some units to eventualy spice up gameplay ...

I have found that dropping spinners via unit cannon works very nicely, especially now that they don't all bunch up on landing. It would be even better if we could issue area attacks for the unit cannon, though, and saturate an area with AA.

An advanced bot flak AA unit might be even better, though.

They don't make avengers obsolete because they either would not fire on the orbital layer or would not be cost effective at performing in an orbital combat role.

The point is simply to be able to transport x cost y power anti-air plane from planet a to planet b.

No, the solution must be air based because bombers are usually always planet patrolled along with boombot or dox spam.

the unitcannon didn't break it with how expensive it is ... it instead became a valueable option to help establish beachheads in the first place .. so i can see the same with the t2 aircraft when ballanced the right way ... both in performance and cost ...
and you still would have orbital defensive options against it with the anchor when it is on surface ...

have you tried modding it?
as in combining the rcbm t1 airfighter that afaik shoot at air and ground with the austreus capabilities of traveling through orbit?

I personally have not tried it, though I seem to remember MadSci and Nano did at some point. Their experiments went just as expected: air spam, all day.

The Unit Cannon has been in the works since the first kickstarter trailer. We've seen it coming and many of us have a specific vision on how that unit should function within the orbital realm. Now that we have ways to mod it, we can balance it.

Adding in a mechanic that doesn't follow the visual rules of the game and completely alters the way we defend planets and/or attack them isn't constructive. What problem are we solving by adding these into the game?

Right now, I see a few issues with the Orbital Game that are very specific, and adding in an aerospace fighter is not going to help the problem. In fact, it will cloud our judgement on the issue, distracting us from the bigger problem at hand.

what the actual issue is with orbital as well it´s actual solution is long known we are just waiting for its implementation speaking of multiunittransports and carriers ...
avengers and ssx do what they are supposed to do and with the later becoming more available it will have it´s place both in singleplanet and multiplanetmatches imo ...
the t2 airplane is not for fixing these orbital issues ... it is to have an option for when planets are tightly defended to brake through those defenses as the ssx still will have a hard time against umbrellas and tactical missiles ... so i personaly see the t2 plane as a vanguard ...

regarding airspam ... we pretty much do it all the time anyway ... airsuperiorty will be always a thing no matter the planet ... however flak, t1 aa turrets as well as anchors and humingbirds help against that for your base ...

Again, there is a very, very good reason air units cannot travel through teleporters - it would make controlling a system really easy by bouncing from planet to planet with a force of very fast and difficult to counter units in the mid game. No one cares about late game stalemates - build halleys or annihilasers or put a gas giant in the system to stop them. The Avenger/Anchor balance is utterly broken, as is the way Avengers interact with other orbital units. Multi-unit transports and carriers are extremely difficult to implement, so while I have no doubt Uber will add them in eventually, I am not holding out for them.

The SXX might as well be called the last-ditch commander killing weapon of doom, because that's all it's ever used for.

As always, I cringe when i hear Elodea speak of orbital stalemates. Please, continue your tale of orbital warfare while I watch this wonderful video against Burning where they recover a 3->1 economic deficit to win in a multiplanet system.


Yes. Tell me more.

it is ONE unitype only that would actualy perform worse than any of the other aircraft compared to it ... and it has tons of counters to it before it could actualy do something ... aircraft not able to use teleporters has nothing to with it ... it would be a very specialised and very situational unit ... at least on my paper ...

"The SXX might as well be called the last-ditch commander killing weapon of doom, because that's all it's ever used for."

well it IS good for sniping after all .. and now it would be more used for general sniping ...

I've been saying it before and have been told it would be difficult to implement, but I feel like it would be the best way to do it.

An Orbital Aircraft Carrier.

Make it a decent cost in metal, but not too expensive as to allow multiple carriers (IE, much Cheaper than Unit Cannons, or any other WOMD). Give it a limit of only carrying 20 aircraft, and give it a decent chunk of health, as it should be tough to kill, since it is a carrier, but move slower when traveling in orbital

You can't easily spam it, its still viable, and it adds an interesting unit into the orbital layer.

Doesn't matter how well it performs. You'd be forcing people to build them just by the fact of them existing - all it takes is one person to get a critical mass and they rule the airspace around the entire solar system. Want to scout? Forget radar sats, send in this really cheap air unit! Want to completely stop someone's expansion on another planet? Send in ten of these buggers to ground their air fabbers.

