[WIP][Server] Orbital Warfare Overhaul

Not a problem, I can do some basic textures for now, and there is still lots of other things to do.

I Think it would make more sense to have the Catapult only ( or a dedicated anti-orbital tactical missile launcher) be able to fire at orbitals, instead of "all units with tactical missiles".
Its illogical that a Little mobile bot would have the missiles capable of entering orbit, they are made for closer range support. (if we "pretend" that there is some sort of logic and physical laws in Place in the PA universe)

Now, having tier 2 submarines being able to launch tactical missiles at orbitals however, would both be logical and add a nice extra value to having subs in oceans on the planets, to ambush satellites and orbital fighters etc.

I agree with you there. Wasn't a fan of allowing all tac missile based unit to fire at the orbital layer. (Didn't mind testing it out though). I will be modelling some fairly expensive and large T2 mobile anti orbital units for the other layers at a later date most likely.

well, if we are going to give orbital a unit to shoot down to the ground at armies, we should allow those armies to return fire. For the moment, I think tactical missile units would make the most sense.

ok, we're making some decent progress, the anchor can no longer shoot at the surface, and I've added in the hammerhead and excalibur to the main branch of our mod, as well as tweaking them somewhat. The orbital solar panels and the advanced radar satellite are now structures, and the jig now takes energy to run, rather than giving you energy.

I've got some cool orbital fights going on now, we might release a public testing version to PAMM soon, once we've got more units in...

Here's some cool shots of the new ships going head-to-head:

That's too legit to quit.

Unfortunately you cannot see enemy orbital units firing yet (this is the case in vanilla as well, try it with avengers) and it makes the orbital combat just a little less awesome. Still pretty great though.

Emraldis how are you going about fixing the unbalancedness of pinpoint orbital insertions and instant commander / high value target kills? Even if you have 300+ fighters patrolling a planet, anyone with 30+ fighters and an SSX or two can vaporize pretty much any target at will..

for starters, I think that's already fixed, the SXX has a 3 second cooldown upon entering orbit before It can do anything. However, my current plan (I don't know if my co-conspiracers agree, we haven't discussed it extensively yet) is to have the SXX more of a building sniper, by lowering it's firerate and it's turn rate, as well as it's movement rate, making it hard to chase down commanders, and snipe them. The other thing I'm considering is just turning the SXX into an anti-orbital long-ranged laser turret, or a stationary anti-ground laser turret.

I like the idea of having the SXX as an anti building unit the best. Sort of a C&C ion cannon style.

Despite having spent the whole of yesterday afternoon reading the modding forum with an eye to starting something similar myself I somehow missed this thread. What you've got thus far looks amazing, I look forward to seeing what else you guys come up with and having a play with the mod when it's ready. The missile ship looks a bit like an orbital fatboy 2.

Once I've got some concepts modelled I'll post them here if people are interested.

Go ahead. I would be interested in seeing some of the concepts that you've come up with.

Also for anyone reading this remember that all the units which you see in the screenshots at this stage are subject to change, both model and function wise. So feel free to send any suggestions and such.
I am working on a new model for the Excalibur artillery vessel at the moment. Progress is a bit slow on the models at the moment though due to exams coming up for me


Here's just a quick concept/experimental shot of the new model for the Excalibur(This whole model is subject to possible drastic change should I get any new ideas). It still has a long way to go. Also the front is inspired by something that should be in PA but is not yet (Points to who can guess what it is).


There are a few more models which have been done, but are not ingame yet. Am going to keep them as a surprise for now.

EDIT:
I would have replied sooner, but I blame the watch thread function for not notifying me of any new posts for some reason.

Unit cannon ship eh?

(Although that could be a rail gun of massive proportions too).

Points to you .
Yeah the front is based off the unit cannon model. Will be a long range artillery vessel.

If possible in the future we may attempt to add ships capable of using orbital drop pods. Can't promise though and if it does happen, it'll be in the far future.

*Is a railgun, though so is the unit cannon, I'm pretty sure...

And here I was going to say the Mac cannons from Halo...

Very reminiscent of the Forward Unto Dawn.

Thanks. I was thinking of a similar idea regarding an anti building ship. Something like an orbital vanguard with the range dramatically increased. With that in mind I present the "screaming eagle".



Looking at it again now, I'm not so sure it fits with the general theme of PA, but it was fun to make and any feedback is welcome. Maybe in future I'll learn to not be so masochistic as to attempt to model something with a beak the very first time I use 3d modelling software.

Not bad. My suggestion is, if you're new to 3d modelling like me (few months experience in my case) then start out trying to model simple blocky structures. Once you start feeling more comfortable then move on to adding more and more detail.

Nice model, although as you said I'm not sure if it entirely fits the PA aesthetic either. Remember PA units usually have a fairly blocky and angular look to them (So try to avoid rounded parts). In my case it is hard for me to design orbital units since I have nothing to reference and have to work out what kinds of orbital ship models will fit with the overall PA aesthetic.

Quite good model anyway (especially for your first try). I'm not really an expert so don't take anything I say as rules which you absolutely have to follow. Just keep experimenting and eventually you'll get the hang of it and everything gets easier.

Yeah, I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. I might try and bring it into the game just as a test piece or just move on to the other things I was thinking of(especially if you guys already have a long range orbital unit).

I'd planned to introduce an orbital bombardment unit that would just drop bombs constantly when given an attack or attack move order until it reached and destroyed it's target. The second unit I wanted to try was an orbital dive bomber, drop down out of orbital and do massive damage to a single target. Dive would start from outside of umbrella radius but the unit would be vulnerable to aa briefly when actually firing.

I'm hoping to have the other models finished by the middle of next week.