Feeding the Sun.

I just want something to happen when a planet touches the sun, instead of noclipping. I don't want the players to be able to fling the planet in the sun on purpose, but I have seen a few occasions where planets do fly through the sun on accident.

With other words, it can't be done, but if it somehow happens, it's gotta look cool.

It would be cool if you could force a planet into a close orbit to the sun and it would catch fire

MINiNOVAS!! or meganovas or some kind of nova even bellanova would be nice...

It'd give Nova clan a nice little PA screen cap to use.

planet crashing into the sun at a sound track of belanova…… beautiful

I'm actually not very fond of the song

it totally would!

what about if planets abandon their orbit after they miss their target?…….JUST TO COME AND CRASH INTO THE SUN!!

in what case would that happen? all halleys got destroyed before the crash?

case and point:
at the end

on a more serious note it would be useful if you could build a fortress to house the engines forcing a player off planet or loose everything muhaha

Better yet, feeding sun. Like if a planet gets to close, the sun calls feedingtime and its an doomd planet.

It's not something that would necessarily have to be "used". Degraded orbits leading to planets in the sun would be the natural consequence of the application of conservation principles to planetary collisions. Also hyperbolic orbits leading to planets leaving the system... but that's just not as cool.

Hold up.
Did you just confirm orbit degradation or were you just dropping sciencey stuff on us?

Am I the only one that noticed @UberGaf' avatar is a planet smashed to make a hole through it :O

I kind of like this idea. Every once in a while a planet gets pulled into solar orbit, and every once in a while the sun eats a planet (preceded by an alarm perhaps).

how about a slider on star age and the older the star the more likely it is to start attracting planets ever so slowly towards itself?

I would love to fry a planet clean of all units, wreckage, and trees. It should look like a lava planet after the sun is done with it

Orbit degradation into the sun for timed matches would be really cool. I could see that working out really well for tournaments when games can't last too long. Timed asteroid smashes would also be a plus.

I could see escape the system game modes working well with this. You could win by getting off the planet (maybe a new inter-solar system transport unit that is very expensive) or by annihilating the opponent prior to the impending doom.

As far as complaints about practicality, it's just as practical as crashing two planets together...

How so?

Mike

The metal and energy that goes into the construction of Halleys can always be spent more effectively when building an army. An army can be used strategically...planet smashing not so much. Mass destruction definitely has a cool factor to it, but I fail to see how smashing planets and destroying a major (if not all) source of income is a good thing for long term strategy. This goes back to a post where I mentioned that asteroids (or cheap movables), should be barren of metal. In this case it can't be used as an unassailable outpost, just a weapon and a staging ground for an assault (maybe via the future unit cannon).

In any case, the decision to launch a planet into another is typically end game, so why not be able to launch a planet into the sun for another type of end game scenario?

I should mention that my point of view also comes from playing mostly 1 v 1 and small system games. I'm not a fan of the huge FFA and 10 planet systems, so it's possible that the dynamic is completely different there, and planet smashes do become very strategic and necessary mid to late game. But for any planet smashing to be a decisive victory, there needs to be a minimum of three planets. One is demolished, and one has everything on it destroyed. The third would be the safe haven for the surviving commander. You need three planets to have a viable winner. When sending planets into the sun, you would only need two. One planet gets sent to the sun and is destroyed, and the other is the safe haven.

The truth is, I think it would make a nice, if not necessary addition, and I really really like the idea of orbital degradation. So if the degradation is added, the process for sending a planet into the sun is already engineered. Would it be used as a tactic in game? Who knows, but I can't think of a 1 v 1 game where I've actually used Halleys as part of a long term strategy.

Let me know what you think. Not sure that was the best explanation, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this.