“You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt thinking what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No. Your world will burn until its surface is but glass!”
-Prophet of Truth, Halo Series
This solution is to create a suitable middle ground between full scale planet destruction (which requires mechanics or designs that are not currently possible in the present state of the game, would be too time consuming to design, or would have issues being balanced), and a form that would be doable with the current script assets present in the game. There would need to be new art needed for this to work, but beyond that it wouldn't require as much as full scale planet destruction.
I was considering a combination between Orbital Bombardment, and what the Prethoryn Scourge do. The Scourge infest planets that they conquer, the planet involved transforms to an infested type, and requires being bombarded to have said infestation removed, afterwards it becomes a barren type, regardless of it's initial type (with few exceptions).
My suggestion is that a new, technologically locked, option is added to the policy mechanics under a secondary set of orbital bombardment options. It would be a T2 (there are three tiers of cards, 1 is basic ones you can get early, and each new tier is unlocked and added to the deck of research cards after a certain number of cards have been researched) for the initial stage, and would be a rare tech. Obviously pacifists would never draw this card, nor would xenophiles, but militarists and xenophobes would have a higher chance of drawing said card. There would be multiple levels of this tech, each with a new option of the policy (each become better and more efficient, comparable to the lineage option).
Onto the actual explanation of the mechanic itself, it would be one of three new options under an 'extermination via orbital bombardment' or something catchier. When researched and checked as policy, it would add in a fourth type of orbital bombardment when bombarding a planet. In example, every month there is a 20/35/50% chance that a random tile (though not one already affected) is turned to glass, and any pop on top of it is killed. This would function as a tile blocker that requires quite a few minerals/energy, and time (mainly time) to remove it. All pops would be unable to work (or remove the tile blocker) for the duration of the bombardment. Once the planet is purged of life, the planet would change to a new type of planet, something similar to 'Glassed'. It would require the same level of technology as Tomb world restoration to restore the planet's atmosphere, but would take longer than usual to repair that level of damage.
Choosing this policy would have a more slightly more severe effect than full bombardment, but when used would suffer the same effects as purging, as you are literally glassing planets. (This would be coded similarly to the 'terror bombing' negative, but would have the massive penalty of purging)
This process would take a lengthy time, depending on a combination of tech, fleet size, and the size of the world. Worlds with larger populations, and that are physically larger, will take longer to turn to glass than worlds of smaller portions. The first tech would give a 20% chance per month, on average 5 x 25 months = 125 months to glass a 25 size world. However, due to limits in fleet size, in actuality the efficiency would be significantly less, at least early. Late game this would be stoppable or countered by the ability for later-game empires to just terraform the world back in-shape, however it would be very effective midgame when people lacked the technology. Since this tech would be employed in wars, it would also be very effective at wiping out large swaths of land that your opponent controls in a somewhat more reliable and faster method, that is also very thematic, than regular full bombardment.
The description for why it works could be something similar to:
'Ships will now carry specialized energy weapons capable of causing the ecosystem substantial harm, and eventual destruction of atmospheres on planets.' - Stage 1 (20% chance, though it could be substantially less, such as 5%)
'The process of extermination has now become even more efficient than before. New advances in energy weapons and explosives has increased the efficiency in which we can turn worlds to glass.' - Stage 2 (35% chance, though it could be substantially less, such as 10%)
'The process has become frighteningly efficient, we are now able to exterminate with an efficiency once thought impossible. Entire worlds can now burn within as little as a couple of years, compared to the decade it used to take.' - Stage 3 (50% chance, though something smaller like 15% is also reasonable)
Alternatively to this version of the mechanic, a new option for right clicking a planet would be added, this would be doable to non-colonized worlds as well. It would feature a progress bar, with segments based on the number of tiles. Each month would one segment of the bar would be filled, and one tile (and any pop on it) would be turned to glass. Once all tiles (regardless if the colony is still there or not) are turned to glass, the entire planet changes type, to a Glassed type, which requires advanced terraforming to repair. As this is doable to all habitable worlds, even if they aren't currently inhabited, this allows for more strategy, and adds a more logical element to the game (killing the one pop that currently inhabits a Gaia planet turns it to glass, versus having to turn all 25 tiles to glass to glass the planet). However, the reason that this is the alternative is b/c I am unaware of the difficulty/ease that this could be implemented, versus the first option. The first option is rather reasonably doable within the currently defined concepts, however the secondary is far more exciting, though it would require far more effort to create.
I will consider feedback and whatnot.
