Just a question about something in PA, is/will it be possible to fly a planet to another planet and do a drive-by with unit cannons? If not this needs to be a thing...
Well we can't be sure, but it sounds unlikely to me. But I've been wrong before; maybe they'll surprise us.
The given response was physics. You can build engines on anything, but surface area (#engines) to volume (mass) ratio for planets makes it so that moving it is going to take forever and a half. example for funsies: if you double the radius of a moon, you get 4x the number of engines, but you also get 8x the amount of mass being pushed. You have cut the max acceleration by half.
It would still take forever to get to the other planet to slingshot off of. Also, if we are staying inside a single solar system then you can't slingshot around the star, slingshots are stealing momentum from the object, a star has zero relative momentum to itself. The other problem with slingshoting a planet around a planet is the target planet is gonna try and steal momentum from you. So for this to work best you want to slingshot around something much bigger. I am now envisioning slingshotting a moon from a gas giant around said gas giant into stellar orbit.... rool:
Well, if we aren't thinking in terms of 1 solar system. Stars still have a gravitational pull or we wouldn't be in orbit around them. So what if you got closer/farther away from the star to go faster, then use the thrusters to break the orbit. In the trailer the asteroid used the local star to gain more momentum so it could damage the planet more.
As far as I know it is only going to be single solar system. So you can't use star A to get to star B. And trying to use the star's gravity like you suggested, to get yourself to use the gravity to go closer/farther is an elliptical orbit, then at the fast point (closest) you use thrusters to break orbit, that's essentially a transfer orbit, which is used with real life rockets. The problem is going to be getting the planet into the elliptical orbit is going to take forever. If we are using orbital mechanics, any change to a planets orbit at all is going to take forever no matter how we do it. It could be more cost effective to use a moon/asteroid on the outside of the solar system as a cueball, kill it's velocity a bit so it drops in towards the target planet at closest approach. That way you get the energy from the engines and the energy of the stars gravity. It'll at least be a cheaper really slow...
So does that mean I can't travel between the solar systems in that mode. Well that seems silly to me.
I believe that this whole question has everything to do with scale. From the only concept video I have seen, planets are quite small relative to unit size, and orbits are small relative to planet size. This whole scale puts everything at an unrealistic level, which is fine. However, with a great physics system and some specific units and buildings, moving a planet out of orbit could be completely believable. I would greatly like this feature to at least be considered for implementation, because what better way to adhere to the title of Planetary Annihilation than to annihilate a planet with another planet!? The aftermath combination could be be a much larger body mass of a planet with a great asteroid belt and potentially some moons for bases and KEW ammunition to launch at enemy bases. Smashing planets together could not only be destructive, but productive as well!
Just had an idea. Fly a planet past a planet, crash the asteroid belt of planet A into planet B. While units are being launched onto planet B from asteroid bases. But I agree. Since this is using futuristic technology it could be easy to move planets. There might be a very powerful thruster for moving planets at speed.
Galactic conquest is not a single giant game of many stars, it's a meta game connecting your battles together.
