Dynamic planet growth anyone?

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methodboi745

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methodboi745

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100g2g pts

9 years ago

Aug 26, 2015, 3:01:36 AM

Hi all,

Ever since playing ES, one little detail that I liked was that once you colonize a planet you would see little shimmers of light throughout the planet surface to show that you have developed civilization there.

Does anyone want to see this expanded upon because I certainly do.

For an example if you colonize a Desert planet and chose industrialization as a planetary exploitation I would like to see small patches of civilization appear on the surface as well as some smog clouds floating in the upper atmosphere. The further you develop your planet in the industrialization tech tree, the planet will progressively become more urban eventually becoming a city-wide planet (like Coruscant from Star Wars).

A similar effect will take place if Food or Dust exploitation is chosen instead, turning a barren planet into a lush green farmworld or into a trading hub with swarms of little starships in the upper atmosphere (similar to the effect seen on colonized planets from Sins of a Solar Empire).

I also fantasized that this effect can play a role in combat as well, turning a jungle world into a ball of molten glass via planetary bombardment.

Overall this feature will have little gameplay effect other than immersion which is why I hope it will be implemented to a certain degree.

Opinions, thoughts below.

Thank you for reading!

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Sovereign

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Sovereign

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9 years ago

Aug 26, 2015, 6:23:52 AM

True that I am playing Endless Space One recently again to celebrate it before Endless Space (hopefully early access^^) is released.

And while I was on the Starsystem screen I just thought to myself "man those little details(like ships flying in an orbit of the planets) are so sweet"

Would be great to see that love to details even more improved.

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Anonymous

9 years ago

Aug 26, 2015, 7:42:26 PM

I agree! In addition to anomalies, this kind of visualization would be not just a pleasure for eyes but it would also be convenient. A single glance will be enough to tell what's going on on a planet. It may also reflect current level of population i.e. more people -- more territory of a planet is occupied by buildings and stuff.

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Romeo

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Romeo

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9 years ago

Aug 26, 2015, 8:26:09 PM

I like all the suggestions. Changing the surface depending on whether its geared for housing, industry, Dust or science would be neat, as would anomoly visuals.

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Falkner

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Falkner

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9 years ago

Aug 26, 2015, 8:35:19 PM

I imagine it as planets rotating on the System map and being able to see the lights of cities on the dark side. As planetary population increases, so does the number and size of the lights.

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VIPDMT

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VIPDMT

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9 years ago

Aug 27, 2015, 10:41:00 AM

I definitely really like this idea!

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Bobledanois

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Bobledanois

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9 years ago

Aug 27, 2015, 1:08:53 PM

I love the idea : Sins of a Solar Empire was stunning for these details and would be a wonderful inspiration.

I'd love to see different details according to the race too. For instance, seeing the gigantic hives from space with the cravers or heavy crystal structures with the harmony.

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methodboi745

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methodboi745

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9 years ago

Aug 27, 2015, 4:29:10 PM

I'm loving the conversation thus far, great input! @Bobledanois I really like this, definitely gives each race that much more personality. I hope the devs see this haha

Additionally another feature I thought of involves improving the planet's preview picture (that little picture frame showing the planet's surface.) So my idea was to keep that preview picture but if the player should hover their mouse over it, it would expand to show a 3D rendering of the planet's surface (if colonized it would show your citizens milling about and w/e planetary improvements made) Rome total war (the first one) had this feature I thought it was pretty cool however it wasn't streamlined, requiring a significant loading screen to see the city. Given present day tech, I would assume this feature if implemented can be better than what Rome did all those years ago.

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HumanSpacer

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HumanSpacer

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9 years ago

Sep 4, 2015, 12:08:23 AM

I totally agree. Everytime I played ES, I spent a few minutes looking at the city lights and those huge space stations floating around the planets. There were even underwater city lights, and gas giants also have their unique city visuals, which look like giant platforms floating above the gas.

But this makes me think, which visual effect would be used for planets specialized in science? I personally think that the lights should look like they currently do in the most populous planets in ES, with large circles on the surface, as if they were colossal laboratories or colliders.

The normal cities in industrial or commercial planets should look more like Earth, with large yellow blobs of light, because that's how cities really look like from space at night.

