Space navy?

i was thinking, because it is possible to go into space and onto other planets, is there gonna be a space navy (starships, space cruisers, stuff like that), or is there already something like that?

No space navy.

Currently there aren't any plans to do full on space fleet battles, I believe the reason the devs gave was that they didn't want to take focus away from the planets.

The closest we've got is orbital fighters and satellites.

To be honest after playing a game with a clan member where we both ended up with a planet each (and fortified out at that) I realised the only way to break that would be some kind of spaceship type unit. I think Jon was hinting at that problem during the last live stream. The dynamics of the game applied in reality are different what at first looked good on paper or in theory. Even the commander 'lost in space' problem alone requires a rethink on this front. I think as long as it doesn't interfere too much with the overall game play and is balanced properly it could really add to rather than take away from the game.

Even larger multi-unit transports with high HP would be good.

I really do feel like satellites are being given too much power for their own damn good.

Satellites should have the ability's of any other basic or advanced unit, like for instance the radar satellites should have radar like any mobile radar unit.

I am uneasy at the idea of space transports.

Orbital units should be even worse than aircraft at holding ground, and that requires a rethink of the orbital units, because currently if a ground unit had the stats of a orbital unit it would be beyond overpowered, I feel like they need to be toned down.

I agree they are overpowered at the moment but interplanetary units based on a certain game I played do seem necessary in practice a lot more than I would have thought before Beta. Interplanetary space units do seem necessary. Prove it to yourself by arranging a match where there are planets for each player... you all agree that you will just rush to orbital. See how impossible it is for anyone to win once they've fortified their planets.

Planet fortification is true, I personally believe it is the fault of the current space superiority over what should be the power of the land air and water forces.

The solution in my mind is the make land air and sea forces have their own option along with the static ones to messing or even fighting this new layer, much like they can all fight each other.

But that doest cover how players who fortify a planet are supposed to be breached without a asteroid with an equipped unit cannon. This question has been debated many times, but with no general consensus of the better answers, I am in favor of the orbital lander 'eggs' that can be used to give the player access to deploying engineer squads or factroy's directly onto the battlefield in moments. (Think drop pods, but without the combat units)

Allowing a player to quickly deploy build power to a surface in-order to try and bludgeon out a beach beachhead for proper defences and industry to be constructed, but this method has many problems like dealing with amassed garrison forces and the like.

Trust me you won't land a thing on a fortified planet if it's done properly. I've played it and seen it in action. I personally wanted space units anyway if they were balanced properly. This experience just made me realise it's not optional. The game can't work without such units. Even a unit cannon is useless unless you can wipe out a small area first from space.

I forgot to mention the avenger makes sending anything into orbit impossible without such a space based counter unit.

On such small planets that this would truly be feasible I do agree that a landing attempt would be folly without a proper bombardment system, the current laser satellite in my opinion is a bad way to go about it with its poor range and high powered shots.

I would prefer a set up where a satellite could attack over a large area with good aoe but with damage that would require time to deal with building properly.

If you will check the unit suggestion thread now, I am suggesting a unit that should replace the avenger.....even since alpha that unit is a actual bane of unit design.

Its so stupid, as they would never put a unit like that in the air layer without some proper draw backs but as it stands the orbital layer is a battle of attrition.

I like the avenger but there are no units to defend satellites from avengers apart from avengers. So no chance of getting beyond the orbital layer. I saw your unit suggestion. Taking out the avenger would then create another balance problem... it could become too easy to move an advanced satellite along with a the nice little one shot kills all laser into orbit. Your other unit suggestions would stop that to an extent but then again we don't want orbital to become redundant to land/sea units. Do you see where I am going with this? The right balance would be an invasion style set of space ships. Like independence day [kidding!].

Pretty much this.

Satellites? Sure. It adds something new to the game; a unit that is unrestricted by terrain, but is heavily restricted by time (assuming Uber adds pseudo-orbits or whatever they were thinking about adding).

Giant satellites with giant guns? Same thing, they're at least something new. I mean, this is essentially what Asteroids will be after Uber adds more controls to them.

Giant space navy with giant guns? No. That's just a really expensive version of air that has the models of navy with rocket thrusters strapped to them. You're paying for air units that force your enemy to build really expensive AA. They essentially force the enemy to scale their game with you, which they might not be able/might not want to do. In almost every other situation, you can deal with an overwhelming enemy force. In the case of space navies, countering them with equivalent defensive firepower is fundamentally impossible.

