A Planet's end: Permanent death?

Sure, asteroids (and most probably other planets) wouldn't be enough to ignite it. But (theoretically) with enough energy (e.g. lots and lots of nukes) you could cause a chain reaction. This wouldn't turn the gas giant into a star (it doesn't have the gravity to sustain the reaction for long), it would still make a hell of an explosion.

While it would be grossly impractical IRL (but not impossible when you're doing planetary engineering), being able to blow up a gas giant with anything orbiting it is kind of awesome. I guess that the aftermath should be evaporated asteroids, scorched moons and planets (destroyed like by an asteroid impact) and a burning gas giant.

The problem with that ignition approach is that if there was enough chemicals to react then it would have done that by now, so in order to get a good reaction going you need to add huge amounts of some reagent.

We've heard little detail about anything, so why discuss anything at all? Uber has even asked for suggestions for naval and orbital gameplay, so I don't see an issue with discussing this...

My point is that if we are going to have orbital elements for gas planets, we should at least try to implement the whole 'planetary annihilation' aspect to them.

You could target sections of the planet for destruction, like mentioned above. It wouldn't be some explosion of rock, but it still destroys things with the fire and storms.

Thus, I extrapolate on the idea and consider what could happen if someone wants to 'destroy' a gas planet.

They are going to be a useful resource, no? Why even bother adding them to the game if they're just going to act like a ridiculously hard to reach steam vent?

I imagine no one has thought of anything to do with gas planets, so everyone discounts them as part of the game. Surely there will be more than just resource structures there.

Also, realism isn't a necessity.

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Igniting the atmosphere sounds like a good option.

It could even alter energy production if someone decides to return...? Similar to the rocky / lava metal relationship.

Burn the surface a few times to get down to the better resources? Or the alternative being you burned off the useful resources. Not sure which would make more sense for the game.

I'd just like to clarify that when people talk about 'igniting' a planet, they're actually talking about sparking a self-sustaining fusion reaction, as opposed to sparking a self-sustaining redox reaction.

Totally different level of particle interaction, there.

-sincerely, the Science Nazi,

You are misconstruing my comment, I was unsure of what type of response you were looking for, so I was answering several questions, one of them being: have the devs said anything on this?

We don't need to go for realism, yes, but everything I've heard indicates many mechanisms for the game will be at least be semi realistic. And just because you can't blow up a gas giant will not make them pointless

People do talk about igniting atmospheres of planets chemically. And as I mentioned earlier, Jupiter is not even close to heavy enough for that.

-sincerely, a slightly miffed Science Nazi

I can see igniting the atmosphere of a rocky planet chemically, but with a gas giant that's mostly helium and hydrogen based you'd probably want to go with fusion.

I'm actually in favour of complete planetary destruction, you don't need to quote against me and if you look back people have mentioned parts breaking off which is what the moon is

Plus the Planetoid that hit Earth didn't exactly annihilate the planet though... Not on the level we are wanting in PA.

And by realistic I was talking about the scale we are likely to see, yea a big asteroid would be very shi**y for life on Earth if one hit but the planet would probably recover or depending on the size/heat/whatever turn Earth into a Venusian like planet.

I'm happy for them to break physics for the sake of gameplay. It worked ok for Mass Effect

Yes!

If hit with big enough force/mass should melt into lava biome. Part should escape (like when water drops split during collisions) if enough force/mass, Metal production things (like in Total Annihilation) move around (even sink into the planet) and planet later reform (solidify). Go from lava, to solid crusted to erode into another biome.
Metal spots (like in TA) able to be melted into “jelly bubbles” that keep its metal production property.
Have metal producing spots linkable. In the case of lava have metal producing spots rise to the surface.
Water evaporated from old ‘earth like’ planet reform as a water planetoid away from the star.

Planets should be splittable into much smaller planetoids and smaller again to asteroids.
Why would a planet explode just because of multiple strikes?

Would like it if gas planets could become stars. Possibly ‘accidentally’ if a space stations nuclear reactor was to fall into the cloud if it (the cloud had the right composition).
Add unit that can process water into O2 and H, for dumping into gas planets.

I think destruction and creation of resources would be an excellent game mechanic.
Metal production spots should still be destroyable, by laser only for example. But at least extremely difficult to destroy when solid and planted inside a rock or other surround. Easier to destroy if free floating.
Have propulsion systems attached to asteroids/planetoids become a metal production spot after being destroyed in a collision.

Solution: Have a rich variety of units.
Example: A weapon upgrade for metal extractors or a maneuverable satellite weapon.

I'm not sure how this could be turned into a good game play mechanic... maybe if the the planet could only move slowly, other wise easy/total annihilation of a persons base could turn into Fastest to build a propulsion system wins.

Or knock them out of orbit and into a trajectory that makes than crash into the star then become another biome then ejected.

Yep, all good ideas should be considered!
Gas planets should be able to grab (metaphorically speaking about gravity) asteroids and collect them in the center to form a planetoid under its cloud. Mass under the cloud should by some process (electric or pneumatic) become a new biome uneek to gas planets. If a gas planet becomes star when containing solid core then that should become a biome uneek to that process then be ejected.

They dont necessarily have to be self-sustaining, they could burn out and condense then become another biome.

I look forward to destroying gas giants with metal planet superweapons.

Gas giants: the equivalent of red barrels in any other game. You shoot them because you know they look cool when they explode.