A low-cost proposal for moving units between planets? Gravity lift pad.

Given all the recent controversy, let me start by saying I don't think it is crucial to have this feature before launch. As long as it is possible to crack planets, and the orbital is balanced and the UI made easy enough to use, then we can have interplanetary warfare by launch that feels smooth and has several workable strategies.

But I did get to thinking; maybe the problem with the unit cannon is having it be an actual 'cannon'. This seems like a lot of extra art and mechanics to add in for what is essentially just a way to move a group of units from one planet to another. We know that multi-unit transports are a coding nightmare for much the same reason. I got to thinking, there must be a way to do this much more simply with existing assets. What if instead of a cannon, there was a gravity lift/well/pad. It would look like a large T2 tank factory but without the building arms, just the bottom part. Units would cluster up on it like they do with the portal, the pad would glow bright blue, eat like 5k-10k energy in a single shot, and all the units would fly to the next planet using the same animation style as orbital units and nukes do when they leave a planet and go to the next. Basically all the units would turn into a brief orbital version of themselves and fly through space, landing on the next planet with a ping-like bright blue animation circle. The circle would show up sometime before landing to give the enemy time to react. Imagine loading up a full pad of booms, sending them through, then a full pad of tanks, a full pad of fabbers, etc. The animation could just be all the ground units 'winking out' and turning instantly into orbital unit icons (the same icon as on the ground, but maybe with a color difference). This seems to achieve what the unit cannon is 'aimed' at, but using almost entirely existing art and mechanics.

What do you think?

Think it would be a short term fix.

How would it be a "short term" fix. I mean if implemented decently I think this idea has quite a bit of potential, and has got be interested and could easily be a long term implementation. And I must ask what is it suppose to be a "fix" for lol, the unbalance of cracking planets? Since we might be talking about different things.

since the unit launcher was in the original kickstarter video, it's been imprinted in all the supporter's minds. there's no taking it back or substituting it, and you can expect any suggestion that threatens the unit cannon to be met with a response somewhere inbetween resistance and flaming.

I have thoughts of "beaming" units, or having them show up somewhat similarly to what you say (appearing in a bubble) - I envision something like how the Terminator arrived after transporting through time... but alas, it will be the unit cannon or bust. just too many people are way too hung up on it at this point.

Would not save significant amounts of develpoment effort. If you would do it decently it would be the unit cannon.

So basically....

I am afraid, you are right :/, I must admit that a unit cannon would look really cool, and might make planet cracking easier but honestly its not essential if Uber can come up with other ways to move units between planets.

sounds cool. but would it actuly save coding time, or just work like a different skin for the unit cannon?

Well I think this a good idea, nice input

It shouldn't be "low cost" to move units between planets.

You're moving units from one side of a solar system to another. That should cost a lot.

He meant low cost from a developmental perspective.

And on that front, I don't think we should worry about adding an inferior stopgap version of the unit cannon, when one day we are going to get a goddamn unit cannon. Although it's more constructive than some of the unit-cannon themed posts of late, this is very much a solution to a problem which doesn't exsist.

Patience people.
Patience.

Gotcha. And I agree.

Especially considering how many stop-gap style solutions we already seem to have because of the lack of a Unit Cannon, no point convoluting it further IMO.

Mike

Well, what I was thinking is that we already have 'units' (nukes) who start on the ground and then turn into orbital icons. So a lot of that mechanic is already there, and the pad itself could largely be repurposed from the art for a land factory. Units just need to have the ability to also 'float' off a planet when a pad is trigger. The animation of winking out would basically be the blue hue of the teleported maybe combined with a small 'explosion' animation.

Well, I don't know that I see it as a short term fix if it does the job the cannon is supposed to do, which is making cracking planets fun and dynamic. The general idea is an expensive way to put units directly onto another planet, opening up a beach head with minimal micro or nuke-based solutions. I've never really been very partial to the idea of a unit cannon (what does it do anyway? shoot individual units? clumps of them? It sounds weird... I guess I just don't get it). So my thought was that this gives you the feel of a 'dropship' like method (players would see the clump of incoming unit icons if they have deep space radar). So yeah I guess I am proposing a method that could replace the cannon entirely and make planet cracking fun, without really adding too much to the existing workload.

