Nature Reclaiming Wreckage

I'm not sure how other people will feel about this idea but I was thinking if a unit was destroyed in a jungle sorta area, if they aren't reclaimed in a certain amount of time vines and plants start growing over and around them.

i think it would be better if they dissappeared
and / or will add HP to the planet
or like will add resources to the planet
because after all the wreckage dissappeares in the ground of the planet

Or just let it stay so players can reclaim it?

There may be real computer limitations that force wreckage to disappear. Other than that, may as well keep it around for as long as possible.

Besides, with enough explosions and players fighting over wreckage(sounds like a job for something fast!), it shouldn't stay around too long.

This is something I miss when games switched to fully 3D - TA had so many methods of optimisation that took advantage of the fixed camera angle, such as wreckage & non-animating structures being rendered as 2D sprites. Even back then it allowed virtually unlimited wreckages.

I sometimes yearn for a game that takes all the processing power of a modern computer and uses it to render a completely sprite-based game. It makes me wonder what kind of insane level of gameplay you could pull off that way.

There was a contest on it a few years back. It turns out that 50000 animated sprites is pretty damn easy to do. Unfortunately I lost the games and can not find them again. I miss robodoom.

Given the nature of PA, there's no reason the game can't be entirely rendered through sprites. I wonder...

I reckon it would be a pretty cool graphical effect for 'old' wrecks to slowly be partially covered by the local biome. Not absorbed or disappear, but having stuff like if you die in a snow biome, after a few minutes the wrecks get a layer of snow on top, or if it's a jungle, even some subtle effects like having the wrecks sink slightly into the ground as they get older, and moss grows on top...

Basically little effects that make it feel like you're really battling on living, interactive terrain.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

You managed to articulate my thoughts better than I could.

I think Pawz described it perfectly, if they add your idea into the game then that would be what I'm hoping for.

That would be beautiful.

So very few games make the terrain something that actually matters. Oh look it's a snow world with constant blizzards, but some how everything moves with the same speed as they do when on dry pavement, and visibility is completely unaffected. So so few games/movies/shows/books actually seem to have a clue how winter works. It would be nice to see a game get it right just once.

I think its a awesome idea!

Snow would definitely be a nice effect, but I don't think that having forests visibly growing would be good for plausibility. Maybe you could find wrecks from old battles covered in vines, but not happening in real time.

Foliage in forests, especially rain forests, actually grow pretty quick and I don't think a robot would feel the need to operate on our timescale.

I've heard stories of the Korean or Vietnam wars where trucks and equipment that sat too long had bamboo growing through it and basically made them unusable. I suppose in those conditions, a rainforest probably grows over wreckage almost as fast as a winter environment would cover wreckage.

Still as much as I would love it, it's probably one of those features that won't make into release, sounds complicated and likely time consuming to properly implement.