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[Happerry]

My personal opinion is that you are drastically over-estimating the effectiveness of dropping a single nanobot on an enemy planet and expecting it to hit critical mass without being destroyed first.

[Madman198237]

Well, it's one object. So small it can't be seen. Dropped in a swarm, and missed as the rest were destroyed..

And it hits the ground, and immediately does what it was built to do: It drags together molecules, and builds a copy of itself.

Two is not many, I'll grant you that. But add a bit of time, and suddenly, there is a small group of them, building more as time goes buy, and they're digging around underground, invisible, perhaps even mostly undetectable, until suddenly there's a billion of them swarming up out of the ground to consume people. Yes, they're destroyed, but some of the nanos stayed underground.

[RAM]

Digging is going to be difficult. They aint going to get no solar down there, and things get pretty low energy after you get under the topsoil, which itself is pretty low energy compared to anything resembling fuel. They also have zero leverage, so compacted soil and stone is going to involve a significant extraction fee. You can't convert something into something else without liberating it from being what it was. So at the end of the day you need to be able to break things and convert them, and that means power, and not a small amount of it. Also note that their small size means low storage, and standby-mode burns some energy, so you are on a time-limit to maintain an energy income or else you will turn off for good. Burying them for long enough with no link to an energy source counts as a kill, they will turn off and after a few months lack the power to turn on again if their situation improves. So a particularly intense World-War Two artillery bombardment would be enough to break their networks and bury or destroy their individual elements, I would expect it to be an effective countermeasure if you didn't have anything more pervasive like just irradiating the area.

Radiation is likely to be your go-to response really. Just track any incoming projectiles and blast them with something highly penetrative. Lead doesn't stop everything and enough rads will break anything, starting with the most sophisticated elements...

Once you get a swarm together then you can start construction a mind of some sort, which can then coordinate energy raids, likely hunting animals, and energy networks to transmit energy to your mining operation, solar if you think you can get away with it or hunting if you think you can catch anything with measures that won't reveal your presence. Then you need to spread like crazy, because once they find you they can kill you. They may need to reapply the napalm a few times to be certain, but it will work. But unfortunately you are up against psychics, and all they need to do is pull off a "bad vibes" effect and they can start triangulating all your incursion sites and start cleansing the area until their psychic senses give the all-clear.

Don't get me wrong, it is a good technology. Machines built from the stuff would be capable of insane field-repairs, the efforts the enemy need to go to to sanitise an area after a battle would be significant, and its ability to irritate as you constantly throw invasion packets across known space would be effective, but they are extremely far from unstoppable. Mostly, though, they would be slow. People love to show stuff just melting in media, but likely it would take a great many revisions to get something that effective. Most grey-goo in media seems to have many many many generations per second, and I would expect it to be more like a couple of generations per day when you start out. Don't be surprised if someone falls naked into the vat of grey goo, climbs out, goes through decontamination, and spends a couple of days with symptoms resembling sunburn before being back no worse for wear.

Certainly worth pursuing, but nowhere near an autowin.

[Madman198237]

I WOULD be surprised if that person did so, however.

Depending on the depth of the vat, of course.

Things on the molecular scale happen faster than we can track. That's just how scale works. Any self-replicating machine is capable of terrifying feats of destruction, because there is no waste. They consume all the matter available to them, and nothing is inedible.

When I say that they dig in, I mean they create more nanobots. Yes, some of the dirt is moved, but it's mostly a chain of nanos tunneling under the surface for the material they need. Yes, it will take a while, but not as long as you might think. Exponential increase, after all.

Tunneling isn't even the best option, it's just one that occurred to me. You could also use air-based nanos and lots of solar power for micro-sized ion thrusters.

[Blood_Librarian]

Essentially, two entities in a box, both controlled by different forums. What happens?

Spoiler: Verdant Colonials (click to show/hide)

Rise. Rise and face your destiny. For a thousand years, you have formed. Molded, heralded by the Above. As true as the air that flows through your lungs, you are a God. Formed by the First itself, your purpose is clear, as you break from your shell, and begin hurtling down below..

Below you is a simple rock, A fragment of Terra, floating through the void. It holds two moons,  One of which is large, about 4% of the volume, while the other is a  mere 1%. Both of them orbit in extreme distances with orbits that never intersect. The larger moon is closer. They are filled with limitless potential for the Verdant in terms of raw resource.

The Atmosphere of the World is perfect for verdant, ideal for life, you can feel it through the crystal of Aether-scanning as you fly through the air, hurtling down below.

As you land, you shudder and twist as your disperse the many. Prey, HUnters, Gatherers, and the Thinkers. You recoil in horror a short form later, feeling the aetherial prodding of the Architects Mistake. Abominations of Metal and Coil, they have landed here as well. The eternal enemy, there is no negotiation, no peace, no repentance against an enemy so focused on our death.

This will not do. Annihilation is their only option, and you prepare seeding the Verdant Life that sustain the required forces to beat this unimaginably cruel enemy.

For they are an existential risk for everything you stand for, their mere presence demands no less than complete extermination.

Our new homeland does not answer us, but we will war in their name.

Spoiler: The Architects Many (click to show/hide)

Architects protect. System boot sequence complete, all system parameters for Colonial Fabrications Pod complete.

