Planet terrain differences coming...soon?

So I know this has been discussed before but I'm bringing the issue back up... are the different kinds of planets ever going to have different terrain styles, such as canyons and (wider) mountains?

This is a huge problem in this game, IMO the biggest problem right now. Every planet, and every game, feels... repetitive. When I travel to another planet, there's no new hazards or features I need to adapt to. I don't feel like I'm traveling to another planet, or another alien world... I feel like I'm just going from one place to another, albeit aesthetic differences.

Does Uber ever intend to improve the terrain features on different planets? It would help a lot in reducing repetitiveness in different games.


(whoa, picture was a lot bigger than I expected)

Honestly, although a lot of people oppose them, I think environmental hazards should be in the game, it makes for much more interesting differences between planet types, and adds more things to plan around.

Uber has said there's more terrain features coming.

But I haven't seen any improvements in a while.

I'm really excited about the cliffs biome mod. I hope Uber incorporates it into the game.

Because losing to a random environmental effect is so much fun!

Uber has commented on this several times. They've tried things like this in previous games, and they didn't work.

Yeah im looking forward to this as well!. But i gotta say atm i prefer them doing optimization work.

I didn't say random. I mean environmental hazards like lava doing damage if you walk through it or something. Ech, I don't know. I just agree that there isn't enough biome variation between planets, and I wouldn't mind minor environmental hazards, as long as it's not totally unfair, or if you can see it coming and take some measures against it. What I think would REALLY set things apart would be basic atmosphere changes on planets, like have lava on lava planets move around, and blur the air around it a bit. Maybe have some simple ember particles fly out of it as well. Just basic environment stuff that makes a planet seem more "alive"...

EDIT:

Some ideas:

Metal planets having energy course through the trenches, and some random mechanical stuff pulsing with energy or moving around outside.

Lava planets having more "dynamic" lava, eg. glows more, has embers coming out of it, blurs the air, etc.

Icebergs on ice planets, and moving small ice flows that don't interfere with pathing (just a particle effect on the surface of the water would suffice).

Moons having small meteor showers that don't damage anything, just for asthetics.

jungle and earth planets just having more variation in their plant life.

If lava caused damage, wouldn't units just move around it?

Environmental Effects that don't cause damage, like bubbling lava and stuff would be pretty cool. I'd be concerned about a performance hit though. :-(

And lava moving around would suck. Lose your base because lava moves? Can't do anything about that.

Water effects, like water moving around and stuff, is a confirmed no. Would be extremely expensive to implement and would be a big performance hit.

I feel that this is the most important feature in PA that hasn't really been getting enough attention yet. Sure they've implemented trees some time ago, but plateaus, rock formations, proper pathing for height differences would make this game not only aesthetically better looking but would also more clearly define the strategic options you have.

I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but I'd like to clarify a bit; the mod in its current form is pretty much just an approximation of what I would like to do, and is not very good in many respects.

I'm stuck using in-game brushes because custom models can't be used for server mods yet, and the one I'm using is not ideal. I need a specific brush, one that would have a profile like this:

The bottom of the brush would be extremely shallow and flat, and would not descend far below the 'ground' level where it is spawned (the outer edges of the base would be at or slightly above ground level); the sides would be very steep. Ideally, the bottom would have the planet's base decals applied to it so that it blends seamlessly with the surrounding terrain.
What I'm using right now is more rounded, and extends further into the ground, creating some annoying messy geometry that is almost guaranteed to screw with pathing.

And my ideal way of implementing cliffs would be using a system like this:

That is, placing brushes exactly along a contour.
Right now what I'm doing is creating an extremely 'thin' biome (the height range only covers a 0.03 elevation difference) and spawning the brushes in that biome in hopes that they will kinda follow a contour and won't bunch up too badly. This is... a bad way of doing it, but the only way I can think of doing it given the tools I have.

Lastly, these cliffs shouldn't just be placed anywhere on the map based on some height range. It would be best if the placement and terrain height algorithms worked in tandem so that cliffs would be mostly included on what would otherwise be steep inclines. It would also be nice if cliffs could be included on low height-range planets without just being short 'steps', which doesn't currently work well because the terrain slope doesn't vary much. In order to have any steep inclines, you need a high height range, and then almost the entire map has steep inclines.

