Metal Planet: Uh....what?

Yet another scenario for the pile would be:

• Commander physically goes in to core to control planet, optionally with control points to open a tunnel
• Planet starts a long timer (say 30 minutes) for whatever death raining it does
• Commander is consumed by the process (making it viable for team games only)
  • Alternatively the commander is not destroyed, but is vulnerable by not being able to move during timer (timer cannot be stopped)
• Optional cool-down time for planet weapon

Which leaves you vulnerable in many ways, not least a lot can happen in 30 minutes.

Yeah,

30 minutes is way to long m8.

So much can happen....

True, but it is an unstoppable planet shattering device. Giving savvy players time to evacuate is just polite

Perhaps the best way to balance this would just be to limit metal planets being in orbit around larger bodies.

This allows them to be assaulted with IP nukes and unit cannon (if there are other moons that is) which stops them from becoming too fortress-like.

It also makes a fair bit of sense from a realism perspective, it's probably much easier and cheaper to build such a huge structure in orbit (or even around the shell of a mined out moon/asteroid)

EDIT: my post count and likes are perfect powers of ten... Don't want to ruin it by posting more.

As was mentioned by someone before, perhaps metal planets should be able to create smaller planets. I think that would be a very interesting idea. Those planetoids would be scale 1, and spawn in orbit around the metal planet, and be unoccupied.

I like the idea of it being a Death Star, but with a twist. The idea of having smaller areas you have to build things on to power/make use of the planet is good. I'd like to see it have a limited range, which means it has to move closer or artificially orbit a planet it wants to take out rather than snipe from a solar system away. This would give the defending planet an option of assaulting the metal planet with closer proximity orbal stuff like unit canons, nukes orbital lasers and fighters to take out the power buildings to slow, and with enough buildings destroyed, halt the planet busting process.

It would be more along the lines of risk/reward rather than an I win button. The person with the Metal Planet will still need to maintain a defense around their strategic buildings and the planet in general with a combo of ground units, Anti orbital units and anti nukes silos so the planet buster can fire off, or worse, the defending player(s) get a foothold on the metal planet and teleport their armies over. It has the advantage of being reusable compared to Halleys, but carries with it much more inherent risk and time overhead.

Given how planet load times are currently, I imagine the engine would shudder under the weight of such a task.

Which is a great reason to do it.

Wait... Who ever said Metal Planet's ancient technology could only have one use, why couldn't it be a death star and a resource gen, or a baby maker and a death star, etc. etc.

EDIT: Also, think of the mods... *maniacal laugh in background*