You are not wrong, I....am not good at this balance stuff.

But I do feel like Orbital units should be another parallel with land/sea units, even if they present the only movement medium to get between planets.

There have been suggestions that orbital units be prevented from moving to other orbital layers, much like the power sat was in this/ or the last patch.

I feel, honestly that the cold war could present the best gameplay opportunity for undoing this stalemate....Nukes, but the idea is also to prevent them from being map crossing in place of an asteroid....

IF the two planets are close or orbiting one another, its easy as it presents a battlefield of missile dodging with our kill-sats....

Wait, what about a suicide sat for bombarding planets? non-nuclear no so craters, but one shot weapons to, as you say, clear space for a landing force?

And then the battle changes from planets to who can build the most space superiority to lock everything else out.

We already saw what happened with Air Superiority fighters in Supcom. It wasn't pretty. Nearly every fast attack and transport option was shut down because a single fighter type could wipe it all out. Do the same with the space layer, and travel between worlds can quickly become impossible. Without powerful interplanetary transport options, the game comes to a complete halt.

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So, how do you breach a fortified world? Nukes are probably out, because the enemy will have their nuke defense (plus, nuke slugging matches are pretty boring). Fabber drops can't possibly establish a base on a planet already full of detection and superior infrastructure. Sending your Commander to lead the charge is just... no.

But what about a Krogoth? The Krogoth is a walking nuke, and it's a kind of nuke that SMD can't stop. The TA megabot may have been useless on flat, single planet maps, but TA didn't have orbital drops. This is something that you can drop on a planet, pose a big enough threat to force a response, watch it go boom, and all of a sudden there's an opening. It doesn't sit around in orbit waiting for the only 2-4 unit types that can possibly kill it (so no stupid RPS stuff), it doesn't help the enemy by leaving wreckage(nukes go boom), and it doesn't have to excel at regular battle(like the broken Supcom experimentals). It's more like the "small asteroid" option to pave the way for a real invasion. Hit the planet with one, two or three of these guys, and then flood behind it with a real army.

Interplanetary Artillery, problem solved. If units can't breach the defenses, then it's time to use artillery, always been the case, shouldn't be any different for space combat. Only problem is that right now, you only got asteroid bombardment to utilise, which most players seem to avoid allowing, due to how op they are.

The we need to think out side of the box, and I personally am against the idea of having literal artillery shooting across the system.

How would you like a unit that is essentially a tactical cruse missile, build from the launcher facility, to be sent and used in a one shot orbital bombardment?

Much like the Aoen missile unit from FA? only orbital?

Won't nukes be interplanetary?

Artillery that can shoot up or down a gravity well would be extremely potent. But then you have an artillery slugging match. Yay. One of the reasons the unit cannon is so clutch is because it's an artillery weapon that returns the game to its roots- lots of robots blowing each other up.

We will get teleporters, right? Maybe they will work like a gate. You click on your quantum gate, click on "create exit/portal" and then you click on the spot on another planet where you want to have a sudden portal appear. Each gate would use huge amounts of ressources when active and sending units through it would cost extra energy. Then you just continuesly stream units to the enemy planet to overwhelm their defences.

The disadvantage? You have to push through a choke point, so you better build multiple portals! Also, the enemy could walk into the portal you opened and directly attack you, or maybe even send a nuke through it?

Only if they have the range, and on some of the medium sized planet the nuke launcher doesn't reach very far.

Asteroids were the name of the game, and infinite range nukes were done.

The only proper way to use a 1 sided teleporter is to open a portal directly on the enemy Commander and shoot him until he dies. It's a 100% game ender, as all other "hypothetical uses" pale in comparison to flat out winning.

Two sided teles can be used to give an asteroid all your production power, without forcing a planet's worth of infrastructure to fit on a rock. You still need to move the asteroid into position, and own both sides of the gate, and shoot the guys down to the planet, or it's pretty much worthless. It's 90% sweet *** utility, 10% stalemate breaker.

If nukes can shoot asteroids there might be problems. As it's currently set up, nukes kill pretty much everything and anti nukes are stupidly expensive. An asteroid invasion may never be possible if it's too easy to blow it all up.