Will metal planets ever get oceans?

If Orbital units used....orbits it could be argued that the Asteroids(and maybe even moons) don't have enough gravity to support them.

Mike

or if you put your planet of choice too close to the sun and the unfiltered radiation would be too much for a practical use of the orbital layer.
But this would open another can of worms: making on planet choices/options dependent on relative position in the solar system and not just the planet type itself.

This could be interesting, for example when considering environment dependent energy consumption like solar power, but might reduce the usability for the player as the classification of possible and recommended choices gets more dynamic than just deciding based on planet type.

Water on metal planets:

i thought about it like this: if we add water, we need to figure out how. If we add water in those cool channels, you end up with very limited gameplay and a naval-logistic nightmare. If we modify the planet generation, it would mess with the visuals. If we add water as a sphere (like all planets do) then the polar caps are flooded too.

TBH, i don't see what it adds to the game other than a headache. I think it's better to leave the metal planet a land-only place and make the ocean-planet a naval-only planet.

I think water in the channels does make sense: it's very limited, but provides an opportunity for naval as a last-ditch effort. For example, if your enemy(s) has you cornered to a small part of the metal planet, you might want to use naval to take advantage of every square inch you control. Approaching your enemy via the channels might be easier than ground or air because it will be the last thing they will expect. It adds to the richness of the game to have these contingencies.

There is no current plan to add water to metal planets. I want to differentiate them in other ways.

Maybe something with electricity? Like in some areas you see sparks, loose cables etc, which makes these areas slow units down, unpassable or anything. Just throwing in some ideas.

But water's such an amazing coolant, and convenient Hydrogen fuel storage.

Huh. I just realized that there never was any discussion on how metal worlds get destroyed. Do they crater up like any other world? Can they be "fixed"? Are they volatile?

The impact a moon makes looks the same as it does on a normal planet. Is a planet converted into a metal planet or is a metal planet created from scratch?

If anything I'd say this is the result of the fact that there is currently only 1 'Crater Brush' created at this point.

Mike

The idea of an old, broken deathstar-wreck that has accumulated water from somewhere to form rust-colored sea's sounds nice to me.

Like in Total Annihilation right? This probably won't find its way into the main game but expect new planet types post release.

What are you talking about? Every Official Desription has been pretty clear of what to expect from Metal Planets thematically;

Mike

I thought that. Still it's a nice thought experiment. I liked it in TA but it wouldn't work with the current metal planet anyway.

I'm not quite following you there Mike. I meant in the context of a mod or whatever as I certainly don't expect it to be in the game on release. Peace.

Edit: I expect someone to mod New planet types after release and uber might well go down the expansion pack road with this game.

But you were replying to someone asking if the metal planets were death stars so I'm not even sure what you're talking about.

Mike

The first post in the thread I believe it was.

Ah I see how you misunderstood now. I was replying to the original poster.

Mike, i think you are over-reacting here. If metal planets would have water on them, it wouldn't be obligatory to put water on metal planets each game. People can choose what they want to play.

You can do systematic level design using a grid containing planet characteristics.

Number of biomes types on the planet : 1 - anything

Biome contains :
- Flat land
- Trees
- Plateaus
- Mountains

Contains liquid : Yes / No
- Naval can be built on (water)
- Naval can't be built on (lava)
- We can imagine acid where you can't build naval but can pass hovercrafts.

Etc

Etc

The unique part of metal planets are their future super weapon. It wouldn't make any difference if that super weapon is on an earth, lava or moon planet.

So a planet containing a super weapon could have 2 biomes with trees, plateaus and lava as the liquid would be totally fine.

It is a matter of how easy the game is to read for the player. If a planet is made of metal, he will directly understands there is a super weapon there.

People will play the game how they prefer it, but that doesn't mean you need make everything viable on any planet type.

As I said, I'd much rather the Biomes are very well defined about what they entail and encompass as it makes the creation of new biomes by both Modders and Uber down the line much easier.

Mike

There's already a number of planet types that can't support water. There's no reason to force the same on a metal world.