Grey goo

[b1ackh0le]

Why is there no grey goo crisis event?

[NixBoxDone]

My guess? Because it would make for a good non-violent end-game crisis.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if it was released as such with a diplomacy update so you can have a crisis that's solved with diplomatic agreements, humanitarian aid, blockades and - if you fail containing it with that - desperate orbital bombardment of affected planets or by firing on infected ships.

[EleventhStar]

problem with grey goo is that due to it's nature it's kinda limited to a single world.

and once you give it space travel and fleet combat abilities it's suddenly kinda a re skinned prethoran swarm gameplay wise.

[NixBoxDone]

Nah, the idea isn't so much to have it take over ships as to have individual nanites either slowing down and "hibernating" or just reproducing too slowly to actually take a ship out before it can flee from one contaminated planet and infect another.

Grey goo doesn't have to disassemble everything in seconds, after all, otherwise it'd just be a flash fire: one planet has a nanite mishap and 6 hours later it's just a huge, disintegrating cloud of microscopic bots in the rough spot the planet used to be.
Especially if the scientists that had the accident didn't intentionally set out to make the individual machines resistant to the harshness of space or give them AI so they can redesign themselves to spread.

Instead, imagine if a ship got infected with just a few of them and they'd take a while disassembling anything made of resistant materials such as steel unless they're in the millions. They might get caught and the ship quarantined, but they might also not get caught and infect another system.

[Shad]

I would quite like Particle Fleet: Emergence as an end-game crisis.

[Knight.R]

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Nah, the idea isn't so much to have it take over ships as to have individual nanites either slowing down and "hibernating" or just reproducing too slowly to actually take a ship out before it can flee from one contaminated planet and infect another.

Grey goo doesn't have to disassemble everything in seconds, after all, otherwise it'd just be a flash fire: one planet has a nanite mishap and 6 hours later it's just a huge, disintegrating cloud of microscopic bots in the rough spot the planet used to be.
Especially if the scientists that had the accident didn't intentionally set out to make the individual machines resistant to the harshness of space or give them AI so they can redesign themselves to spread.

Instead, imagine if a ship got infected with just a few of them and they'd take a while disassembling anything made of resistant materials such as steel unless they're in the millions. They might get caught and the ship quarantined, but they might also not get caught and infect another system.

Beside isn't the dam pile of "goo" suppose to form a black hole due to its own gravity or something along the lines?

[/!\Kapudd im Kopp]

Originally posted by Knight.R:

Beside isn't the dam pile of "goo" suppose to form a black hole due to its own gravity or something along the lines?

The total mass of the body stays the same, and not all matter can be converted into nanites. However, if the nannies convert the iron core of a magnet shielded planet and inhabit the cavity, the innermost machines will be crushed from the pressure of weight resting on them and melt again.

Mankind has currently two limiting factors regarding nanomachines: powering them and controlling them - both is done externaly with simple magnets or magnetic fields to steer remote drones with their payload to the target area.

even then, converting a steel made ship is extremely energy hungry and it may just look like sped up corrosion sance the rustd - though

[Ralgha nar Hhallas]

Guess they could make it like Replicator crisis/war in Stargate SG-1, that way it wouldnt be limited to a single world. Also they would have to put Nanotech research in to the game.

[NixBoxDone]

Originally posted by Knight.R:

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Nah, the idea isn't so much to have it take over ships as to have individual nanites either slowing down and "hibernating" or just reproducing too slowly to actually take a ship out before it can flee from one contaminated planet and infect another.

Grey goo doesn't have to disassemble everything in seconds, after all, otherwise it'd just be a flash fire: one planet has a nanite mishap and 6 hours later it's just a huge, disintegrating cloud of microscopic bots in the rough spot the planet used to be.
Especially if the scientists that had the accident didn't intentionally set out to make the individual machines resistant to the harshness of space or give them AI so they can redesign themselves to spread.

Instead, imagine if a ship got infected with just a few of them and they'd take a while disassembling anything made of resistant materials such as steel unless they're in the millions. They might get caught and the ship quarantined, but they might also not get caught and infect another system.

Beside isn't the dam pile of "goo" suppose to form a black hole due to its own gravity or something along the lines?

