Ambient creatures/tribes/cities on planets? (where logical)

This game can hold a **** ton of units. im still continually being impressed by how many detailed units can be on screen at once. Even though I have all these pretty robots and tanks frolicking all over the map on a path of destruction, it just feels like something is missing from these worlds, especially the forested/earth like planets.

Since this game can clearly support an ungodly amount of units and destroyable terrain features why isn't there animals and humanoids (not humans, just other less advanced alien species) both tribal and modern (more or less, but always far less than you) running around attempting to go on with their daily lives while an intergalactic robot war is taking place right on their planet? I mean they wouldn't be any more of an obstacle than trees are now, and any unit will be far more smaller and less detailed than our units. They would just be there to provide ambiance that you can squash under your mechanical feet while on the way to the enemy base. I think that it would make games feel a lot more unique and special and give this galactic war between these war machines a greater sense of impact on what it's doing to the galaxy and its inhabitants.

Right now smashing two planets doesn't have any sort of feeling like "We just obliterated a dawning civilization and millions of species by crashing it's moon into itself just to take out a small proxy base belonging to the enemy situated on the planet" It's basically just smashing one lifeless rock onto another, which has a far lesser feeling of complete annihilation. I mean you are destroying an entire solar system just to win a pointless war with an enemy commander at the cost of billions of lives of everyone else caught inbetween. It should feel like thats actually the case.

Plus the post industrial revolution alien cities could be destroyed and reclaimed for a nice big temporary boost to your economy, while at the same time hopelessly try to defend their cities from your tanks and bots with low tech tanks and weapons which shots are basically nothing more than bee-stings to your commander and units (though they still could destroy individual units if they swarm it. This could add another layer of play making early game scouting a little more dangerous for both sides until the city (or bees nest) has been destroyed and cleared out, offering a nice treat of metal (or honey) for the players who take the extra time and units to make a city safe for your fabbers to reclaim)

I can't imagine this would be difficult at all to add to this game considering they are already doing this to a far greater extent with Human Resources. Except all these extra little animals/humans (insects) running around are just for that extra sense of annihilation.

This is only for quality of life sake and wouldn't make this game any-less enjoyable to me was this not to be added in lou with Human Resources, but I would be even more fanatically enamored by this game if this was added.

Thank you for reading my wall, I hope you are inspired

This has been discussed quite a bit.

The problem is randomness of it. If I lose because I'm getting harassed by a randomized enemy, be it aliens or animals or something, then that would be a bummer in PvP.

On that point. The lore of PA indicates that all of mankind is extinct and has been dead and gone for a long time. It is a pointless war "for reasons long since forgotten." And there are no humans left.

No thanks, I don't want to turn PA into HR-light. I hate needless killing, which is one of the reason I never going to back HR, so I don't want to see any aspects of it in PA. Sure it won't be for resources, but I still don't want to do it. Keep the planets dead.

However neat and atmospheric it would be, the units in PA are, eloquently put, "******* massive" and as a result most creatures wouldn't be visible, and pathfinding for units can be a bit iffy even now, so I don't want my units randomly spiraling into the wrong direction because the game was too busy pathfinding for non-game important objects.

Sorry to ask, but, needles killing? Wouldn't that basically define the entire RTS genre? I see what you're getting at, but I don't think that a pacifist should play RTS games.

EDIT: What I meant to say is, I don't think a pacifist would enjoy playing RTS games.

Aren't dox supposed to be 25 meters tall?

Source?

Here you go: http://www.justpushstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Planetary-Annihilation-1.jpg

(Ok maybe not 25 meters, but still giant af, basically a titanfall titan size)

I wouldn't consider myself a pacifist, It can be hard to explain exactly what I mean, it's a combination about killing someone that isn't apart of the war, killing for the sake of killing, or killing something just to make it more dramatic/epic.

