They seem pointless to me. Pgens are better for energy output per metal spent and less vulnerable. They are pretty frail, don't move fast, their grouping formation doesn't make them great for fighting and their dps isn't that high. Seems like a waste of metal for something that could just be taken out by a group of fighters who just happen to do a fly by. 10/10 would not build. Although if it was able to land them on command and air doesn't hit them they could be a mobile power supply which could be cool. Plant groups of them in random spots around the map and move them from spot to spot. Still quite a risky investment.
They make somewhat decent raiders. But as I recall someone else saying, they are good for locking down a planet you have conquered, as a swarm of these can deter invasion attempts and generate free power as they patrol.
*cough* Can't everything see subs? Also, on that note, I found a small use for them today. Good to spam on an asteroid when it's all you have left.... That said, I still had to build Adv Energy once i hit that tier to stay afloat. :/
After testing them out a bit more, I think they do fairly well if they are used to help prevent raiding. Often, players try to send out a few dox to help intercept enemy fabs and limit expansion. Sending out 3-4 of these guys with every fab seems sufficient enough to help with this problem. Granted, the player will have to bring a fighter or construct an AA turret near every cluster of metal spots. Is this a hindrance though? Because very few ground units attack air, the Icarus is essentially a turret that can only get hit by other air units. As a result, an enemy is essentially forced to invest in a fighter and bomber to achieve its goal of eliminating a fab and its mex. Seems rather costly for the enemy if you ask me. Are there other units that are sufficient or possibly better at achieving this task? Absolutely. However, there is the benefit of extra energy production from choosing the Icarus over others.
I've had pretty good luck giving them large area patrols as area denial. They are very very cheap, and it takes a surprising amount of effort to clear them out of an area. They just fly around picking off the occasional fabber or wandering dox. What I would like to see is more front loaded damage on them, so they could 'pop' a single humming bird instantly but still have the same overall dps.
I've tried playing around with them and i don't see any use either in harass or anti harass. I was really hoping they might be an oracle like unit from sc2. They have too low dps and speed, making them not good at either. Dox shoot them down super easy, they can't run from fighters, they dont have the speed to make good timings, and they dont select with combat units. The energy production mechanic for these guys is also inefficient given their metal cost. The only use i can see if being able to get energy income quickly if you have lots of air factories but not many fabbers (or fabbers need to be doing other things priority) *and if all the stars align and you get them into position to do some good stuff, they dont ahve the sustained damage to do much.
Icarus is less metal efficient then power generators for energy production. Does anyone know which is more power efficient? It's possible that it actually takes less power to build a given energy production of Icarus then it does to build it in power generators because of factory efficiency. The only time I have ever built these in game is when I'm in a power stall and am floating metal. It seems to work, but I don't know if that is just because it's taking advantage of the factory build power.
Currenly, I think it has two functionality. 1, In early game, it can deal with some dox and grenadier rush. 2, In late game, it can provide the underwater vision to spot the enemy Kraken which is radar snealth.
Nope underwater vision of the ikarus is twice as big as the vision of a firefly, see my post a few posts above.
Ans 1: Yes Ans 2: No Firefly only provides 250m underwater vision, while Icarus provides 500m. I also have a question, can underwater vision distinguish the units on water surface?
Can someone test this? Currently, I haven't see any unit get longer underwater vision than its vision, except this unit. Since the vision of this unit is 50, while the underwater vision is 500 which is very strange. It may be added one more zero. 500 is longer than the range of T1 radar.
Are you sure PADB must be correct? I see some unit are missing on it, while some units which doesn't exist appears on it.
When you hide inaccessible units, you still can see orbital unit Exodus. But this T2 orbital Carrier isn't implemented into the game. Another example is the Jellyfish, you can't build it in current version. When you check the Reconnaissance units, it leaks the new orbital unit Hermes.