Doesn't really work out, if you think about it. The grey goo consists of small robots that took apart stuff on a planet to make more of themselves, so they can only turn into a black hole if the planet they ate had that much mass, in which case you'd have to ask yourself why the planet didn't turn into a black hole.

You might argue that the nanites are individually denser, but given that they're also not one seamless piece I'd still think the same volume of rock or stainless steel would weigh more.

[KrysisMode]

Overhyped really. Nanites no matter how massed are still nanites. Extreme heat, cold, or even just electromagnetic shenanigans destroys them. The grey goo scenario is really silly when you know how fragile a nanobot actually is. They're not nearly as destructive as you'd think. Alot of stuff get's hand waved into BS levels in science fiction with grey goo as one of the worst offenders.

They would however make a terrifyingly efficent population killer, while easy to sterlize nothing kills a population faster than an airborne cloud of nanites with programming to dismantle organic matter at the celluar level. It's the ultimate viral weapon template and somewhat easy to contain even in the worst case scenario and extremely easy to clean up afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a techcard in apocolypse for unlocking that.

Though I suppose if you toss in synthetics research it could give birth to a cyborg machine empire with an extreme assimilation rate that puts the borg to shame. If there's one thing a selfaware nanite cluster network could manage is integrating itself with organic material rapidly gaining control of it.

[ArchaicReaper]

Originally posted by KrysisMode:

Overhyped really. Nanites no matter how massed are still nanites. Extreme heat, cold, or even just electromagnetic shenanigans destroys them. The grey goo scenario is really silly when you know how fragile a nanobot actually is. They're not nearly as destructive as you'd think. Alot of stuff get's hand waved into BS levels in science fiction with grey goo as one of the worst offenders.

They would however make a terrifyingly efficent population killer, while easy to sterlize nothing kills a population faster than an airborne cloud of nanites with programming to dismantle organic matter at the celluar level. It's the ultimate viral weapon template and somewhat easy to contain even in the worst case scenario and extremely easy to clean up afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a techcard in apocolypse for unlocking that.

Though I suppose if you toss in synthetics research it could give birth to a cyborg machine empire with an extreme assimilation rate that puts the borg to shame. If there's one thing a selfaware nanite cluster network could manage is integrating itself with organic material rapidly gaining control of it.

As I recall, Assimilator AI Empires can get exactly that in Apocalypse. A Nanobot Dispersal that Assimilates all pops on the target planet.

[/!\Kapudd im Kopp]

Originally posted by Knight.R:

Beside isn't the dam pile of "goo" suppose to form a black hole due to its own gravity or something along the lines?

oh, you may have confused "singularity" (black hole) with "singularity" (technology becomes self aware and starts to out-think its creators)

[Knight.R]

Originally posted by koala fritz:

Originally posted by Knight.R:

Beside isn't the dam pile of "goo" suppose to form a black hole due to its own gravity or something along the lines?

oh, you may have confused "singularity" (black hole) with "singularity" (technology becomes self aware and starts to out-think its creators)

Care to elaborate? I feel i will spend 3 days browsing the web trying to identify this even if i was given a map and a flashlight.

[Ralgha nar Hhallas]

Koala fritz and Knight.R this event is laready in the game. Most common sci-fi defenition is when machine and and man for example become one, aka cyborgs. There's also Technological Singularity which is what koala fritz is talking about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

[EmbertheDragoness]

Originally posted by Knight.R:

Originally posted by koala fritz:

oh, you may have confused "singularity" (black hole) with "singularity" (technology becomes self aware and starts to out-think its creators)

Care to elaborate? I feel i will spend 3 days browsing the web trying to identify this even if i was given a map and a flashlight.

Singularity (The Tech Term) Is when machines become smarter than humans

Singularity (The space term) Is crushy bit of a black hole

[Sea Base]

Originally posted by coledragonknight:

Originally posted by Knight.R:

Care to elaborate? I feel i will spend 3 days browsing the web trying to identify this even if i was given a map and a flashlight.

Singularity (The Tech Term) Is when machines become smarter than humans

Singularity (The space term) Is crushy bit of a black hole

Singularity (The tech term) refers to when AI can create AI that is generally better at creating AI than itself, thus resulting in a cascade of ever more intelegent AI.