I know there were a lot of suggestions about planets, and some of them I took/modified/stole
And unfortunately I could not make this shorter.
First of all, here are suggestions what the planets may be used for:
1)A planet is like a station- provides protection for the owner via the use of ground to orbit guns. But unlike a station, a planet may have production factories (examples later) and will have much more HP, I dunno, A couple of hundred trillion.
2) A planet is a renewable source of materials,with ability to build extraction factories, Which will make it more than a landmark, but a strategic point, worth something even for the top-end guys (and invaluable on the SO Wars when resources run out
)
3) Production- a planet can produce credits by mining, growing food, or building troops for assaults on other planets or for protection and creating marines.Production per 10 minutes. (not really money, but still)
4) A planet may be shared between a few people- useful for alliances. But sharing with your alt will still be illegal.
5) A planet may be used as a marketplace- but unlike CHOAM, here people will be able to sell directly to each other, without auctions and waiting.
That is it for the overview, now for the Mechanics bit.
Tech. Overview
1) When creating a planet, the owner can select the strategic outlay from a list (example shown below). It will have a number of strategic territories, which will have a certain number of build areas, which is where you can build structures. Also- areas will differ on: the terrain, build areas, type of resources. E.G. Yellow sector on the map- Desert terrain, +10% bonus to planetary mechanical units power (used for assault/defence), type of resource- gold, stone . Build areas- 15. And to contrast- Brown Sector- Mountainous terrain,+10% to infantry power, build sectors- 6, type of resource- Iron, Metals, Stone. Blue sector (It also supposed to say Ocean on it, but got smudged by myspace)- ocean terrain, only mechanical units can be used, only certain structures can be constructed, e.g. naval defence turrets, or ground-orbit missile silos on the sea floor and drilling stations. resources- carbon. Well you get the point.
2)When clicking on a certain strategic territory, it brings up the info on that territory as well as a command panel, where you can build structures and assign units.
3)All structures have to be researched to be built. Examples of structures:
Barracks: allows infantry basing in sector. 50 million units per barracks, increases with research level.
Mechanical depot: Allows basing of mechanical units. 5 per depot, increases with research level.
Cloning facility: allows for atonomous production of infantry. Requires money to build. +25 million infantry per 10 minutes, increases with research. (money can be taken away from planet's production- owner assigns how much cash from production will be used)
Factory- produces mechanical units, 25 units per 10 minutes.
Orbital defence gun: Can fire at incoming ships. 10 billion attack power with 30% acc per gun Damage upgradeable, build scanners to increase acc for all guns in sector(+ 10% per scanner. And I mean 30+10, not 10% of 30)
Shield: Sectors with shields do not allow enemy to land units from space here. You can initially build 3 shields, with research that can go up to 7.
Ok, now the last bit- assault/defence mechanics.
1) To make it fair, the enemy cannot use ships to bring in marines, until all guns are destroyed on surface. This is because: when ships enter the atmosphere, they must devert all power from shields and structual integrity in order to slow down and not hit ground full speed. This will mean even the most powerful ships will be vulnerable. ( U know how it works, bigger the ship, the heavier it is, thus more force need to be applied to keep it in air).But he/she can bring units into the system using ships and drop them using drop pods(research) 1 marine will be 0.1 space, 1 mech- 1000 space.Pods are 100 000 in space,and increase with research. The enemy selects a sector to invade, and selects the number of marines to drop and hits attack. To drop in Mechanicals, U first: need to have a planet where they can be built or build the mothership module. Then you either select for these units to be taken from a pool of available units (this will not include units assigned to areas(marines+mechs) or ships(marines) but from idle), or select to build them(I dunno what the cost for mechs will be, depends on their stats which I have not thought of yet). If you select to build mechs you must spend 20 turns per 10 mechs, no penalty for marines. The battle follows(marine items apply only for orbital drops, and increase marines power only during battle). If the attacker wins, he/she gets controll of the sector and will be able to build structures. During battle, also taken into consideration: terrain, defence structures:anti-infantry/mech turrets. Attacker can also select attack type: regular- your units will concentrate on attacking enemy units or raze- your units will concentrate on attacking structures. There will also be 3 ways to attack-orbit drop and ground assault and coordinated assault.In ground assault, you select units just like in orbital, but the pool of units will only encompass those on surface. To make things more interesting, whenever possible, Coordinated assault may be used(ground + orbital). Here the attacker units gain +5% to power.
2)When the owner selects strategic overlay, he also selects sector for headquarters. Until they are taken/destroyed, he can give orders to sectors, and remains planet owner. If the attacker destroys the HQ, the defender will be unable to give orders to his units, or fund the production factories.This way, the attacker wins, and is now planet owner. He can mop up the resistance afterwards. The sector where the attacker first landed automatically becomes his HQ.
NOTE!!! Since there are many sectors, there can be more than one attacker. Either the defendant kicks their collective butts, either it will be king of the hill, with the last standing man the winner. But it can also result in a planet being split between 2 or more players. In that case, if they both have orbital weapons, they will both receive bonuses in Sol. System.
OK, that is my suggestion. I tried not to over-complicate, so I'm asking: is this possible? And the figures listed are off the top of my head, I did not balance them.
OK, That will be it,Cheers, AFB