Does the orbital layer add anything?

Orbital layer, by which I mean orbiting planets. I am not talking about moving between them

Serious question. Is the existence of units in orbit around planets adding anything to the game?

Right now orbital exists for radar, fighters and lasers. It strikes me that not only is this an incredibly boring dynamic, but there doesn't seem to be anything arriving to resolve it. Fighters are especially bad since it's 100% a numbers game.

Fighters exist to shoot down lasers, but lasers only really exist to help crack planets. I think that either system design or extending the range of inter-planetary nukes would solve this, making lasers redundant. Radar is the only element here I find interesting, but I don't think it's worth having a layer just for this.

The orbital layer is messy, hard to manage and frankly, kinda boring. I just think it might be best to drop it.

Orbital is promised in the kickstarter. No way out of it now.

It seems you missed the memo on orbital play. The most important aspect of the orbital theater is to enable battles between worlds. The orbital layer is the first layer to enter a world, and the last layer to leave. It needs to keep that transition as smooth and viable as possible, otherwise there would be no fighting between worlds! We would build thousands of robots, give up, smash asteroids and call it a day.

Sorry, but why is the orbital layer required to move between worlds? That seems like a facetious argument to me.

As for the kickstarter promising it... who cares? It wasn't a reward so they're not tied to it. I want a good game, and if things need to be dropped to allow for that then they should be dropped. No one should be a slave to the initial design, that's why you have playtesting.

Recheck your KS rewards bub. It's definitely there.

If you can't leave a planet, how do you reach another planet?

I believe what he is saying is that you take off from one planet and arrive on the next. What does the orbital add to this mechanic. Why have orbital if not the area between.

I do agree at the current state but will hold out until we see the full roster just incase I am mistaken.

At the moment it more feels like a "You have to do it" thing to me. Everything is running fine so the next step is build orbital. And yeah the handling of the units is... I think it's moving let's wait 10 sec to see if the command worked.

The very first line of the very first post...

I've rephrased it a little in case it was unclear.

No, that's a stretch goal.

It's hard to flush out a realm that hasn't really been done before.

I would not be able to live without orbital death satellites. But I do think the whole orbital manufacture thing is too complex. Just point the launcher at where you want to satellite should be the way.

This is the big issue. Many other RTS have handwaved what amounts to "spells" by calling them "orbital laser strikes" or similar. This is the first game to let you see your planets in real time from space, aside from the sad failure that is/was Spore, and as such that handwaving won't work.

Radar sats are a step in the right direction. I suspect that tweaks to the UI will make the Orbital layer more accessible; once that happens, we'll see far fewer troubles in its integration with ground gameplay.

I agree and disagree with you.

I think orbital should be more staging and utility and less combat and cloned-air. However, even currently, orbital does bring new things to the table. It just doesn't bring all it's own things like I feel it should.

Should it remain the case, I might make or help make an orbital rework, and I am definitely making a neat idea for a campaign incorporating ideas, but really orbital is the most unsure mechanic being worked on. Uber could change every unit still at this point, there more than likely is over half they haven't added yet even.

It's a stretch goal that was shattered. The team is kind of committed now.
But it still remains extremely difficult to work with because...

So what to do? The best course is to start simple. Don't introduce units that emphasize heavy orbital combat, and don't encourage heavy space construction, because PA isn't about space war. All the resources are on the ground, and all the fun is on the ground. Focus on the items needed to keep players fighting there.

Orbital is required for gas giants. Otherwise you would have a planet that you couldn't do anything with. Everything that is for release isn't present in the game yet.

While that is true, redundancies between orbital and a certain other layer are indeed not required to make orbital interesting - quite the opposite actually.

No, they're not. You see there's a reason we use different words, it's because those words have meaning. Rewards in a Kickstarter are something that must be delivered on under the TOS, a stretch goal is not and they have no requirement to deliver on it.

Technically you are correct, but there are a lot of other factors to be considered as well.

Mike

I don't disagree, but none of them require or commit Uber to an orbital layer. As I said, words have meaning.

Sorry, but we were going to get battles between worlds before the Orbital Stretch Goal.

If you doubt this, go have a look at the Kickstarter page.

So, what does the orbital layer add that wasn't already promised in the basic funding goal?

Seriously? Get rid of gas giants then. Too big a waste of space for nothing.