[Suggestion] No Fly Zones

Submarines on a gas giant inside the liquid core is so way, way beyond even being remotely believable...

You could have different unit types and terrain strata in gas giants. For example an orbital layer, an outermost suborbital layer with low density that basically acts as air, a mid layer with medium density that supports manta-ray esque floating units, and optionally perhaps a deeper high density gas layer that supports slow moving, heavy units roughly analagous to submarines (but with different appearance obviously).

I'd love to see fights between tanky manta-ray floaters and high speed aircraft.

I don't know if that was a response against my post or just an opinion in general but i completely agree with you and perhaps you should reread my post

Just a general comment.

On a gas giant, there should be some point where the pressure will be roughly similar to underwater pressures. You can make tin foil boats that float on heavy gases, so I could see some sort of sub/plane hybrid for "deeper" layers, with more plane like things.

Planes shouldn't just be replaced with identical rocket versions of themselves that do all the same things. Planes and jets are used still because they need way less fuel to do similar things. Of course a rocket can go faster/higher, but to operate like a plane it would take way more fuel. At least with todayish technologies/physics instead of awesome physics.

This is a general random thought that has no point, but on different planets in real life the minimum air speed is different, i.e. Mar's air is so thin that you have to go really fast to get the tiny lift you need to stay up.

Not sure how gas giants are working right now, but from what I've read it's orbital facilities that do the "hydrogen" extracting from the atmosphere, so air fights seem a bit redundant to me, since the rescource collection is going on in space =P

If there's big mountains poking out though, and certain aircraft can target orbital installations, or the gas mining goes on from there mountains, I can see the need for aircraft on those planets

Which went out the window as soon as you played a multiplayer map on an asteroid/moon. If it's going to be in the game, it should be an option, or at the very least, it should be consistent.

While some places like airless asteroids might be totally devoid of planes, I think a more elegant solution than complete no-fly zones on normal worlds, would be to have sometihng else happen to planes than just inability to enter. Like taking constant damage, or next to no visibility, somewhere weapons are unable to properly hit ground... That kind of stuff. These could apply to ground units too, of course. Like placing a permanent SC:BW Dark Swarm over an area, for example.

I am adding my thoughts on Airpower projection to this thread, as it is close enough.

Balancing Aircraft is a difficult thing, I certainly saw the skewing of player behaviour in SC:FA with ASF use in late game.

One thought I had was having the idea of projected airpower via ground structures. Using things like Aircraft factories and aircraft repair platforms as hubs for projected airpower. Aircraft could not operate outside of these projected hubs.

This would limit air strikes into the heart of an opponents base (unless the attacker had hidden an aircraft hub nearby) and instead give aircraft more of a reactionary role. Due to their superior speed and ability to fly straight to a target they could be a great tool to slow down an incoming enemy force while you rally your ground troops.

It also means that you need to use ground troops to expand your projected airpower, by securing aircraft repair platforms/aircraft factories on the front line.

What are people's thoughts on this?

Another method for creating no fly zones could be through the use of gravity manipulation. High Gravity planets or gravity generators that put increased strain on an aircraft's engines to force them to use up more fuel (if fuel is to be used to limit range) or if they lack sufficient power just drag them nose first into the ground.

Elevated EMP field generators are another option, creating zones where an aircraft would find its control systems being knocked out when they enter causing them to crash. Needing ground based units to clear.

This has already been discussed to death. There have been 3 long threads on the subject, your idea was suggested in (at least) one of them. Most people hated it. Read the threads to find out why.

Eh i liked the EE model.

I really like the idea of "terrain for aircraft" although I kind of imagined clouds filling this role.

One thing that always struck me about air combat is that it was always like you were fighting in a big empty parking lot.

But yeah if we used clouds then we could have a separate "obstacle layer" in the sky, a flat plain on the ground could have a storm over it that jets would have to go around.

I was about to post a response, and then Neutrino nailed it.

A good system for aircraft where they must go around obstacles could be adapted to a LOT of different map scenarios. The difficulty of course is to make the air units act & move believably. Bouncing off mountains is not believable

Planets with varying gravities might mean that the maximum flight altitude could be raised or restricted.

I picture the effect for some high gravity planets, perhaps the lower tier aircraft (assuming their engines are weaker than higher tiers) would have to act alike hovercraft more than aircraft, abiding more by the ground-unit flowfields.

Technically it is the density of the atmosphere which is thinner on higher altitudes that determines how much lift a plane generates and how high it can climb without stalling. I guess gravity could determine the density of the atmosphere but I don't know how they correlate to each other.
But yeah, weaker engine means less speed which in turn means less lift.
Although a plane might be really light and have a lot of lift so it could still be able to climb to high altitudes with a weak engine.

Slight necro bump here, but no matter.

Godde got this. Traditional flight depends on an atmosphere for thrust and lift. A planet with a really pathetic atmosphere could have mountains reaching above max altitude. Atmospheres are also closely linked with magnetic fields, which are closely linked with metal cores, which are the kind of planets a metal hungry robot would find delicious.

There are other potential air hazards such as dust and airborne debris. You don't see modern aircraft flying through volcanic ash for example, because they'd get wrecked. A future craft would surely be inconvenienced at the least.

i'd really like the ability for clouds or something else equally translucent (as to not affect strategic view) that acted as air terrain

Even static features that affect where air could move or affect air pathing costs would be amazing, hiding your fleet near a storm or cloud or giant mountain for instance

definitely would like to see something like this, dynamic random weather including storms of different kind... by the way it could not only influence flying units, but all other units, like slower movement or less effective radar or even deal damage or disable units randomly