This unit is another case of being just a straight upgrade instead of a different, more specialized role. I can understand radar satellites not having the same range as a T2 radar, as they can potentially be parked in the middle of an enemy base or other locations where you couldn't put a regular radar. It's a bit unintuitive as you'd expect a satellite to have the most coverage of a planet, but it works. But the advanced satellite right now is just ridiculous. It gives more vision than a regular radar gives radar coverage, and as far as I can tell has comparable radar range to the ground T2. This muddies the waters. I feel like they should be differentiated so that the radar satellite provides orbital radar coverage at a range that is somewhere between ground T1 and T2. But has no vision at all. And the advanced satellite being changed into a "spy satellite" giving only vision with no radar, and in fact being the only orbital unit to give ground vision. The exact range of which could be up for tweaking. Tho it would have to be less than the radar range by some significant margin. Right now it is too easy to get vision from orbit even with units who have nothing to do with the ground. Let alone the extreme range on the current advanced so-called "radar" satellite. The satellite right now is kindling bad memories of omni-radars in supcom. A unit universally regarded to have been a bad idea.
I feel like that would be overly contrived. It would bother me. Then again, I'm not entirely sane so take it as you will.
Scathis has an inflation fetish, so it takes a lot of community pressure to get him making sidegrades rather than purely inflated units.
I agree. Make the Adv Radar the only unit with ground vision, and remove the radar feature. And rename it to something like Spy Sat or something.
That would work, but I still think advanced radar satellite should be left in with the same radar as T2 ground and no real vision (so you pay for mobility with the disability to discern what you are seeing and if you want to see, then your range is only that of a normal scout). We still need a cheap orbital unit that will scout the planets so I think T1 orbital radar should only see as much as regular scouts do, but have a but greater speed.
I was also thinking about the orbital radar. Currently, it gives you radar coverage of the entire planet - and a little vision around the radar itself. The adv radar (orbital) gives you full orbital vision (i like this mechanic - it forces you to get in the game orbital wise if you need to find out what your opponent is doing over his base. ). Though the hide'n'seek gameplay is pretty darn awesome, on small systems (2-3 planets), it gets difficult to even scout enemy planets because they can pour all their eco into the development of less bases - thus turtling. That's why I like the anchor and the adv orbital sat, esp when used together - its a guaranteed scout of the enemy planet for at least a little while. If the enemy has a bunch of anchors hanging around it might be an issue, but if you let it get to that point it's pretty much over anyway. So, back to the ground based radar. It needs to act more like an actual deepspace radar. Two suggestions: instead of full celestial vision (which resembles the mechanic from the old adv radar sat), the radar should only give celestial vision in a radius around your planet (maybe to the farthest moon radius possible or something). OR The radar should *sweep* like radars still do today, as it turns with the planet. The more you have, the more coverage. that range could be unlimited. like it is now, except for the limitation on what it can see.
