My suggestion :D
Make planet wars something like
Space engine is.
Its a free space simulator program and maybe if we ask we can use their program for our planet wars. Its just simple:
1.Each player gets a start planet (in space engine there is an infinite number of planets where everything is generated procedurally.
2.Make economy system adaptable to planet wars(a lot of metal cost for the units) so you wont be able to build things fast. For example a glave, or small units can be built in like 1 hour or faster but with more energy cost. With this we will avoid the lag problems caused by tons of units.And besides that it will force the players to start the game like a space sim where you build, expand make friends and then attack other players.
3.When exploring other planets that are in habitable zone chickens may be found there and in order to takeover the planet a battle against these creatures will be needed
4.Exploring units (ships, space ships), colonizing units (ships), Transport military units, battleships will be needed for planet wars to work where you will use these to attack other players at their planets or in space.
5.To attack a player you will need something like a cosmic string technology or wormhole projector technology to be developed from a building. This will make you move to one solar system to the other more faster.(Building these will cost more or nearly as a starlight so developing this technology will need a weak or so or at least decent economy)
6.Random pirates in space, on planets and other races that will fight against the robot domination :)
7.Starlight, Zenith and other superweapons including nukes will be very important in defending your own planet against invasions and stuff.
8.Solar system economy link where all planets income and energy is connected via planet wormhole.
Ohh, regarding the thing when you attack a player at his planet and he can't be there to defend it because of "I have a life, and i cant play now" we can make a Chivalry feature.
In the Chivalry feature if you attack the player when he has the time to play you will gain chivalry points even if you lose the battle. With the chivalry points you can unlock technology or even more metal for certain periods of time.
On the contrary if you attack a player in a non-civilized manor(attacking him when he cant play in that moment) you will gain terror points even if you dont manage to destroy him.
If you were attacked by a terror player (players that attack when you dont have time to play) at least 50% of metal and energy from all your stuff will be generated and a colonizer ship will be auto made so you can start over in other solar system.
If you were attacked by a chivalry player and you lose the solar system a smaller % of metal and energy investment of all your stuff will be auto generated in a colonizer ship (something between 10-40%) for you to start over again.
Chivalry points will be granted for the players who will hunt down the players who have terror points, and you wont have to wait for him to have time to defend against you. Thus, having terror points will make you a big target for other players if you dont play fair.
