Superweapon Types.

I also like the idea. I think the caveat should be that even though it's producing units, it also needs to build the drop pods first; you'd be good for your first round with like 5 of these ships for planet cracking, but then you'd need a "cool down" period (e.g., constructing more drop pods & vehicles). Otherwise you'd effectively have sky bases continuously dropping units, leaving very little opportunity for the defending planet to at least try to counter after the first wave.

I was never keen on the whole mobile factory thing in SupCom, but there is definitely application here in PA.

By the authority vested in me, I declare this feature to be so!​

Sure, but if the dropship doesn't load up with units from the planet you're not going to get all those bombers off world. You would have other options for attacking, but the bombers already built are stuck wherever you built them.

Even if your dropship is a factory it still needs the means load up with the units already available.

edit: added quote for context.

Those are the kind of super weapons I'd rather avoid. I don't think stand alone game enders should be able to replace combined arms.

On this same chord I think nukes should be easier to counter with a variety of structures and units, and that planet/moon smashing/moving should be painfully slow so the enemy has ample time to counter attack your haleys or at the least retreat their commander off to another planet.

I'm all for expensive units and weapons that enable orbital or air dominance because they still require supporting units to make the kill. Ultra transport units follow the same style by enabling hordes of supporting units to make the kill. We shouldn't look for a win button, and if we ever find one it should have a public countdown and plenty of ways to counter.

It's a tough choice to decide how and if air power can be allowed to jump worlds. Either way an enemy world will have air at its disposal, and the attacker is going to have to handle it without having an established base.

A Krogoth-style unit can function as an ultimate air breaker, by simple virtue of being a nuke. Scaring enemy units doesn't necessarily involve killing them at any and all times, and it's effective to make room for your own advance.

If you can manage to land a krogoth you can manage to land crawling bombs as well .....

Silly MrTBSC, crawling bombs can't hit air. It's in their name, for crying out loud. They might prove useful as an ad-hoc TML, but that's their extent.

So we need flying bombs then?

Hmm, yes. A flying unit that carries some sort of dangerous high explosive payload. Genius! Why isn't this in the game?

Oh wait. If it was flying you wouldn't be able to move it to a new world, because flying units can't do that.

Then we can change that can't we?

Who says crawling bombs have to be limited to ground only damage like in TA ?
and why does it have to be a big walking nuke robot ... that's just a way of saying "no idea how to solve this but with pure brute power" ... then why not just brute power from the beginning ... THIS would be boring

It really depends on how clever you want to be about things. It is certainly possible to allow air units between worlds. But it isn't really NEEDED in the same way that land transport is. Unlike with same planet battle, interplanetary battle lets you choose a landing zone. The attack can come at any location at any time, which is a HUGE advantage over traditional assault.

What matters is making sure the attacker has the right biases so that an attack can be more desirable than ordinary defense. This can come in many forms- deployment, economic, high ground, specialized units, or maybe something else entirely. It boils down to letting the attacker take the initiative, and rewarding it with damage.

For example it pays to be reckless against an enemy world. High explosive units can't hurt you as much as it hurts a packed defender. Damaging terrain only hurts the defender. Units which reclaim or deny wreckage can be much more useful than high powered tanks in a losing position.

The AoE needs to be large enough to reach into the air. The explosion can't be any smaller than a certain size.

The crawling bomb might hit air if it was able to jump. But the difference between land and air is significant. What is good against one may not be effective for the other.

Unlike other games, big units don't have to spend eternity to cross a map. If they can be dropped from orbit, they can attack anywhere.

The point of a kroggy is that it can deliver a nuke without being a nuke. That way it doesn't suffer from the tedium of nuke play. Actual combat strength and efficiency are not important, because a landing already seals its fate. All the enemy can do is hope to mitigate his losses.

The death blast is important. It can't be defended, it denies wreckage to the enemy, and it denies air space by wiping it out. More importantly it can add terrain damage to the attacker's advantage, which is something no small unit can do.

The hunting/seeking function may also be important if orbital vision gets another nerf. A blindly dropped nuke can easily be a waste, while a walker can find the optimal spot to pop.

True. I'm still concerned about the frame rate, though.

That's exactly what I would like to avoid: to have to produce thousands units in the first place and having to load them into dozen other units. Reducing all the process in building just half a dozen super units (or movable factories after all), therefore saving tons of CPU time and bandwidth.

Also sparing much micro management to the player and redundant checks back to its base.

A Dropship that produces its own assault units can spare you all that work. Can still consume the same resources (being a factory and being costly in the first place). And can still produce the same units if so it's decided, with the additional cost per unit of a drop pod.

But I believe I made myself clear enough on the matter, and if you see better solutions, then they will be

The mobile bomb explosion does't need to be that big you could just add a hight element to it like a pillarexplosion f.e. jumping also is a good idea as the explosion could be triggered above ground for more efficiency and hit air that way ...
The way you want the kroggoth to be implemented sounds too much like cheap commbombing ... in that case a crawling bomb would be better suited for general bombinrushes ... either that or have mobile nukelaunchers .. but units were nukelike explosions are inevitable? ... no thanks

Right, I get that point, and agree with it even, but I'm talking about the hordes of units left AFTER the planetary invasion. If your transport can't load troops in all of these units are left abandoned once you move on. Instead of building a new army and doubling the units in play you could just take your existing troops and load them into the transport.

Makes sense. But we also have the Teleporter. Well, for land units at least.

Exactly. I'm not nearly as worried about land units. Once we have the unit cannon and access to smaller, lighter space rocks a dropship for land units won't be as critical. We'll have a way to invade quickly with them, and a way to get them off world again.

If we want to facilitate invasions by air or sea we will need transit methods for them, worst case it's just reclaim it here and rebuild it there. I could see that with naval, if we had a building that specialized in reclaiming ships we send into them.

Where is the bomber when its bomb hits the ground? If it is not directly on top of the crawling bomb, the pillar blast will not connect. Gunships will have free reign as they can keep a decent distance from their target.

At this point in the game a single nuke blast isn't going to kill ya. Besides, the armament of a Kroggy is not that important. Paving the ground helps give it a primary role to spearhead an invasion, but the key thing is that it is big enough to damage the planet.

Planet damage is a game ending role. It permanently alters the terrain and can remove resources or options that the defender can never get back. This role is completely inappropriate for small units, the planets would get get destroyed too quickly. Only a LARGE unit can justify a permanent alteration to the field, and the player who delivers it is gaining a decisive edge.

In this game nothing is abandoned. You can always reclaim something and use the resources elsewhere. The units could be used as a new garrison, or another invasion can be staged.

There is no requirement for an invasion transport to be used more than once. In fact the 1-way trip is ideal, because it reduces the cost-utility and can sacrifice itself to give the cargo a better chance at success.

Indeed, does a nuke explosion destroy metal spots? Or does an asteroid impact? I've never paid much attention to that aspect, but it's rather interesting.