Space is Gorgeous – PA Should be Too

I've been browsing /r/spaceporn/ a lot lately and thinking about my Eve Online days with that latest large battle that happened.

That got me thinking about Planetary Annihilation's space backdrop.



Space is mesmerizing.

And there's a lot of potential with this for PA's beauty.

The combat and units and planet and everything looks awesome. But the backdrop is... well. There's not much to it and that's a shame.

To contrast PA to Eve Online...



Eve Online (granted has a bigger staff and bigger budget) put a lot of work into having these incredible nebulas in the backdrop.

PA should have more going on in the background than just stars.

Just think of all the cool nebulas that could be used. Especially if there's a bunch of them and they're randomized.

Some systems could take place in the middle of a nebula with all of that stuff viewable all around and other systems could have a nebula off on one side in the background.

This certainly is a low priority compared to getting gameplay fully functioning...

But the potential is there for some amazing and beautiful backdrops. Even with the cartoonish style that PA follows.

Thoughts?

surely on the way.

If they could be 3D, not just skyboxes that would be .... well

This looks like a great chance for all the artists in this community to contribute. Make something good and share it, and then we'll all have it even if Uber doesn't decide to use it in the actual game!

LOVE that idea!

Community submitted nebulas!

The more the better, right?

It'd be awesome if there were so many nebulas that we, for the most part, wouldn't remember/recognize them all.

So each battle would feel like it took place in a different area of space.

Indeed, this is something that is probably already moddable. With some decent back drops to choose from it wouldn't take much for Uber to stick it in the game.

Even just pulling pictures of nebulae and supernova would be a good start.

Isn't the bottom image from EVE online? It seems very familiar...

Yes it is.

I loved the nebulas that they put into the game. That particular nebula was home for me back when I played Eve.

So when we roamed abroad and went into different nebulas, it really felt like we went abroad and were in enemy territory. Different nebulas meant different enemies and when we were headed home we saw our nebula and it seriously felt safe and comforting to know that we were headed home.

I guess that's true. I will always feel safer in the blue nebulae of Caldari space over anywhere else...

My home was Gallente.

Spent a lot of time out in null and performing raids into Caldari.

Just thought I'd post this: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/suggestion-different-skyboxes.53767/#post-822833

As I said in that thread, I think this is a great idea that would go a long way towards making PA better looking for (relatively) little time/money.

Personally, I don't like how everyone makes space skyboxes with garishly coloured nebulas. A good clean black (or PA turquoise) with points of light for stars is fine. Nebulas should be used very, very sparingly.

Since it doesn't affect the gameplay in any way though, maybe it could be a client side option. Have a "playlist folder" of space skyboxes to choose from/shuffle.

i would like to see in space background stars(already in the game), nebula, distant galaxies, blackholes

Way, way ahead of you . https://forums.uberent.com/threads/suggestion-different-skyboxes.53767/

ninja'd ,crap sorry for reposting.

Well, in my opinion, there is not really nessessary that we have galaxy space backgrounds and stuff like that. That is not a core of PA and this could be diversionary. So I maybe would not like that because I must concentrate to play a RTS game and I have not time to look at space background photos...
So I would not like that, maybe... But if you want we'll see.

Didn't show up in the search.

Then what's the point of explosion animations? or any sort of interesting unit model? or the sun in the center of the system or stars in the background?

The game has to look good.

Looks shouldn't be the entire focus of the game – but they are an important component.

But explosion are more incidental and you don't really care about them, but it's good that we have them, because we can coordinate better whether a unit is destroyed.
And a space background have no need, because if effects gameplay- negatively. Because extravagant pictures of galaxy's in the background ( I'm talking about your picture at the beginning) are really diversionary.
So if we have galaxy's in the background only a few expedient, some little galaxy's in the PA-Style.

I wouldn't want it to be too distracting though.. maybe some nice Homeworld-style gradients. That game is stylish.

Distract?

Disagree there.

They shouldn't be way overpowering. The first photo is a long exposure picture from NASA to establish context. The second photo, from a video game, is more tantamount to what should be implemented.

Of course it'd need to be designed so it isn't distracting. No one is advocating that.