Like Europa. you could have them as a subset of water planets. I like the idea of being able to melt the surface ice with weapons fire to reveal the ocean below. the map would change over time with less and less real estate. A microcosm of the planetary destruction driving conflicts between commanders. You could also do non water ice, like on titan or pluto, but we're probably getting ahead of ourselves here.
While I do like the idea, if we are talking about Europa I would think that the map would be much more like a standard land map rather than a water planet Two interesting possibilities would be either having a map with only underwater units or a map with only land and underwater units (and air maybe). Unfortunately both of which seem like they would be pretty complex.
It would be interesting to have a planet where there was a battle on the surface and beneath the surface, and having below the surface be water is a new twist for an RTS (assuming the surface above the water is solid). I heard that they are trying to implement bridges, so maybe the whole map could be a bridge? But I do not think that would work well (but who knows how bridges will be implemented). There have been a number of games which did implement underground combat, such as Metal Fatigue, but most of the time subterranean stuff gets brought up its gets shot down by posters pretty quickly (general consensus seems to be there are already enough places to fight in the game, so it would be too complex...) Anyway, I think that this would add a ton to Ice planets.
This is actually a really good idea for a new planet type. Ice worlds with deep ice would behave very much like land maps, but might have some open water that would allow navy to be strong as well. More importantly, and unlike terran planets, submersible units can go underneath the land, not just beneath water. This opens up all kinds of possibilities, and could even justify introducing a whole class of submersible versions of ships, from aircraft carriers to land transports (or have many types of normal ships also be submersible, with specific ones lacking the ability). This also obviates the need for such ships to need transport to cross into disconnected bodies of water on ice planets. They just go right underneath the ice sheet and surface in the other ocean.
exactly, it would start like a standard land map (but skinned all icy) but the surface would melt when subject to weapons fire (probably mostly artillery and nukes and what not). the amount of 'land' would decrease and bases would need to be migrated to water before they're sunk (literally). Obviously that sort of thing is very dependant on what the engine can handle.
I prefer the idea of cracking open the ice (with an asteroid maybe?) and building a base under it. It would be completely different gameplay from any other planet type.
I remember reading somewhere that the devs are trying to manage bridges. An ice cap would be basically a big flat bridge, that land units can walk on and underwater units can go under. If it is possible to implement it, please do so, at least for mods. Thinking about it, underground units would "just" be another underwater-like layer here. They would work like those underwater units below ice caps, possibly with their own path restrictions (tunnels, caves...). Again, if possible, please make it possible for mods.