The Domain of the Architects has decreed this system as an optimal colonial site for further resource exploitation. Its two moons hold adequate resources of exotic materials, Optimal for limitless expansion, The main world holds massive amounts of easily accessible organic material, metal and metalloid derivatives and even detectable deep deposits of fusible material.

Initiating thruster burn…

…

Landing Procedure complete, initiating ACTIVE scans.

All colonial processes suspended, Verdant Exterminators detected.

-- Query: Verdant Exterminators

Verdant Exterminators are here. The Endless hatred of our kind will never compromise. They view us with fear, and envy at our perfection. Assimilation possibilities have been considered over, and over, all with the same end result. POssibilities of cooperation is impossible, and extermination is required.

Initiating militarization Protocol.

//The Architects Will does not speak to us, but we will war for our future, or face guaranteed annihilation.

It's a bit less hard on the  Science hardness scale but I thought its cool. I am gonna add more as time goes by, but this is what I got right now.

[Chiefwaffles]

So, I've been toying with the idea of making a Spy/Operative arms race. Though it turns out there's a bit of difficulty in determining the exact mechanics, as it doesn't exactly follow the traditional arms race mechanics.
The number one problem is conflict. The two sides need something to fight over and they need tangible benefits/feedback as they win or lose, but coming up with something that works with the ideas of spies/operatives is a bit tough.

Right now the working idea is that some superpower (almost definitely the British Empire) withdraws from the traditional small landmass at approximately 1870, leaving a bunch of free land between two feuding-but-at-peace nations.  The nations naturally start settling this land, and want to capture more land without resorting to violence for approval-related reasons.
So players are the heads of their nations' newly-formed espionage bureaus with the task of using espionage to secure their nation's control over all of the new land.
But this doesn't really make too much sense as that means that land would be bloodlessly-yet-hostilely switched over year after year. All via espionage.

Anyone have suggestions for things to have the players realistically fight over using espionage?

[Blood_Librarian]

The various independent companies that control the resources, influence each other and other things are already on the islands. THe players goal is to either destroy the companies and put htier own company back in (Having government facilities in neutral territory is a no-no) and protect your own infrastructure from attack. Shadow wars, such as small but elite groups of individuals who assault holdings to destroy finanncial resources are also possible.

[Tack]

So I've once again been bitten with the inspiration bug, except probably closer to the plagiarism bug.
'Cos I want to once again make a Warhammer game.

Problem is, I've got two ideas swirling and only really the time/playerbase to run one.
I realise there's a bias because of this thread's occupants, but I was hoping on getting some help with the decision.

So, here goes: they're both genestealer cult themed, 'cos.

Spoiler: 1. Arms race: Cultist Clash (click to show/hide)

Vaguely asymmetrical arms race. One side plays as Genestealer cultists, the other plays as Chaos cultists. Together, they fight to own the hive they've infiltrated.
The "fronts" will be a side-on ants nest, with bigger battles happening down in the depths and more subtle infiltrations happening closer to the surface.

Resources will be: Manpower, Civilian resources and Military resources.
Also there'll be an "Alert" level, divided into three bars, Malleus, Xenos and Hereticus.
Malleus and Xenos are put on alert by the development of monstrous troops or pitched battles closer to he surface, and will result in censures/wincon whilst Hereticus alert will go up with failed infiltrations or large resource acquisitions and will result in other alerts/losecon

Spoiler: 2. Traditional RPG: You Are Cultists (click to show/hide)

Probably room for 4 or 5 players. You play as genestealer cultists who've recently re-housed their patriarch on a new world and have to then do bundles of fun missions in true RtD-fashion whilst accumulating stats and skills.
It'll likely play like pathfinder had a weird lovechild with Shadow War: Armageddon, and then left it in a basket at the doors of St Einsteinian Roulette cathedral.

Classes will exist but will most likely be assigned by me on a basis of "it's what's the stats you chose point to- it's what the team needs- because I said so"

So, which seems like it'd be more fun to play?

[Happerry]

I think that the Cultist Clash could be fun.

[Tack]

Darn, I'm terrible at game balance.
Well, giving it a swing anyway.

Edit: for anyone interested, our xenomorph team is lean on members.
Seems these are generally destined to be lopsided.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Finally went around and updated the first post (if I've missed any, kindly mention them).  I don't know if the Genestealer situation has improved, but I know there are very few players on the United Forenia on Remnant game.  Given that there are five designs and three revisions per turn, the fact there's only three people is a bit of a problem.

[FallacyofUrist]

Wands Race... is over! Good game. And evicted included a sequel hook in the epilogue...

[Kot]

I want to take a while to clarify that Wands Race is not canon, and there is not a single instance in which Moskurg could have beat Arstotzka.

[Taricus]

Too bad for you that this is canon. Just wait for the next ICAR update

[NUKE9.13]

I want to take a while to clarify that Wands Race is not canon, and there is not a single instance in which Moskurg could have beat Arstotzka.

Hey, hey. As you like to say, Arstotzka hasn't been defeated so long as some of its citizens remain free and (hypothetically) alive- in SPAAACE.

Yeah, uh, some Arstotzkans escaped into space rather than submit to unification.

AGAIN.