So, a few days ago I was in a discussion and thought of how we could maybe use meteors to disrupt the orbit of a planet. And just a couple mins ago, I read a topic about how meteors could be put in low orbit. So I was thinking, what mechanics could be implemented into meteors, other than the obvious ones? For example, orbitary disruption, space bombs (Rig a meteor to blow and send it plowing into a gas giant?). Let's come up with some things that meteors can do to influence the war, instead of just bombing a base. I will put any suggestions that don't suck (wai dunt we throw da meteroz at tha sun) in a master list found below. It would also be helpful if you could detail how this would benefit wars. Finally, I would also like to state that any of these involving meteors hitting planets is just me thinking that the meteors will not instantly destroy a planet (In a livestream about planet generation, there were giant craters where Uber said that is where meteors and such hit, not destroying the planet but leaving a big hole.) -Hit a planet and disrupt it's orbit (Knocking planets into the sun, gas giants, other planets... -Put explosives on a meteor, for a bigger boom or remote detonations (Let's blow up a gas giant!) -The ability to control meteors instead of just using them for collision courses. For example, putting a meteor in low orbit. Could be used for mobile/small bases. -Hitting meteors with other meteors -Launching swarms of aircraft from the meteor in the middle of an aerobraking maneuver. -In a nutshell, blowing up a meteor to pepper the planet with meteorites. Would have possible controls via a circle designating where the meteorites would land after it was detonated.
I really like the idea, however I don't think an impact would normally cause an orbit to change much, if at all.
Well, it depends on how massive the meteor is. If it's 1/10th the mass of the planet, assuming a mostly inelastic collision, the two would go heading away with most* of the meteor's original momentum. *Not accounting for the butt-tons of energy lost to the MASSIVE BLEEDING EXPLOSION caused by the meteor.
Warning: This reply contains the evil reference to space (ish) combat. As far as putting an asteroid into orbit. We will not be getting 'Home World' style deep space combat. But, With the orbital layer I would think it would be more likely we end up with something like 'Sins of a Solar Empire' style combat.
Agreed. But 'layer' would mean one of 2 things, ether a static orbit and stuff can't move around, or an orbit where you can move around. :twisted: We need more fuel for the speculation fire! :twisted:
I hope they dont make LEO into a Geostationary orbit (ignore this being words describing earth orbits), the spy satelites should be wizzing around and see an area once every few minutes ( or tens of seconds depending on the orbital speed). Also, can we have a shuttle to ferry ground units into space in sup com style six packs?
I wonder if it will be easier to leave objects with less mass? Easy to drop down from an asteroid, hard to get into space?
It's been confirmed the most we'll ever have out of using space for travel is unit cannons and fabber pods. EDIT: Well, conventional space travel. Still, that might mean the whole "low orbit" thing is invalid.
Shotgun meteorites: prep the meteor with explosives that you can trigger en route to the target planet so that the meteor fractures into smaller pieces before impact. Instead of a big crater you get an area bombardment that destroys units and buildings but leaves the planet surface more or less unharmed. Preferably with some UI that projects a shrinking impact circle on the target planet that lets you chose when along the orbit to fracture the meteor so that you can either spray half a planet or a smaller area with meteor shrapnel. tldr: break big space rock into small pebbles that will kill nasty bad metal men and save planet.
I wouldnt think a low orbit asteroid could be possible, but making it just like a moon may actually be possible... as long as planetary orbits arent hardcoded into the game. About pushing a planet out of its orbit.... yeah that might not be sooo real and it would be reaaaly silly I love the idea of having a web of satelites whizzing around the planet from time to time, this would make reconaissance for large planets much easier, and since they should be a little expensive they would not affect early game scouting at all I would really hope to see a response from neutrino about orbital... i honestly for this would only want satelites, missiles and only big bases and units for gas giants
I'm hoping we can build say good t2 radar on one if it's in orbit and then enhance it with artillery. Drive by meteor artillery shootings
I am thinking gas giants will have multiple moons that can be fought over. Think about how many awesome moons saturn and jupiter have. I am also hopeful for the astroid mechanics teased in the trailer, but I am not sure how using them to bombard a planet would be advantageous as they would seem to destroy the entire planet. But, I guess that is the point.
I don't care if it is not real or if it is silly. I only care if it is Fun! Plus, it is a game and if that is not enough, then it is a couple billion years in the future. If we can fly planet killer side asteroids around, then why can't we do the same with a planet? Also, *cough* death-star *cough*... :twisted: Basically, in a game, if its cool and fun, do it.
Looking at the size of the planet vs the size of the asteroid in the kickstarter, it's very possible and very real (well, maybe not completely pushing it out of orbit). You also need to consider that asteroids are much more dense all around (while planets are mostly just dense at the core), because they are made of a great deal of iron. Pushing it out of orbit is very unlikely, but it would certainly greatly alter the orbit in some way. Wouldn't that be an interesting strategy... You see an enemy with a big asteroid on a collision course with your home planet, so you send a smaller asteroid to ram into the poles to knock the orbit onto a different plane and dodge the enemmy roid. Of course, you risk killing your home planet, but it might save your life...
planets are pretty elastic, and a meteor that size would easily exceed the gravitational binding energy of the planet and turn it into a spray of fine interplanetary dust
