Considering changing the name
Posted: 06 Aug 2009, 00:11
Absolute Annihilation as a mod died 3 years ago. I'm reviving the concept but I don't think what I'm making now is really the same mod, the same game anymore. This is something else entirely, and when the next version comes out BA's going to have a lot of catching up to do.
AA was based on the ideal that there should be no attack too strong to defend against and no defense too strong to attack. There should never be a stalemate, and the player who manages intelligence gathering, attack, defense, and economy the best should win. There should not be any cases where a player is defeated because someone exploited a game weakness or imbalance.
What AA has now become is something greater than this though. I'm cleaning up things that have been part of the mod since its inception, but which were never fixed before. New strategic options, no filler units, a sensible method of attaining side balance, better organization, and improvements at every level of gameplay are all going to be primary goals.
Absolute Annihilation was a good name for a TA mod, what I need now is a good name for a game that, at its worst, surpasses TA at its best.
I'm usually pretty good at coming up with this kind of thing, but I would like to also give the community of players that will be enjoying this new game an opportunity for input.
I would like the new name to not involve any stereotypical adjectives like "total" "absolute" "complete", etc. I don't want anything like "war" "annihilation" "destruction", etc. I want a name that is more suitable for a mature game for a mature audience. It doesn't have to be an instant attention-grabber, just something that captures what the mod is all about: fun for everyone involved, strategic gameplay, and fair balance. It doesn't have to be testosterone-pulsing, death-metal-soundtrack, explosions-everywhere, it can be a little more laid-back. I would strongly prefer the name be reasonably short and two words in length at most.
Right at the moment I'm thinking of using RTS 2.1, or "RTS21" for short. In case you don't know, Supreme Commander was known during development as "RTS 2.0" because it was designed to reinvent the real-time strategy genre. So this is my cheeky (spoony?) way of saying "yes, yes, very nice, but I'm going to do it slightly better".
So that AA's name recognition is carried to the new project, the first few alpha/beta versions prior to the project's official relaunch will be known as "Absolute Annihilation: RTS 2.1 Beta" or something similar. Hopefully people in the lobby will take notice of the new name and the "brand name" will transfer. Slowly I will remove references to the old name.
RTS 9001 is also a possibility ^^
AA was based on the ideal that there should be no attack too strong to defend against and no defense too strong to attack. There should never be a stalemate, and the player who manages intelligence gathering, attack, defense, and economy the best should win. There should not be any cases where a player is defeated because someone exploited a game weakness or imbalance.
What AA has now become is something greater than this though. I'm cleaning up things that have been part of the mod since its inception, but which were never fixed before. New strategic options, no filler units, a sensible method of attaining side balance, better organization, and improvements at every level of gameplay are all going to be primary goals.
Absolute Annihilation was a good name for a TA mod, what I need now is a good name for a game that, at its worst, surpasses TA at its best.
I'm usually pretty good at coming up with this kind of thing, but I would like to also give the community of players that will be enjoying this new game an opportunity for input.
I would like the new name to not involve any stereotypical adjectives like "total" "absolute" "complete", etc. I don't want anything like "war" "annihilation" "destruction", etc. I want a name that is more suitable for a mature game for a mature audience. It doesn't have to be an instant attention-grabber, just something that captures what the mod is all about: fun for everyone involved, strategic gameplay, and fair balance. It doesn't have to be testosterone-pulsing, death-metal-soundtrack, explosions-everywhere, it can be a little more laid-back. I would strongly prefer the name be reasonably short and two words in length at most.
Right at the moment I'm thinking of using RTS 2.1, or "RTS21" for short. In case you don't know, Supreme Commander was known during development as "RTS 2.0" because it was designed to reinvent the real-time strategy genre. So this is my cheeky (spoony?) way of saying "yes, yes, very nice, but I'm going to do it slightly better".
So that AA's name recognition is carried to the new project, the first few alpha/beta versions prior to the project's official relaunch will be known as "Absolute Annihilation: RTS 2.1 Beta" or something similar. Hopefully people in the lobby will take notice of the new name and the "brand name" will transfer. Slowly I will remove references to the old name.
RTS 9001 is also a possibility ^^