The solution is to add more variety and usefulness to the orbital layer, not to patch up the issue by handing the orbital reigns to other unit types.

just allow fighters to be build in unit cannon pods or have orbital aircraft carriers.

Id say what Elodea says still holds, even if the orbital game didn't go his way. It till didn't stalemate!

again this unit has no orbital reign it merely traverses it ... it is primeraly an airunit .. and cost can be ballanced ... there is yet no implication of it just being cheap ...

orbital is more than just the layer itself - it also governs the interactions between planets. Teleporters, Unit Cannons, Nukes, etc.

ok, and? this doesn´t mean that a glasscanontypeunit would neccesarily brake it ...
and there are the transitiontimes

The addition of a means to transport air power (arguably the most powerful/useful planetary unit type in PA) between planets AT ALL is something that should be avoided for a simple reason: Once you gain air dominance, no one can stop you. The same is not true of orbital dominance at the moment, not by a long shot (in fairness, orbital dominance in the right situation will win the game, but it is not the end all be all by any means).

Let me put this another way: There comes a point in time where an invasion becomes impractical due to the defenses on a planet. In most games, this is around the thirty five minute mark. Some crazy folks still try them (i see those boom bots, Burntcustard ), but, in general, it's much more effective and time-efficient to go for a superweapon or orbital domination. This provides some benefits to the gameplay, most notably the following:

1. Good orbital players, seeing the turning point, will shut down their factories in order to speed up the production of the game-enders, such as halleys. This slows the unit growth rate and lessens the load on the sim, causing less lag and allowing for faster games.
2. Some folks would call this the 'T3' or Experimental stage of PA. For some, this is a great experience in the late game Nuclear War, but for many it remains a slog. It's the addition of this extra phase that helps add depth to the gameplay without tacking on too much complexity. Making this late-late phase of the game interesting and exciting should be a priority in any future orbital changes.
3. It quickly separates the good players from the APMers. The guys who dominate at 1v1s are great players at what they do, but those with a well rounded skillset will succeed more often in this late stage. The PAG vs BRN clan match was a great example. One team was great at the first twenty minutes, the other was great in the last twenty. The breadth of their knowledge and practice was quite evident.
4. If you've ever had a good orbital war, you know they are nail-biters. I dunno about you, but I'm usually quite excited and stressed during that last phase. It both invigorates and scares me. At the end, though, it's almost always worth it - epic moments are a regular occurrence.

The Aerospace fighter would not contribute to the orbital game in a positive manner by any means, and would, in fact, hurt it. We need orbital fixed, not some add on. Fix Avengers being Super OP. Fix some satellites being weirdly tanky and others being paper. Nerf the orbital factory - it tanks damage so well it might as well be labeled *expensive wall* and given a HIDE BEHIND ME OR ELSE sticker. Make Jigs not OP (seriously, they're still OP). Give us some variety.

The orbital warfare mod goes a long way towards fixing orbital. I honestly wouldn't mind if the devs took some cues from it, just as they used RCBM's anti-orbital missiles.

and the devs already took cues from the mod already as the ssx is cheaper to build and tactical missiles able to hit orbital ...

the biggest problem with orbital lategame is while it is nailbiting and tight there isn´t realy much going on battlewise so there is downtime and you don´t have many options to keep your opponent at his toes without doing some big pushes ... the whole thing turns into a cold war situation were no one wants to waste his nukes or drop 100ths of units into a mere deadpool with no gain at all and that for like half an hour ... this to me is not fun neither to watch nor to play ...

you still seem to consider the unit a orbital addition when it isn´t ...
just imagine 2 tightly defended planets, no halleayplanets, no gasgiants and no annhilaser ...
you can´t use nukes, ssx get easily shoot down, you can´t build anchors, avangers would eat eachother and there is nothing to get down on the enemy planet at the current time as every ground unit would be eaten by bombers and the planets own groundunits ...
and you tell me that unit would mess with this so hard? it is merely something to send down yet it would still have aa at minimum against it and you would have to invest larger ammounts of metal into that strike than your opponent would have to in mobile or static defenses ...

i am not convinced to not have it...

If you let a game get to the point where nukes, SXX, or any invasion wont work, this new unit will not help you. There is no hope at that point in time. Just surrender. He's invulnerable to all but a halley or Annihilaser.

why if you would be in the same situation?
also i never said the unit alone would help ... but in combination with others

No.

If you let them get that far along, you've lost.
Sorry. That's how the orbital game currently works. The Turtle can win through invincibility, by outlasting their opponent. The key to victory is patience and a cool head.