Drop Ships!

Somehow, despite making the engine from scratch, uber couldn't figure out multi-unit transports.

You make it out like it's easy.

ok than go make a transportunit that transports stuff from point a to point b
make then a transport that shows fusing multiple units into one and back than do that on one sperical map and from one spherical map to another ..
and finaly programm factory assisting and a ferrysystem ...

It would be nice if the Drop Ship would be like a mass orbital transporter like the big UEF air transporter from SupCom. Its annoying that Atreus can load up only one unit.

I'm still a bit puzzled by this though. How is it different from building multiple Astraeuses and using an area command for loading them all at the same time?

Am you need to spam 10 Atreuses instead of one drop ship? Im not just talking about the usability for pro players here - it would be a lot easier for beginners and other players to just use one ship instead of 10 and also those assembly commands aren't really that intuitive to persons tha aren't pros or really deep in to the game and wan't to enjoy themselves.

While drop ships are really cool, I think the unit cannon will fill basically the same role (though limited to the units it can build) At least if the drop ship is only moving ~8 units.

What I'd rather see than a drop ship unit is if asteroids ever make it into the game, being able to build some sort of armored bunker that can survive impact with a planet. Build the bunker(s) on the asteroid, fill it with units, smash the asteroid into the planet, the impact kills stuff in an area around it (not huge cause it's an asteroid, not a moon), units pour out of bunker which is in the crater from the impact. Limit of units is how many bunkers you can fit on the asteroid and still fit engines to move it.

Not sure how you'd differentiate doing this with a moon vs an asteroid... maybe make the bunker only survive impact if the planet it is hitting has at least <5x/10x/whatever> the radius than the planet it's built on. I know PA already differentiates between a planet killing impact and a planet harming impact.

The unit cannon basically shoots drop ships anyway.

Ok, let me explain in full why I think these would be a bad idea:

Astraeus is T1.
Drop ship would have to be T2 (built out of orbital factory, so as not to obsolete Astraeus.)
Unit Cannon is T2

We have Unit cannon

Their roles wouldn't overlap, at least if balanced correctly.

*Silent movie villain* He will sure affect my plans! I must eliminate this "squishypon3"

Ever since I started playing I wanted multi-unit tansports. This would allow for another method of getting units onto an enemy planet. As it is I am dissatisfied with just teleporters and unit cannons. Unit cannons are great but they are not a method for sending a large existing army to an enemy planet. Teleporters are also hard to get onto a planet properly defended by orbital fighters. Having a slightly tougher unit that would be able to make a beach head for a teleporter to be built or just able to transport lots of units at once would be wonderful. Astraeii are completely useless imo as they are easily shot down/ cost too much to build and are a complete hassle to mess with. They also clutter up your planets orbit. I have had issues with the area load command for them as well. They just sat there. Sometimes when they did have a unit it was impossible to tell they had anything loaded without zooming in on the astraeus.

Also is it just me or is it impossible to get air off a planet in any way shape or form? Why??

Astraeus can carry air stuff last time i checked

I only see conflict with the single unit transporter and the Unit Cannon.

I am probably missing this as I skim thoughr all the posts but aren't Astreaus considered drop ships? Or is it because they can carry only one unit (which seems kinda weak)

The astreus can load more than 1 unit.

If you mod it to do so.

Yep, simple change of an integer.

I wouldn't mind:

• An armoured turret slash teleporter that deploys and is awesome and costs a lot (very quick beachead), or
• An armoured turret slash factory that deploys and is awesome and costs in between a normal factory and a lot (slower beachead, but quicker and more reliable than trying to sneak a fabber in as that will probably get sniped)

no, too similar to other options that already are in the game. Dev time should be spend on more "valuable" features.

Simply get rid of the astreus and exchange it for the supposed dropship. You now have a low cost viable orbital invasion at early stages, and don't mess up with the unit cannon. Remember the later one is used for establishing strong beachheads and continous attacks or possible snipes