.

The environment variable MINIDUMP_DIRECTORY can be used to change the location where PA crash minidump files are saved and will also generate more detailed (and larger) minidump files similar to the new --enable-detailed-minidump command line option.

Windows Error Reporting (WER) and macOS may also generate different crash reports:

Steam Command Line Parameters

  1. Open your Steam library
  2. Right click Planetary Annihilation: TITANS then select Properties
  3. Click Set Launch Options…

PA Launcher Command Line Parameters

  1. Open the PA launcher and sign in
  2. Click on your username then select Build Options… from the list
  3. Additional command-line options

Steam Installation Directory

  • Open your Steam library
  • Right click on Planetary Annihilation: TITANS or Planetary Annihilation in your list of games
  • Select Properties
  • Click the LOCAL FILES tab
  • Click BROWSE LOCAL FILES
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