Hello guys, this is about an idea that I had. So after seeing that orbital nukes kinda use the same pathing mechanic that other units do when they travel between planets, I guessed that unit cannons will probably use the same mechanic. What if those slingshot paths were fixed, so every unit would take the same path until entering the orbit of the new planet. With the unit cannon in the game there will most likely be huge, constant streams of units floating between planets. What fixed paths would allow, was to be able to send counter-streams of units against those incoming units, and they'd battle it out in space. This would create a dynamic where you could take over a path entirely and block your enemy from sending more units to your planet, if you outnumber him with a counter-stream of your own units. Also it would allow for long-range ground-turrets that could shoot at those streams of units while they're still in space, or other kinds of weapons that can turn the battle over a path to your favor. It would also make it possible to fire single-target missiles at targets in those paths. It would certainly fix the "commander in space" issue that is present atm in giving you a possibility to shoot it in space. You'd have to be at the planet that the target is flying to, to be able to interact with it before it arrives. If you're on the planet that the target flew away from, then your projectiles won't make it in time. To not lose the overview of what's happening slingshot paths could have different colors for different planets. So that's it for now. I'm eager to hearing your ideas and reactions. Greetings
I see where you're coming from, but I have to disagree. I think the "stream" idea would simplify combat over multiple planets far too much. Look at it this way; if you have the stream system you suggest then it'd just be a tug-of-war until one of you won. It would essentially turn into you bombarding units until he can fight back the stream, or you winning by overrunning him. On the other hand, if we had units arriving without fighting each-other during orbit it isn't a black and white numbers game. You could cannon less units but to better positions causing you to win over a period of time, slowly weakening your enemies eco. It would create much more dynamic playing field where you're attacking, defending and managing your eco and it'd be primary macro based. The winner would be the person making the better decisions and using the mechanics to his favour more than just whoever throws the most units into the stream.
I disagree too, like you need to be able to invade another planet, and probably will not be some like the SupCom 2 cannon(I mean shoot 100 units at the same time), and you will be able to attack a planet in a moon or vice-versa...
Well you could always interrupt their stream by nuking their unit cannons. Or just avoid it by placing a gate on their planet to invade through that. There won't only be unit cannons to invade. I just thought it was a cool idea. Send some kamikaze-bots up their stream and look at some pretty space battles. There could be two streams connecting each two planets, so that both players could invade the other one at the same time, but with the option to send units up a counter-stream, too. There could be different units for counter-streams than those that fit into the unit-cannon. And those counter-stream units could be more expensive and specialized. For example one kamiaze-bot, that if it gets all the way through to the enemy unit cannons, then detonates and destroys one of those cannons. And tbh I think that as PA is getting more and more complex, simplifying here and there couldn't hurt to keep the game flowing. Because at the moment everything involving orbital is so slow and mostly non-interactive that it's painfully slowing down the flow of the game. What bugs me the most is that you can't interact at all with units that are in space, travelling between planets. I don't call for extensive space-battle mechanics, but a little bit of interaction with units that are in space won't hurt imo. In general it would solve many issues that I'm seeing. I'm just saying that the more complex this game becomes, the more automation and simplification players need to be able to play the game in a fun way. And the stream idea would help automate combat between different planets a bit. Edit: This would also allow orbital fighters to fight between planets.
The two stream idea would make it better, and I do agree that there should be more interaction between players and orbital. At the moment it's just a waiting game at certain points. But how do I nuke the enemies unit cannon if I can't see it? Surely my radars would be destroyed on their way. The problem with your idea is that it is just a numbers game. If you can send more units down the stream you've pretty much won. Sure you could try nuking their steam or making specialised units; but it all seems very two dimensional. It discourages planetary fighting and invasions and focuses on "pretty space battles". Also, if you get early control of the steam how do I place a gate on your planet? It'd just turn into a tug of war game until one of us won. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with you when you say orbital needs to be simplified whilst being interactive and fun to use. But I feel like this way isn't the right way to go about it.
I guess you'd have to send a few orbital fighters in front of the radar satellite to clear the way first. But you'd also have the possibility to try and come from a different direction (different planet) with a completely new path that your enemy might not have covered, yet. Or you could, at least in my imagination, get some support fire from planetary structures to clear the way. So it's not simply a numbers game imo. And honestly, I don't really see how players will be able to manage all the orbital warfare that will be going on in big games, if Planetary Annihilation gets any more complex than it is now. The devs are running the risk of adding so much complexity to the game, that it will lack the necessary gameflow to be fun. This kind of RTS has never been made before. There's plenty of room for mistakes. I just can't comprehend how I'm supposed to fight on multiple planets and keep track of the orbital stuff that is going on at the same time. At least not with the game mechanics as they are now. Simplification is needed dearly, imo.
So if my planetary structures are strong enough to beat his numbers, surely his are strong enough to keep me at bay. It would either result in a tie or like I said, a numbers game. Telling me to send a few orbital fighters in front of the radar is proving the numbers game point; wouldn't my fighters only win if I have more of them? I'd argue that your stream idea adds more complexity; now I have to worry about the planets I'm fighting on AND the streams in-between the planets. Once my units do get onto his planet, I still have to control them, so wouldn't the stream just be adding extra depth where it isn't needed? Surely you don't need to keep track of orbital that much? You just send them to other planets and it does it all for you. You're suggesting a method in which it forces you to keep track of orbital or else you might have the army you just sent not arrive due to being nuked/counter streamed. I don't understand at all why we would need to look at the Orbital view at all other than to see what units are on the way to our planet. Like I said, I do agree we need to make fighting on multiple planets more simplified. Saving camera positions already helps a great deal and I think once the orbital cannon is in place, sending armies to attack other bases will be fine. You're suggesting a solution to a problem that might not even exist for all we know.
