That's actually a pretty cool idea. So its kind of a weather/solar control machine mixed with the ability to pretty much rejuvenate the land.
Feels like an interesting double-edged blade thing: On one hand, you could rejuvenate the land with this. On the other, anyone with this on his hand could kill loads of people with solar-powered death from the sky. Power to create and destroy alike, akin to that of a God. Can someone be trusted with this? Can
anyone be trusted with this?
(perhaps an alternative is to weaken the satelite itself through computer configs somehow and hand it?)
Perhaps go mythological? AFAIK Greenway used Roman God names (as in DIANA) whereas Poseidon used Greek ones. The Romans had a sun god called
Sol, native sun cult in two forms, that of Sol Indiges and later, Sol Invictus. People used to think it was two different gods, but nowadays they seem to think that Sol Indiges and Sol invictus are the same god.
Ideas:
- With not have both the robot and the sattelite? The Robot purifies water and can prepare and seed soil. The satellite beams down and uses solar energy to manipulate weather patterns.
- The big bot is where the Satellite is controlled from, it might even be kind of a vehicle. There was probably an original Command Center but it got totalled or something.
- The robot can also use the received solar power and plasma as a weapon in case it is attacked. Like a tank-sized equivalent of the Solar Scorcher. Maybe this is what the research of the Solar Scorcher led to. Due to its construction, it is also in practice tougher than a tank. So this is is also the Final Boss in many endings.
- One can give the big bot to a faction, destroy it, render it non-dangerous or use godly programming skills (and
perhaps pieces from a broken AI) to turn into a real AI capable of making its own decisions.
- Giving the big bot to a faction will either end up great for everyone involved or that faction then goes on to zap everyone who opposes them, or a similar ending like this. This also depends on how these groups turn out, who's in charge, their policies, etc. A lot of "unintended consequences" going on here.
- Destroying the bot pisses everyone but ensure nobody will be zapping people or attacking them with the weather. Cue Final Boss Fight against giant robot. Perhaps this is the solution proposed by a faction fearful of technology, or even the ultimate "save everyone but everyone hates you for it" kinda ending.
- Rendering it non-dangerous is done by programming the sattelite to a setting that decreases the solar energy it can deliver and/or the way it does. So it becomes purely a way to deliver power, it can't zap people to death or screw with other people's weather. But it is also not as powerful as it once was, so the whole system is not capable of regenerating the wasteland that much.
- Turning it into an AI (or putting one in). The robot will be able to make its own decisions. What happens next depends on what the player did, how good his Science skills are, etc. It might help people, it might malfunction, it might declare itself a deity, or something else.
- Trying to change its programming (caping it, giving it AI) will make it become aggressive (Final Boss fight), unless the Protagonist finds a way to disable or bypass those safeguards. This is a pre-war safeguard done to prevent it from being used for dastardly ends. It has to be beaten but not destroyed in order to deal with this.
- Other factions, depending on player decisions, might take the robot from him anyway. Cue an even harder final boss fight. Or not, because the speech skill is a thing.
