Lol, so you did say water. Whoops, sorry about that.

I just watched Empire Strikes Back a few days ago, and tried to observe what creates the immersion to the movie, or in this case when it is implemented into the game.

One dimension, that I think is very important in creating the immersion  is the soundscape.

In hoths case there was a lot of wind blowing around, and the walker sounds.. thumph.. thumph.. were heard all the way to inside the echo base. Ofcourse the laser blasts, explosions.. etc. will be there, but what I would really like to see, or rather hear, are the sounds of the surrounding enviroment, that are non weapon based, like the wind, snow crumbling down from the ceiling in echo base, the voices of the fighting troops, droids beeping, vehicle engines.. etc. As wide variety of sounds as is possible. The range of the sounds could also be a bit longer, than in BF2, so you can hear them a bit further. I have tweaked the balance between 2d and 3d sounds in my own BF, so the sounds of the surroundings are a bit louder than normally, so that the illusion of being there is enhanced.

Another thing on hoth is definetly the visual weather effects, possible snow fall, little whirlwinds of snow on the ground, clouds of snow after explosions, or fighter crashes.. etc. The snowfall.. It would definetly cause lag, if created to fall all around.. This is a thought, that just came into my mind, so I haven´t really followed it through yet.. Would it be possible to create the illusion of snowfall, without actually having to make it happen around you, a sort of 2d effect instead of 3d?