Unit Cannon Discussion

So we are getting closer to the point where interplanetary play will become enjoyable and where the unit cannon is implemented. My question is how do you see the unit cannon working?

I see them working with similar restrictions as an interplanetary nuke: They get a limited range and will mostly only work when the celestial bodies are close together. for long range interstellar invasions you will need to use orbital transports (not halley - those should be reserved for fabbers, commander and if we ever get it, megabot - I'm talking about something that can pick up 10-25 t1 or 5-10 T2 units and land them).
The obvious bonus to using the unit cannon would be that it's direct deployment (Not transports to get intercepted) and both speed and quantity as well as low cost (a unit cannon can constantly fire a stream of units at the enemy planet, for almost no power cost, while teleporters eat huge amounts of power and orbital landers carry a limited unit capacity).

This would make the unit cannon stand out so it isn't rendered redundant by teleporters (who I see as eating a lot of power, requiring an entrance and and exit, but having no range or unit amount limitations), but doesn't make orbital transports redundant (low-cost, unlimited range, but limited with unit capacity and travel time as well as a chance of interception).

Fro what we have been told about the Unit Cannon, there are plenty of limitations.

The Unit Cannon can only be built on small celestial bodies and has a limited range.

Check out this thread: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/planetary-invasions.54449/

Lots of discussion on planetary invasions.

The Unit Cannon being placed on small celestial bodies only means moons and astroids become valuable assets that you don't want to smash every time. Instead, you can use moons as staging points for invasions and have the moon switch orbits to different planets for invasions.

Where has this been said officially?

It is no where official that I can find. Personally, I think the unit cannon would be the most valuable when attempting to establish a beach head on a fortified world. I believe the Unit cannon should be able to launch from any planet or moon to any other planet or moon.

I think it could be nice if the unit cannon could be build on all planets but got a certain range related to the mass of planet/moon/asteroid it is build on, so you might get a unit cannon on your main planet but since it is big you are only able to jump to the planets moon.

On the moon it is possible to build another cannon with bigger range because the moon is not as heavy as the planet, from the moon you might be able to jump to an asteroid from where you can jump to your enemies main planet e.g.

That would be an easy way to allow the "Normandy invading style" everyone wants so badly, without having units jumping down directly on the other teams commander right from start. I hope you get my idea


EDIT:
I think interplanetary nukes could work same way, the less mass the body the launcher is build on has, the longer the range for the rockets, that makes small planetary bodies valuable too even though they don't give much metal as they can work as launchers for invasions and there by increase your strike radius.

Something like this would be pretty good. Moving units across a planet isn't that big a deal. You can intercept direct drops using AA, traps, and blanketing sheer firepower at the destination. A solid internal defense would force the attack to rally outside your base.

If we were using the TA Commander, any unit that dropped too close would be instagibbed by the d-gun. It'd be a stream of free kills as you sat there waiting for the next one to drop.

I miss the d-gun. It would be so useful here.

so we will have Moving Death stars basically.

( Planet )

Team-1 Commander-1 : AH MAAAN MOON INCOMING AND IT HAS A CANNON FULL OF TROOPS READY !!!!!
Team-1 Commander-2: Stop screaming in the mic man just spam AA-s on the side where they are inc.
Team-1 Commander-1: You mean the t1 AA that barely can kill anything than bots ?
Team-1 Commander-2: ehhhhhhhhh WE ARE SCREWED RUN WITH YOUR COMMANDER RUUUUUN !!!
Team-1 Commander-1: meh I forgot we got nukes....... nvm they have antinukes -.-
Team-1 Commander-2: WAIT do they have nukes on that Moon ? WHY did you not build ANY Anti Nukes !!!!
Team-1 Commander-1: Well I didn't expected MOVING moons with cannons and Nukes !!!!!
Team-1 Commander-2: L2P PA you nab

( Moon )

Team-2 Commander-1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8
Team-2 Commander-2: can you freaken STOP spamming that music in the mic ALLREADY !!!!!
Team-2 Commander-1: Spam levelers MOAR LEVELERS MOAR !!!!
Team-2 Commander-2: DO YOU HEAR ME STOP THAT MUSIC ALLREADY!! ITS ANNOYING NOW!!!!
Team-2 Commander-1: levelers levelers levelers CANNON levelers levelers levelers CANNON ......
Team-2 Commander-2: meh I just send in a nuke -.-
Team-2 Commander-1: Moar levelers moar CANNON !!!!!!

I remember it from a live cast and I don't want to go through and re-watch all of the live casts.

This has been discussed so many times... It makes sense in so many ways.

First off, placing a cannon on the surface of earth can't get something into orbit. But placing a cannon on the moon can get something into orbit.

Also, it greatly increases the validity of moons. Moons are now much more of strategic importance. Most importantly, it now gives us a reason to not smash the moon. The moon is now a staging point that hops orbit to orbit for invasions.

