Pretty sure everyone is excited about throwing asteroids at planets but what will exactly happen ingame? I think something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc4HL_-VT2Y would be cool. I noticed in the kickstarter video that destroying the planet is really fast. I think its better if there was some time to escape the planet before it gets consumed by the heat (just like in the video i linked where it takes a day to fully consume the entire planet). The further away you are from the center of impact the longer you have. Another thing i saw in that video i linked is that the planet only turns into a lava planet for a relatively short time. After some time the water condenses and forms oceans again. Maybe ad some unit that can 'accelerate' this process?
If you hit any planet with a liquid core with an meteor large enough, then the surface of the planet will scatter, leaving nothing but a giant lava field which lasts until the end of the match. If the meteor was huge enough, the shockwave will scatter even more of the planets surface, up to turning the whole planet i a giant fireball again. If you try the same on a planet with a solid core (very old planet), then the meteor will just create an crater instead, but still causing the shockwave to terraform the whole planet if the size was sufficient. On a medium age planet (like earth or a bit older) a hybrid modell would be used, at the primary impact location the surface would be broken, rendering it into a lava field. If the meteor wasn't to huge then the rest of the surface will just be scatterd, destroying all buildings and ground units as well as performing some deformation on the terrain. The younger the planet (a planet with high volcanic activity is very young!), the smaller the meteor needs to be to break the surface of the planet. The thickness of the outer shell determines the size of the lava field created. If you look at the physics, it takes only 5-20 seconds to scatter a planet of the size of our earth! The shockwave spreads with sonic speed which is up to 8000 m/s when travling through the core (the high pressure makes shockwaves travel a lot faster) or 2-4000 m/s when traveling across the surface of the planet. Give it 5 more minutes until the lave covers the surface and you got a perfect destruction.
First of all: Awesome, not realism. So calm down astrophysicists out there. Fair enough with trying not to break the suspension of disbelief but I don't want half the money going on a high grade KEW simulator. Secondly I've been thinking that the stretch grade planets could add a strategy element in regards to KEW. For water planets I kinda like the idea that the tsunamis clear the planet or an area of it depending on the KEW's velocity (Or in game terms, distance traveled) but the planet itself is actually undamaged by the impact. For Gas giants I'd go a step further and have them basically vulnerable to a KEW impact with the rock entering the planet and detonating relatively harmlessly within its sphere. the bullseye of the entry impact would have things destroyed as it passes through but after that nothing except a preference for a satisfying but brief glow of the gas giant as the meteor detonates within. Hell with the new stretch goal planets something like the metal world could have advanced protection from such impacts but they need to be "activated" in much the same way any other features are on the planet that are being discussed elsewhere. This is my hope anyway. I think it adds a new layer of strategy onto the fundamental structure of a planet aside what it provides in resources and what you can build on it.
Physics provide the most awesome effects in that case They cover both the scattering of the planets surface as well as the creation of lava fields along the cracks in the surface. Well, or the initial shockwave not only causing terrain deformation but also spreading in liquid bodys like water, causing tsunamis as you called them. I agree with KEWs haven almost no effect on gas giants, there is just nothing to colide with but a lot of air friction which will tear the meteor appart without doing much damage. Btw.: You knew that you could also snipe a very resistant structure on the opposite side of the planet by using propper physics? Once the shockwave traveled once around the planet, it will join once again in a significant spike on the exact opposite side of the planet, causing quite some destruction, even with small meteors. Physics just make such events more awsome.
What about anti-KEW devices? How should KEW's be 'countered'? They showed the asteroids splitting into several pieces after getting hit, but still destroying the planet. I imagine each asteroid has a missile requirement to be destroyed, and if they reach the atmosphere before being destroyed, it deals damage. Damage is based on asteroid mass (confirmed somewhere I think...?) Should missiles be the only defence? It'd keep things simple, but what else would be possible? Could land on the asteroid and use thrusters to stop/move it? Could you launch another asteroid as it to destroy/push it? Just some thoughts.
