A big bot that throws small bots?

So, yes, we have lots of threads on megabots, but has anyone suggested this version before? I haven't noticed it anywhere (and searching for "throw" or "throwing" does not seem to yield anything useful). I'm putting it in a new thread because I feel it takes on the "big unit" discussion in slightly different way, that I hope can somewhat sidestep the established camps on this subject.

Basically, I was imagining a huge unit (I'm thinking a bot, but really, pick whatever shape you like) whose main attack was picking up friendly doxes and throwing them at the enemy

You could either imagine that the doxes would be able to attack once they landed, so it would work like a small, mobile unit cannon, or they'd explode, or perhaps you'd have different behavior depending on whether it was a dox or a bomb bot or something.
Without anything handy to throw, the "pitcher" would simply be a big shield, possible with some light AA on it.

I figure this would serve the multiple functions of giving people something satisfying to spend their resources on in the late game (for those that feel they need it), being awesome, and in no way invalidating lower tier units. In fact, I feel it adds functionality to them instead. And you can't really spam these things, unless you're also spamming doxes I seem to remember that people want megabots as siege breakers, which I think the pitcher-bot would be ideally suited for?

Thoughts? was this already discussed somewhere? I realize this might require a fair deal of coding, but was thinking that perhaps with transports and unit cannons already being in the game, the functionality could be cobbled together from existing units...

Uber will add unit cannons soon, which you can load units into and launch across the solar system.

I think this would be cool, but not necessary. As long as unit cannons can fire on the same planet than they would be kind of useless. You can put unit cannons in your base and defend then with epic defenses. Where as a mega unit cannon can be taken down.

when I read the thread title, I thought "yeah, whatever, when are these megabot threads gonna end?"

but i kinda like the idea having read your description. i do think whatever bot is thrown should be destroyed, though, perhaps with a small explosion and minimal AOE, and it should pick up any bot in the area, friend or foe. you shouldn't be able to micro what bots it picks up... kinda like a big Hulk or something - just unleash him and point him in a direction. Might be cool if it had a SMASH maneuver where it slammed the ground and destroyed pretty much all ground units in the immediate area.

i disagree w/ it having AA though

I like;
a) this gives you something to spend resources on late game
b) doesn't invalidate t1 units, in fact works in tandem with them

"Big bot that throws small bots" is what you wrote.
"Big bot that throws bomb bots" is what I read.

well I don't know what you mean here since the people suggesting big bots get their inspiration from FA and in FA 4 of the experimentals produced units.

In any case I'm all for it.

Nice idea.

Can we have the small bots fire even smaller bots?

For some reason what comes into my head, is like a big mobile factory shaped as a giant robot, that walks across the surface, when the unit is created it throws them in front of it, quite a distance away.

Modding this game is gonna be fun, if its not to hard

Mobile factories/Fire bases that act as slow moving fronts where units could be produced outside an opponents base would be cool. That would then make artillery useful for shoo-ing away slow moving mobile unit factories.

I think perhaps the idea of making it a unit producer itself is a bit dangerous, in that this would perhaps tend to make the existing infrastructure superfluous, rather than working in tandem with it...

In the case where the thrown bots don't explode on impact, I was thinking that an alternative to the bot-shape would be either a kind of catapult, or "ramp" where the dox would get sucked in behind and accelerated out through the front. I agree that this kind of unit might not find much use if the unit cannon was implemented as a cheap way of instantly placing units all over the map - however that is not a given. You could easily imagine that the unit cannon had a very high energy cost, that it would fire in very high arcs making the travel time significant, or that it would not be able to turn, or at least only very slowly. In those situations, there are room other ways to propel units through the air.

quite unusual idea yet intresting ... i do think however a mobile unitlauncher such as a mobile unitcannon has been mentioned/suggested before ... such a cannon with bombbots would serve a ghettoartilleryrole quite well

i agree on not having mobile factories ... i`m sorry but you will have the means to transport large ammounts of units already ... imho those mobile factories be they surface or orbital would invalidate the general infrastucture you have build up on your mainplanet or mainbase ... if those factories are efficient enough why would you continue to build static factories if you can have mobile bases anywhere you like?
as cool of ideas supcom and supcom fa had as problematic those ideas where to propperly balance to work allong with lower tiers ... which with only few exceptions just didnt work

Woah woah. The unit cannon can launch things that aren't bombs? That's so dumb! Just launch more bombs.