Being able to use a unit cannon on any planet to any planet makes less sense than letting interplanetary nukes fire from any planet to any planet.

How the launching system is SUPPOSED TO WORK: (read: it doesn't right now)

Unit cannon on a planet of x size or larger is almost useless since the units are launched on a suborbital trajectory. A unit cannon on a planet of size x or smaller allows one to launch units at a planet that you are orbiting. It might not be that binary, either, but that's what I've seen so far.

I know this was in a live stream somewhere. Can't remember when though....wish they had livestream summaries for those of us who can not watch the whole thing due to time limitations
So: movable moons will make orbital make more sense. Instead of.... Man we need a meme for how bad orbital is right now lololool

Awesome over realism remember???

Besides a cannon/rail-gun is realistically quite feasible from earth! (larger than most/all pa maps btw) to shoot equipment out into space. It has been the subject of sci-fi, theorists and serious science to tackle the problem logistics particularly where setting up bases on planets like mars are concerned; shooting vital parts, fuel into space with rail guns where the orbital facility collects and sends them along and amounts to a significant savings in fuel otherwise lost in leaving orbit.

look for prophets of science fiction documentary series,

Verne's calculations were apparently quite precise for his book jounry to the moon...

How would transporting 25 tanks ever become feasible? You need at least 50 tanks to push through a small defence, and if you are going to invade someone else planet they will have enemy factories producing endless amount of tanks so you are probably talking about a planetary defence of 500-1000 tanks with defences of catapults and holkins with the addition of bombers and fighters on patrol.

Seems to me that unless you are able to go Eldar style and sneak build a teleportation gate on the enemy planet a invasion is virtually impossible.

I think the unit cannon should be a method of delivering many units to another planet which is locked in orbit with the planet firing the cannon. The rate of fire of the cannon should be moderate to encourage players to construct more cannons to obtain more unit launch 'bandwidth.' Instead of having exactly one expensive cannon that delivers a lot of units quickly, there should be numerous cheaper unit cannons, each with limited capacity and fire rate, which work together.

I also think the player should have to pay metal for the pods for each unit launched using a unit cannon, in addition to the upfront cost to construct the unit cannon. Transports like dropships are much slower and easier for the enemy to stop by simply destroying them, and dropships should be much more efficient than the unit cannon as a result. Also, the need to pay a small amount of metal to launch each unit lets the unit cannon itself be cheaper to construct, allowing players to build more of them for more options regarding launches to different places, or higher bandwidth for a larger, faster drop in one place.

I still think that the range of the unit cannon should be a sphere who's radius is inversely proportional to the size of the planet/celestial body they reside on (this makes sense because more gravity=less range). Small bodies will have the sphere extend out to other planets while on large bodies, the sphere will be limited to that body (rapid mass transport)

I agree broadsideet, but I would add that the range for free-firing the unit cannon across a solar system should probably be quite limited.

I think the primary function of the unit cannon is to fire units between planets that are orbitally locked. Its range limitation might be significant for when several planets are orbitally locked in some arrangement, such as several moons orbiting a gas giant.

But the range should probably be limited enough that you can't really free-fire across a solar system using the unit cannon. You should need a transport for that. And transports are easier to deny using defenses than units delivered in pods by a unit cannon.

If you want to deliver units via pod on a distant world, without moving a planet into orbit, there should be a ship you can build for that. An orbital assault carrier that is essentially a spacefaring unit cannon that transports units and can fire them at the surface, just like a unit cannon.

Or this one: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/the-unit-cannons-going-to-be-a-factory-no.54300/

This, coupled with the ability to manoeuvre asteroids in orbits with Halleys.

All I'm hearing is SPACE PIRATES

I believe it was the latest one, but what I think Jon said was that it could be built on moons and the moons moved into orbit. He doesn't say it cannot be built on other planets. Whether this is what he meant, or he was simply talking about it as an invasion enabler, is unclear.

Biggest question is how will you transport naval troops between Water Planets?

http://postimg.org/image/777cb32gv/

I wouldn't say just locked planets, I would rather give it a fixed range. There are 2 reasons to do this:

1. What if an orbital locked moon is circling the planet at a range A, but another body that isn't orbitally locked comes closer to the planet (range B, where B>A). Why wouldn't it be possible to shoot units at that other body, but it would be possible to shoot at the moon, if the body is closer?

2. Having a fixed range would create interesting situations where you can only invade with unit cannons during a certain window (you have a window of operation). This increases strategic options and viability of unit cannon.

Asterus maybe? I have alway seen the astraeus as the heavy lifter.

Getting the ships into orbit may be tricky, but landing in ocean from orbit is EASY. In fact it's what we do today, because water can cushion the impact much more effectively than land.

Just dunk the boats. They'll be fine.