FreeOrion

any thoughts about possible Dyson sphere's for lone star that could provide a colony base of strategic point?

Go for a ring rather than a sphere, much cooler

The purpose of a Dyson sphere is that it collects a hell of a lot more energy, regardless of its degree of "coolness." Though of course there is a ring design, it is the simplest and easiest to build and maintain. Read about it here.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

Granted the ring design is cool and does have possible uses in so forms of gravity technologies (ie forming worm holes or defensive and/or offensive weapons to protect it.


Both have there uses but just thought i might ask if it was a possiblity

I think that it is a good idea. But looking at the list of techs, I'd say that there seem to be lots of different energy production methods already in place. If we were to add another one, though, I'd certainly push this idea, since it has its roots in practical theory.

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Do a search, you can find multiple references to Dyson Spheres, or Ring Worlds on the forums.


The basic problem is that such a structure is so absurdly over-scaled compared to a the normal planets which you colonize.

* Even if we required the player to destroy all planets to build one, it cannot be fail to be over-powered in population capacity, while simultaneously being laughably undersized to those who have an inkling how big such structures would be.

* Also the side-bar interface cannot nicely accommodate a super-massive star-encompassing structure.

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From what i read, this has more to do with energy-collecting satellites spaced far apart around a sun. Building an actual surface around a sun that people could live on would be totally....insane. This isn't Halo, after all.

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It would be a late game or long time to build structure.

But it has its uses. Some players like to stick to one star system lol, like me. On Moo2, on impossible, I have only had one star system. The Gnolams have colonised the galaxy. No matter what they throw at me, they can't beat my 9 titans lol.

I would be able to build more titans, if I could build more star fortresses or even better, a dyson sphere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I could cloak my solar system (now a dyson sphere) the Gnolams would not be able to find me, ha ha ha, while I lauch assaults against their worlds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know why but that was one of the coolest quotes I've heard all day We could get around that by makeing them unpopulated installations though. Maybe combine this with the super weapon idea in witch the final super weapon is a dyson ring that requires you to deconstruct entire planets to build, then gives you one shot by firing the entire sun at another system.

Probably ridiculous in a dozen ways but it would be truly awesome.

As for the side panel, just replace the side panel star picture with one containing the ring.

The problem with a Dyson Sphere is all it Really is is the "capacity" of a system to have Orbital Solar Power Satelites (or Habitation Satellites) so if we want a Dyson Sphere all we have to do is allow the player to build "Orbital" structures and put a cap of say 100 Trillion on them... if you hit the cap you have built a Dyson Sphere. (Ringworlds are somewhat different as their Ring structure gives them a unique ability to produce artificial gravity with nothing more than super strong Material)

If you want to get an advanced Solar energy collecting Device, I'd generally prefer something that remotely tapped into a star through Wormholes or something... or erecting a "Force field" around an entire system (not a Strong force field like the planetary ones, just enough to absorb ~90% of the energy going through it if the energy levels are diffuse enough ie Not a Weapon)

[It might be Nice to have an "Orbital" Building that can be Built that has infinite population capacity but has 0 Food/Mineral Production Capacity.. so its "Actual" population limit is determined by your Empire's food production (and minerals if you want to do Industry on it)]

hehe... they tossed these into SE5 as a late game tech, essentially a constructed planet. They'd always get left unused simply because of cost.

But I agree that it'd not really be able to produce food or mine simply because of being a giant space station. It does sound really cool to build an enormous swarm of satelites and late int he game connect them all to make a ring around the star.

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True but for advanced tech, a structure wouldn't be very hard to do or imagine being built and it would collect energy and matter being expelled by the star it surrounds. and could be used to refuel ships and serve as a nexus for trade and diplomacy in a system with no planets.



Another thought on something like that is using a grave tech that allows the ring to use the gravity of the star to warp the light around it to cloak it.

Not really. A Dyson sphere (of the solid sort) can produce gravity the same way a ringworld would— by rotation. Of course the gravity would lessen with distance from the equator, but you still have more area than a Niven ring (counting areas of lesser, but acceptable gravity). And a Niven Ring would have (at 1 AU from the star) would have the absurd 3 million times the surface area of earth.

....

Actually destroying and rebuilding a planet as a halo, or orbital, could be a reasonably sized step up from planetary population levels.

Personally though, i don't like the idea of the ideal end-game being the destruction of all your unique planets— replaced with identical rings.

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I have to agree, destroying your planets shouldn't be an upgrade, it should be a sacrifice (probably of the uninhabitable worlds) required to get the really cool stuff.

what sort of maintenance costs do you think should be involved? (if any)

As for the Sphere, if you spin it for gravity you don't need to stick with 1 axis of spin. In fact you shouldn't. Why? Gravity. The star has it. If only the equatorial regions move, then the full gravitational attraction of the star is going to be exerted on the poles, eventually causing them to collapse. Now if we give the sphere three spin axis oriented 90° from each other, then neither will be a problem.

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