[Req] Atmosphere Tickbox in System Editor for Air Units.

Hello guys and gals.

I know the topic of Air units functioning without atmosphere is a sticky one, and I want everybody to be as free as possible in this.

Personally I find it somewhat strange when Air units are flying around in a vacuum above Lunar biome.
Therefore I'd like the option to manually tick a box when editing a planet to determine whether there is an Atmosphere, disabling Air construction on that particular planet if there is not.
People who love playing with Land on huge planets in which Air is currently much more viable would probably enjoy the option too.

What do people think?

I'd rather just have an extra thruster on the bottom of planes to keep them realistic.

And thrusters at the front to slow themselves down? (No Air Resistance xD)

It's not just a question of realism. I think that it'd be cool if planet biomes were recognised in the game and led to different tactics, rather than each being essentially identical as far as gameplay goes.

It would be cool as long as there is a wysiwyg component - I can easily tell by looking at a planet whether air is viable or not. It would be really frustrating to build an air factory or send an air fabber and only then find out it to was to no end.

I support the idea of biomes differentiating strategy.

This should be clear by the colour tint of the planet's atmosphere (or lack thereof), and by the fact that you wouldn't be allowed to build an Air Factory on such a planet in the first place

Then you may be interested in these inter-linked Poll threads on the whole array of Environmental Effects (1, 2).

Yes, for variety. And also option to disable orbital (obviously, only available if there is only one planet). So we can have pure land battles.

Could as well be just customizable server flags: orbital y/n, air y/n, annihilaser y/n, unit cannon y/n, etc.

New ideas, new strategies, I loved this!!
you can force people to go full ground, or to properly use naval, or use wisely amphibious units
and again, since this is an option, which means some planets can have, and some planets can't, which is a great balance for all kind of different opinions

PS: not only moon biomes, but also metal planets and lava planets as well, but on the other hand, it would look weird to see trees in planets without atmosphere

This is a great idea - and optional too so everyone is happy. Doesn't seem too hard to implement either.

It would look pretty neat if it also disabled the atmosphere glow that planets have, as you suggested.

I like the idea from a gameplay perspective but I don't think it makes much sense logically, and would introduce all kinds of potential problems (e.g. if there's no atmosphere, does that mean orbitals can now attack the ground?

Also I don't like the idea of it being limited by biome because I think it's an interesting gameplay mechanic in it's own right. I'd rather see it as a mod I think, one that can be applied to any world. I'm not sure whether air should be taken out completely though, or leave just the scouts and fabbers, or improve AA, or nerf the air units ...?

+1

Actually that's another point - if there's no atmosphere, why can't AA shoot orbital units? Again, there's no drag to slow down projectiles. Definitely better as a mod IMO.

Thats.. actually quite a cool quirk I think. That would definitely make moon fights different.

I like the tickbox, but personally, i think that planes easily could just have hover mechanics built into them. They seem to be VTOL(Vertical Take Off and Landing) so they can definitely hover.