Disaster Ideas

[Arklon]

Here, I'll list ideas for disasters.

Meteors and asteroids: Planets with weaker atmospheres tend to get pounded by meteors (or "meat ears" as OP2's Savant calls them). And, at least some of you know the backstory of both OP1 and OP2: an asteroid named Vulcan's Hammer crashing into Earth... not a very good thing to happen to a planet.

Seismic: You technically can't call them "earthquakes", unless they're on Earth. Their magnitudes vary greatly, ranging from just a minor tremor to something completely catastrophic. And they do all sorts of fun stuff, like make faults, form volcanoes, cause rockslides, break gas lines and ignite them, etc.

Volcanic eruptions: You should know what they do. They spew lava and ash. The ash cloud a volcano expels can block out the sun for quite a while, and could have an impact on your food supply and maybe a bit on morale.

The Blight: "Nothing could possibly go wro--" - Nguyen
The result of the overconfidence and unfortunate miscalculation by Eden's scientists. It is an artificial micro-organism that breaks apart organic compounds into their base elements. If you don't want to be turned into your own individual pile of goo, I'd stay away from it. Just be careful, it spreads rapidly, especially during the day, and it spreads faster underneath the surface, making mining hazardous. Lava and fumaroles are too hot for the Blight to survive, fortunately. However, Savants seem to have an irresistable attraction to it...

Supernovas/Star death: ... Or, in other words, get your ass out of that galaxy. Or maybe you wouldn't get in this kind of situation if you don't decide to colonize a planet that orbits a red giant... well, I guess I can't blame you if someone figured out how to force a star to die and use it as a weapon against you. Though, these are extremely rare naturally.


(Also see Weather Ideas for weather-related disasters.)

[Freeza-CII]

Supernova and Dieing stars takes billions of years it just doesnt happen in a flash.

Some planets have water so i see more of the natural disasters.  Floods vortexs major storms (Electrical storms and Hurricanes)

[Arklon]

Supernova and Dieing stars takes billions of years it just doesnt happen in a flash.

I'm aware of that. Some idiot could always decide to colonize a planet orbiting a star nearing its end, though.

Some planets have water so i see more of the natural disasters. Floods vortexs major storms (Electrical storms and Hurricanes)

Already mentioned those in "weather ideas".

[CK9]

not neccessarily some idiot, it could be a desperate situation where they need to stop and gather more resources before they can continue.

[Arklon]

not neccessarily some idiot, it could be a desperate situation where they need to stop and gather more resources before they can continue.

Well, true. But let's keep this on topic.

[CK9]

what about flare storms?  could be a rarer occurrence that temporarily disables the buildings with lighter armor (as they are less likely to have a form of sheilding from naturally occuring emp) and reduces efficiency of pruduction structures.

[Fenrisul]

The only reason I (as the only developer at the moment ) dont find supernova star systems viable...is that when it goes poof, there goes my nice hard work setting up a planet just to get blown up and MAYBE have 2 people land on it heh.  I can see something like making a pitstop on a massive asteroid or something like that heh; we'll see.

[Arklon]

The only reason I (as the only developer at the moment ) dont find supernova star systems viable...is that when it goes poof, there goes my nice hard work setting up a planet just to get blown up and MAYBE have 2 people land on it heh.  I can see something like making a pitstop on a massive asteroid or something like that heh; we'll see.

I'll go get bored and make useless doomed planets, then.

[BlackBox]

Yeah, I think solar flares and sunspots are a good idea. Disrupt communication randomly!

[CK9]

lol, every once in a while you vehicles attack you due to a flare, lmao

[Fenrisul]

Equivalent of *Sneeze*  *Bullet flies into the back of someones shoulder* "Oh s***! Sorry!!"

[Arklon]

That would probably just get annoying.

[CK9]

So?  Isn't that what dissasters are SUPPOSED to do?

[Fenrisul]

I like the random-betrayl idea.

In the novella it describes a scenario when the Blight destroyed almost all biological components in a unit;  this would disrupt the electronic and maybe cause a more instinctual response?

Also; this would have to occur on a planet with almost no magnetosphere to speak of heh

[Arklon]

Units in OP2 use proteins as identifiers. Savants use them for computing.

[CK9]

okay, but what about temp disabling of buildings caused be flares and waves?

[Betaray]

before when I played op2 I used to think that the top down view system was caused by me being in a satalite looking down on the planet, if we go that route we know that solar flares disrupt satalite communications, I just thought that it could be manafested in the form of digital artifacts, static and blurring

it would allow a new level of difficulty while playing, instead of a disaster directly harming the coloney it would make it harder to control and command the coloney

just a thought

[Fenrisul]

One of the thoughts I tossed around on IRC a bit regarding control disruption was during things like sand storms and other various weather anomalies (solar flares would fall under this i think) was that units may be randomly deselected, or move somewhere unintended.

One thought i'm having now after reading your comments betaray, is "What is RTS mode?"   I think as it stands, its defined as a tactical overlay of what the perceived data on the field is.  This means a Virtual Image generated by the Command Center thats in range (or mobile command center).  Launching an attack via satellite RTS command would mean you can only control units within its view while its in a certain orbit, as well as based on weather conditions + risk of solar flare.

Imma concept this out into an image...

[Arklon]

Well, you don't want to limit things so much that they become useless.

[Fox3808221]

I'm not entirely sure as to what this topic is pertaining to other then Disaster Ideas, lol.

Well, there is more ways for a star to die then to go supernova.  If the planet is orbiting a star say...a red dwarf...when the star dies it turns into a white dwarf.  If thats the case, you can have a decrease in solar activity causing any thing thats powered by solar panels to be effected.  For the most part, instead of causing the destruction of a planet, it would strip away its atmosphere.

You can add in eccentric rotational periods or even magnetic poll shifts.  Weather changes due to rotational periods.  Your colony can even find out that the moon is falling or flying away (like our moon), lol.

The speed of events don't have to be consistent, you can even make it random if you feel up to the task.  I mean, we've found planets 4x the size of Jupiter rotating around a star every 6 hours.  Imagine the speed and what life would be like on it!  (other then the fact that its made entirely of gas).  What sort of effects would that have?

If a meteor hits the planet, it can cause dust clouds in turn causing global warming or global cooling depending on the type of atmosphere, if any.  Place a planet inside of the rings of another planet.  Place a planet between two stars.  Place a planet orbiting between a red giant and a white dwarf.

The possibilities are endless for disasters and relatively simple in design...I think, lol.  Multiplayer can be random, single (if any) can be designed.  Hope this spawns ideas.

Just remember:  "Cause and effect", because thats physics.  Have an end to the means.

:yawn:  

[Sirbomber]

Oh, that's just what we need.
Commander: "Order the Supernova to attack the enemy Command Center!"
Nature: "LOL I SO LAR FLAYR U"
Savant: "You have failed. Our colony is doomed."