BIG Idea For Planets

Scanning...

To me planets in Galciv2 also don't have the thrill of adventure. The colony rush for many is a very annoying part of the game. Getting beat to a planet by Lord Konna by one turn can be a bit of a doozy.

They also don't have depth to them. They might have a production tile and a morale, but they don't have a personality. For example, a radioactive planet doesn't have any penalties to the population growth or have any way to defend against the radiation. (Ofcourse, I don't know that entirely as "Advanced Radioactive Colonization" is a little vague)

I suggest that planets have multiple layers. planets in Galciv2 seem to have only one layer, the top soil where you build your empire. The lower layers seem to be discarded for some reason. For example Europa looks icy and cold on it's top layer, but it may harbor a living, habitable ocean underneath it's surface. In Galciv2 you would most likely see this as a class 0 planet. Which to me is a poor description of a rare object in the universe.

Perhaps Galciv2 could have scanners to scan the lower layers of a planet and colonize the inner levels. In fact, that would add a new twist to the colony rush.

"You find a class 10 planet that looks good on the top, but you also see a class 0 planet that could possibly be a class 20 underneath its surface. You dismiss the class 0. So, you take no risks and go to the pretty class 10 and land on it's surface immediately. Soon after, you find out that the planet has an unstable core and has frequent earthquakes, making it almost immpossible for civilized living. You pack up and head towards the class 0 planet and scan under its pockmarked surface to find out if it is has a suitable atmosphere under its surface. After three weeks of intensive scanning, you find out that it has a paradise deep underneath its surface that is kept warm by the upper mantle. Since the colony ship does not have the proper tools, you must reverse engineer some of your equipment to get underneath, not a big step. Once you get there you find that the world is very much alive and you colonize the planet. The planet is is much better than any class 10 planet."

A little story I cooked up, but this does not apply to the colony rush either. In times of war the enemy would have to scan every planet to find you, and when they did it would be hard to get you.(Depending how deep you are) The planets could have alot of underground terrains that could be utilized, such as: lava, toxic, acidic, and water. Thus making it harder to invade and find you. Espionage would also gain from this, as you could spy on the enemy while they are unaware. Planet hopping could be used too, the enemy would have to scan the same planet multiple times to make sure you didn't come back to the same place. Basically, this would benefit nearly all the elements of Galciv2.(Plus give it a little thril of exploration)

Call me crazy, what do you think?
9,004 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top
What if it was a class 10 on the surface and a class 10 subterranean and 2 different races colonized the same planet. That would be interesting.
Reply #2 Top
From JubJub:

"I suggest that planets have multiple layers."


Like and ogre?


Nah, don't think it is doable because part of galciv2's appeal is its simplicity. Too many things going on and imbalances start to multiply. Besides you could argue that the game does already take this into account. You can see that when you colonize a higher PQ planet it is still smaller than some other lower PQ planets. How could this be? Maybe it has underground caves, "multiple layers", or better atmospheric conditions. They are not stated but implied in the game design. The tiles on the surface are only a representation of the over all planet condition.
Reply #3 Top
Like and ogre?

Funny, I was thinking the same thing....

At any rate ,simplicity and depth are two different things. I just think the game is over-simplified making it,well, boring.

My facorite one is hopping around planets and teasing the opponent making them scan(or atleast moniter) the planets I have been at to make sure I'm not around.
Reply #4 Top
this is another interesting idea, but again one that probably can't happen in GC2. i've always figured that the abstract "planet quality" really represents the total usable space on a planet - on the surface, below ground, and even in the atmosphere.

i sort of like how it was addressed in space empires IV. there are 5 types of atmosphere (plus no atmosphere) and 3 types of planet (rock, ice and gas).

but i'd like to see GC, well, 3 perhaps, do it even better. i'd still like to be able to exploit planets that can't be colonized, putting ships in orbit and perhaps mining stations or research stations that'd work similarly to asteroid miners. i'd like to see ships be able to pull of "gravity assists" (currently charged as an exploit) on any planet, more qualitative differences between planets (like, do all the sentient species in GC2 breathe oxygen? - or breathe at all?)

but these are the sorts of things that i think much remain outside the scope of any updates to GC2. with unscripted AI, any new level of complexity adds an exponential level of complexity the AI needs to remain competative.
Reply #5 Top
It would be fun to be able to mine something from class 0 planets, but this would also be fun:

You can mine precious -something- from your class 23 planet, but then it's quality drops by 5 because of mining, or max population is halved from radiation, or morale drops by 25% because of something...

I just made this up, it requires some refinement... what do you think?
Reply #6 Top
It would be fun to be able to mine something from class 0 planets, but this would also be fun:

You can mine precious -something- from your class 23 planet, but then it's quality drops by 5 because of mining, or max population is halved from radiation, or morale drops by 25% because of something...

I just made this up, it requires some refinement... what do you think?


That would help make class 0 planets useful.

With the second idea I think it would be cool just to have areas that would actually have to be a certain thing or else the planet would lose a certain bonus. Like building an industrial zone on a garden of eden planet. Cmon that planets going to look like crap now, it would be much better to make it a political capital.

I think planets that have different enviroments could have certain benefits for different parts of the tech tree. Now that TA is coming up that could be possible. An example would be on a radioactive planet. You would have a tech tree that deals hevily with genetic engineering. Now I'm not sure if the radioactive planet would benefit it, or hamper it.