What if, instead of being able to place engines anywhere on a planet they were specific placement points, like how mexes can only be built on metal spots. Ideally these engine spots would be devoid of metal spots. Maybe even have a buffer around them that no metal spots would show up within a certain distance of the engine spots. The idea behind this is 2 fold. 1. It gives something new to fight over, especially if metal spots and engine spots can't overlap, you might have to choose when taking a moon, do I go for the metal spots clusters or do I go for the engine spots. 2. If the metal spots were all on the same area of the planet it would prevent the visual silliness of having engines visibly thrusting in different directions (example if you have a moon that needs 2 engines to move, right now you could put one directly on the north pole and one on the south which should cancel each other out, but don't.)
Not a huge fan of the idea. What i would like to see though is that you have to build halleys close to each other, because planets with halleys firing on either side and yet moving fast in one particular direction just look stupid.
Interesting idea, but ... The problem is usually when I take over a planet I make it my economy and army building planet. I then smash the planet after I send in my giant army or to kill the last player. This means that the entire planet is covered in mexes, power gens, and factories. I have to squeeze in hallies, having specific places would pretty much make it impossible.
I proposed this a while back and am still a fan of this idea. But this idea has little support. They could cluster like metal spots forcing you to build them close together and add a new strategic element to the game.
Wait if your normal build has mexes and energy everywhere, having a specific place would mean you would be able to fit them no problem because there would be no mexes in the way (and presumably not power because you'd have clear marked areas to not build power on )
I like the idea but I also dislike it I like it for realism, having the best angles etc. I dislike it because it more or less tells the enemy directly where to send their radars to scout for engines.
This I agree with, I want it to look at least somewhat realistic. Perhaps have the Halleys always angle a certain way (or the same was as the first halley). I don't know exactly.
It's not a bad idea, but it's not without its problems. To be honest I just hope the engines vector or something.
wow 50/50! here goes... I love the premise of this idea. the only thing is I know it'll never work out as beautifully as we hope, this is why I voted against. especially in the case of small planets with multiple engine spots and even more so if you add a tug-of-war to that recipe. Personally all I really care about is the having the engines lined up. To accomplish this I suggest a really deep reaching base so as to have them look ok when tilted and only allow new engines to be built stuck to already present engines on that planet. as for tug of wars it's really important to me that the idea I state be implemented so that we stop seeing criss cross of enemy engines actually distributing force in a physically impossible way.
A balanced way between "build on specific spots" and "build anywhere even in opposite directions" would be to place your first halley anywhere but the following ones must be near the first one. Anyway, uber stated they are not satisfied by the halley placement stuff so they are probably changes down the line.
You said you always have to find places to squeeze in hallies. If the hallies had specific places to be built, you wouldn't have to find a place to squeeze them in, you'd build them on the only place you could. Also you'd leave it open for the same reason you don't build power or factories over metal spots.
I am always a fan of having strategic spots ... reminds me of the old Dawn of War series, which I quite enjoyed. Not sure how it would work in actuality, but I like the concept.
The thing is thought, the size of planets that you'll be building Halleys on doesn't really allow for players to "fight over them" simply because of the size and the interplanetary mechanics, you either control the planet and can safely build the Halleys, or you don't. Mike
If the building of engines where limited to asteroids, when implemented, that aren't spherical, but lopsided like normal asteroids, I could live with that. The key point right now however, is that it is in the game and it works rather will. There is still much work to be done on it, like aligning the engines and having the thrust from the engines align the way the object is facing. All this is new territory for the games industry though, that Uber is pioneering...might take a while to get it setup right.
