Are Air Units too low? Is Orbital too high?

I spend a lot of time looking at this game. It's beautiful. Which is why when one tiny thing is off, it irks me more than it would otherwise.
From my perspective Air seems a bit low to the ground.




Especially compared with Orbital;

Air units are scarcely above the height of Laser Turrets and Orbital Factories, especially when banking.

It looks a bit strange. It's also often quite hard to detect where Orbital to Ground/Air fire is coming from.

I'd like it if Air Units height was raised, and Orbital's were lowered.
This would open up a bit of space between Air-Land which would look prettier (as combat can make this space pretty cluttered with projectiles, explosions and the awesome Air debris art).
It'd also make Orbital-Land engagements easier to follow.

What do people think? Does it ever bother you?

If air and orbital units are closer it might make it a bit messier to deal with.

I think they're both too low. And aircraft don't use the whole volume of air. They're on a 2d plane all at the same height. It has never looked right.

It's already kinda messy. Orbital needs a translucent overlay shell imo.

There is one, and you can set it up in the settings.

GASP.

I do agree with air being too low to the ground... and I like pretty screenshots...

so yeah.. there's my +1 .

Since the T2 bombers became missile launchers their speed has been horrible,
I would like to see that tuned up a bit.

Astreus could also use a speed boost, or at least when traveling long distance, waiting for this last commander to arrive at a planet so you can kill him is pretty boring.

Your pool and pov. are about how game looks, not about how it plays. And air is done this way so it plays better/easier. Also orbital is done as it is because same rule, it is high to accent that its orbital not second air layer. So i vote for first.

How it plays is linked to how it looks. Uber have a WYSIWYG mentality.
Air could be higher off the ground and function perfectly well. Projectile speeds can be very easily altered.

Orbital is essentially a second Air layer with hovering units, regardless of what is looks like. You argue for a perspective based on gameplay, yet justify the status quo by saying 'it looks like this, therefore it is this'.

The two need not be so far apart - indeed if they were closer the possibility of crossover units might be more palatable.
Air is extremely close to the ground at the moment, which I'd be fine with if it were one of several heights. But currently when you have dozens of units in the Air being fired at by dozens on the ground, there is not always enough space to see what is going on, how many units are being lost, how many bombs are falling, etc.

A 50-100% increase in Air height with a corresponding Orbital decrease would be interesting to see. If it didn't look any better, I'd support things staying the way they are.

It's definitely kind of weird looking when bombers drop their payloads about an inch away from whatever it is they're bombing.

Game needs some keyboard shortcut to select only ground/air/space. With this in place air and space could be closer. Also addition for local to planet groups would help a lot.

Air units height could be increased a little, but everything else is good as it is.

I agree. Orbital should remain high up, and air is a tad too low.

Air units are silly low, they're practically grazing the heads of commanders.
Air should definitely be higher.

probably air need a bit more altitude, but orbital is fine!
I mean they are in Orbital, they need to be very distant from the planet.

Well if we get sorted out UI and shortcuts, air could take like half height from ground to orbital. Its a shame that almost every RTS turns air into hovering units just at bit higher altitude than ground hovering units. I know more realistic air mechanic does not work well, but we could get some more airplanish animations.

So when UI gets better air can be much higher, but moving air up at cost of me zooming in/out each time is a big no.