Some features this game needs :) - Detailed and awesome!

So I would like to share some idea's I think should be included in Planetary Annihilation

1.
Battles raging on planets can be seen from space. When it's on the darkside of the planet you will see the flashes of the explosions and the red glow of fires.

2.
Burning forests will emit smoke that will cover a large distance. This will shorten the Field of View for units and Fog of War.

3.
Ability to share/trade resources with fellow players on the same team. If it's planet to planet players will have to build a Planetary beam which will send the cargo up into space trough a magnetic field.

4.
Keep the HUD minimal and have the ability to remove the HUD & mouse cursor so people can make sick machinimas!

5.
Ability to create guilds/clans in-game. Example: Planetary Sheep Farmers [PSF] :3

6.
Ability to have a emergency exit. When your base/planets gets burned to nothing and it's resources are depleted and your forces been crushed, you will be able to leave the planet.

I thought about the idea of selecting the planet to which you would like to escape.

7.
Planetary harvesting. A powerful laser will fire towards the planet surface and will crack it up partly. It will then harvest the inner core of the planet for power (energy)

8.
A cinematic camera? Like Empire at War did in which it will this time focus on the battles you engage on the planet


This is it for me so far , what do you guys think?

Not essential, but would be really cool if it looks like an electric storm of combat with fires.

I loved the burning trees in Total Annihilation and how they damaged units nearby. The only problem was that the trees didn't burn for nearly long enough. It would be amazing if you could have long-lasting forest fires that raged on and got more intense as time went by. You would see a temporal effect of how intense a battle has become. Don't make the trees burn all the time, just like in real combat, or it won't be special. It would also be great if certain units would knock trees down as they walked, and could clear out a bunch of burning trees for other units.

I like #1 a lot.

I don't like #2's effect on visibility, because I would hope future sensors to be capable enough to penetrate a little smoke. Although, I love the idea of forest fires spreading, and producing smoke visible from orbit.

Awesome! Agreed! Partially visible on the light side... much more visible at night!

This is also awesome! Combined with coldboot's comments:

I think we can have a lot of fun with this!

(And not just forests... but also grasslands, alien flora, etc...)

I don't know about the specifics of how you envision it to be done (I'd prefer mass drivers), but yes, sharing/trading should be allowed.

Mostly agreed! I think players should have the ability to 'enlarge', 'minimize', and 'hide' UI components.

Probably useful, would be nice to NOT have to force a prefix on all clan members though.

Alternatively, have a login-name and 'nickname' syntax... so that way your nickname is what is displayed, and you can change that to whatever you want.

Nice! I like this. Maybe the commander can either a) build an upgrade, b) build a commander-only single-use rapid teleportation structure, c) have a limited number of 'extra teleports' which can be used to get to other locations in the game world (possibly limited to being away from the enemy commanders...)

You mean like some kind of planet-cracker starship? I donno about cutting the planet in half, but having alternative super-weapons might be nice:

I definitely agree with this... in fact, I'd like to see the ability to play back battles with a free-roam camera, like in Shogun: Total War 2 (maybe with some flexibility like rewinding...)


I'd like to add in a few more:

9. Day / Night cycle can affect units and weather etc. For example, solar power doesn't work at night (but combining them with battery storage, you can still 'last' the night). Also, stealth units might operate better at night, and in general, vision is lesser. On more extreme worlds, daytime could generate high heat, potentially lowering the rate-of-fire for units, or damaging units that aren't under shade (man, err... machine-made or natural)