When/If Atmospherics get implemented, a 'Atmospheric Density' slider would be cool.

First it's not just in a jungle. There is alien plant life everywhere, the terrain looks alien and it doesn't take place on Earth.

adjective

1. 1.
   belonging to a foreign country or nation.

So yep, definitely alien.

Then PA's planets by that very definition are all alien.

I don't see how your argument applies, as even grey goo's planet isn't exactly that different from earth right now, other then being on a literal other world as your definition would imply.

Uber really needs to do something to add to the planets...ta looks better lol please add terrain that affects game play and mountains that create choke points etc etc oceans instead of ponds

I like how you ignore the part about alien plant life and terrain everywhere. PA has earth like plantlife and mostly earthlike biomes. Yes there are some sorta alien worlds like the metal moon.

If it makes you feel better I guess you could say Grey Goo has an alien jungle biome. Go look at a hand full of screen shots If you need help understanding this. Look for the giant mushrooms, spores, flowers, and pod like plants. There are also what appears to be coral like structures on land. Hopefully you will understand that these features are "alien" from features on earth.

Completely agree. I think this is my biggest gripe about PA.

Most of that can be done in the system editor. And TA looks quite a lot worse owing to its age (tons blockier and odd ground textures) than PA, take of the rose tinted glasses please before posting again. Agree for more terrain features that add to game-play, and I'd like to see alien trees and stuff like that as well, but to go so far as to say a truly ancient and looking it game as TA is better looking is a disgrace honestly.

TA looked really gross actually, especially the metal biome. The only way to make it look better is to use custom made tile sets, especially the ones used for TA Zero, as those are beautiful. All the tile sets by Cavedog however are painful to look at, really bland, and basic, mostly due to the age of the game.

The more Uber is bringing new builds, the more i strongly believe their plan is, one day, to start working on biomes, this not currently being their priority. It looks like to me they are still in the process of completing the core engine.
But being a small team, it takes a lot of time. Well i really hope some day they'll jump on working with biomes. They have gold in their hands (maybe not true cash), and it's all about getting the best of it.

The thing is though an Art team can still create assists for a game while programmers are off doing other things. Developing a game doesn't work by everyone focusing on one feature at a time. I don't see why art assists couldn't have been being produced all along, slowly updating the biomes. Obviously that hasn't been happening, so one has to wonder what the art team was working on during this whole time. Surely it doesn't take 10 months to model and texture a few submarines. Developing a game is not unilateral and is often multi-directional.

I honestly think uber just doesn't care about the current state of the biomes and map features and or is happy with how they are. It's up to us to voice our concerns that we are not happy with the current state, and they need work. Until I see a quote for one of ubers that says something like "We agree, and will be fixing them" I'll continue to think so.

I was exaggerating a bit lol but I just feel the biomes/maps are extremely important in an rts game, literally top 3. We have no fields of isis,no setons,etc etc bc the biomes need serious work choke points, terrain features etc. If Uber is a real rts developer they should already know how important maps are in an rts game.

Im not ignoring anything, it's just another earth biome.

Defiantly not alien.

Well we may not have all the insights about what really happened at Uber

You're right. I must have had some really weird dreams of Barathrum...

How is alien biomee, terrain and plant life not alien...?

what is your "definition" of alien then?

Thanks for providing all your facts and making such a solid counter argument.

Unit Cannon, T2 Fighter revamp, new effects on the SXX, orbital nuke explosions, Jig explosions, new effects on the Anchor.

I do think Uber needs to have another crack at biomes, but they aren't sitting around masturbating all day.

Let's just stop this turning into a flaming circlejerk

You know, in one period of Earth's history there were fungi which grew as tall as trees.

We can only understand life by our own standards. There may be things out in the universe which are truly alien and beyond our comprehension, but in the narrow scale of Grey Goo and Planetary Annihilation, we copy-paste environments from our own world onto others, merely changing their scales. Thus, mushroom forests.

The OED's different definitions of 'alien':

1.
a. Belonging to another person, place, or family; not of one's own; from elsewhere, foreign.

b.spec.

(a) Born in, or owing allegiance to, a foreign country; esp. designating a foreigner who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where he or she is living.
(b) Of a plant or animal: brought from another country or district and subsequently naturalized; not native.
(c) Biol. Of DNA or other biological material, such as cells or tissues: originating from another organism, esp. one of a different species.​

2. Of a foreign nature or character; strange, unfamiliar, different. Also: hostile, repugnant.

3.
a. With from, †of. Far removed from, inconsistent with; of a completely different nature or character to.
b. Opposed, repugnant, or adverse to; of a completely different nature or character to.

4. orig. Science Fiction. Of, belonging to, or relating to an (intelligent) being or beings from another planet; designating such a being; extraterrestrial.

B.n.
1.
a. A person who does not belong to a particular family, community, country, etc.; a foreigner, a stranger, an outsider.

b. spec. A foreigner who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where he or she is living; a foreign national.

2.
a. A person who is separated or excluded from a particular community, country, custom, etc.
b. A person who or thing which is opposed, repugnant, or unaccustomed to a specified person or thing; a stranger to.

And a couple more relating to the others above.

​

Perfect example from your own definition:
4. orig. Science Fiction. Of, belonging to, or relating to an (intelligent) being or beings from another planet; designating such a being; extraterrestrial.

And at this point you are arguing semantics and missing the point completely. The point being that PA environments are severally lacking. They are an unimaginative and lack features. I was merely trying to point out, that Grey Goo has some imaginative interesting alien features in the game. The environments look really good, are are an example of something well done.

Not always the case but often the individual that works on effects are separate from modeling and textures. A lot of things you listed are effects.

But it doesn't though.

It's just tropical.