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PvtHudson

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PvtHudson

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9 years ago

Sep 4, 2015, 7:49:54 AM

This thread harbors some great ideas! Critics had often blamed first ES with coldness and lifelessness, systems being too similar. Details like those suggested here can make the difference.

I would like to bring another aspect of planetary surface graphics, which was several times discussed in the threads about ground combat. Yes, ground combat is fought on the surface and slightly above! Let's show battle flashes and smokes on the faces of planets under siege. Squadrons of atmospheric and exoatmospheric bombers delivering strikes. Dropships shuttling reinforcements. Firing of air and space defences. Borders showing current ownership advancements. Some players who declare their dissatisfaction with the quite abstract ground combat of ES said they would be content with the same mechanic wrapped into more engaging visuals. Probably accompanied by chatter over troops comms.

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Sovereign

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Sovereign

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9 years ago

Sep 4, 2015, 10:46:18 AM

PvtHudson wrote:
This thread harbors some great ideas! Critics had often blamed first ES with coldness and lifelessness, systems being too similar. Details like those suggested here can make the difference.

I would like to bring another aspect of planetary surface graphics, which was several times discussed in the threads about ground combat. Yes, ground combat is fought on the surface and slightly above! Let's show battle flashes and smokes on the faces of planets under siege. Squadrons of atmospheric and exoatmospheric bombers delivering strikes. Dropships shuttling reinforcements. Firing of air and space defences. Borders showing current ownership advancements. Some players who declare their dissatisfaction with the quite abstract ground combat of ES said they would be content with the same mechanic wrapped into more engaging visuals. Probably accompanied by chatter over troops comms.

Great Idea!

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VIPThe-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

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VIPThe-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

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9 years ago

Sep 10, 2015, 5:59:16 PM

This idea has my support, too. An actual 3D rendering of the ground might be more than is necessary, but changes to the artwork of the planet as the population grows and the exploitation advances would be a welcome addition on top of all the little details in the system view.

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VIPNasarog

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VIPNasarog

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9 years ago

Sep 11, 2015, 2:02:09 PM

Sovereign wrote:
True that I am playing Endless Space One recently again to celebrate it before Endless Space (hopefully early access^^) is released.

And while I was on the Starsystem screen I just thought to myself "man those little details(like ships flying in an orbit of the planets) are so sweet"

Would be great to see that love to details even more improved.

YES please!!!Actual cities on the planet. Traffic between the planet and moon. Various anomalies showing up AND have an effect on the planet/system.

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BGMD

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BGMD

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34 400g2g pts

9 years ago

Sep 11, 2015, 2:58:22 PM

What I would like to see is gradual terraforming (and terraforming overhauled in general), for example when terraforming from arid to terran you see small surfaces of water slowly becoming seas and eventually oceans (same with flora), or arctic to tundra with ice melting etc.... FIDS would also shift from one type to other gradually. But for this to happen terraforming would need to be reworked into something that isn't just an icon in construction queue. I'm always slightly annoyed by the fact that I can terraform a whole planet in one turn with high industry or just by throwing some dust on it. Sure, you could say "it's nanomachines, son", but I don't think dust can grow trees. Imho there should be some arbitrary cap in number of turns (like for some faction specific improvements such as Orbital Superstructures for Automatons). Or a parallel process where you can still build stuff, but redirect substantial amounts of FIDS into it (similar to how roundup works in EL Shadows). But I'm getting way ahead of myself here, it's a topic that probably deserves its own discussion.

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Mansen

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Mansen

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19 200g2g pts

9 years ago

Sep 12, 2015, 2:32:11 PM

Distant Worlds didn't have "real" ground combat, but it did show an overlay of the planet surface with the two parties fighting and pushing each other's front lines back and forth with explosions and such.

I'm all for showing off ground combat, but keeping it abstracted.

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SD_Fleshmaster

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SD_Fleshmaster

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27 600g2g pts

9 years ago

Sep 18, 2015, 2:40:41 PM

Would love to see that in the game! Some big structures on orbit would be great to see. I wonder how hard is that to make in game, isn`t few sprites to add definitely.

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