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Barbarians might add fearsome spikes, or claws, to their designs.
The construction might be flawed, so bits could be rusty or unstable. Those bits could be shot to form holes, but the energy core could take metal from the stronger parts of the wheel and repair the damaged parts. Floating alongside the wheel can be a cube of floating metal used as a resource as well.

But you're interested in it getting harder as it goes along, therefore a gradually weakening structure could be inappropriate. Or maybe not.
Once weakened to a certain level, the energy core sacrifices itself and forms energy circling its diminished self. This means its attacks are weakened and the people manning it have to resort to using less energy based weapons and also their reserves of special weapons such as homing missiles. But there can also be intervals where the energy structure deliberately lets itself down for large bursts of desperate scattershots of charged energy.

At the end of the battle, it is only a wheel of very weak and quivering energy which falls in the lava, splashing the lava as it does. Then it starts releasing its last globules of energy mixed with splashes of lava which are merged to the globules. These splashes divert away from the globules as the globules travel upwards. If you don't shoot the globule, it returns to the lava.

Hope that helps. Just ideas. It depends how technological you want it to be and whether my thoughts fit in with the theme.

It's difficult to promote games with no sound, and even no music turns a lot of people of. The average audience reaction speaks for itself, so unless there is a good reason to have sound and you make that reason clear, then less people will be likely to pay attention to your game. If you are inexperienced with sounds, you can find free to use sounds from other sources, ask individuals to create effects and music for you, and finally you can practice yourself. When I was 11 years old, I remember editing sounds very basically and I could get away with some cheap sound effects for civilization II. All I did was reverse and distort sounds to create weird, wacky things. Not impressive from a technical level, but appropriate for messing around.

Onto the subject of "is sound needed." Well some simulations would require it. If not a simulation, then imagination, and imagination involves sound. On many levels, abstract graphics and sounds are fine. Abstract can be technically simple and still feed the imagination. (I'm writing this because I felt like expanding on the subject.) With more in depth graphics you might want more in depth and potentially less abstract sounds as you climb the realism ladder.

A vital function of sounds is player feedback, such as in PacMan where you pick up pellets. It's also that vibe you get like the glow of a bright light. You see all the over-the-top flickering lights in casinos. Why? Because they're attractive. Sounds are the same, you walk into the casino and you hear the lively sound of... people... and levers being pulled. It let's you know that you're in a different place, such that if no game had sounds and then suddenly a game had sounds, which would offer the best sense of place?

This isn't a very academic post, but I'm sure it's vaguely useful to anyone deprived of oxygen.

modern music is much more complex than older music, which was essentially 4 chords played in different orders. That's what pop music was in the 70's-80's. Whether you like it or not is a matter of your OPINION not FACT

There was plenty of prog music in the 70's and it's not simple.

I think the game seems interesting, but only from what I've read. The trailer doesn't appeal to me, it just looks like it could be a perfume advert or something.
Cyberpunk should have a real dark edge at the same time as showing all kinds of crazy psyches who are trapped in a corporate controlled world. It is the juxtaposition of humanity and technology: we're crazy, we're colourful, but we're also confused - and what is our purpose?
There are also levels of humanity, lower to higher, manipulative rebels to prescribed authority.

The render (or trailer) shows some fancy graphics and some basic symbolism, but nothing more.
Mind you, this is marketing at work here and not curio. I always like to see something that makes me wonder, and this doesn't make me wonder. Well actually it does - it makes me wonder what kind of complexities the game will have.

Apparently the game will be GTA style, which is definitely a genre that is drying up. I think that having an honest simulation of a cyberpunk world is an excellent idea - it would be a world that is centered around the psyche and human desires, whether it be mindless violence or exploration of the nervous system and the mind.

I think marketing and actual products are always different, so I am not worried about style over substance. Of course Cyberpunk has its Dandies, I won't deny that.
Should be interesting, I will keep an eye on this.. especially if the weapons are varied and monstrous.

However, I would really like to see some turn-based combat somewhere!

What would be really cool is a feature so that you can win emoticons based on how many positive posts you have, or if you are a moderator you can taunt people with special emoticons - things like that.

I wonder about the harm of advertising using games.
It seems like these forums are going down the path of earn-able perks.