-Prophet of Truth, Halo Series
This solution is to create a suitable middle ground between full scale planet destruction (which requires mechanics or designs that are not currently possible in the present state of the game, would be too time consuming to design, or would have issues being balanced), and a form that would be doable with the current script assets present in the game. There would need to be new art needed for this to work, but beyond that it wouldn't require as much as full scale planet destruction.
I was considering a combination between Orbital Bombardment, and what the Prethoryn Scourge do. The Scourge infest planets that they conquer, the planet involved transforms to an infested type, and requires being bombarded to have said infestation removed, afterwards it becomes a barren type, regardless of it's initial type (with few exceptions).
My suggestion is that a new, technologically locked, option is added to the policy mechanics under a secondary set of orbital bombardment options. It would be a T2 (there are three tiers of cards, 1 is basic ones you can get early, and each new tier is unlocked and added to the deck of research cards after a certain number of cards have been researched) for the initial stage, and would be a rare tech. Obviously pacifists would never draw this card, nor would xenophiles, but militarists and xenophobes would have a higher chance of drawing said card. There would be multiple levels of this tech, each with a new option of the policy (each become better and more efficient, comparable to the lineage option).
Onto the actual explanation of the mechanic itself, it would be one of three new options under an 'extermination via orbital bombardment' or something catchier. When researched and checked as policy, it would add in a fourth type of orbital bombardment when bombarding a planet. In example, every month there is a 20/35/50% chance that a random tile (though not one already affected) is turned to glass, and any pop on top of it is killed. This would function as a tile blocker that requires quite a few minerals/energy, and time (mainly time) to remove it. All pops would be unable to work (or remove the tile blocker) for the duration of the bombardment. Once the planet is purged of life, the planet would change to a new type of planet, something similar to 'Glassed'. It would require the same level of technology as Tomb world restoration to restore the planet's atmosphere, but would take longer than usual to repair that level of damage.
Choosing this policy would have a more slightly more severe effect than full bombardment, but when used would suffer the same effects as purging, as you are literally glassing planets. (This would be coded similarly to the 'terror bombing' negative, but would have the massive penalty of purging)
This process would take a lengthy time, depending on a combination of tech, fleet size, and the size of the world. Worlds with larger populations, and that are physically larger, will take longer to turn to glass than worlds of smaller portions. The first tech would give a 20% chance per month, on average 5 x 25 months = 125 months to glass a 25 size world. However, due to limits in fleet size, in actuality the efficiency would be significantly less, at least early. Late game this would be stoppable or countered by the ability for later-game empires to just terraform the world back in-shape, however it would be very effective midgame when people lacked the technology. Since this tech would be employed in wars, it would also be very effective at wiping out large swaths of land that your opponent controls in a somewhat more reliable and faster method, that is also very thematic, than regular full bombardment.
The description for why it works could be something similar to:
'Ships will now carry specialized energy weapons capable of causing the ecosystem substantial harm, and eventual destruction of atmospheres on planets.' - Stage 1 (20% chance, though it could be substantially less, such as 5%)
'The process of extermination has now become even more efficient than before. New advances in energy weapons and explosives has increased the efficiency in which we can turn worlds to glass.' - Stage 2 (35% chance, though it could be substantially less, such as 10%)
'The process has become frighteningly efficient, we are now able to exterminate with an efficiency once thought impossible. Entire worlds can now burn within as little as a couple of years, compared to the decade it used to take.' - Stage 3 (50% chance, though something smaller like 15% is also reasonable)
Alternatively to this version of the mechanic, a new option for right clicking a planet would be added, this would be doable to non-colonized worlds as well. It would feature a progress bar, with segments based on the number of tiles. Each month would one segment of the bar would be filled, and one tile (and any pop on it) would be turned to glass. Once all tiles (regardless if the colony is still there or not) are turned to glass, the entire planet changes type, to a Glassed type, which requires advanced terraforming to repair. As this is doable to all habitable worlds, even if they aren't currently inhabited, this allows for more strategy, and adds a more logical element to the game (killing the one pop that currently inhabits a Gaia planet turns it to glass, versus having to turn all 25 tiles to glass to glass the planet). However, the reason that this is the alternative is b/c I am unaware of the difficulty/ease that this could be implemented, versus the first option. The first option is rather reasonably doable within the currently defined concepts, however the secondary is far more exciting, though it would require far more effort to create.
I will consider feedback and whatnot.
- 3
- 2
and I'm sure paradox will likely implement a new kind of bormbardment policy that does no damage to planets along side it to allow and encourage true blockading tactics, comsumer goods in 1.5 will add to this as well.