Nuclear Devices and Mutual Assured Destruction

[Rhaeven]

One thing that always bothered me in the CIV series was the way nuclear weapons were underused. They are often underwhelming in damage and scale, reducing city populations by a few numbers, surrounding units and leaving toxic waste in ground zero. MAD is not even a thing, since whoever launches nukes first will most likely render the other faction's nuclear weapons unusable.
Nukes, at first glance, are a tool for supremacy. Whoever researches them first has a considerable advantage in their conquests. However, it is also supposed to be a deterrent, a way to prevent war between two factions that possess nukes. In other words, how will nuclear weapons be handled in Humandkind, and is MAD even viable?

[The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales]

Sorry, we're not ready to reveal anything about this yet, though I can assure you we have thought about this quite a bit.

[Rhaeven]

Originally posted by The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales:

Sorry, we're not ready to reveal anything about this yet, though I can assure you we have thought about this quite a bit.

I understand, looking forward to it!

[Heron]

A mechanic that lets you launch your own nukes immediately when you are targeted by a nuclear attack would make sense.

[Rhaeven]

Originally posted by Heron:

A mechanic that lets you launch your own nukes immediately when you are targeted by a nuclear attack would make sense.

Yeah I feel like that would be the one of the best ways to mirror MAD in a turn-based game.

[Retroactive Effect X]

I really hope subs and bombers are more useful in this game than in CIV. There should be a clear cut upside to having a nuclear triad over simply spaming ICBM's in slios.

[KuchenEsser]

Perhaps a mechanic where the nuke doesn't hit on the turn it was launched? Everyone gets a notification that a nuclear weapon has been launched and maybe who launched it, but maybe not where the target is, until the nuke hits the next turn. This would put everyone on edge and create a situation that could easily lead to others launching their nukes if they think they're the target.

[Cpt_Bread]

NO NUKE - NO BUY!

[ТАРГОВИЦ ЛЮБОВЬЮ]

I might be wrong, but I think nukes in Civ were able to completely destroy low population cities. But with big cities it wasnt really that interesting. I mean, yes, it reduced population by half. But nuked city should be in total devastation, with all its building destroyed.
Really hope you will implement nuclear weapon mechanics and make it fun and interesting.

[Heron]

Originally posted by KuchenEsser:

Perhaps a mechanic where the nuke doesn't hit on the turn it was launched? Everyone gets a notification that a nuclear weapon has been launched and maybe who launched it, but maybe not where the target is, until the nuke hits the next turn. This would put everyone on edge and create a situation that could easily lead to others launching their nukes if they think they're the target.

That's actually a pretty cool idea.

[Rhaeven]

Originally posted by KuchenEsser:

Perhaps a mechanic where the nuke doesn't hit on the turn it was launched? Everyone gets a notification that a nuclear weapon has been launched and maybe who launched it, but maybe not where the target is, until the nuke hits the next turn. This would put everyone on edge and create a situation that could easily lead to others launching their nukes if they think they're the target.

Indeed, that could work too! Perhaps even a way for agents to infiltrate a faction to deploy those nukes against another party, in order to trigger a nuclear war between them and sow chaos, so that your faction may reap the benefits by invading the weakened countries plagued by the nuclear winter.

[𝑀𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑦𝑙]

Know that I also hated that at Civ. Back then I deactivated the nuclear weapons in Civ with Mod

[ElPrezCBF]

It's a game and anything that gives any side an unbalanced advantage would have to be designed for balance, regardless how it actually works in reality. There are 2 options for balanced gameplay imo. The first is to allow nukes to have the same level of destructive force as in reality but make them so expensive and time-consuming in terms of resources needed that players would not dedicate resources to them lightly. This is similar to how system annihilators work in Endless Space 2.

The other option would be to nerf them such that they do not completely destroy huge cities in one blast like what you see in Civ. Even then, the resource cost of creating nukes should not be trivial though not as prohibitive as in the first option.