This wouldn't have flown with other RTS in the past. But PA flat out has an orbital component. So why not an orbital elevator? It's not even that far fetched in terms of tech. Japanese company is already planning one within our lifetime: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/22/space-elevator-2050 We're just lacking a bit right now, the ability to massproduce carbon nanotubes on a major scale. But oh! We have a nanolathe in game as well.... Sounds a bit too convenient don't you think? Seriously speaking. I think this would be major bragging rights for PA. RTS, battling on a sphere, multiple planets, crashing moons into planets, orbital elevators?!?!?! But I have no actual in-game ideas. What about you guys?
I found a thing! https://forums.uberent.com/threads/solar-power-and-space-elevators.51402/#post-787009
A really cheap, fragile way to get into orbital, but it's vulnerable to attack from all layers. So you have to defend it.
The metal you would need to build it would be crazy.... and its not like we should be concerned with the environmental damage of rockets.
This is crazy.. On the other hand, I always found orbital elevators sketchy, I mean the only thing holding it up is angular momentum with a large amount of strain on the connecting 'shaft'. As you move freight up and down the 'shaft' you loose some momentum with each passage requiring either jets for correction, or something else. Someone wanna double check my physics?
Who cares about real world feasibly? I like the idea for the mechanics. When you build this you are investing in the future. It pays for itself in the cheaper launching it provides. I like interesting and strategy specific ways of investing. Currently we just have "Tech Up" and "Make Energy, upgrade Mexes". A large investment also creates a large target for your opponent and if it can be attacked from multiple layers it is even more interesting.
In real life, the whole purpose of a space elevator is to reduce the cost to get into orbit. Already we're seeing transports that once built, can ascend and descend without any additional costs. Plus, there will be unit cannons! Now, if unit cannons can't shoot units out of orbit on bigger planets due to the gravity well being too large, this may come into play as a way to get units to an orbital unit cannon.
Tether deployed from space ? Hadn't seen that concept before, check it out. Skip to 6:10 if you wanna get straight to that tether
Carbon nanotubes are strong beyond anything we have int he world today. By a factor that is a total paradigm shift. We already have them made, just not at a scale-able production level.
Your physics is pretty good. However, I think we'd be dealing with a mostly conservative force - lowering things down should have the opposite effect as raising things up. Of course, if you're doing nothing by exportation, then you're eventually going to have big trouble.