I can see that many are super tied to the 'unit cannon' being an actual cannon though. Me personally, I just want orbital and late game to be fun and frankly I don't find any of the existing options fit the bill. Once a planet is fully taken landing a teleporter is impossible and nuke spam isn't my definition of fun. Planet smashing is an option but it just feels like another big nuke. My main concern is that it might be difficult to do this like i've imagined without it looking a bit gimpy (all the units 'flash out', then are orbital icons, then 'flash in').

That's fair enough if you are really committed to the unit cannon and nothing else, eventually. Personally i'm not and just want to see the orbital and interplanetary become actually fun. But yeah I meant that it would be implementation cheap, but it should cost about as much as spamming out nukes each time you trigger the pad.

What makes a gravity pad inferior to a unit cannon exactly? Personally the idea of shooting units between planets with a gun seems gimpy as hell to me - maybe you can explain? As for a problem that doesn't exist, I find late-game and orbital incredibly unrewarding currently, and I think the fact that it's lacking from tournaments pretty telling. We might not ever hit the critical mass uber needs to implement the unit cannon or all the other important things if the game releases and everyone agrees there was potential but the interplantery war is DOA.

With a lift pad you need direct line of sight. You can only put units on a side of the planet that you can see from the lift - you can't get units to the other side of the planet. With a cannon the units can be launched to the backside of the planet.

If you're gonna talk about gimpy... a lift is gimpy. It's an elevator. Now that is gimpy.

Also. Uber isn't going to cut corners to put out something that is easier, but less useful of awesome.

I think you are imagining an elevator because that isn't what i'm describing at all. I'm describing something like a gravity well that force propels the units throughout the solar system (perhaps only to orbiting planets for balance), to any target spot you choose. You don't need any line of sight for that. I don't see how this is less useful or less awesome - you get units dropping in out of orbit being propelled through space by a gravity altering device. It would give the exact same gameplay as a 'unit cannon' (it puts units on another planet) with a mechanism that might actually be implemented in the next six months. I never said anything about cutting corners - just reusing existing assets to get this in.

also, brian, honestly do you have to make it your job to start a negative argument with every single constructive post you see? I get it, you love this game, you work constantly on it, and you've been here from day one. You spam reddit, you spam the forums, you are literally everywhere all the time. It might be nice if you let threads live a little before you come in to every single one with abundant self imposed authority and negativity. I'm just saying, it makes the discussion pretty stale when every single thread ends with you either starting a flame war or going 'No this is never going to work'. The forums are already getting in a pretty nasty tone and the devs have asked the oldbies to stop curb stomping every new thread. I'm doing my best to put something cogent together here.

So are you saying I should just agree with everything that gets posted? I have a different opinion than you – it's not the end of the world. I also happen to have absolutely no authority. I just share my opinion and answer questions. There's a difference between negativity and having a different opinion than you. They aren't the same thing. (Edit: There's also plenty of threads that I agree with and think are great ideas.)

What it sounds like is something that would function exactly the same as the Unit Cannon, it would just look different. I also don't really see how this would be easier to develop than a unit cannon.

Fair enough. That is what I would like to discuss - if something like this might actually be easier to implement and get the job done in a satisfactory way. I've given some ideas and responded to some criticism, but it felt like you were a little blunt (you didn't seem to have actually read the OP). I appreciate the work you do around here, but I honestly think you would go farther if you eased off just a touch. I mean you are literally everywhere, all the time. When I first joined I was like, who the heck is this Brian guy and why is he in literally every single thread. And reddit. And youtube. Anyway, just had to get that off my chest, sorry for the derail.

So you believe that a gravity lifter with shiny blue lights and humming, which gently wafts units into orbit, is more satisfying then a great big honkin' railgun firing out hundreds of pods a minute? You really are going to have to do a better sell than that. Show me some interesting concept art and we'll talk, but till then a cannon sounds many orders of magnitudes cooler.

As I stated before, we are going to get the unit cannon. We all know that the orbital/endgame needs work, and so does uber too. The unit cannon is part of that work, but it is not all of it. And that work will happen in time.

It isn't fair to compare PA+Lifter with PA as it stands. You need to compare PA+Unit Cannon+Uber's other changes with PA+Lifter. And on that front, I'm happy to wait.