Rework for the Eater of Worlds

[Vorpaliminal]

Just about the worst Covenant a psionic empire can enter into is with the Eater of Worlds. The reason for this of course is that in exchange for a modest fire rate buff (and laughably an army morale bonus) it can occasionally convert an entire planet into a Shrouded world all at once (5% chance rolled every 25 years). This can be very problematic if it were to suddenly eat a high value planet like an Ecumenopolis (something which was not part of the game when the EoW was introduced). Because the benefits do not align with the substantial potential risks, I would propose mitigating this major risk to some extent.

Thus my suggestion is that if the EoW rolls to consume a world, it instead adds Shroud Mist planetary blockers which cannot be removed while also killing a few pops on the planet, and which continue to be added over the course of a few years in order to give players time to mitigate the damage. Much like how Terravores cause planets to explode once they fully consume a planet, when the district capacity of a planet is completely replaced by Shroud Mist blockers, then it will turn into a Shrouded world.

I feel that handling planet losses this way serves as an anti-frustration feature, and will also instill a fitting sense of panic in players to desperately save whatever then can from their now doomed colony when the Eater of Worlds comes gnawing.

 

[klopkr]

Why not buff it instead.

 

[Nebbie Zebbie]

It would still be really annoying to deal with that for a modest benefit. What it should really do is be on the frontlines causing chaos, so that you have better openings. Basically, it should first look at worlds of empires you're at war with and worlds you've recently conquered, causing pops to die there as it adds clearable blockers. If there's no targets like that, then it should cause problems in your core worlds.
And no shrouded worlds, that's just stupid.

 

[Vorpaliminal]

Why not buff it instead.

Could, but I wanted to address the massive drawback with this idea.

It would still be really annoying to deal with that for a modest benefit. What it should really do is be on the frontlines causing chaos, so that you have better openings. Basically, it should first look at worlds of empires you're at war with and worlds you've recently conquered, causing pops to die there as it adds clearable blockers. If there's no targets like that, then it should cause problems in your core worlds.
And no shrouded worlds, that's just stupid.

Keeping the threat of Shrouded worlds makes it more of an inexorable force to drive home how you kind of screwed up by making a deal with a voracious war god. Having it favor recently conquered planets is a nice idea though.

 

[Vorpaliminal]

Thinking about it further, maybe there could also be a way to halt the consumption of worlds. Once the process begins there won't be any way to reverse it, but you can enact a planetary decision to use zro with a monthly upkeep, so 1-3 zro a month and you can protect your most precious worlds from being fully consumed, with the flavor being that a core of psionic specialists are being fueled by zro to hold back the tide.