There's been proposals for Asteroid-Dwelling Species and one of them has been included in the game (Celestiphytes, planet-bound).
Whumsoons have been proposed as a Species able to colonize, but Ophiuchus doesn't want Asteroids to lose their specificity (and I agree with him, as do many others AFAIK).
Also, Oberlus proposed a trait "Asteroid Dwellers" that seems really interesting to me, and I added a similar mechanism based on Specials rather than Species trait.
So, how to allow Asteroids to stay special while allowing some Species to colonize them ?
My proposal of Specials would not allow to settle all the belts in the universe, only a few of them, but still it would make these belts nearly like any other planet.
IIRC, Ophiuchus proposed to make belts different in how they can be colonized, like doubling the Colony building time.
I proposed a trait that would allow to limit the spread of a Species, "Tough Cookies", and another one, "Gregarity", that could also help.
Another one would be more drastic : "Homesick" would make each Colony has a flat Influence penalty of 1*(Number of jumps from homeworld). Obviously, "from closer homeworld" if there are more than one.
It's also possible to use "n" rather than "1" in the above formula, n depending on the trait level (0,1 for "weakly homesick" to 2 for "very homesick").
Asteroid Colonization
Moderator: Oberlus
Re: Asteroid Colonization
Wobbly proposed to have Laenfa able to colonize Asteroid Belts (on a Blue star), which is a nice idea.
However fluff-wise, maybe Chato (who are Lithic) should have the ability instead ?
Of course, Laenfa are plants, so yes having them colonize everything still works with their fluff...
Maybe limited to belts with an "intersticial water" special ?
But most important, how to avoid making Asteroids just another environment and keep their specificity ?
Making ground battle work differently on them ? How ?
However fluff-wise, maybe Chato (who are Lithic) should have the ability instead ?
Of course, Laenfa are plants, so yes having them colonize everything still works with their fluff...
Maybe limited to belts with an "intersticial water" special ?
But most important, how to avoid making Asteroids just another environment and keep their specificity ?
Making ground battle work differently on them ? How ?
Re: Asteroid Colonization
I think influence upkeep could be a way to go to allow general settling on asteroids.
Make an asteroid colony count as much as three(?) planets or something (if not a native asteroid(/good environment?) species)?
So early on colonisation on asteroids would not be too bad, but later economically prohibitive. So either rather temporary/out of necessity (e.g. for extending supply, no planets in reach) or strategically colonisation (e.g. hidden chokepoint fortress).
I guess there must be guardrail though which makes sure to kill off unowned asteroid colonies.
So maybe set target population to zero if not within (allied) empire supply.
E.g. an attacker might starve the colony; even if the attacker cant attack (if hidden).
Make an asteroid colony count as much as three(?) planets or something (if not a native asteroid(/good environment?) species)?
So early on colonisation on asteroids would not be too bad, but later economically prohibitive. So either rather temporary/out of necessity (e.g. for extending supply, no planets in reach) or strategically colonisation (e.g. hidden chokepoint fortress).
I guess there must be guardrail though which makes sure to kill off unowned asteroid colonies.
So maybe set target population to zero if not within (allied) empire supply.
E.g. an attacker might starve the colony; even if the attacker cant attack (if hidden).
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Look, ma... four combat bouts!
Look, ma... four combat bouts!
Re: Asteroid Colonization
Interesting idea...
Too drastic imho, though.
The goal is to make the player think carefully about Asteroids, not to prohibit colonizing them.
So just making them cost 25% more Influence is enough to make one ponder the orbiters.
Maybe also we could make some Population bonus not work ? Like Orbital Habitations ?
Not sure about Subterranean Habitations - people are supposed to live inside the Asteroids I guess, like in The Expanse, so subterranean habitations bring nothing more ?
Also, we could remove the not-stacking effect of Planetary Ecology and Symbiotic Biology, and have PE not work on Asteroids.
Of course, that would harm Exobots, so we need them to have a pop bonus somewhere to compensate for it (like MicroGravity Industry giving them +2 on Asteroids, and maybe another +2 with Nanotech Cybernetics, and another with Sentient Automation).
I guess it is indeed necessary in order to prevent people from just putting laenfas or Whumsooms - or whatever we'll come up with later - on asteroids and then setting them independent...
But also I think it would be cool to find independent Laenfa colonies somewhere in the universe...
Not sure how to tackle this contradiction.
Too drastic imho, though.
The goal is to make the player think carefully about Asteroids, not to prohibit colonizing them.
So just making them cost 25% more Influence is enough to make one ponder the orbiters.
Maybe also we could make some Population bonus not work ? Like Orbital Habitations ?
Not sure about Subterranean Habitations - people are supposed to live inside the Asteroids I guess, like in The Expanse, so subterranean habitations bring nothing more ?
Also, we could remove the not-stacking effect of Planetary Ecology and Symbiotic Biology, and have PE not work on Asteroids.
Of course, that would harm Exobots, so we need them to have a pop bonus somewhere to compensate for it (like MicroGravity Industry giving them +2 on Asteroids, and maybe another +2 with Nanotech Cybernetics, and another with Sentient Automation).
I guess it is indeed necessary in order to prevent people from just putting laenfas or Whumsooms - or whatever we'll come up with later - on asteroids and then setting them independent...
But also I think it would be cool to find independent Laenfa colonies somewhere in the universe...
Not sure how to tackle this contradiction.