Any Idea on What Water Will Look Like?

Just to be fair, water isn't blue from reflection but absorption.

That being said it would still be cool to have different colored water on different planets, though I do question how it would be handled to be both noticeably different than the surrounding terrain and still look good. From a distance it would still definitely have to read as "water-like surface" without being blue. Personally I think having it be a complimentary color to the surrounding "beach" areas would be best, rather than "red planets have muddy red water" if the water was instead purple or yellow it would be much easier to read from afar.

Most the land on earth is green or tan, with water being (complimentary) blue.

Though, I also think a color picker would be nice

The only reason I would suggest zooming underwater is to support a proper underwater set of gameplay.

If, like Supcom, we end up with 95% surface vessels and 2-3 units that go underwater, it would be, obviously, kind of pointless.

However, as the kickstarter stretch goal was for "Naval Units and Water Planets" I don't think it's unreasonable to push Uber to consider the entire scope of water - both on the surface, AND the vast realm below the surface. Even if it's too much to get enough units for a fully fledged underwater base, I believe it's worth it to think about and plan for the eventual possibility.

Not to mention that some of the considerations of underwater would map quite well to air - in both realms you don't want units to stack, you have a variable height arena to deal with, and potentially you have some units which fly low to the ground / swim near the bottom of the ocean, and some that are high altitude / near the surface.

As a tiny example, wouldn't it be rather interesting to have a Homeworld-style altitude assignment ui? (For those who never played Homeworld, and if my memory serves me correctly, you simply right click and hold to set a waypoint, and slide the mouse up/down to set the vertical position)

No it would be distracting. Homeworld was about 3D space combat and only 3D space combat. Planetary Annihilation is (or should be) about combat on the surface of multiple planets. The Stretch Goal was for "Naval" not "Submarines Only". Sub-surface naval combat is only a small part of overall naval manoeuvres and does not need an entire mechanics system developed and devoted to accommodate the idea of naval units as a whole.

No knock against the Homeworld series as they were fine games with rather innovative solutions to the idea of fighting in a 3D arena. However its mechanics do not belong in PA.

As potential expansion bait goes, it might be nice to have 3D pathfinding so we can eventually fight in space. But for the base game experience? No.

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If I was to be flippant;
A Homeworld-style minigame for underwater combat? Hell No!

<-- All you deserve for being flippant


If you think 'naval' and 'water planet' means 'surface only navy' though, I think you're missing the original feel of TA. There were enough surface and subsurface units in TA to be able to play on a water-only map. Supcom never reached that capability. I would hope that PA manages to.

I believe the stretch goals SHOULD be about developing mechanics systems to deal with the different theaters of war. I will be rather disappointed if Naval means 'Tanks on water' (with one or two 'Tanks under water') and Orbital means 'Tanks in space'. I have yet to see Uber take the easy route though, so I'm not too worried yet

Finally, movement in the vertical range can open up some interesting strategic options, and Homeworld is simply an example of how it can be done, not a recommendation. It would be interesting, for example, to be able to tell your subs to 'deep dive' and thereby avoid surface sonar. Make the ocean terrain actually affect where your subs can go without being detected.
It would also be interesting to run your bombers at super high altitude to gain resistance to AA at the cost of accuracy, or pass over high mountains. All just rough thoughts, but it gives you an idea how much potential there is.

I don't think the real world has very good game mechanics

Good thing it is a game right?

I definitely agree that I'll be slightly disappointed if naval combat simply means on the surface of the water. I really want to see a good number of subs and the like.

Based on the images in the last live stream though, that doesn't seem terribly likely. It looked like they mostly had boats for the naval units.

I love the idea of Homeworld-style underwater layer(s). I've always wanted to see something like that in an RTS ever since TA when I wanted some zippy little dogfighting sub to rise from the deep and chew up the battleships. Underwater mountains and ridges, fighter subs and amphibious tanks, underwater bases? Fantastic!

I'd expect Uber to stick to the standard TA/SC naval battles to start with. Hopefully the ability to mod complex underwater combat will be possible in the final product. Same with the people who want space battles - the solution is optional mods, as long as the base game will support it. People who want it can make/use it, people who don't just skip it.

Seems like asking Uber to somehow add all that with their time constraints and budget would be a huge feature creep problem. And balancing that with the basic game vision? The underwater RTS thing is pretty much a game all by itself.

(anyone ever play Submarine Titans back in the day?)

Anyway, just enable the mod community to make this stuff!