Long-Range Nano-Lathing

You are creating a Loyalty Gun, a Recycler, a builder, and field medic, a galactic gate, and a reclaim attacker, ALL in a unit that is safely tucked away from the front line. Construction is power, and range is power. An engineer represents a LOT of power, and it is counterbalanced by its need to risk itself on the front line. Long range destroys that weakness.

The whole point of nano assembly is the ability to assemble things on a microscopic scale. You sort of lose that precision after a couple hundred yards.

Also, construction on other worlds already exists. Fly your engineers there. Bam. Instant long range nanolathe.

This discussion has happened a dozen times, and we've gotten pretty good at it. Check the archives. Resources on a local, planetary, and sector scale have each been covered in detail, with pros and cons of each.

I did keep up with that topic, which is why I said the mex wouldn't pay off to build by itself and then build the ability to transfer it's resources, using a nanolathe cannon if the cannon's ability to build is 10x more costly when building things. The single mex would take a stupidly long time to break even for it's cost, considering something doesn't come along and kill it. It would either crash one's economy or take forever to build up a base from scratch with a nanolathe cannon. It wouldn't if you used it to start a base and then followed up on it with units. Or just assist a small growing base.

This long range nanolathe exists. It's called a ROCKET. You can start a base by flying engineers or your Commander over to go build a base.

Don't like this idea at all, even very slow and expensive build power is op if its range is unlimited (or even just very long). Yes, you can destroy the stuff being built but you can't destroy the builders, so have fun endlessly scouting every tiny undetected area where new stuff gets built and you can't prevent it.

If you're worried about late game building on new planets to be slow and micro heavy I've got the solution for you: Orbital factories and contructors. They build stuff in orbit and then drop it down on the planet. And if you've captured the planet, just move them (slooowly) to the next one.

It has a similar effect that it allows you to project your build power more easily in late game but also has the imo necessary drawback that it is in range of where stuff gets build and thus can get destroyed and denied.

Also, dropping stuff from orbit is by definition Awesome. :mrgreen:

This

As pointed out by others, you either nerf this unit into uselessness, or make it an exponentially more powerful unit that becomes the totally OP focus of the entire game.

... It's a terrible idea.

Well, here is the deal, there really is no way I could lose on this idea anyway:

Lots of people said dyed items in Minecraft or random display case mods were stupid ideas. Then, people got off their butts and made them despite that. Can't fight that, can't fight it being used because it is added to servers, and ultimately couldn't fight the developers adding it to the game themselves after it becoming default mod download material, more played with than the vanilla version of the game.

I would probably figure out how to add this to the game, with configuration settings file, for people to download and use, and would probably use it for games I host. It might catch on then. Who knows.]

Either way, being as how a lot of things were being discussed heavily, such as super units, resource transportation, and moving between planets, and speeding up the endgame... This was worth tossing out here.

Okay, first off: WUT.
Second off.... WUT... MINECRAFT?
Third off: Minecraft is a wildly different ballgame, with no need to worry over competition or balance issues.
Fourth off... WUT. REALLY? WUT.

Okay... Seriously, yeah, if you wanted, you could. More power to you. Add it to your own little mod, then watch people abuse your addition until anyone who actually liked the mod just leaves.

Finally. Yeah, this was absolutely an idea worth throwing out here, and you put a good deal of thought into it, and it is actually a pretty cool idea, but your opposition has irrefutable points, throw in the towel.

Just why.

It sounds like your intent is to come up with bad ideas for the sake of it.

It sounds like your intent was to be rude just for the sake of it.

You added nothing to the debate, and then just attacked thetrophysystem's person. Please, think a little before you post.

I believe that it will be good for turtlers only... I do not want to (actually I cannot) check enemy's every available fabbers to calculate their possible strategy.

Ok, here's my buffs and De-buffs for this mechanism.
Nano Lathe Cannon
+ Can assist in the construction of anything requiring the Nano lathe
+ Can assist from anywhere in the galaxy

- Can't begin the construction of structures
- Nano Lathe spray can be disrupted by space faring vessels and powerful magnetic fields (Shielding units)
- Nano Lathe spray doesn't go directly to it's target, it comes in orbital bursts
- Bursts can be captured and used to fund enemy war efforts
I haven't fully fought this one out, but feel free to critique it.
(Sorry for reviving a old thread...)

That 2 year necro though...