Planet Native Civilizations

I would like it if there would be some kind of native civilizations on some planets. Too small and weak to do any harm, but just to add some realism. They could also go and try to take out your buildings with their tiny and primitive tanks, if you build something without destroying nearby city/village/military base.

I think some insignificant little animals scurrying about might add a little 'flavour' to certain worlds.
Not sure I like the idea of native civs unless it's their long dead ruins.

And please no aliens either. Aliens would be either horribly cliché or ... well, they would be horribly cliché.
What could be done, however, is a handful of machine units, like the ones player controlled or more ancient ones, left behind by ancient Commanders, or even older than that. No intelligence, no native civilisation, just a few leftover military units following their ages-old security routine...

I wouldn't mind smallish alien animal/bird type things skittering around on the right kinds of planet, but it's really not a priority for me.

It was map-dependent. Some had sparse and infrequent showers, and at least one had constant large bombardments, strong enough to take out a factory. These maps were not very fun, in my opinion.

Since these features are in fact map-dependent, this whole thing seems best to be handled by the mod community and not by Uber. True, it would add flavor to a game, but it also seems to be the wrong direction for an RTS.

How about giant ancient battle stations left over from previous wars?

yeahh!! like death stars!!!

and what about a last stretchgoal announcement?

No, i'm joking.... take your time and release the info when you want

How about ancient cities left from old civilizations killed by previous wars? =D

A few animals like the Hydras from TA would be cool. I'm sure your artists have a pet monster they'd like to see come to life, all artists do, unless yours really are purely mechanical design guys.

As for cities, just make them like TA; valuable for reclaim resources only, completely non-functional. Either have them as big hulks like in TA, or small and clustered like forests made of concrete and steel. Fighting in a burning industrial zone would be more hazardous than fighting in a burning forest, which is more hazardous than fighting in a burning/collapsing CBD.

It seems as if you think those assets come out of thin air. All time spent on those assets could be spent on improving other parts of the game, such as balance, performance, stability. Hell, they could even make more (playable) units in that time...

No one is suggesting they spend vast amounts of time on this sort of thing.
But the little touches can be important to the overall feel of something so they deserve some attention.

THIS!

I agree with this, I dont think there should be any native sentient civilizations at any level of development (modern or tribal).

In saying this I do think that having critters moving about the map would be a nice touch, it is the little details that add to the overall experience and I think it would add to the feeling of devistation wraught by automaton weapons of war destroying a pristine planet. As for scale I didnt get the impression that the units were kilometers in height, maybe mech sized at most running level with the tree tops.

I really like this idea I could see it working well on the metal planets.

I think that a c&c t sun system, by which there a hostile creatures here and their across the map, something that you would be able to attack and kill. They will be much more dangerous in early game however as you expand you will quickly exterminate them. It would be good if they were in the sea and (on gas giants) in the air as well.

I think that a c&c t sun system, by which there a hostile creatures here and their across the map, something that you would be able to attack and kill. They will be much more dangerous in early game however as you expand you will quickly exterminate them. It would be good if they were in the sea and (on gas giants) in the air as well.

All these things seem fun, but maybe we're being a little... overzealous. If the game came out with lots of bells and whistles but the core gameplay needed more improvement, I'd feel pretty disappointed. It might be good to keep our sights on the really important stuff first. If the game turns out really successfully, there's no reason why Uber couldn't put together an expansion or DLC to add another race or other improvements. We'll all have a better idea what we want once we play the game anyway.

First:

i think this sort of thing is a matter of how much time is left at the end.

Second:

i think that having "rogue" versions of the main race works best from a bang-for-buck POV.

Third:
íf there's gonna be critters, why flesh and blood? i'd love to see a silicium-based creature on a lava planet...

I don't really approve of having native civilizations (the places you fight on are supposed to feel like they have either seen better times, or never seen any lifeforms at all), but this thread did give me a hilarious mental image of building a base and having a tiny army of natives walking into the base in a lined infantry formation. Stabbing at the commander's toes with tiny little spears and shooting arrows that uselessly bounce off the hulls of passing 'bots as it stomps past them, completely ignoring their existence.

I wonder, if this was something that actually happened. Do you think the tiny fleshy army would just give up and go home eventually?

I imagine just having my massive army marching to go roflstomp red's base and then just seeing a tiny army of natives start trying to attack the army, and slowly being killed off just because they stepped in front of a tank to challenge it to a spear fight

Personally, i don't agree with garrisoning buildings or taking over buildings. We are the perfect war machines, redesigned and perfected over time. Why use that? But if there were going to be slaves the best they could do is be strapped with explosives and run at the enemy. But yeah, stepping on buildings sounds fun. And critters? Hell yeah! We need pointless animals to claim and protect then punch our friends over when they kill them! Also, sand worms.