[Suggestion/Discussion] Doomsday weapons and Environmental Effects?

First a preface: A doomsday weapon is not to be confused with a super-weapon. They DO often overlap, but doomsday weapons are often noted for having drawbacks to their use, even for the user. Seeing one of the usual threads about flying planets into the sun got me thinking about it.


I feel it would be interesting if we eventually saw some dooms-day weapons. They really bring out the mad scientist types after all. And they are often less boring then a classic super-weapon (well, ok, those oversized tank/plane/mech/ship units capable of soloing small armies ARE pretty fun to use sometimes, but the concept behind them is boring at least). And seeing as we have a game that is basically about destroying planets...




The first idea I came up with would be a very expensive and slow-to-build structure which when complete and activated... dissolves into a puddle of Gray Goo.
The gray goo then creeps very slowly across the planet's surface until it is completely covered. All units caught in it die (air units are immune of course, so long as they don't land). It does not matter if they are your units or not. It is, of course, limited to the surface of that planet, so people can get off-world if they see it coming. And they probably should see it coming, because I am thinking that even the smallest possible would take 5 minutes to completely cover (large ones could take a good bit longer, naturally). Slow is good in this case. It gives players enough time to do interesting things. Like make decisions on how they should deal with the fact that there is impending doom creeping towards them.

If someone went the mad scientist route and doomed everyone else on a system with only one planet, the remaining time MAY effectively be spent in a battle for king-of-the-hill on the opposite side of the planet. Since that is the last place that will be untouched, and thus the last place to be alive. Before moving to orbital-only for a short time, during which the player who was able to hold onto the last land should have a substantial advantage in orbital power. For multi-planet systems, of course, it may just cause players to focus on an attempt to exodus to another planet if they haven't already, and to maybe make attempts to block slower players from being able to do so. Lastly of course, there is the chance that people will just keep playing normally, as they may be on a planet large enough to be likely to defeat the remaining players before the goo covers the planet with the tactics the game is currently showing. In which case the slowly expanding dead zone could have potential use in strategic situations for land and sea battles (i.e. causing an enemy to unwittingly trap their units in a bay or mountain valley whose only entrance is going to be cut off by goo in a minute).






Another interesting doomsday-weapon would be a particular orbital vessel. It would be a very large, but only moderately well armored starship. With no weapons. Just big engines and a lot of mass. Its purpose is to fly to another planet as fast as it can... and to not slow down. Put another way, its sole purpose is to hit the planet with its considerable mass as fast as it possibly can as a suicide unit. The high speeds involved allow it to generate a remarkable amount of force. Nothing compared to slapping a Haley engine on a small moon, of course, but it WOULD be enough to cause damage to the planet like a normal impact can. Just on a smaller scale (its velocity in the end would greatly exceed that of the bodies Haley engines would cart moons around at, so while its mass is tiny compared to a moon or asteroid it would be moving with enough energy to cause some damage). When used on the same planet it is orbiting, it must exit the orbit first so it can accelerate to smashing speed in solar orbit, before returning home.

After all, there are times when you don't actually want to slam an entire moon into the planet. Perhaps in part because you are ALSO on that planet. Or perhaps because there are only one or two planets in the system. Either way, if the game has all the mechanics in place for planetary damage, then why not make use of them some more? Its literally the name of the game.





Another few ideas require certain environmental mechanics to be added, but would basically be doomsday weapons that alter the environment. Stuff like a volcano-creating thing. Or a special fabricator that gets launched to a larange point between the planet and sun and automatically constructs a giant sun-shade. Haley engine orbit changes could also be used for some similar effects too.

In the event solar plants and wind generators are ever added, some super weapons would naturally effect them as they would change the amount of solar and wind around to be used by said power plants. Some things like the giant sun-shade could cause interesting effects too. Like the oceans freezing, rendering all boats immobile, and allowing land units to reign supreme. If the ice gets melted of course, all land structures you built on the ice and land units still on the ice would die, but what better way to say "nope" to the guy with 50 battleships then an ice age? Just hope he doesn't find a way to de-ice the planet at a bad time. Conversely, if you are on an ice planet and that guy with the landbase on the ice is bothering you...


I always did like those Solar Plants and the wind generators from Total Annihilation. If such systems were added into this game, it could be interesting to consider their effects. Especially if a day/night cycle were ever added (hmm, do I want an easy good power source that only works half the time, or do I want to stay with consistent things that don't generate as much power?). Hey, there are some situations where you would prefer to have times with higher generation at the cost of having low generation at other times...






Lets see, what other fun super-weapons and doomsday weapons can we come up with that aren't just something like "really big mech/boat/tank/plane with a bunch of armor and weapons on it?"

...I suppose we could always build a Death Star. In fact, I will be very surprised if someone doesn't release a Star Wars mod with a functional Death Star in it eventually. Post-release of course, when offline is possible and with it custom units. Its a game about destroying planets. Someone HAS to make a death star mod eventually.

Well, a death star may be a bit cliche, but a powerful orbital beam cannon superweapon capable of firing at other planets would be interesting. I am thinking that it would cause very minimal level planetary damage (or none at all, just a nice AoE explosion that kills and damages units), and would have very poor accuracy (it would be pretty certain that it will hit the target planet, but other then that...). It could make a great standoff breaker against a heavily fortified world where you just need to wreck some havok until there are some openings to land an invasion force.





So what say you guys? Any of you have some fun ideas for doomsday devices or non-standard super weapons which could only work in a game like this?

Theese are somewhat too complex and overpowered.

love the goo idea and i always love environmental weapons. we wont see much terrain deform in this game i dont think (other than planet smash crater) but the sequel should very much be based on awesome environmental effects and destruction.

The final release isn't even out yet, let alone potential expansion packs if there are any, and we are already talking about sequels?

Death Stars are actually confirmed in the form of reactiveatable technology on metal planets

Well, I suppose those metal planets must have something hidden in em.

I am generally opposed to superweapons or other things along those lines – all around game enders. PA is supposed to be all about massive armies, not single units that destroy everything.

I'm also opposed to environmental effects that cause damage or alter units.

For reasons that have been discussed in dozens of other threads.

SupCom? Sir i think you meant to say: PA

Yeah.

Today is not my day...

I think I need more coffee...