Should people see your landers when they leave the orbit?

Title. Apparently every faction can see every other faction's landers while they are in space. Should it stay that way or not? Is there already a thread about this?

Yeah ive been thinking about this.

Either if visible or if you could build a structure that would give you notice that someone has gotten into orbit. Could even work the same with letting you know that someone has gotten nuke capabilities.

I think it was Red Alert 1 where you got notified that someone was building nuke ?. i certainly remember it from some game at least.

Would be like an intelligence gather / sensor tower structure sort of thing.

On the other hand, i also favor that people can stealthy sneak off planet on a moon / asteroid without everyone knowing about it. Because part of the charm and fun is being able to to sneaky stuff, which normal RTS games because of small square maps dont allow, you cant like hide anywhere and do stuff.

I think that given the current idea behind Orbital balance it probably should stay visible, it's already so expensive and takes so much time to give chance unless you were about to leave as well.

Now if the balance shifts we might need to figure something out different, but for now it's alright.

Mike

I agree with mike, unless something happens and we do end up getting ships/fleets between planetoids, where would need fog of war, you should be able to see the Landers and other orbitals. This also doesn't give too much information as you can't do anything while they are in space. It also makes sense that you can see them as units would (if this was realistic) just have to scan from the planet surface but I digress.


I believe it fits gameplay and gives time to prepare or acknowledge something is going down. It should stay in.

It's not even that. Think of it more like this, getting to and launching Satellites is cheap so sending some out to other planets to keep an eye on them is fine, at that stage Units moving between different planets/moons/asteroids isn't needed anymore because it's a lot easier to keep an eye on the other areas of the map directly.

Compared to now where if you couldn't see things moving in space you might not even have the slightest idea anything has even left the planet in the first place, never mind trying to figure out where it went.

Mike

I personally don't like it. But since you can't really shoot the commander down while he is flying very easily atm it doesn't really matter. I'm sure one way or the other it will get worked out with what makes for the most interesting and fun game play. I really like the direction orbital is going atm. We don't even have the GAS giants and all of naval done yet either. This game is going to be so EPIC once its done.

It would be a little better if you could see where the enemy is headed. Right now they just spin around and magically end up intersecting with a planet's orbit and landing on it. If you could see the path with shift, it would really help with giving chase and establishing a counter-base.

K

No please no

Yes, Please, Yes

We need to be able to counter and not have space = instant win.

Or Space = Instant draw..... see what happens in a 2 planet only system lol

But isn't that kinda what the original poster said?

In SupCom you had cloak devices, which were ... somewhat useful, but most times they were just obsolet. They would give you a way to a "stealthy" base building approach, but not a proper one.
With the vast maps in PA, you now have really the ability to launch stealth-attacks, build secret bases and so on.

So I think they should keep the other landers invisible until you have the proper intel. Let's say you can't see the landers automatically, but with a structure or different unit, you can spot them, and once you have spotted them, you also know their path and target. That would be in my opinion the best approach.

Of course this would make the games significantly longer once the "space-phase" has begun, but that's also part of what makes this game so great.

But that only works assuming you have the ability to get that intel, we don't currently and have no idea if we will ever get it yet.

Mike

If a lower tier orbital factory is added, and you get cheap weak t1 orbital radar, it wouldn't be bad if you were required to probe other planets with them, scouting and all.

Otherwise, in games with many multiple planets you wouldn't have a chance if you couldn't tell the enemy left planet, because you would have no clue which he left to until that asteroid is smashing yours. Though I suppose you could leave planet too, it would REQUIRE you do because he KNOWS you started on that one so the only way to be equal is to planet hide like he did.

so why not just show every path your enemy picks??? That way you know exactly what they are doing and you can intercept....

but you can tell... or at least you should. Not the exact instant that they left orbit but your radars do show orbiting blips, so you know when someone is orbital and should therefore be on the lookout or or preparing your own sats for search....

Here's my thoughts on space visibility https://forums.uberent.com/threads/a-third-type-of-satellite-space.52297/

Perhaps it should be optional? Like, at the game lobby stage?

Suggesting something as an option is useless without also suggesting what the default should be.

Mike

Alright dude, there's no need to be harsh about it. It isn't a useless suggestion, of course if this was to be made optional, a default would have to be decided on. I'm just pointing out that there seems to be a split in feeling about this particular issue, and having it as an option would be helpful. I'm a big believer in giving players choice as long as it doesn't create a plethora of confusing options.

I for one think the situation of not knowing if your opponent has sneaked his commander off the starting planet is a rather fun and interesting one, and would probably encourage scouting and raiding. But it'd also be nice to play games where you know if that is happening so you could respond accordingly. I think I'm siding with the former, but it'd be fun to explore both options.

Ultimately it may well be easy to mod this to hide/show enemy landers in orbit anyway.

very diplomatic approach sir.I like, now this default option........ NO VISIBILITY!!! That is all