I'm pretty sure PA won't have animals, but there has to be some plants in it. I think it might be good if there are more varieties of them, some of them might be made of metal, some of them might be explosible, some of them might be rebirthable, some of them might replicate over time, some of them might be natural small scale radar jammers, some of them might damage nearby units and turn their wrecks into plants too. I believe this would create some interesting gameplay mechanisms on some planets.
Considering trees added a huge amount to the art style of the video, and they said they intend to keep the art style, I'm more or less positive they will be included. I'm not sure about spending too much time on different types of plants, I do think plants spreading much faster would be nice. I really hate how they usually nearly completely disappear in SupCom/TA before too long. Then again, the trailer showed the world being FILLED with trees, not just the scattered few that where in TA/SupCom.
Unless they regrow really fast (through buried seeds, which can survive a forest fire), then we might can an exciting, constantly evolving battlefield.
I remember fires in TA, and honestly I thought they were kind of lame because they destroyed the vegetation and made the place look barren when burned. I mean, that was kind of the vibe of the game so it was ok maybe, but I hope the whole forest doesn't burn down when 1 rocket sets fire to a tree in PA, for aesthetic purposes. What can I say, I like looking at green plants :mrgreen: .
i.e. why rapid plant regrowth would be awesome. Planets get lots of vegetation, provide an alternate source of energy from windmills and the like through the whole game (instead of just early game), and it provides unique terrain features (like blocking paths, or being used to hide inside).
I'm actually kind of looking forward to ruining the planets, burning all the trees, smashing huge craters into 'em, and doing whatever I can to wreck them as much as possible. I'm kind of okay if trees don't regrow. My only real concern is that the trees they do show in the concept video look like they have a higher poly count than our robots. That could be a performance issue.
Except the trees where static, and as such may affect performance less. Anyway, the problem is, if they make trees like they did in the video, any one fire would burn down all the trees on the planet. I'd rather they regrow, BUT make destroyed terrain, due to explosions, nearby active volcanoes, flooding, or whatnot, would not be able to sustain planet life. This way, you can destroy the ground in areas you don't want plants to grow, and you can also make the planet barren if the game goes on long enough, but at the same time it will remain green for a long time.
Regrowing trees would be quite interesting. Not only because they look nice, but also because you have some type of regenerating resources with them which you can use when your regular resources fail for some reason.
Remember those trees in Core Contingency that gave a tiny bit of metal when you reclaimed them? I thought that was cool. I like the idea of regrowing trees, and the environment healing itself, leaving scars. Unrelated, but I hate how the minecraft environment is so static. If you go with "retro" graphics to save dev resources, dedicate those resources to something interesting, like regrowth after a forest fire, or continually growing trees, or something. Don't just say "this is a tree, it's made of blocks, I'm finished here.
They were called oolok trees if I remember correctly. 75 energy and 15 metal. Only on the jungle maps.
