Gas Giants: Atmospheric gameplay

I realize that gas giants, and gas giant gameplay are still a long ways out, and far from being an immediate priority. The only elements discussed by the team so far have been orbital units and orbital fusion reactors afaik, and that seems to be the extent of their plans so far. Given the balance and gameplay issues with orbital currently, its hard to speculate what combat will look like.

I'd like to discuss it a bit if possible, as I feel there is a great deal of potential for engaging combat mechanics and gameplay within the upper atmosphere of a gas giant, rather than limiting gameplay to orbit. Whether or not this is feasible in the timeframe leading up to release, I cannot say. But even as additional content down the line this could be a welcome change to the planetary lineup.

To state the obvious, the driving force for expanding onto a gas giant would be the immense quantity of energy available via HE3 gas in the upper atmosphere as fuel for fusion reactors. Presently these reactors are planned to be stationed in orbit to siphon off fuel from a distance. An atmosphere-based model would place them at cloud level, using high-pressure, buoyant gas tanks for lift, and/or large turbine engines--giving them a fairly large surface area. To fit within the context of a larger game, these would ideally be very expensive to build, but produce a very large quanity of energy (and potentially a little mass as well, if that works from a balance perspective). Other structures with similar lift technology could be constructed as well.


With any "surface" gameplay on a gas giant (above/around the outer layer of clouds), there are a few specific challenges to address--such as the massive surface area, potentially leading to immense distances between player bases.

Gas Belts:
To solve the first problem, and potentially make gas giant games very different and engaging, a multi-channel system of gas belts could form bands around the planet, ideally three or four different belts. Each band rotates in the opposite direction of the neighboring belts, as illustrated in attached picture.

While structures would be fixed in their bands, the rotating of the air streams would periodically bring distant bases to a much more manageable distance. Players could build a fleet, send it into a band moving in the opposite direction, and arrive much quicker at an enemy base in the next band.

Rather than a static battlefield, this would be constantly changing and allow for some interesting tactics. As to how this could be implemented, I imagine it might be possible to have two different planets overlaying each other and rotating in opposite directions. The bands could be masked out so that when a player switches bands, they are really switching to the other, opposite rotating planet.

Whether or not this is possible from a technical standpoint, I have no means to say. But if possible, and if more than two overlapping planets would not be too difficult to process, it could make for some very strategically engaging setups--ie one gas band is very thin but moves very, very fast, whoever controls that band could get anywhere quickly.

Additionally, storms akin to the Red Spot of Jupiter could be generated with the planet as well, essentially static anomalies within a band that would damage/destroy any ships that get too close.


How to annihilate a gas planet:
Hypothetically a strong enough impact at the right angle could strip away the outer atmosphere in the affected area, but the surrounding gas would merely fill it in. However, the impact area can feasibly become superheated/ignited by the impact, to the point where ships cannot pass through those areas.

Now the belt system would cause some problems as well with this model, but the superheated areas could rotate within their specific bands. Those sections of each band would become impassable for the remainder of the game. This would allow for gas giants to undergo the same kind of attrition as solid planets over the course of a match.


Air Units:
I cannot think of any plausible reason why air units would be neglected from gas maps, other than atmospheric speeds being too much to navigate. Given the extreme airspeeds on most gas giants (hundreds of meters per second), it would imagine it difficult for conventional aircraft to avoid being shredded to pieces--but whether or not to include them isn't immediately relevant and probably best decided through balance testing.


Commander:
Deploying a commander in this environment would be difficult, unless for gas giants they could
be permitted to remain in and operate from the orbital lander. Or it might remain an environment off-limits for commanders, though that would negate the possibility of gas giants as starting or single planets.



To be perfectly honest, there is a part of me that would die of excitement to see something even close to this implemented. Gas giants should be centers of activity and not simply orbital playgrounds. Or maybe I would just love to see Zeppelins and Deep Cruisers duking it out in the clouds, bursting into flames and slowly drifting into the abyss.

Commanders should not land on Gas Giants, land your com in a Life-Suport, lava, ice planet or a moon.

you should use orbital insted of air.

I think that Gas Giants are going to be only a big energy generetor.

Gameplay will take place in the orbit of gas giants and not inside/on them.

To clarify, I am aware that gas giants are intended to be orbital only at this point, there is no point bringing up the obvious. This is not a speculative discussion of the developers plans, they have made them clear.

This is merely an attempt to discuss what it might look like if either post-release development or modders saw fit to expand the battlefield into the atmosphere of gas giants. If anyone is more technically inclined, I would welcome opinions on whether a gas belt system as mentioned above would be possible in-game.

Perhaps you should take this to the modders forum? Seems more appropriate for there to be honest. Also the Gas Belt idea sounds great... Would never happen with Uber given that they want orbital to be as simplistic as is feasible. But a great idea.