Gas planets, an air vehicle haven?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by emraldis, January 19, 2014.

  1. emraldis

    emraldis Post Master General

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    I have seen on other posts that gas giant planets are most likely going to be limited to orbital. However, it seems logical to me that atmospheric fighters should be able to fly in an atmosphere, of which a gas giant has plenty.Why not have floating air factories, and other floating structures, similar to those we would get on water, but on a gas giant planet instead. It would allow for more interesting games based around gas giant planets, and structures such as wind power generators would make a bit more sense.

    Some other suggestions for gas giant planets:

    -winds: they would push units around/slow them down, depending on which direction they are going.

    -Giant connected bases: Structures that are grid-snapped or built relatively close to each other become attached to each other

    -winds being able to push giant connected bases: wouldn't that be interesting? Having your base be moved by external forces, if it clashes with or even gets close to, an opponents base, it provides a change in the playing field.

    Ideas, suggestions, comments?
    stormingkiwi likes this.
  2. LeadfootSlim

    LeadfootSlim Well-Known Member

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    There's a lot of choppy waters surrounding these that Uber has yet to dip their toes into. Winds moving units and combo-buildings could well be a nightmare, code-wise.

    The naval-type "substitution" method would work great for a limited number of buildings, such as factories, wind-power-gens (as a reskin) and the necessary AA turrets, but an all-air planet has no shortage of problems in gameplay terms. Air units are omnidirectional, and don't have the same interactions with directional fire that ground units do. Fighting on a featureless sphere is an equal problem; storms that block air pathing could work, albeit at the cost of feeling a tad artificial, but they'd have to be stationary or else they'd wreck the CPU as air units adjust their pathfinding second by second to accommodate shifting "terrain". Damage-over-time storms as soft pathing deterrents would require fierce micromanagement by players to keep their units from stumbling into lethal damage. The list goes on and on.
  3. emraldis

    emraldis Post Master General

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    Why would that not work for all buildings?

    That's why I suggest winds (like currents on an ocean I guess) that are able to move units around. If they are made visible enough they could affect the building of bases, as perhaps strong winds would prevent units from moving against the wind. This would allow for different kinds of "terrain" on what would otherwise be a featureless planet.

    I don't expect anything like that to make it into the final game, just thought it was an interesting iteration of the ideas I had already presented.
  4. gobbygee

    gobbygee Member

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    well in general a gas giant has pressures hundreds of thousands of times stronger then normal planets, plus the fact the gas acts as a liquid as these pressures, the speeds that the atmosphere moves at is also astounding. realistic you wouldn't be able to build anything that wouldn't get tour apart let alone move around in the atmosphere. standard aircraft would be torn to shreds! better of having dedicated orbital units.
  5. bobucles

    bobucles Post Master General

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    I don't know what to say other than that's completely wrong. Sure you can't get down to the core, but who cares? No one can.
  6. emraldis

    emraldis Post Master General

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    just like with our atmosphere, the air gets thinner the higher up you are. It would easily be possible to build floating factories in the upper layers of the atmosphere.
  7. lapsedpacifist

    lapsedpacifist Post Master General

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    Wrong.
    Also, gameplay>>>>realism

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