I know we've got Metal Planets and whatnot. But to be perfectly honest I believe that with this system we could do more, and make some planets for interesting scenarios and game modes. Take, for example Crematoria, from the Riddick series, shown in the movie The chronicles of Riddick. If you are not familiar with the planet, Crematoria's surface is not habitable as the temperatures are in the wild extremes; One would be incinerated if in the sunlight, or frozen solid at night. Making there only a buffer of about 20 minutes where travel on the surface is possible. Imagine fighting while having to run from the sun, constantly moving your base and troops, avoiding the enemy and the harsh conditions. Or for example with Galactic play, if you terraformed the surrounding solar system so the only place your enemy could get a permanent foothold in your solar system would BE your defended home base planet, making it harder to transport your troops and commander over, as well as making it hard to set up a base. This makes defensive options cheaper, and could introduce a new level of strategy to the game, Or I think so anyway. Other special planets could include strangely shaped planets, perhaps in Galactic war, planets that aren't even locked into an orbit. Imagine turning one of the Metal Planets into a fully functional moving, fully armed battle station, that as a last resort could even crash into the enemies' base. Obviously I'm most probably asking too much, although if I don't ask then I'll never know.
I don't think we'll be seeing to many of these types of things at release. Uber is already 'committed' to several Biome Types as seen here and by thier nature will have unique aspects in terms of how they affect gameplay, but handled more more organically. I'm still not convinced that the gameplay from a Crematoria type scenario would actually be any fun, you'd have to keep on top of everything constantly, rebuilding on resource nodes as they pass into night, reclaiming factories before they fall into daytime, keeping units constantly moving...... It works as a set piece for the movie, and could be made to work in a campaign like scenario maybe but I don't think it'd work with standard gameplay. Mike
I think between what the devs make and what the modders will add after, there's going to be a lot of fun stuff like that to do!
Well, Mike I may have given you a little bit of a wrong impression. I was thinking more planets, that have the same Biome, but have special attributes. For example, if we take Crematoria, It would be a Lava planet that had a damaging effect on units that are on the light side of the planet. If Shields were implemented then it would simply be a matter to protect your base with shields, rather than outrun the sun, or having enough repair units to keep your main buildings alive. And unlike the humans in Riddick, I'm sure the Commander and his units are impervious to cold temperatures, meaning one half would always be safe. Another example may be indigenous life forms for the more earth-like planets, maybe some things on the Metal Planets that can be up for capture for certain bonuses, like sensors or planetary defenses. I'm not really expecting this sort of thing to be in the first version of the game, It's merely a suggestion for later stages, perhaps even DLC.
Some variations on basic planet type would be good e.g. red planet (mars=red desert), white planet (moon=white desert). I'm not sure if lava and acid will be unique to planet types or possible as a biome. I really enjoyed the variety of landscapes SupCom enabled:
Well first, no Shields. Second, if the commander and his units are immune to such effects, why aren't buildings? if buildings can be repairs from taking damage, what is repairing the repairing unit and so on and so forth? this is what I was hinting at, the Gameplay inherent in Bimoes works because it's natural, starting on a bunch of islands is different from starting in a forest. Saying that Structures take damage, but the smaller and less hardy units don't is arbitrary and due to it's illogical nature can jarr people from the experience. As I said, it could work in a campaign like scenario, maybe you've got a set force and your objective is to get to an enemy base to destroy it, you can either avoid smaller enemy patrols and arrive at the base intact, but forced to fight the entire enemy force at his base, or try to take out smaller patrol piecemeal, but the end goal of destroying the base and the fact that day/night line moves at a constant pace sets the tone for the mission along with balancing the want to weaken the enemy force, but at the possible cost of lost units and the enemy being alerted. Mike
Well, this for example says that shields may be coming to the game at some point, which was why I was saying "if" it was implemented. And yes, I suppose you are right about the repairing units thing, I was being silly. Although, I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that I'm saying that the buildings are not impervious to the freezing temperatures, as they are made of the same materials as the Commander. Anyway, Crematoria was merely an example of where it could go, and as you proved unless we have shields or natural cover from the sun it wouldn't work, or at least in your words it wouldn't be very fun. But still, there are plenty of other special things we could attribute to planets, from buildings to capture, to hostile and hostile units or monsters, to weather storms and floods.
