Planet core base / making your planet into a base.

having a structure or such where you can dig into the center of the planet and start making some very big, or maybe some very valuable structures that you wouldn't like to just be bombarded from the surface.

I hate to be negative about this as I see what you're wanting to do but won't that mean the planet has no core? I'm not a geologist but I know it's never a good thing when you take the middle of the planet out and now have nothing to stop the various layers to fall into your base also causing a fair ammount of chaos on the surface. Second from a techincal standpoint how would I accessand view my buildings down there, are you suggesting a zoom or maybe layer select option i.e. crust, underground level one, two and core level?

I believe this would add too much complexity to an already quite complex game. You already have to manage air, land, naval and maybe orbital on each planetoid and now you add underground as well.

I like your sketch! :lol:

I agree. A mod might add underground structure but I think the main game should steer clear of it even if it is a decent idea.

I like this idea but I wouldn't go nearly as deep. I'd make the player able to build buildings slightly under ground such that they have more health and are harder to hit but they would still be part of the outside layer of the map, just like aircraft but slightly below the surface instead of slightly above. This way there needs to be no needless ui complexity but you can still defend building you find important.
This could also be an alternative to shields.

People already moan about too much 'turtling' and this would be even worse
We'd have to add a whole new class of weapons, to winkle people out of their burrows, and add 'moleing' to the lexicon.

While i personaly really liked the shields because i'm a defensive player, they are being taken out for a reason.

if you put in a replacement for them why have taken out the shields in the first place?

I don't actually see why they are being removed. I have never seen a game go too long because a players base couldn't be broken because of shields. I have however seen plenty of games that last forever because both players just don't attack each other.

My idea doesn't help defend your base from land armies at all because base defenses would have to be out in the open, this would allow for long range artillery to help kill base defenses but not allow them to destroy all the resource generators with one t3 artillery/big bertha. This makes it so the game doesn't just end when one player builds a big artillery.