The Maelstrom Mod introduces four new races to the Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion Universe. They are independent of the original races and have unique strengths and weaknesses. Maelstrom is available for Rebellion, Diplomacy, Entrenchment and Original Sins.
New Stars of Maelstrom
Powered by supermassive black holes.
A Quasar is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. They are powered by accretion of material into supermassive black holes in the nuclei of some galaxies, making these luminous versions of the general class of objects known as active galaxies. Since light cannot escape the super massive black holes that are at the centre of quasars, the escaping energy is actually generated outside the event horizon by gravitational stresses and immense friction on the incoming material.
qqqqqqqqqquuuuuuuuuu..... look at this one!
i feel like this will be like a Black hole... meaning i will most likely lose ships because of it...
I could give it a positive ability...ideas?
Faster phase jump charge up?
that sounds good
i was thinking Star bases cannot be made around it because of its a black hole...
seriously though, no one would build and advanced and expensive space station around a black hole.
i also remember people asking for new relics, maybe something like a Mass Effect field generator that counteracts the effects of black holes and allows for Star Bases to be built around them?
I dont think faster phase jump charge is a realistic idea. i mean black holes suck things towards them and dont let things get away without putting up one hell of a fight. i would argue that they slow down phase jump and destabilize phase jump while also drawing ships inside the gravity well closer causing damage over time.
Wow this is becoming an educational mod. (cue high pitched singing voice)Aaaaaaawwwwwwsome.
I like the faster Jump Charge idea. It could be explained as using that energy being made outside the event horizon to launch the ship.
eeeeepiiiiic. All I wanted to say there. =P
This gives a lot of possibilities:
You can decrease the scanning and shooting range a lot (because of the interference and background noise from the supercharged particles flying around). This would force the ships to make very close-ranged combat, i.e. you can't shoot ships across the battlefield (or, actually, isn't it battlespace?) - you have to be relatively close to do that, meaning the tactic of concentrating your fire on just one ship won't work here or at least would be very hard to pull of. This way you'll be forced to divide your armada (if it's a big one) into small groups and micromanaging them.
Another option: you need shields for protection. Without them you'll lose HP pretty fast and lose the ship.
Or, this is a system that only medium or capital ships with good protection may enter. Because of the heavy radiation, anything less just won't be able to handle it.
Also, why space stations can't be built around Black Holes? In the novel "Angelmass" by Timothy Zahn, there was a space station (or at least plans to build one - I don't remember now) around a Black Hole to mine it for energy (don't remember exactly how, probably from the jets).
So, you can make something similar here: build space stations for energy mining. You can even go further and make shipyards and similar stations - the extensive energy mining gives a bonus to building ships (less time and maybe less resources), and combine it with "losing the shields issue", i.e. you build faster and cheaper, but if your station loses its shields - the station is destroyed.
And building a station around the Black Hole would be a lot pricier, since it'll require the heavy shielding to protect the station. But if the station survives for some time, it'll actually be cheaper than have a regular station, thus giving a great advantage. So, it's a risky business - if it's found out by the enemy and destroyed you're gonna lose a lot of resources, but if it survives, it'll easily return the investments.
Also, I haven't check everything you've done, but I think the pulsars and the "light-house effect" could be fun (the videos should be more or less enough to get the idea): En.wikipedia.org
It sounds/looks like an interesting idea: the electromagnetic jets from the neutron star rotate around the star and when they pass through a ship, they damage it a little (or not so little if the jets don't rotate fast). The only safe place is behind the planets in the system, which act as a natural shield and absorb the radiation. If you make it a double system (just like in one of the videos), a safe place would be behind the sun as well. Or, again, you can go further and make the big star already exploded; the neutron star consumes the matter around it while the rest makes a nebula in the whole system.
A simple strategy involving such pulsars (which are a great defense mechanism) might be putting some small and cheap ships to act as a warning system for when you're gonna be attacked (since the approach vector is very narrow) or even place a blockade or two along the narrow "safe" way. If the enemy wants to have the element of surprise, he/she'll be forced to venture into the open space and be exposed to the deadly radiation - element of surprise at the price of some HP.
Something more advance would be to attack the blockade and draw the attention (and the defense fleet), while an advance group is already near the destination (the base around the planet or on the planet if there is one). After some short amount of time, the advance fleet attacks the relatively defenseless base and even with lower HP, it should be enough. Or another "stealthy" way would be to use another planet for protection, which is relatively close to the main target, and used it for approach, thus avoiding any unwanted detection and blockades.
Oh, and for those, who didn't know, there are discovered planets around pulsars and neutron stars, so it's not a stretch.
I hope my ideas helped you or at least gave you some inspiration for some more cool stuff.
P.S. I just love your MOD! It just shows how wonderful, interesting and exotic our Universe is, often surprising the very scientists who study it. In some cases even beyond their wildest dreams.
Hi evgenidb,
Thanks for sharing your ideas ... I'll see what 'cool stuff' I can implement.
Also glad you like the mod.