I think it's a little to easy to get to orbital. To me that just doesn't seem like a basic T1 structure.
No. In the short version. Before the latest big beta patch updates Orbital was built by the T2 engineer and never saw the field until after an established T2 economy. The units were too expensive and just didn't quite match the units that the other layers had to offer. After the big patch updates Now that orbital is T1.5, There is significant orbital play, and utilizing multiple planets is now easier and now an often occurrence. Orbital is also scaled appropriately now to line up with advanced units instead of being a T3 end game unit. I again prefer this version over the last.
since we all have to start on the same planet i can see a point in what you say, but when we are able to start from different planets it does make sense you can go orbital early in the game. imagine you have to build the "t 1,5" bulding, build your orbital scouts/radarsats/whateverweget and then travel with them to other planets and scout there to find the enemy. this would take 15-20 minutes or more if the orbital launcher is a t2 building. and even if you found your enemy your still have to get there to attack him.
Relegating an entire theatre of battle to tech 2 or tech 3 cuts out alot of the game. This is planetary annihilation, not FA or Spring - if battles arn't fought over multiple worlds often, it doesn't really deliver on it's premise. Also rushing orbital although doable, is certainly rather risky. All orbital units are quite expensive, and will really prevent you from pushing any advantage on the starting world if you try to go that route early.
Starting on different planets is going to be a slow start no matter what. That's why you started on different planets in the first place isn't it? Keeping orbital later in the game helps make ground warfare reasonably important in the early game. It doesn't cut out anything, it just pushes it back a bit so you have time to appreciate the other bits of the game better.
The current position is the best compromise between allowing interactions on the ground to develop if they can do so, while allowing players to interact with each other on separate planets early if possible. It was initially tried as an advanced structure, and it didn't work well. There is no need to change it.
I don't see why it didn't work so well. I must reiterate a point I've had to make many times now: not liking it isn't the same as something being broken. It is only quite natural for orbital to be something that only escalates after the planetary options have been exhausted.
well but making it so late-game that the most games are over before someone goes orbital is limiting the game to a single planet in this "most games". this was the case when it was t2/3 and it was not good. also if you want ground combat to be more reasonable then you have to argue against the still existing total air supremacy of the game. orbital has some scouting options, an mostly against stationary targets useable laser, some resources and the rest is transport to other planets witch only increases the "map" not fights the ground battles for you.
For the air problem there's flak to defend your base and if they have T2 air then you should probably get your own T2 fighters with your flak defence so you can defend your pushes. but if you only have to build a bot factory to get to orbital then i guess you can just not care and leave right off the bat its only flying in orbit with complex machines and going to different planets nothing too high tech right
mostly.....yes : first time reaching orbit : 1942 (A4 germany) (<- ok you could argue about suborbital, but the tech was there since then) first time getting something on the moon : 1959 (Lunik 2 sovjet union) nanospraying a bot factory : someday in the future mostly with 3d printing or something like that oh and no...flak at this time doesnt solve air problem, it needs to be boostet in range and we need some kind of mobile t2 aa...but thats off topic..
if you honestly think flak does not solve mass air then you're using it wrong x) i have had 0 problem putting a small amount of flak up and it wrecks anything that comes in range. and you couldnt shoot lasers or fight in orbit or have a 100% reuseable spacepod or build ships that can go to diff planets and build teleporters. The Stuff in game is a little more high tech than a 50's rocket
So when we can start on different planets we should have to spend the first 15 minutes just twiddling our thumbs while we build up to orbital eh? Not much early game fighting going on there to appreciate. It's much better being available right away.
Yeah teching is really easy, and with the whole T2 units generally being better in every way. You simply have too.
problem is not only you have 15 minutes without action, problem is also....in 15 minutes with the actual air fabbers you get the whole planet without any fight, meaning >1k mass. this results nearly without other option in a nice turtle game. not that i dislike turtling that mutch, but not every game o.o uberpenu>hehe the example with the 50's rocket was only there to show that going to space is relatively low tech compared to nanospraying things. except for teleporters all other things were achieved till now, but we still cant nanospray things. @flaktopic> you didnt read, i said we need some mobile t2 aa and a buff in range
one neat point, one can go orbital on seperate planets and actually establish interplanetary before any one player has all his own planet. That's good. Opens wide strategy. do you link to his planet for a foothold first? Do you link to his moon instead and cover it off for nuke fabrication? Do you fortify you own planet or moon? What will he do?
