Ground Battle Cinematics

Earlier today I was watching the opening cinematic for all of the factions currently in the game (Current version is 0.2.3 S1 ALPHA-Public), and I couldn't help but think that one of this game's strongest assets is it's narrative and attached visuals. This is why I was a little underwhelmed the first time I played the game months back, and saw that the ground battles were limited to a holographic projection of chess pieces that just pushed and pulled at one-another. In contrast, however, the naval battles are full 3D cinematics, with vessels moving about, shooting, and otherwise looking gorgeous and interesting.

But I digress, obviously I don't want the devs to try and make a massive Total War style in-engine cinematic battle with hundreds of troops running about (as cool as that'd be), nor do I want a mini Company of Heroes built in where I micromanage troop movements and what-else. But, as I said earlier, I was watching through all of the opening cinematic scenes for the races, and one stuck out to me in particular: The Cravers.

Their cinematic is proof that we don't have to be limited to just a push/pull holographic chess game, but rather, we could have engaging, real cutscenes reflecting what goes on during ground battles. Imagine watching from the inside of an imperial drop-ship en-route to a hot landing zone as the orbital bombardment tactic you chose has ships make craters of a defensive structure, or from the ranks of an emerging operator team as they infiltrate an enemy HQ.

My theory is that it'd be rather simple, whether or not that's reality would be up to the developers, but I see the cutscene structure playing out like so: The entire scene would be from the point of view of your troops, and they'd be made up of whatever races are making up your ground forces, and equipped with whatever tech of the race you're playing. The first half of the scene would be them carrying out whatever orders you'd given them before initiating the battle, I.E. landing under fire with an orbital bombardment, emerging on the beach, sneaking through the jungles, etc., before eventually coming into contact. The second part of the scene would be the outcome, your men retreating if it was a draw, celebrating a total victory, or ultimately being wiped out and slaughtered if a total defeat.

But yeah, this is just me being a dreamer, and hoping for something that I think will add to the game's narrative abilities, which is by-far it's strongest asset when faced against other 4X titles.