Upcoming work update!

The you get a situation where the subs surface and get destroyed instantly by the very stuff they are supposed to counter.

So they would be pointless.

But they are not supposed to counter normal ships while surfaced? An AA submarine might not be meant to counter ships at all.

Not ships, planes and anchors.

Something with such little HP would be killed before they can even kill what they counter.

Then give such a specialized submarine more hp then usual or similar.
That's just like saying that aa vehicles die rather quickly to bombers. Well yes they do. But they still work.

Well, not really, and then, giving the sub more HP just makes it better against surface ships from before, but with the ability to become invulnerable to everything but torpedos and detection types other then sonar....I mean submerge compared to the AA frigate that is also terrible with it's AA.

Only fighters and flak are actually decent AA in PA, all of the missile AA types are terrible unless in mass.

You invent issues. As an example I suggest: "Make a submarine that is meant as a stealthy aa support ship. Typical usage is suddenly submerging to surprise air that is attacking seemingly aa-less ships."

To fulfill that role the submarine in question would be able to quickly surface. It would have enough hp to withstand a few bomb hits. Probably does not even need that much hp, as it is not meant to work alone.
It would need a powerful AA gun. Powerful like a flak cannon.
It would have no other weapons.

There you go.

deck guns could shoot hovers
the ONLY reason why subs had deck guns was probably because they decided to include hover engineers

Submarines!

Yup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSM-56_Bulava

I'm deeply excited for these features!

But I can't unleash the excitement now... I must save it for when the stuff arrives.

(man, the puns are real)

ftfy

I'll get @tvinita to comment on this a bit later today with his thoughts on how subs fit in current game balance. Things have changed since Alpha a lot, so expect them to play/function differently

Doesn't really fit the art style of PA Supcom had the units blow up into pieces and bounce around, here we blow things up with the explosions and smoke being the visual. I doubt that gets changed

As long as you will add wrecks again I don't mind.

I am pleased to see that piece after piece, you add all of the features I am missing even after the game has been released for such a relatively long time.

I simply hope that you are still making enough money off it to support further development (of PA and future titles).

Ah that was the word I was looking for... just couldn't come up with it. Well that sentence already has a smaller pun that might not be too noticeable...

I just want to point out that in the current PTE the "water height" slider has been replaced with "water coverage" and "water depth". For all those who worry about subs.

Well they dont have to fall to pieces, but a "water" explosion around the ship in addition to the explosion of the projectile and the death of the unit.

Something along those lines, just appropriatly scaled.

Wha? I thought the big plan was to eventually readd wreckage? You know one of the things that makes the game unique and more interesting.
We were even told that sinking ships was planned in one of the later livestreams...