Live data from Hacker News

Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

beyondallreason.info

281–290 of 339 posts

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a classic take by a non-competitive player that would be better suited playing PvE or campaign games. That being said, there's nothing wrong with that. Just understand that when people are trying to win, they have skin in the game, and are investing time and effort to win every game. > Also, one particularly aggravating part of the community is that it’s considered courtesy to surrender once the front line is…

It’s not the community’s fault for being toxic? Whose fault is it then? God’s? The fabric of reality made you do it?

It's about a mismatch between expectations of new players and existing players.

Some new players want to learn in multiplayer and they want to play how they play and don't want to change that. That attitude simply doesn't work in an up-to-an-hour long technical 8v8 RTS game with experienced players.

The game could do a better job communicating this to players and try to direct them to appropriate lobbies (noob friendly or vs-AI), or ditch the lobby system for queues like more modern games, but I understood this after looking around, having a few chats with communicative players, and using the excellent game spectate function.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#282

Great game, technically impressive, but the community can be quite mean and toxic. I played for around a year after having played other TA Spring RTS for a few years prior, and if you don’t follow the exact meta of the month (whatever that might be) in terms of build order and things, people can get really aggro and your team can vote to kick you and take your units. Also, one particularly aggravating part of the com…

if a games competitive scene consists of a small old boys club tier rules do yourself a favor and don’t bother. bar was very much this when i tried it last year. i also got kicked at the start of several games for no apparent obvious reason as a new player lol. very unwelcoming community

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matchmaking is a real problem in most games because of smurfing.

You occasionally get smurfs in Rocket League but it's like 1 in 10 games so not a big issue IMO.

this is completely ignoring the botting issue that was so bad lately it pushed pros out of ssl and severely messed up MMR. this season is the first one that is remotely playable in a while

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#284
post #185
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, PtaQ here, BAR’s Community Manager. I’m sorry this was your experience. There are definitely some very competitive lobbies, but harassment is not acceptable. Please report any players involved, as reports are the only way we can identify patterns and take action. We have an active moderation team and do review them. For a more relaxed experience, I’d recommend trying less established meta maps. Lobbies marked “r…

what do you mean you have no way? chats private and/or encrypted? lobbies are public. Use AI to identify harassing comments and take action.

This is not a commercial game, and tokens cost money.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#286

This is amazing to see TA on HN. I grew up playing Total Annihilation in the 90s because my cousin worked for Cavedog and got us a CD for free. It is still one of my favorite games to this day. So many great memories with that game, countless hours playing with my brothers, getting up early to play before school, asking my parents for extra chores to earn more computer time. Games aren't the same anymore. I still hav…

TA is my most favorite game of all time. I bought it on Steam and got all the modern Escalation mods. I will spin it up every 6 months or so and play a new game just for fun, I just with the AI were more challenging.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TA is the only game I consciously went out to buy a faster machine to play. Upgrading from my 133MHz to a 400MHz so I could run more units in TA. I rarely played TA vs other people. It was always either the PvE scenarios, or skirmishes. Against multiple AIs I would strive to take out several of them, leaving one time to build up. Then the game would quickly devolve into "hose on hose" combat where my automatic produc…

I set a scenario against multiple AIs on the large metal map. The only way to survive was to quickly construct barriers between the buildings to seal off your base because the AIs weren't programmed to destroy barriers. Then came the job of hunting down the AI commanders (I played killing the commander kills all of his units otherwise it was impossible to win). Great game!

I got the largest metal map and created a basically impenetrable base, and then left the game running overnight.

It turned into a huge battle between the highest level of units and it was so much fun, but even then the AI wasn't extremely challenging.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#288
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree . the best community so far.

I agree. It's the robust old-school lobby type community and it's great. Multiple sub communities with different cultures and players depending on the tradition of map type and settings. New or casual players going into the wrong lobbies (non-noob 'All that glitters' lobbies for instance) are going to have a bad time.

yeah , those who just tried this and went to wrong lobbies i guess. also they havne't play any games for quite a while it seems, they haven't met LoL , CoD communities.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing the degree to which streaming/online communities around video games have destroyed the games themselves. Every update to every game launches a large scale effort to find the "meta" which is then instantly disseminated to the most try-hard assholes on the Internet. Anyone who dares to develop their own strategy/style/loadout is up against hordes of people (a growing proportion every day) who just copy wha…

I think M:tG was ruined by this too. Back in the day, you could try out new things and play 10-20 turn games where both sides had winning chances. The odds that your opponent had anything approaching an optimal meta was zero. Now, especially online (Arena), you’re just going to get curb stomped if you aren’t playing one of the few optimal metas. And since the games hinge upon either side getting an unstoppable engine…

I’ve had the same experience getting into MTGA recently. If you don’t play the meta its very unlikely you’ll win the higher ranked you become.

But this must be the case for all competitive games right? At some point the meta has been figured out and there is no real way to deviate from that.

Re: Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I play with my brother and an old friend of mine. I'm getting close to forty. There's no "leagues", it's just lobbies you join, and you gain or loose OS (Elo) per battle. Party up with your friends, find a lobby that says it's for noobs, has some other nonsense in the title ("rotato" is for map rotation) or just seems to have a lot of low-OS players, and have fun. You can avoid or mute/ignore people. Or start your ow…

Awesome, that sounds fun. I'll do as you suggest. And good idea about spectating a match to get the flow of things. That probably will reduce 50% of friction.

i just started playing this last year, and tbh ive seen way more patience in "noob" lobbies than i would have expected for an online game. the bar (pun intended) to having a good experience as a noob is not hard but also not obvious. my observations are:

1. have at least played some pve, the "scenerios" are good for forcing you to learn a lot of the basics. if you literally dont know how to do basic interacting with the game there is nothing that the other players in the "noob" lobby can help you with. you will struggle they will struggle no one will have fun. pvp is just an objectively bad way to learn the game. don't even try to play pvp until you are at 2 or even 3 "chev". its a complex game with lots of mechanics, its going to take time to get the basics down. 2. watching replays/specing is helpful. so are some of the yt basics guides. find someone elses build and strategy and try to copy it. you can get to a pretty high os just by doing that. if you get beat bad in a round go watch your own replay. see what the other guy did. copy it next time. 3. remember that its an apm taxed kinda game, players will spend their apm trying to help you, but they wont have time to say things nicely. its not them trying to be mad or rude usually, they just dont have time to write you a novel. use the inbetween matches chat to ask for details. assume good intent on in game chat most of the time. 4. remember that os is literally just a number, it really doesn't mean anything. but finding lobbies with similar os to you helps. like even though there are lots of lobbies with like 30+os who will allow your 10-15 os noob self in its not the right match for you. find lobbies with like 25ish os cap. or no more than 10-15 os higher than your current rank. even better ones that are "unranked" but they seem more rare. 5. the rotato suggestion i saw on another thread is good but also the glitters/supreme with the consistent roles is also kinda nice. its much easier to find lobbies and follow replays and stuff, pick the same lane and watch how a few different people play it and copy what looks like it works as best you can.

Post reply on HN