Will metal planets be like metal maps on TA?

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I used the search feature and couldn't find the relevant post.

I was wondering if there are plans for metal planets to act like the metal maps on TA, i.e. you can mine metal everywhere rather than just at metal points. Even though they may not be great for encouraging strategic play, I found churning out masses of units on metal maps to be quite entertaining. I was thinking a sort of "gold rush" scenario could be quite interesting with an all metal planet in a system giving an economic advantage to whoever gets there first. Maybe it could be a configurable option in the system editor (eventually).

Could someone point me to the appropriate thread if this has already been discussed?

No.

Mike

So the reason it's not like this is that metal planets have to be played in the same map with other kinds of planets. I'm sure someone will eventually cook up a mod...

Knight quotes it quite often,

I'll do it here.. Thread Link

But aren't gas planets just supposed to be giant resource balls???? Couldn't metal planets serve as giant metal mines???

Really I'm digging for gas giant details

Gas Giants might offer higher than average Energy Collection means, but it's not nearly the same as being able to cover a planet in Extractors. Gas Giants and TA Metal Maps are not really comparable.

Mike

The problem here is that unlike in TA, metal maps will exist at the same time as other map types, making any system with a metal planet a simple race to reach it and spam out 100 mexes.
Balancing metal extractors of this type (can be placed anywhere) against normal mex points on other planets probably could be done somehow, but honestly it's probably not worth the time expenditure.

so then metal planets should yield more metal per spot than regular planets...... only seems fair

....why? That's pretty arbitrary.

Mike

so race for energy planet good metal bad???? If gas provides more lucrative energy means, it kind of makes sense that metal planets do the same..... what's arbitrary about that????

I think you're forgetting that Metal Planets are likely going to be capable of blowing up other planets. Along with possibly being able to move on thier own accord without building halleys and any number of other potential things.

Mike

I still feel that the metal planets should have their metal spot art replaced with a sort of mechanical feeder, so it reads better as a giant machine base that has resources inside of it that are being fed to the extractors. That might make it feel less like we are mining the surface of the machine, slowly scrapping it. This would be entirely visual, and not affect the rate etc. Just to keep it more in theme visually.

indeed i did forget their death star properties!!!! so yea youre right...... perhaps a new biome to have the more lucrative metal??????

No, just get more territory.

Mike

so why do gas giants get to be special??? isnt a solar panel more than enough energy resource???

That's assuming the Solar Satellite doesn't change. and isn't really applicable either way.

Mike

Thanks for your replies, I can see why for gameplay reasons it has to be this way. It just seems a bit strange having a few extractor points randomly strewn across a massive hunk of metal. Maybe they could be organised more geometrically to fit the theme of the metal planets, and I would definitely support a bit more metal heaviness on metal planets compared to others.

I'm sure someone will mod it sooner or later though... and I too had forgotten about the death star properties of metal planets.

I'm still of the opinion that they should be placable anywhere at only 1 mps while not on a mex point.

That way it's technically spammable in the long term, but anybody going about it normally would still win out in efficiency and speed. It would just make the planet itself more valuable in the long term galactic war setting.

Now that trenches are pathable and have slopes going down into them. I think it'd be interesting if most of the metal points were concentrated in these trenches with very little on the actual surface. That would create a lot of close quarters combat for the trenches to fight over their rich metal spots, and it would provide a stark contrast in gameplay to the vast open spaces most other maps are played out over (moons especially). Might need to make them a bit wider though.

I like the trenches idea!

Reading through the other thread (the one linked above) I think there's definitely validity in the idea of not being able to build any mex on the planet also. It would fit in well with the death star role, as you wouldn't want to mine away the metal that is part of your machine of war.

I guess I just have a certain nostalgia of playing endless vs AI games on 7 islands as a child...