Pro tip: Don't be on the planet you shoot a planetcracker at when it hits.

[Orelius]

I love this game.

[Edit] The Acutian's fear empire was just overthrown and turned into a smuggler empire.  This can't be good...

[keith.lamothe]

Yep, I was thinking pretty much exactly the subject line when I coded the planet-cracker's on-arrival logic.

Another pro tip: don't be anywhere remotely near the Evucks if it looks like you can't stop an ignition.  Be very far away.

[GC13]

Another pro tip: don't be anywhere remotely near the Evucks if it looks like you can't stop an ignition.  Be very far away.

Silly question: is there a way to stop that without taking them over? I haven't seen a ignition, but I've seen a planet cracker; I couldn't find any way to stop it short of removing the Acutians from the equation.

[keith.lamothe]

If they've only got the one planet then I think eradication is the only recourse.  Maybe pulling them into the Fed will cancel the action, I'm not sure.

If they've got multiple planets, and only some of them fulfill the requirements for the action (for the Acutians that means having any uncolonized moons; for the Evucks it means having any gas-giant planets), then you can stop the action by ensuring they no longer hold the candidate planets.

[GC13]

Any chance that the planet cracker project (heck, maybe the ignition project as well) can be turned into a "Rally to the Attack" option in your dealings with the other races? The planet cracker would be painfully exposed on a moon, and I can't imagine that the ignition would be easy to bury either. Those are major threats, so you should have some way of stopping them short of genocide.

It really makes a lot more sense than going up to the Acutians and paying them a meager sum to colonize the moon rather than throw it at someone they're feeling rather cross with at the moment.

[Orelius]

If it wouldn't be too much trouble, would it be possible to have unique game over screens for special occasions?  Right now no matter how you die, it gives the same screen, with the same warning (something about dying in combat).

[keith.lamothe]

Really?  Odd.  During testing I saw special text for getting caught in the results of the Evucks making a (brief) second sun out of their planet.

Could you mantis that?  I think there's supposed to be text for getting caught in "metamap aoe" that's different from "dying from being shot".

[Orelius]

Sure thing!

here it is: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=14360

[keith.lamothe]

Thanks

[Orelius]

Fun fact:  If the acutians point a planetcracker at a planet, then conquer it, when it launches, it will go to that planet ... and then rebound and smash into an enemy world.

Also, managed to get my first game over from a system-wide non-federation alliance!  Though it doesn't really make much sense that it takes the acutians 25 years to make a planetcracker.

[keith.lamothe]

Fun fact:  If the acutians point a planetcracker at a planet, then conquer it, when it launches, it will go to that planet ... and then rebound and smash into an enemy world.

Acutian CEOs love pinball.  And pool.  The bigger scale the better.

Of course, if it didn't re-target that would be even more interesting.  Bureaucratic stubbornness to the nth degree.

"But, sir!  That's our planet."

"Silence, underling.  Orders ARE Orders."

[Draco18s]

Of course, if it didn't re-target that would be even more interesting.  Bureaucratic stubbornness to the nth degree.

Or bureaucratic ignorance.

"Fire the planet cracker!"
*Ignition, planet cracker away*
"Woo, conquered a planet.  Wait.  Shit."
*BOOM*

[keith.lamothe]

I think Bureaucratic Stubbornness and Bureaucratic Ignorance are basically the same thing.  Like water and ice.

One way or another, we just dropped a moon on our troops.

Congratulations, guys, you won the race!

[Draco18s]

Military Intelligence Isn't?

[keith.lamothe]

Military Intelligence Isn't?

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.  If it never was, things would look very different.

Military Wisdom can be more rare.