Apologies if these have been discussed elsewhere (I know some points have been). Just doing a brain dump here. - Mystery planets and a way to detect them. Specifically, some kind of structure, let's call it a 'telescope' should be required to see and rocket to other planets. The idea is that it is needed for telemetry. Basic telescopes are cheap and simply give you the ability to see other planets. The advanced telescope gives you (limited?) vision of other planets. Perhaps only 1 planet at a time, as it's scanning it. Telescopes should also be required to identify incoming units from other planets (and should sound a warning when they do). - Interplanetary unit transports should be use-and-lose. This would resolve the always-hovering commander complaints. Basically, you just strap a rocket to the bottom of a commander (or other unit), and he lands on the surface with his own two feet, awesome-like (or with a parachute, if less awesome). - Interplanetary trajectories. Sometimes I lose track of exactly which moon I sent my commander to 5 minutes ago and want to send another construction unit to the other moon, or perhaps the other side of the same moon. It can be hard to keep track of these things. - Show icons for structures previously seen, though currently in the fog of war, even when not under radar coverage. Much of the game takes place in the zoomed-out icon view. When playing on a large map, it can be difficult to remember which unclaimed metal icons currently have buildings on them. As it is now, I need to either select a unit that can attack and hover to see if the cursor changes, or zoom in to each patch and look for a dark building. Simple, generic, grey boxes for any structure would at least indicate that something is/was there. - Temporary pings and permanent flags for team play. Flags only need to have a number / color on them to be effective. Btw, this game is spectacular!
Good ideas! I like the idea of an observatory structure that can detect distant planets, maybe even planets in neighboring solar systems.
I agree with most of of what you are saying ryot though i have a problem with your one use transport I think the lander should be moved to an air factory unit, and move around like a plane transporting units and perhaps comnapping (if it can get past the AA) but then you load it into the orbital launcher and fire it at another planet where it would land where you told it to but also would then require another orbital factory to be launched again I think this would solve the lander problems people are having plus it gives us a air transport that we can use to bypass islands and mountains with our units, If they then allowed it to carry every land unit and added a ferry system we would be able to transport armies over the water or flank a player that's using a mountain wall but has no defenses there :3 then you just make all the other orbital units forced to stay orbiting the planet except for maybe the interceptor as it looks a little like a spaceship and never goes down into the atmosphere it would be good if it could move around and protect your commander or other forces as they move around. not to mention if they made the lander beable to carry normal units you could transport some AA units or just alot more builders so that when you land you can defend against an air force or quickly build defenses and a base for your beach head also perhaps make that telescope an orbital one and make two versions of it the basic one tells you if someone it heading away or two the planet the telescope is on and the advanced one allows you to see the whole system and everyone that is moving around. ether way I like being able to see the planets when we start as it allows me to plan ahead for what planet i want to get to and what planets i want to stop others from having
I'm not sure about the mystery planets, but the idea of needing a telescope building of some kind to see into units in space sounds great. Why should my opponent be able to see me sending my commander to another planet without any investment? I agree with everything else in your post as well.
