No counter to 5x SSX1304 lasers ?

Yup, it does. Actually you can just pick any drop location you want and the carried unit will instantly be on the ground at that location when the astraeus arrives in its target SOI. Double broken. =P I suspect they know about that one though.

Can we just acknowledge that the SXX lasers cost 125,000 metal, which is about the same as 3 Halleys?

Yeah, I don't know how you guys manage to build them in a game......as I personally hate the management of space fabbers.

Id prefer the use of a orbital factory for building stuff like the laser.

Yeahhhhhhh... that needs to be hecka cheaper immediately.

Also less powerful/accurate, but definitely hecka cheaper.

Accuracy is kinda hard to have get worse in a laser weapon.

You don't really miss unless on purpose.

While I agree in principle... =P

I'm dissatisfied with the SXX because it's a sniper weapon and not a third kind of medium artillery weapon. I think that's what makes it feel like a 'cheap solution' to me. When it fires up there's no period of time where it just lets loose on a base - it just rushes straight for the commander and nails him.

A charge-up time where it wasn't allowed to move would satisfy me as far as making it 'inaccurate' - that way it couldn't drop a laser on a dox's head unless it was standing veeeeeery still. But it would still wreck bases and groups of units.

Ehh a moving penalty would be kinda silly considering it can travel through the rest of space just fine.

Im much more of a supporter of having to charge up to fire, revealing it position when doing so with a sound or targeting laser, and having to sit still to engage.

They can't hit a com in a pelican.

Its below them, it's seems silly that their projectile if it crosses one shouldn't kill one.

That's more or less what I'm going for, yeah. ^^ And having to sit sill while charging up would make it difficult to hit moving targets.

I agree though... I think they should be able to hit an air unit. Maybe it would be VERY difficult, especially if the target is in motion... but if the projectile hits the unit it should count as a hit.

...pelicans can carry Commanders? Dag. Didn't know that =P

I'm at work and can't check for sure but pa-db states 25K in build .62165 vs 39K for a halley.
They don't feel all that hard to build to me and in multiplanet spawns ffa you do have time to build them.

They are completely nuts at the moment, although the problem outlined in the OP is... a problem, at the moment SXXs are just too expensive to be useful.

I only ever build them in the extreme late game when I've got so much eco I'm struggling to spend it. (and I don't think I've ever used them in this build)

EDIT: wouldn't the easiest way to balance this to just have an forced delay between coming into orbit and being able to fire? It's not entirely unrealistic that some period of calibration would be required when entering orbit after an inter-planetary flight (the same could be true of other orbital units as well?)

Yeah I was suggesting this in the op

You're off by 100 000 metal there according to pa-db, as infrabasse stated.
They're about 2/3 the cost of a halley, or 2/3 the cost of a nuke launcher+nuke.

They're still too pricey to use legitimately (without exploiting mechanics).

There definitely needs to be some sort of... cooldown period when something enters a new layer.

When an orbital unit enters the orbital layer there should be a second or two where it's vulnerable.

They could arrive at an angle, and then re-orient to the direction of gravity.

Another option would be to have orbital units actually orbiting so units can only fire when they above their target during the orbit. You wouldnt need move commands as such just a command to change their inclination.

He means that 5 of them are 125k.

Maybe 100 will do it, but will Anchors made for same cost kill equivalent of lasers in time to save commander?
That whole commander sudden death is kind of hard to balance.

Commander cloak.
Problem solved.