I'd much prefer a release of a bunch of planetary detail options. Abandoned cities (streets, buildings, etc) to fight in. Huge forests of massive tree stumps to fight among. Mining pits to drive into, orbital space junk to build around, ancient machines buried in tropical planets, the burnt out shell of some enormous saucer-shaped combat unit...

The planets definitely need more personality.

How many people are playing pvp these days?

A lot of people.

The multiplayer component of Planetary Annihilation is a huge facet of this game.

You can't ignore that entire group of people.

And regardless, those exact same circumstances would suck against the AI as well.

Good point, however I'd like to clarify that these randomized "enemies" would be the equivalent of Bees, they wouldnt bother with anything that doesn't threaten their nest, and an individual couldn't destroy a single bot, not even a small group of them couldnt. they wouldn't even put a dent in your health (assuming you are not allergic to bees, and in this case alien humanoids) and annihilating them to get at their cities metal (honey) would be as simple as rushing the city with a small group of assault bots 10-15 (im using t1 assault bots as an example since they are the weakest units) or around 2-3 infernos with that number being increased or decreased accordingly depending on the size of the city.

These aren't meant to be a whole other faction that threatens your existence like another player, but just another obstacle on the map that provide goodies if the time and resources are put towards clearing them out. And considering the numbers of units one usually has in a raid and especially a assault force they could just steamroll through these cities with complete ease, coming out with almost no damage.

And finally, I must tell you to go back and reread the second paragraph. in parenthesis you'll find that I clearly stated these are NOT humans :/ In fact even the most advanced of these alien civilizations were simple tribes or even herds of beasts when men was around.

And if you still dont agree whats the harm in plopping in a few animals/dinosaurs/tribes to randomly roam a planet? Unless you feel theyll somehow threaten your base too.

the system that would handle the pathfinding would b the same one our units used. And we can seem to cover an entire planet with these units and they seem to do fine for me concerning pathfinding.

I must agree with you too, these should come first before anything really. My suggestion can just be amongst the final iterations of the game, after all these goodies come out first.

But the planet's are clearly not dead.. (some of them at least)
The earth like planets with woodlands and jungles clearly have a diverse (though unrepresented) ecosystem. Regardless on whether or not the wildlife/primative tribes are physically represented they are still certainly there, and whether you pretend that it doesn't happen or not billions are killed from the blazing forest fires, nuclear and bombing raids, and especially planet smashing. Though you are not intentionally trying to kill them, you still are.. we are cold robots doing whatever we can to kill each other no matter who or what ends up dead in the process.. and I'd just like to actually see it taking place instead of letting my imagination do it for me (I know I'm morbid..)

Which leads me to ask why is someone so pacifically minded playing a game like this? :/
Cause you know needless deaths still are happening whether its an actual game feature or not, so I'm a little confused on your reason for even existing on a community for a game like this based on your philosophies. o.o

To me, there aren't anything in those forests, they are just trees. While I know a tree is still a life, it's doesn't effect me as much as a human or animal would. It's difficult to imagine a tree have friends, families, or any sort of character. So I say keep it as it is. Since it gives a better feeling about this being at the end of everything, and the only thing left are machines destroying each other. But I wouldn't mind having abandoned cities, roads, and things like that, as long as they are all completely empty.

Why I play it? Because I love the game, RTS, RPG, and FPS are my favorite genres.

I like and truly respect your point of view, even if I think it's a bit extreme and subjective.

On the other hand, a lifeless galaxy feels poor. Life is fragile and that's why is so precious.

So, what if this would be optional and affect only the aesthetic of the game?

Or, perhaps even better, what if your Commander has been awaken in order to defend those little creatures?

Of course I know it's subjective, but he asked for an opinion, and I gave mine. If it was a graphical option, sure, I still wouldn't be happy about it, but I could just turn it off, and keep playing. When it comes to your suggestion, no thanks. That would effect to story, which is something I don't want to do. Besides it would still prevent me from using so many different weapons.

As a commander of the Synchronous, needless killing is kinda the point.

We need to burn the galaxy clean of organics so that they have nowhere to hide.

The Progenitors will fall!