Gray Goo

[meekay]

In sci-fi, if your self-replicating nanomachines run amok you can end up with an apocalypse where the whole surface of the world gets converted into "gray goo".

I propose that a similar substance would fit in very well into the theme of this game. Maybe as a hazardous waste left over from the Gravitas research that you find on the map. Some ideas for the physics:

• It's a liquid with a high surface tension.
• It slowly eats certain types of materials (debris and underlying tile) but not others, to make it a containable hazard.
• It would not eat Neutronium, as attractive an idea as that may be.
• But if we made it able to eat Abyssalite, that would be a motivation for folks to try to tame it.
• When it eats its component materials it gains 50% of the consumed mass and releases heat.
• When it eats material it leaves behind waste debris. Maybe something valuable?
• It can be rendered inert by high heat or radiation.
• Rendering it inert will phase-transition it into some other substance. Maybe a metal or graphite?
• It can be mopped up but will leak from containers, similar to nuclear waste.

Other ideas?

[Sasza22]

Sounds like quite a hassle to tame it. It would need some material that`s impenetrable to it. Maybe steel or bunker tiles so you could manage it somehow. It would be interesting though if it could be used to break down some materials into others.

Late game it should be able to reprogram it so that it becomes more beneficial. Like creating structures on it`s own or maybe as a smart wall. Imagine a wall that can be controlled via automation so that it becomes permable to liquid or gas. It would also work as a perfect airlock for dupes.

[babba]

Perhaps the grey goo could be collected by dupes and be converted to cheerful and alive green goop, in the goop lab.

Dupes love to throw green goop at each other in their free time, it increases their morale and inner spirit.

Green goop is also the ingredient for the goop jelly recipe