Planetary Annihilation News

Hello Commanders,

We recently launched season 2 of the TITANS 1v1 ranked ladder along with prizes for Uber #1 and the most active player in each league.

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/

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.

• 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/
  

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.



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.

• 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.



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)



Mid-season at 2019-03-08:00:00 UTC

• Uber #1 - US$500
  
• Three most active Bronze players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Silver players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Gold players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Platinum players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Uber players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  

End of season 2 at 2019-04-26:00:00 UTC

• Uber #1 - US$1,000
  
• Three most active Bronze players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Silver players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Gold players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Platinum players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  
• Three most active Uber players - US$100 each (UPDATED)
  

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.



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://youtu.be/ienE1HgwmLM

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.

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.

• Official servers using modern toolchain builds with multi-threading
  
• Two clients available (stable legacy and cutting-edge modern for testing)
  
• TITANS 1v1 ranked maps expanded with four community maps from WPMarshall and GrandHomie for a total of 15 maps
  
• TITANS 1v1 ranked lobby is now anonymous showing Player 1 and Player 2
  
• TITANS 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
  

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

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.



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
  

• https://github.com/planetary-annihilation/pa-community-maps
  

• Faster modern toolchain build
  

• 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
  

• 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
  

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

• 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
  

• 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
  

• Hot fix for TITANS 1v1 ranked
  

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

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.

• two clients available (stable legacy-pte and cutting-edge modern-pte for testing)
  
• official PTE servers using modern toolchain builds
  
• TITANS 1v1 ranked maps expanded with four community maps from WPMarshall and GrandHomie for a total of 15 maps
  
• TITANS 1v1 ranked lobby is now anonymous showing Player 1 and Player 2
  
• TITANS 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
  

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.



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)
  

• https://github.com/planetary-annihilation/pa-community-maps
  

• Faster modern toolchain build
  

• 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
  

• 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
  

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

• 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
  

• 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/

Hello Commanders,

The official TITANS 1v1 ranked ladder was reset on 2018-11-02 at 06:00 UTC starting a new season that ends on 2019-01-24.

The player holding the Uber #1 position at the end of this season will be shipped an Invictus Commander statue, a beautiful item that everyone should want in their trophy cabinet.



There will be new 1v1 ranked maps later this month with at least one new map every month.

• Amplus
  
• Berg
  
• Blitz
  
• Clutch
  
• Crag
  
• Duat
  
• Forge
  
• Lock
  
• Meso
  
• Pacific
  
• Roc
  

Starting in 2019 each 1v1 ranked season lasts 3 months with a ladder reset at the start of every season.

1. 2019-01-25 - 2019-04-25
   
2. 2019-04-26 - 2019-07-25
   
3. 2019-07-26 - 2019-10-24
   
4. 2019-10-25 - 2020-01-23
   

• Fix for never-ending 1v1 ranked queue after a network error
  

• 1v1 rank and inactivity displayed in start menu (moved into base game from community mods)
  
• 1v1 rank display in game over (moved into base game from community mods)
  

The following are still in development / testing:

• Tweaks to limit highest initial placement to Gold
  
• Inactive 1v1 ranked ladder decay (slowly lose points if you're not active)
  
• Visible points display
  
• Penalties for disconnecting instead of surrendering
  

• Experimental multi-threading on official servers (still legacy toolchain and infrastructure)
  
• More performance and memory usage improvements to navigation cost cells
  
• Logging of server rate
  
• Logging of system free memory (currently windows only)
  

• Further refinement of AI aggression
  
• Adjusted how the AI chooses where to expand
  
• Performance improvements
  
• Retrained neural networks
  

• Fix for AI Platoon::numUnitsOfType server crash
  
• Fix for AI chooseStartLocation server crash when passed bad data
  
• Fix for AI attempting to transfer a unit to a planet that did not have an initial planet manager assigned
  
• Fix for AI getting stuck building no factories if it is modified to remove the ability for the AI to build one or more factory types
  
• Fix for a multi-threading crash
  

• More visible orbital attack lines in the orbital path visualiser
  

• Fix for particle emitter crash when emitter has an invalid fx_trail_spec