Sorry, but I don't understand what's the problem with a numbers game. PA is basically built around the more units = better mentality. And I have to disagree with the point about complexity. I think it would be more lucid and easier to manage your units in space, if they had fixed paths to go through. This would allow you to get all information you need at a glance. It would make for a clean overview instead of pure chaos, at least that's how I imagine it. And you say that you want units in space to be interactive, but you ask why we'd ever want to look at the orbital view for anything else than to see where the units are going. I think that's a contradiction.
By the way, what I mean with fixed paths is that they're still dynamic because of the moving planets, but that all units that fly from planet A to planet B take the same path. Units in a path adapt to it changing form due to the moving planets. This creates a streamlined form of unit travel between planets, and it makes implementing features that revolve around interaction with those units easier. When in orbital view, those paths are always shown through transparent lines, even if there are no units in them at that time. Also they have different colors dependant on the distance they span. You'll see the strategic icons, but for even more information on which units are in the path, you simply hover over it with your mouse. Maybe you'll even get some kind of magnifying glass effect. This would make orbital view much more easy to read at a glance.
I'm sorry, but if you think that PA should just be a straight up numbers game then you have a very shallow outlook on game design. How dumbed down would the game be, no strike that, ANY rts be, if it focused purely on brute force and numbers for victory. Personally, I feel that RTS's should be about recon, good decision making and ability. You're idea forces players to fight each other in a line where the amount of decisions and tactical play one gets is next to none. It removes the ability to attack important structures and is essentially just "Oh someone is sending some units at my planet, better send more units at them." That, to me, just sounds boring. I'd rather send 200 tanks at the enemy base and quickly hop between planets making the entire army on my home planet defend against your attack whilst at the same time making my army attack your home planet. Yes, that is going to be difficult to get used to, but that is the price you have to pay when you're doing a game on this scale. There definitely needs to be features implemented to make that task easier, but by essentially removing multi-planet combat in a 1vs1 scenario sounds like a ineffective way to deal with it.
While this is a cool idea for the spectacle of watching lots of units pour into each other in space, it would make the counter for unit cannons more unit cannons until you stall each other long enough to get teleporters. Honestly that would simplify the interplanetary gameplay too much and prevent anyone from assaulting each other for long periods of time. I'd rather have dedicated fighters with maybe some specialized anti orbital cannons on the ground to screen mass bombardments of units flying in, but doesn't guarantee to knock them all out. A system that doesn't completely negate ground defenses and situational awareness since units can slip through would be preferable. It prevents planets from being impenetrable, so if you aren't paying attention or lack ground defenses an advanced fab could get by and gain a foothold on your turf. It wouldn't be fun if the only way you could reasonably interact with other planets is to wait for teleports, drop a million nukes on it, or smash a small moon into it.
Sky-Net Perhaps the best solution would be to launch a star-/space- ship into the path between various orbits. The ship could attain a geosynchronous or drifting orbit to target the incoming pathways where feasible (others may be too variable in their paths for a single Sky-Net or even multiple Sky-Nets to cover, depending if they are intrastellar or interstellar[?]). The unit could "assemble" in space into an orbital-type unit. Its most ostensible feature would be to project lasers/plasma between terminals into a grid-like net through which it would position itself so enemy units fired from the cannon would pass through. Obviously, this would damage the enemy units, but probably not destroy stronger units in their transfer ... possibly leaving the option of deploying multiple Sky-Nets. Such a unit would not serve as a catch-all for enemies launched in this fashion, but could create a pair of formidable jaws into which attackers would hesitate to hazard their units launched in such a fashion. [] Keep in mind that the Sky-Net would only be useful if deployed in the approximately correct position, as I imagine that there are several trajectories through which an invasion could pass. Still, it could have variable benefits based on the trajectory mechanics of the game, the particular circumstances of the bodies in question, and what portions of the attacked planet are targeted (heck, it might be useful to defend a portion of the planet where combined anti-air-anti-land towers were infeasible to build or simply as an area of denied access for a portion of the planet's surface to help shape the choices of where your enemy will invade). Alternatively, the ship could create ultra-dense "caltrops" (space-trops?) that would shred units coming in contact with them out of sheer momentum. It would be fun to see some units effectively "killed" in this fashion by being knocked off course with rockets disabled while still "alive" ... Would it be too much to hope they might spiral in with gravity and burn up in re-entry (perhaps the minorest of meteorites?). [] Just an idea.
So, someone with a simple idea for orbital. Great! #sarcasmnotreallywellmaybealittle Look, orbital is currently the most binary and simple playing field in PA right now, and considering how difficult it is to land on a planet right now (compared to say, point, click, shift queue a fac or two, back to main), it really doesn't make sense to add that simplicity to the unit cannon. THIS SHOULDN'T BE AN ECO WAR - it should be an Eco management war. That's why we have the system of mex/sec and streaming eco. It works great to have an ace in your sleeve that you have carefully crafted for 5-10minutes. Now imagine if I could easily defeat that ace by sending more resources in your general direction than you are sending in mine. Bummer. You lost the Eco war. Don't get me wrong - this sounds cool on paper and I think it would look just arsome in game - but it just won't enhance gameplay or add depth/variety to an already struggling orbital layer. WE NEED FRIGATES!
I think I recall the devs. shooting down the idea of starships. But! I agree; interplanetary Warships would be pretty cool.
