Flat metal planets?

not making a poll this time 'round.

seems Uber put some thought into it too.



you see them in a lot of sci-fi comics and in gundam wing.

for an extra "toon" effect, could be in an optional ring around metal planets (wink-wink Saturn).

would be interesting to have paths that lead to the other side too, for your unit to take.

In the best of worlds it could be a ring around the sun. for really massive games.

or just your classic huge-as s slab of metal in orbit around the sun.

Love this idea, looking through the holes in the metal (trenches) and seeing nothing but space.

To give it a name:

• Dyson ring
  
• Dyson sphere

Especially a Dyson ring would be awesome for huge games I think.

Uber has talked about this before. I think it was in a livestream.

They said it would be pretty possible with current code, and the ring could even be playable on the outside of the ring, not on the inside. (when it's a ring like Halo)

If the ring were just an extra visual, I'd be concerned about it blocking gameplay vision.

Playing PA on a Dyson ring would be super cool! And, if you had moons and other planets inside the orbit of the ring you could use unit canons, nukes, and all sorts of other orbital stuff, though I would want a actual hole to be blown from one side of the ring to the other, leaving just a hole to space if it is hit with a moon.

Happy to hear this!

I found myself wanting a semi-flat map for basically sandbox purposes (more in a sec) and considering suggesting it, but figured it'd be shot down since a single flat map is inconsistent with the UI and the spirit of the game, etc.

I've played a lot of games against the AI, for several reasons. At first to get accustomed to the UI, then to test as I made changes to my control scheme, added mods, etc. I also wanted to practice gameplay without wasting someone else's time in a 1v1 or team situation. Most often, i used a very small scale planet - gets to the action quick. More recently I've joined some team games and felt quite startled at the scale difference of the larger planets ...which partially defeated the purpose of my sandbox gameplay.

What I discovered I wanted (and predict others may want too) was a larger planet surface (flatter, not so much curve), but for a smaller-scale game. A slab metal planet should allow that for folks who want it.

Would be fun with a planet thingy like that Halo ring well in Halo. isnt the that halo. you basically have a x wide track that stretches around in a ring shape and you have units on the inside

Here's what kind of a thing is built around Jupiter in Battle Angel Alita:


http://battleangel.wikia.com/wiki/Toposphere_Project

make it so

This idea makes me think of author Ian M Banks and his orbitals in his culture series of books.




That would look epic parked around a sun.

My god those are huge lego pieces. Want.

On a more serious note, I hope the devs do one day allow for complex geometries like the above. Mobius strips would be pretty awesome as well, though they probably wouldn't add much more to gameplay than a ring would.

Really they have? I'm a bit dubious.

can I haz linky? I'd like to be made aware.

I'd provide a link if I could remember where it was from...

They were talking about the possibility of making a Halo Ring. It'd be possible to play on the outside of the halo ring, but not on the inside.

They didn't really talk about a Saturn like ring with playable surface, though I imagine that would be possible as well.

Yeah, there was a post like that somewhere. Uber said that odd shapes were possible, but stuff could only go on the outside. They couldn't do the "reverse gravity" needed to put units inside the ring, or sphere, or whatever.

It'd also be a PITA to display. Ever tried playing on one of those hilarious maps inside the sun? It's a bit like that.

hmm does that mean the Saturn ring idea can't work?

Eh, it probably could. It'd be one hell of a trick though, so I wouldn't expect it at release.

I guess the best bet is to wait for a dev to chime in that he messed around for a bit and it was easy/hard/impossible to do.

yes! dev chiming time!!

Dyson rings?

Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes!!!!
THOSE WERE TOO DARN FUN IN STAR RULER.
When you build on them you should get special variants of econ/recon/factory structures that are HUGE, but SUPER FRICKIN AMAZING and efficient and effective! I CAN SEE IT RIGHT NOW,

Just IMAGINE.
A Dyson ring is spawned in a system, the various factions of the game wrestle control of the giant ring, nuking each other and blah blah blah AND THEN one of them finally gets COMPLETE DOMINATION of the ring, and starts mass producing orbital laser cannons and nukes and T2 energy gens and pumps up production building tons of robots and sending them through the solar system cleaving through the star-system like a hot Dyson knife through not Dyson butter with billions of slammer artillery tanks being supported by orbital death beams of death!

BUT THEN, A SUPRISE COUNTER ATTACK by the combined forces of the other factions!

In short;
YES, 500% support on this idea!

I like the idea of the flat metal and the ring. The flat metal structure makes me think of the space maps in starcraft. It would be fun to see PA in a flat context as opposed to planetary, but that's not to say that I dislike fighting on planets.

see this is just about how hyped I am at the idea. Unfortunately no dev input so far.