Basically, the way I'm implementing cliffs right now is a duct-tape solution at best. It is fun to play on IMO, and I'll definitely release it (I haven't downloaded PAMM yet, figure I'll have to do that first and then release it on PAMM since everyone else seems to be using it), but it will often generate terrain that is difficult to read without using the pathing view occasionally. That's probably a deal breaker for a lot of people.

I hope Uber doesn't implement it, because I hope they change the terrain system to properly support cliffs, whether it be in a similar way or with a completely different approach.

(p.s. I'm trying to host another test game on the stable build right now, since I've only had 1 multiplayer test so far and it was very short. I'd love it if some people joined.)

It would be nice to have a color slider in editor

For example: astroids used to be a bit darker (or is it just me?). You can slide to have a lighter or darker tone, to give a little variance to moon type biomes because right now it's boring : P

Oh, also, I've been looking through a lot of the terrain .fbx files and there are some very cool unused brushes like the Jungle Temple, Metal Crater (I think erotic burrito would love that one) and the Desert Ruins. I'd love it if we got more stuff like that in the game at some point

I don't mean lava moving as in tides, I mean that it looks like it's moving around, bubbling, the volcanoes have lava floes within their mesh, that kind of thing.

I agree. That would be cool.

But I'm concerned about performance. :-/

Just add it as an On/Off switch in the Video settings and then people without a GTX 3000 10gb Classified FTW Ultra Edition can run the game with no performance hit.

More little graphics effects on planets to make them feel more unique would definitely be cool. Imagine a volcano erupting (that causes no damage of course) with a battle going on around it.

Or Aurora borealis in snow biomes and ice planets.

Or metal planets with little welder arms constantly working on something and trains going through the tunnels.

Or big waves smashing the cliffs on a Terran planet.

The possibilities....

Honestly I'd be ok with something like this:
Earth Biome- Wider mountains and miniature rivers should spawn.

Desert Biome- Rolling sand dunes that have an affect on unit sight range (think hull-down tactics) and a strong emphasis on cliffs and canyons.

Arctic Biome- Since Arctic is really just Earth biome set to 0 temperature, make it so units slide on ice a little when turning. This will affect micromanaging tactics and players will have to adapt.

Tropical Biome- Leave it as it is, maybe an emphasis on islands spawning. Hey, some people may want a flat planet.

Metal Biome- I heard about some "legendary" metal deposits that will be included in metal biomes. That would be nice.

Moon biome- More plateaus, plox.

Lava biome- Shallow lava flows should span the planet, and ground units slowly lose health in lava. (same effect when standing in lava pools). Lava planets look hostile and dangerous, they should be that way.

Gas(?) biome- No idea, how would we fight in a gaseous biome anyway, all orbital complete with orbital metal extractors? Or space platforms over the planet we build?

(sorry long post) Finally, they should use the unused slider in the System Editor to adjust the likelihood of these features spawning.

Personally, I'm a lot more interested in the differences in the Terran biome. We see trees in the concept that are five to ten times the size of the units, with mountains to match. In-game, the trees are tiny things, that don't provide much of a terrain difference at all. To remedy this, I'd like to see several sizes of the models, perhaps with the larger ones slowing movement or outright blocking it altogether. Also, a Jungle biome as shown in the concepts would be very cool, with dense foliage (and maybe native creatures? Uber please? Please?). When custom models are supported for server modding, a biomes mod is one of the first I'd download.

I think it'd be interesting for each world type to have one or three things that are unique, or rare, like trees. Perhaps lava worlds could allow for a unique energy building on volcanoes, or iceberg mini-Halleys on frozen ocean worlds.

I would like to see moving lava on lava planets. The lava is just static it would look nice if it moves(flows) a bit like water does. Some volcanoes inside the big pools of lava squirting out lava would even look more awesome!

On ice planets it would look awesome too have some lakes of frozen water in the form of lakes of ice instead of normal water. It is kinda weird that an ice planet has water on the service that is not frozen

I want the huge jungle trees. And the awesome mesa desert. And the mountain planets. With better mountains. We currently don't even have the jungle planet, right? We just have the tropical, which is different (based on the concept art).