New stellar manipulation component idea

Spoo · #1 January 17th, 2001, 06:58 PM

I just had a neat idea for a future stellar manipulation component: a tractor beam that would let you move planets around a system. I imagine this would require a change in the game code, but it would have some interesting uses, depending on if you could tow planets through warp points (maybe the first level of this component would let you move small asteroids then eventually you could move huge planets then later you could move small asteroids through warp points, etc.)

Possible uses:
1) You could use it to save colonies from a system with a star that's about to explode.
2) You could pull your colonies out of enemy territory.
3) You could pull an enemy planet into a black hole system...
4) You could blockade a warp point with a planet.
5) Or you could ram two planets together! Maybe drag some asteroids into the enemy's homeworld and cause a meteor shower.

So what do you guys think?

Baron Munchausen · #2 January 17th, 2001, 07:56 PM

Interesting idea, but think of the SIZE it would have to be? This is not like the planet creator/destroyer components, which can be thought of as triggering a chain reaction of some sort. This requires raw power to move a planet in one piece, which would require gigantic engine power from the ship as well as power to 'hold on' to the planet with the beam. How about a "Planetary Engine" Facility instead? A facility on a planet is much huger than any ship and if it's ON the planet it doesn't need 'double' power to both hang on to and move the planet - it's already ON the planet!

This would be a cool thing to have, though. Especially if a planet equipped with one could move one square per turn in combat.

Hmm, could you RAM one planet with another?

dmm · #3 January 17th, 2001, 07:59 PM

FYI: This idea is included in the novel _Ringworld_, by Larry Niven.

Nyx · #4 January 17th, 2001, 08:22 PM

As if the tech in this game wasn't outrageous enough as it is! Hehe. Here I was thinking how absurd it is to pla a game that lets you go around swallowing whole star systems with blackholes...

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General Hawkwing · #5 January 17th, 2001, 09:10 PM

After you maxed out the planet movement tech, you get to start researching tech to allow you to move stars. That way, if your star was going to go nova, you could switch it with a neighbor's star. Or better yet, can anyone say "galatic hot potato".

dmm · #6 January 17th, 2001, 09:31 PM

Don't warp points have size restrictions?

Spoo · #7 January 17th, 2001, 09:37 PM

Maybe it should take multiple ships to move a planet.

Wouldn't moving a star bring the planets with it? Which also raises the question of what happens to any moons of the towed planet? I guess they would come too...

I think stars would be too big to move (not that planets are tiny things either, but stars are several orders of magnitude bigger.)

[This message has been edited by Spoo (edited 17 January 2001).]

Trachmyr · #8 January 18th, 2001, 12:12 PM

Or the Tech to move planets could be some sort of inertialess generator (like the planetary Bergenholms in Lensman)...

General Hawkwing · #9 January 18th, 2001, 05:10 PM

Moving a small planet into a sun would not destroy a system, only the planet. Allowing ships to move planets/stars (or planets to move w/a facility) would be hard to figure into the current system of play, not to mention the affect on grav'l fields. I was joking about moving stars. But.... if one could move a planet, one of the 'better' uses (for truly xeno races) would be to tow an enemy planet to a black hole system.

Atrocities · #10 January 18th, 2001, 05:30 PM

No offense, but a Tractor Beam to move planets around does not interest me in the slightest. Its kinda not what I had in mind for realism. Sorry to be a party pooper in this regard, but this idea is just not what I would consider to be a viable one.

Then again, I have been known to be wrong.