Much more than Strategic Zoom

I was so amazed of the strategic zoom in SupCom1 that it spawned many more ideas.



Currently the zoom function is to get an overview of the battle field.

But what if it could do more?



The game is built up in layers. you have subs then boats, land units, then hover vehicles, then gunships and finally fighter/bomber planes.

What if you could zoom out and suddenly you were in a particular layer. You could not see the layer above it but the layer below it and the layer below that one is slightly faded. Having things like radar will give you more information.
Zoom out a bit more and you could see satellites. Then further and you could see space stations and so on. Of course Kings and Castle is fantasy game so you would need a magical equivalent.
The reverse is also true. zoom further in and you would be below the earth/ocean. You could have sewers. Go further and you would have tunnels and underground bases. Go further and you might find resources and even further the planets core.
This would have a completely different game play. Hundreds of different units. Many more tactics. New way of harnessing resources(underground/overground/space). The fractions would play completely different. Goblins and Orcs build bases underground. Other races could live in space. All races can reach the other races base but some have certain skills on their home turf.

|||this would be possible indeed, but I don't really see it happening. I think it would be to expensive and time consuming for a 'smaller' companie like GPG. and if it was done, the maps would suffer for it. either the maps would be made even smaller or the amount of maps we would get would dramaticly decrease. probably both.



further than that I like the idear. its a nice concept. maybe one day we'll see something like this. (I think we already have, actually. something CA Australia made)|||The 2 rts games i played that had 2 layers (topworld and underground world) both failed financially and in amount of players playing it.

So maybe its to complex for the mainsteam gamers.



handling one layer is already taking all their effort.

Let alone 4+ at the same time.



Update: Games i was talking about:

Armies of Exigo (its not even on the official EA page anymore)

Metal Fatigue|||At first I thought strategic zoom had destroyed every other RTS game for me.

After playing Starcraft for a while I know I was wrong and strat zoom isn't end-all in RTS. It simplifies the interface and gives you a wonderful overview of the battlefield but it does take away immersion which is incredibly important.



More on topic I played a game Metal Fatigue a long time ago which had three layers and it was pretty cool. You drilled underground and only small units could be there and then the normal ground where huge robots could roam and then there was space where you built solar panels to get money. A great old game and the concept worked great and this could definitely be an improvement of that.