Halley's Comet...?

All this talk about gravity, black holes and such got me thinking about another common solar occurrence....Comets!

Like Halley's Comet that has an ellipsoidal orbit around our sun, are there any plans to have comets and there spectacular tails, along with 'roids, moons, suns etc...?

I would be kinda cool to have a base on a fast moving Comet with a long tail trailing ice, water and robot parts...

Anyways, any thoughts on this...?

I remember someone from uber at one point saying a possible game mode was beginning in a system with an asteroid heading towards your starting planet.

There's a small problem with having trails; it gets in the way of being able to see your (or your enemy's) units.

While I'd like tails to be there, I would happily not have them in order to view the game properly. If tailed comets weren't landable, then there's really no problem. But I'm pretty sure everyone wants to land on asteroids and turn them into tools of destruction.

To be honest, not seeing your units isn't really a problem with this type of game.

Considering that you normally view it from such a zoom level that you only interact with strategic icons most of the time anyway, having them hidden from close zoom levels isn't so much of a problem. And even then, you'd still have the strategic icons to see them on close zoom levels if they were hidden by fog, clouds, comet trails or whatever.

comet tails could only start a bit of a distance from the body itself, so as to leave a bit more of a viewing angle.

Alternatively comets could just be these uninhabitable natural hazard death machines.

Comets actually have two tails when they are travelling inside a solar system, a dimmer one which is a trail of dust, and a brighter one which is gas and particles ripped off of the comets surface by solar wind, this brighter one points away from the sun regardless of the direction of the comet itself.
Personally I'm OK with comets swooping around the solar systems in their own paths, with or without a tail(s).

All for the ones without tails.

How would comets play differently than asteroids?

They're tiny, require lots of delta-V to reach and resource-poor (no such thing as metallic comet), so they'd play like terrible asteroids.

still clinging to the iceball theory i see

Yea no, bmb... they're made of Ice, Frozen Gas and Rock. It's not so much of a theory when NASA has actually put a probe on a comet.

Now, SOME comets might have a bit of metal deposit on them, Wild 2 being the key example, but it is, so far, an anomaly and not a trend.

Unless of course you can post another hilarious link to a youtube crackpot theory that "disproves" that.
Go on, I could use a laugh.

its funny that you'd cite deep impact because thats one of the best falsifiers for the iceball theory

I think you need to re-read the article.

Emphasis mine.

The article talks about water ice on the surface of the Comet and suggests that this "deposit" is in fact an uncovered layer that previously existed below the surface.

No bmb, you've already established that you hate science, freedom and apple pie, so no, you're not allowed to say things without supporting them with evidence. This will save everyone time as we know you'll only be forced to backpedal when someone who's actually done their homework shows up. No citations, no points made by bmb. It's that simple.

Owch. I little more direct than I was expecting... but truth nonetheless

I like reason and logic though and I see no logical reason to believe comets are made of ice. Rather they would seem to be quite metallic and conductive, which just so happens to fit in with making them very valuable in this game.

I also see no logical reason to engage with you about this because I know you will just go >muh authority and leave it at ridicule. As indeed you already have.

Proof bmb, proof.
WHO told you the majority of Comets are made of metal?
WHAT sources did they cite?
WHEN did you learn this?
WHERE did you read it?
HOW are you coming to that conclusion?
and
WHY do you believe it?

What depraved form of "logic" are you using when you say you "see no logical reason to believe comets are made of ice."

I've been going through bmb's posts. The lack of logic is a lot clearer after reading this thread.

You keep saying that Nanolathe and others cling to authority, yet they keep providing sources and scientific arguments. I have yet to see you give a source or any kind of proof. (aside from that youtube video about black holes)

Please start giving proof and sources instead of just saying "I believe it's this way".