Let's Talk Transports

Hold your judgement until you actually play with them.

It sounds like they're going to be cheap and fast. That is EXCELLENT for transports.

Even if thats the case though it seems like a lot of un-nessecary performance hit when you can narrow that down by just simply having them carry more units. I can see games getting enormous lag spikes because just one person is has as many transports as he has units 1000 units + 1000 transports..... if you see what I'm getting at here.

Again. (as has been said) Let's wait and see what the end performance is actually like. Uber keeps on talking about how our current performance is unbelievably terrible compared to what it will be in the future.

Uber knows more about how things will perform and the direction things will go. Let's wait. They don't think it'll be an issue, so obviously they know something we don't.

yeah i know performance is coming, that wasn't what i was getting at, its an un-nessecary performance drag, it doesn't matter if it runs smooth, it will definitely make an impact. Gameplay wise I still stand by what I said, and yes will definitely wait and see how it is of course, we will all do that, but currently seems kind of a pointless unit for the sake of just adding a new unit, as neutrino said he never really thought about transports in his original concept of the game. Do we really need it?

I say yes. Transports open a huge window in strategic options – which is why other RTS games in this style have transports. Especially when we start to have larger and larger planets, because the planets we have right now are small.

Aha, you made your point.

But, Brian, I think it would be more transparent to just admit that multi-unit Transports aren't in the actual spec for release, not because they are posing a technical barrier. But because at Uber they do not have the budget now to implement them.

Let's just say it's a matter of money/time. Which is a very legit reason. And let's skip the technical aspect, 'cos that's a consequences of a defined budget and time constrains <- real reason why.

Again, personally I am very fine with that.

If you can load an unit under its personal transport, and let it fire while dangles down, it sounds more like an upgrade, than a Transport.

Well, we will see.

Money/time is the primary reason, which is tied into the technical implications and how Uber doesn't want to make sub-par units.

I'ave said money/time several times in this thread.

Lets try not to get bogged down with addressing posts that regard multi transport units and get into more awesome ideas of how we want transports to function/aesthetics/wow factor shall we?

Agreed.

No matter whether we end up having single unit transports and/or multiple, I like the having FAST transports. Good for quick surprise raids and ferrying fabricators around to expand. And will be very helpful for maps with lots of water and islands.

And I still like the idea of an aircraft that can move boats over land.

Not exactly a transport... but it'd also be fun to use the unit cannon to fire units not only interplanetary, but from same planet to same planet. And have it so units flying through the air from same planet to same planet could be intercepted by fighters and flack or something.

I was thinking, I'm pretty sure the Dev's are into the idea of the Ferry command that was in Supreme commander. We might of agreed upon that it should be a quick area command with a connecting area command to the end destination.

However, for just the "pick up a unit and drop a unit" situations like moving an engineer. Should it be like the
Astraeus? I find I click to many buttons to just load a commander and then unload him onto another planet.

1. click astraeus
2. click commander
3. special click different planet
4. unload commander click to drop on surface.

I'd rather just have

1. click transporter
2. click unit
3. click destination and have options (keep unit inside is passive first option[right click]///drop unit off is a different click[left click])

Just an idea. Kind using you as a sounding board I guess.

I like the sound of that.

The most important component of transports are how easy they are to use.

If they're too slow and cumbersome to use (like SupCom), then they won't really be used.

How fast do you think a transport should go? Like Humming bird speed? or bomber speed.

Very difficult to guestimate – especially since we don't know much about the transports.

I like the idea of hummingbird speed, but I'm concerned about that being too fast. Probably would end up being bomber speed or maybe inbetween bomber and hummingbird.

I love the idea of using transports to ferry groups of 20-40 bots quickly to the backside of my opponent's base. Attack with those bots, and by the time my opponent has those bots dead, I'm already attacking on a different side of the base with a new group my transports just dropped off.

But again. That fast very well could be OP.

It obviously shouldn't go faster than a fighter. That's for sure.

Agreed.

And now that I think about it more. It should definitely be at least a little slower than a fighter so fighters can catch up to them and shoot 'em down.

That makes them more vulnerable.

Indeed.

Fighters have as their main role and reason to exist to grant you Air superiority.

Would make no sense having anything flying faster than a fighter.

I agree that transports shouldn't be lightning bugs zooming around.

I think bomber speed would be pretty good for transports.

As long as the transport has speed, it needs to have a certain fragility to it. Can't just transport bots all willy nilly.

Here is an idea,

Click unit
click where it wants to go
If there is a free transport that could get it there in less time than it would take for the transport to reach the unit, the transport will come pick it up automatically.

Of course there would be some issues with this, but it's a cool idea.

Cool idea. But it also means that you will have no idea of how long will it take for a unit to reach its destination. Sometimes that's critical.