Proportional Smashing

I just had natural collision, but it was more of a 'touch' than collision. Both planets survived, and it left a really really small crater on my planet, and my commander, who was at least 90 degrees away, got annihilated.

So natural collisions work different from smashes.

Natural collisions depend mainly on how close to the of the planet it happens. It goes from small crater -> bigger crater -> half the planet -> annihilated



This whole thing is really silly and I really hope there aren't other variables at play.

Other variables that might affect it other than radius(Although I doubt it): Mass, target location, distance traveled, halley count.

Ok we are thinking it has to do with Volume, which is related to radius. Also smaller into larger is different than larger into smaller.

Spread Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kvjye_qsQrNP9C-i4CJtqEt4vgjSxUOuIUn-YO1jXOg/edit?pli=1#gid=0

I believe we have small into large figured out. You basically have to have a difference of 71 between their radius. So for the small 100 -> 171 if you want the large to survive. 200 -> 271, 300 -> 371. Anything less and both planets will be destroyed. This doesn't work in reverse. For large into small the large planet has to be 3x radius of the planet you are smashing into or both are destroyed. I'd love to here from the devs why they are different and more about the smashing mechanics and equations.

Distance also seems to play a part? It seems in some cases if the planets are close enough for the planet to hit it's target without doing the positioning animation it will survive and can be used to halley again.

I added more notes in the spreadsheet. I see that a few people have been taking looks at it. If anyone has anything to contribute(smash results, theories) or would like to help feel free to tell me.

This stuff is pretty important to know when your designing a system with halleys.