Realistic nuke

I was always thinking that nuke after exploding should create some kind of radioactive field that damages units that stay there, both friendly and enemy. Would make sense considering it's literally an atomic bomb, complete with a mushroom cloud, but I have no idea how would that change the game balance (other that it would make nuking the middle much riskier and nuking the enemy base much more rewarding). It would just be nice for thematic purposes

quote: The question here is would this be a fun addition or unnecessary complexity?

I don't think that it would be an unnecessary complexity, the concept is pretty simple and straightforward and people will know from various other examples what should and shouldn't be done when you see a nuke leaving radioactive field on the ground. Getting the field to be visible enough for players to avoid it also shouldn't be a problem. However, this is just my opinion and I would like to hear if anyone has something else to say.

quote: you could have an interesting system that doesn't stop heavy units from going through center but also helps finish off weaker units.

That is exactly the kind of system what I was thinking about. You could march striders or other heavy units forward without problems, but screening them would be hard and would make them vulnerable to ultimatum (which, in turn, would get decloaked there, mitigating this issue somewhat). It's not like I have any problems with pushes after nuke, I just think that implementing this would make for some interesting strategies and would make sense considering the theme of the trinity silo.

Jhopmemes Microchips, Sensors (esp. optic ones) and long ungrounded wires dislike radiation.

Microchips: The more advanced/faster/smaller the more radtiation damage they take.
Sensors: See radioactive flickering.
Wires: Charges can bulid up in them, frying components on the end. (Ex: Microwave rays)

I think that a damage dependency on health is unnecessary complexity. There are already other radiation weapons in the game and the health scale is already such that absolute damage is independent of health and units with more health take less relative health damage.

A damage falloff with distance can be done. But the more interesting mechanic to be added would be an EMP effect with a larger radius than the damage radius.

quote: How do you think satellites work?

With specially made processors ("While normal commercial-grade chips can withstand between 50 and 100 gray (5 and 10 krad), space-grade SOI and SOS chips can survive doses between 1000 and 3000 gray (100 and 300 krad)." (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening). But this protection comes at a huge cost (200k $, not latest generation) (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750). And you will not get some super computer performance for that money either, not to mention the rest of the components will be quite expensive as well.

Don't think anybody has wrong ideas in principle, but it might be worth it to consider also the range of difference between normal processors and space able processors.

Edit: to be clear if you want to make many robots, not all components/all of them will be as protected from the intense radiation due to cost reasons.

I was also thinking on another thing. Instead of insta kill, make nuke emit energy particles that spread from the explosion, those particles shaped like fire balls from pyro, and they kill all that stands in its path, emiting damage hit, and ground flatten hit like with that fountain tank arty. so you could dig in buildings same way as you dug in things like silos in the nuke era

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malric Snowlob
I'll agree with you on most of the points, as this is not the hill I'd rather die on, but still, the ability to 3D print metal, combined with the fact that those 3D printers can produce other elements from just metal, as shown by the Trinity, it seems very likely that the printers could just as easily make the materials to protect the computers as they make the rest of the robot. However, I will concede on the point that it would be impractical to put the shielding over every sensor and motor that goes to the robot's brain, and the robot could die by not being able to control itself, not being to see its environment, or some combination thereof.

The superweapons argument was more a "because you can make these things, making some radiation shielding shouldn't be too hard considering how complex the superweapons are". Also, I find your "complexity plays a lesser role here" point to be not very effective considering a couple things;

1 The fact that in construction of anything, you place each atom of the thing that is being built individually, and can make different elements from just metal, with the example being the Trinity making radioactive material from just metal.

2 Cloaking, because it makes the unit completely invisiable, meaning that all the photons and electrons and other subatomic particles that hit the robot have to be released in exactly the right spot with exactly all of the properties that they should have when they would be outside of the robot, which some types of radiation fall under. Considering the complexity of the task, just blocking radiation should be easier. Combine this with the fact that most of the units that have this feature are small and decently fast, withstanding the radiation would not be a problem at all. And this isn't considering area cloaking at all.

3 Shields, because they block all enemy attacks while letting friendly attacks pass through. Since it has the ability to distinguish between friendly and enemy attacks of all kinds, radiation should be no problem.

4 Combat regeneration. Do I need to explain this one?

nanoframes decay after x sceonds of not being built

I think mojjj meant that nanoframes would be immune to radiation damage as long as they were worked on recently. As a response to "what about nanoframes", not just a general fact.

On the idea itself, radiation for nuke feels a bit like a solution looking for a problem. Working just like fire ground damage seems fine. I'd like to avoid armour type style interactions where damage taken is based on something like size or health.