quote:
Originally posted by apache:
Radiation decreasing "naturally"? Do you know how long that would take? This is way beyond the time scope of the game. A Hiroshima-style bomb takes about 60 years for radiation to decline to non-hazardous levels. The latest Hydrogen bombs take on the order of 1000 years for the radiation to decrease to non-hazardous levels.
To impart a high radiation level to a planet would make it totally uninhabitable for the rest of the game if the only way to decrease this radiation was by natural means. And destroying a planet then rebuilding it would have no effect on the radiation levels.
Besides, a civilization this advanced surely has developed technology to live with deadly radiation by some means. Maybe all their walls are 5 feet of lead, maybe something else.
Either way, I don't think there should be a way to make a planet completely uninhabitable. With enough resources and raw power, any area can be terraformed to liveable conditions, especially if a dome can be constructed.
That is true, but the planet is not bombed by nuclear bombs like we have. The radiation should be much smaller that the one in Hiroshima. Actually 'radiation' I mentioned was generalized and should represent the overall damage to life cycles on that particular planet. E.g. damaged Ozone layers in atmosphere for Oxygen planets, large destruction to plant and animal life on planet that would reduce its habitability, lots of dust and other particles that would go into atmosphere and create greenhouse effects etc. (Speaking only about Oxygen, but some other damage would occur on all other atmospheres that would have similar effect.). All this would not be covered by planetary conditions because they mostly cover the stuff like earthquakes, storms and hostile life forms on planet, so something else is needed. Actually 'radiation' would be more like uninhabitable, and assuming that the damage to the planet is not that high that it won't recover over time (in theory it takes MUCH less time for eco-system to recover from bombardment by 'normal' weapons then from radiation based weapons). The domes would be needed to support colonists on such planet (also that is that 'advanced' technology way to protect themselves from radiation, because there is NO other way to protect themselves from food, water and air polluted by radiation or other means, but in living in an isolated environment-domes).
The 'radiated' doesn't have to be called like that (radiation is just a part of it). I could be something called by some other name (like uninhabitable).