I have already put up a post about making metal planets, with mixed responses http://forums.uberent.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=46555 . It was a bit outlandish, so here is somthing I thought might me a little bit more plausible. Once you find a metal planet, maybe a super rare metal planet, this planet would have an asteroid creator, this could be used for systems where you couldn't find asteroids, or you just wanted a outrageously large asteroid for an enormously large explosion. The asteroid would be made of metal, and wouldn't be too expensive, about as expensive as putting thrusters on a normal asteroid.
As I posted in the other thread, the idea for the game is to eventually get rid of land and make it more scarce to advance gameplay, not add more land. And any sort of planet building would by default be rediculously expensive, because it's building a planet. Or, as put here, an asteroid. Asteroids are big. As in, chunk out of a planet big. The planet you were getting the mass from would be very noticeably changed if you took that amount of mass out of it. In other words, whole lot of mass, whole lot of time
If it costs, say, 500 metal to make a Factory... how much Metal do you expect an asteroid to "cost"?... let alone the Energy to power the lathe to build it. No. We don't need to build Planets or Asteroids... We're supposed to be blowing them up.
I think you guys fail to see his point.. He talked about metal "asteroids", essentially just a prefabricated maneuverable chunk of metal. Think of it like smaller than a normal build-on-able asteroid, but still maneuverable to collide into planets. It wouldnt clash with the game concept of eventually running out of land, since there'd be next to no land on it to build on (if at all). If anything, it ADDS to the concept of BLOWING PLANETS UP. I think it's a great idea. It would give some more options at the very late endgame, throwing all you got into one chunk of metal to lob at the enemy in a last desperate act of revenge. As for talking about how it would require substancial mass from the existing world. Why? Matter is energy. Energy is matter. The game already has mass fabricators. Creating matter from energy. Why could this not be used to create this chunk of metal out of enormous late-game energy supplies? (We're talking several planets worth of energy supply) It wouldnt have to be a massive thing, just a very very dense small metal ball that allows the player some more orbital-clashing fun at the late game if there are no more asteroids in the game. So it would hardly clash with the planetary annihilation theme.. It would rather add a player-created method of continuing said annihilation in the late endgame.
IF you had read carefully I said it would cost as much as putting thrusters on normal asteroid, to keep the balance. I think you read my first post and instantly assumed something ridiculous here.
I read it and I hate it. Build an asteroid for the cost of engines on a "normal" asteroid? WAY underpriced. You're right about one thing though... your original post is ridiculous.
I voted no. To clarify, I think you should be able to make (not build) asteroids by blowing up planets or moons. Engineered metal asteroids sounds silly at best.