Been reading a lot of Olaf Stapeldton lately and I have to say, I absolutely LOVE the idea of planets progressing and regressing technologically. Will we be able to genetically engineer life forms for different environments, or will we be restricted to colonizing planets that are habitable to humans? Also, will there be terraforming?
Never heard of Olaf, I'll have to look him up!
As for you other questions, you're only three crash survivors, so terraforming is mostly out of the question. Genetic engineering might be something to put in (in fact, something really interesting, if you can, say, engineer your own guard animals or livestock), but that would be something high up the tech tree.
Currently you get no choice of where you colonize (you are crashing, after all). The game used to have an air system where people couldn't survive outside pressurized interiors. I cut it but could bring it back to simulate unbreathable planets for an especially brutally difficult game.
Terraforming, not planned. That's beyond the scale of what a few tens of people can accomplish. The default planet is already terraformed anyways.
when will I be able to back this amazing thing?!
I hope you'll keep watching, it should be reasonably soon. Part of the reason I released this video at all was to gauge interest and help tune a possible Kickstarter.
much better combat system!
The engine is actually something I made for a tactical JA2-style game last year, so it's got all sorts of super-nuanced calculations with leaning around cover, hit percentages, and so on. I hope it'll integrate in as a real tactical engine. I get bored of just throwing recruits (or axelords) at enemies.