The more output you generates, the more pollution you generate as well. So for example, if you research a technology that doubles your construction output, it will also double your construction pollution. This will not be the same as MoO 1's pollution where eventually pollution goes away. Pollution will be a constant thorn in your side the entire game.
What if you decide to ignore pollution and hope it just goes away? Well, if you're on a terran planet, and you reach 1,000 barrels, it degrades into one of the two planet types, depending on if it's a wet climate or not, Jungle or Steppe. If you still ignore the pollution, and it reaches 2,000, it changes to Ocean or Desert. And so forth, with the threshold doubling each level. Finally if you're STILL polluting on a radiated planet, it will be destroyed and become asteroids, at which point your people are wiped out on that planet, unless you're a space race that don't care.
This is the tweaked planet UI. This was originally Terran, but I've polluted it to 4k, causing it to become Desert.
You can clean up pollution, but you cannot change the planet back without terraforming. So you gotta watch your pollution! However, on less desirable planets, the threshold is very high (for radiated, it's 128,000 barrels).
There will be random events that add a large amount of pollution and damage your precious planets. *Evil laughter*
Pollution so bad it explodes the planet...
ReplyDeleteWhat springs to mind is the Praxis incident from Star trek.
Albeit that was more 'OSHA is not the way of the warrior!' accident than 'pollution makes a planet freaking explode' Which is I think even a claim Greenpeace never tried.
Heh, pollution don't explode planets. The thing I'm trying to convey is that pollution is waste that hasn't been recycled back into the planet. So the more pollution you have means less materials put back, which eventually means you've scoured the entire surface. At some point, the planet becomes unstable and breaks apart from all the mining/output.
ReplyDeleteInteresting design choice. Will there be a way to rebuild planets?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of becoming worse planet due to pollution: realistic _and_ cool.
ReplyDeleteYou are incorrect in only one thing: in MoO1 waste don't just "go away". If you don't believe me, try this in MoO1: set a planet eco ratio to 0 in every turn (it will change to cleanup level every time). The cleanup level will be higher and higher, waste will appear on the planet screen and after a while people start dying.
So the difference is the gradual degradation of the planet - which I consider as a good idea.
The final destruction of the planet is also plausible - something like in book "Space 1999: Breakaway": radioactive waste _may_ explode the planet.
Yes, you can build planets from asteroids or gas giants. So even if it was destroyed, you can rebuild it. You can even build planets in a star system that you don't own planets in, I will explain how later.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't referring to MoO 1 about "hoping pollution goes away", I was poking fun at people that don't believe in global climate change :)
What I was referring to in MoO 1 is the ability to eliminate pollution forever, this won't be the case in this game.