Ground Combat Expansion

[Tampa_Gamer]

Expansion ideal for current ground combat (maybe major patch or SE V? too late for gold I suppose)

As I mentioned in an earlier discussion thread, I enjoyed the ground combat aspects of Star General b/c I always felt that taking over a planet should have a little more strategy involved. The following is an ideal which might accomplish this while minimizing the amount of additional programming required.

- Use the current space combat grid/module for ground combat

- Terrain/background could be automatically generated based on type of planet (nothing fancy, just valid/invalid squares for terrain blocking, slower movement, etc.)

- Attacking player would choose what transports in fleet would deposit their troops/platforms to planet (similar to cargo transfer screen)

- Combat would proceed similar to space combat with ranges/to hits/moves all similar to space combat (this would open up a whole new set of components for troop propulsion, etc.) This would also allow longer range weapons to act as artillery, fast moving units as armor, etc.

- Of course the ground combat could become much more complicated with components to allow space bombardment from orbiting capital ships/fighters every XX turns (ala IG2), etc.

- This entire "combat subroutine" could be an alternative to the current one (so in the end game they could be quickly resolved) or their could be an option for "strategic resolution" similar to space combat

I think overall the expansion of ground combat would add a whole new dimension of strategy that IG2 tried to accomplish and MOO2 never did right. Using the existing space combat system and unit design/component data setup the amount of additional program would be minimized. In the meantime, what other games have people seen that implement a good space combat/ground combat tactical combination?

Thanks,
Tampa_Gamer