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:

• https://store.planetaryannihilation.net/
• https://planetaryannihilation.com/privacy/ (new privacy policy)
• https://planetaryannihilation.com/terms/ (new terms of use)
• https://planetaryannihilation.com/acceptable-use/ (new acceptable use policy)

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

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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

Region	Australia	Singapore	Japan	USWest	USCentral	USEast	Ireland
Australia		Random	Singapore	Random	USWest	USWest	USWest
Singapore	Random		Random	Japan	USWest	USWest	USWest
Japan	Singapore	Random		Random	USWest	USWest	USWest
USWest	Random	Japan	Random		Random	USCentral	USEast
USCentral	USWest	USWest	USWest	Random		Random	USEast
USEast	USWest	USWest	USWest	USCentral	Random		Random
Ireland	USWest	USWest	USWest	USEast	USEast	Random

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

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

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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/

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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.