[NX] : Redesiging Planets

posted on April 6th, 2014, 10:06 pm

As many of you know, planets were incorporated into the original A2. They gave the player 'crew' resource and helped with map control. They had issues though (laughably under-scaled) so they don't appear in Fleet Ops. As long as A2 engine was being used, it made sense to keep it that way. However, since we now have a new engine...

The reality is that systems with an (already) inhabited planet would be the fulcrum of most space battles. I'm proposing that in the next version of Fleet Ops, it should be made possible to interface with planets.

Here are my ideas for what interfacing with a planet during a war would look like:

First of all, planets are huge. They also don't tend to be very close together. For these reasons, it would make sense to have only one planet per map. This planet would be a (huge) backdrop, similar to the backdrop planets in 3.2.7. The planet could be 'controlled' by taking over an indestructible station hovering above the planet.

These stations would be unique depending on the map designer's wishes, but in general you would be able to:

- Use the weapons on the station
- Get cost reductions on certain items
- Do unique research.
- Construct planet based defensive weapons.
- Use the station as a shipyard.

The overall use of planets in gameplay, therefore, would be to give your units unique abilities they wouldn't get otherwise. They could be placed at the center of the map, or perhaps they could be placed instead of a moon pair, giving the player a choice between a forward research base and resources.

Well, that's all I have to say. Any other ideas?

posted on August 18th, 2014, 4:59 pm

This is a good idea. I would suggest that the station be a space elevator.

posted on August 18th, 2014, 9:19 pm

Or be representative of the way SOASE does it or SW: EAW. In both of those games..the planet represents a system. More so in EAW than SOASE. But both use planets much more efficiently. Also the maps are huge..which is what I would like to see. Map size in Armada was woefully small..especially if you wanted to scale up your ship models...otherwise you would have to shrink them down and increase the zoom factor.