I haven't worked it out fully yet. I need to make lots of UI elements to make the plans for the AI, and i'm propably going to hard-code all the UI. There will be no bounding box selection, and if i'll allow unit selection it will be for 1 purpose, to show details about it. Bit like other strategy games, you can select a building from toolbox, and set where the construction yard will be at. But unlike other games, i also determine the building size upon placing it. Then nearest available workers start coming to build it, with no interaction from me (this is how Settlers works). I can determine how many workers (they fly in this game) i want made for the empire, and in games we know (TA) it's sometimes taking away from military production queue.

I'll also divide the map to 10 sectors horizontally and vertically to minimize amount of processing done. Each have their own list of units, so say if bomb is dropped on sector (2,4), then i only need to check unit collisions from there only. If the blast radius extends near the border, or even within corner, in worst case i'd check 4 sectors for that blast. But if AI has 500 units at sector (8,6) or something, they will be completely left out of calculation. It is also a boost for rendering. I can also use the mass collision i used in the other demo, with the sector optimization, and 1 other trick.

Yes it's propably a bit ambitious idea, which is why i won't start from 3D animations. There'll only be Skirmish game mode, no story, and no identifiable commander, unless time permits and i get new ideas. Other obvious problem will also be to make the enemy commander AI. I need to get enough playtime myself to know how it should be played, so that i can tell AI how to play. I am also cautiously worried about outposts, and UI related to them. World might just be a low varying heightmap from simplex noise, with single tile type for now. No looping from borders this time. I have done it before, but it does add bit more confusion and i can't afford the time.