Orbital Bombardment

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by arm2thecore, August 30, 2012.

  1. arm2thecore

    arm2thecore Active Member

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    I read a sci-fi book called Footfall many years ago, where aliens were bombarding the earth by what amounted to "smart crowbars." Hunks of metal that could adjust their reentry point to cause massive damage on impact.

    Might be an idea for a new unit.
  2. neophyt3

    neophyt3 Member

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    .....this is already part of the stretch goals, and that's if you don't include attacking the planet from asteroids (which is already in the game).
  3. arm2thecore

    arm2thecore Active Member

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    Is there a description of what those orbital units' functions are? I may have missed a forum post... if so, I apologize.
  4. neophyt3

    neophyt3 Member

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    Nothing specific, orbital units are already planned, and "enchanted orbital units" are listed under the $1,300,000 stretch goal on Kickstarter. Also, this idea has been suggested lots of times in the unit suggestion threads.
  5. ledarsi

    ledarsi Post Master General

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    I believe what you are talking about would more properly be called "hyperkinetic weapons." The idea is that even an inert chunk of metal, if it is moving fast enough, can cause incredible amounts of damage. Using an electromagnetic accelerator (read: railgun), or some kind of futuristic reaction chamber, it would be possible to accelerate a rod of metal to insane speeds. Damage on impact would be measured in kilotons of explosives, or even megatons, even though no actual explosives were present in the projectile.

    I for one would love to see a game take a crack at implementing orbital strategy and tactics. This would allow bombardment of a significant portion of the planet's surface from any particular spot in orbit (not the entire surface at once- it may require relocating. Guided missiles overcome this limitation).

    And if orbital bombardment is present in the game, why not also enable "orbital insertion" where a drop pod with military units inside is crashed down onto the planet. A ship or station could also be used as a staging area for suborbital craft, including dropships which could shuttle units up from the surface, as well as drop them off. Not as fast as hurling a pod, but more controlled and can ferry units about the surface as well.

    Big ships would obviously be unable to land on planets, but they might be packed with all manner of goodies, from onboard factories, to sensor arrays to scan the planet, to bombardment capability.
  6. arm2thecore

    arm2thecore Active Member

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    Yep, I'll go with "hyperkinetic weapon," but I wasn't actually thinking of accelerating it with anything other than the planet's gravity. Just guided reentry. So, they'd take a while to impact, but it would be devastating.
  7. matgopack

    matgopack New Member

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    Project Thor?

    Rods from God... Was that what you meant? :p

    (precise orbital strikes that hit with extreme force)
  8. arm2thecore

    arm2thecore Active Member

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    Them's the ones!

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