Interplanetary Space Battles (Orbital Space Battles) *not in-between planets but on the orbit layer

*strategy*

Its a long shot due to the fact that it would require more models (like only 3-4 more) and balancing and data but its and idea (that has probably been pitched before. It would add another layer of strategy for invading and defending completely controlled planets. Maybe having orbital cruisers (to defend and attack other cruisers fighters and space carrier) and space orbital-craft carrier (to deploy and fabricators and fighters) and space carriers (that would hold troops that would be able to land them on the opposing planet) for invading planets that have been taken over to the point where its near impossible to land on the planet. This would also give and option beside the planetary collisions which are normally what ends matches cause and sometimes leaves a unsatisfying end to a match that you may of had a good competition.​

*example of a senerio*

2 teams had eradicated the other off the planet and the 2 separated and have set up a large bases that is very difficult and next to impossible to get to for the apposing team has an armada of orbital defenses and gunships. If its a planet then the game is practically over for the 2 have reached a stalemate. If its a moon then the other team is screwed for they don't have a way to invade the planet and destroy the halley's or invade before their completion.
With a orbital fleet consisting of cruisers (defends and attacks apposing orbital fleets), orbital fighters (already exist) ( to combat their fighters and defend against a oncoming invading fleet along side the cruisers)space orbital-craft carriers (stores and manufactures fabrication bots and orbital fighters), space transports (loads up and invading force for transport to enemy planet/ moon), you prepare an invasion force (or defensive) and send to another enemy planet. on arrival your cruisers and orbital-craft carriers come up with very heavy fire and resistance (due to how much they would of built up and produced). once a landing zone is secured and your space transports land your invasion force to push the attack and continue to fight (and / or alternatively build a portal with fab bots to allow a reinforcement army to teleport quickly.​

LARGE SHIPS ARE SLOW AND TAKE A BIT OF TIME TO PRODUCE AND A LARGE AMOUNT OF RESOURCES REQUIREMENT

TAKES 2X OR 3X THE TIME TO TRANSFER BETWEEN PLANETS ENABLING A DEFENDING PLANET TO BUILD UP A DEFENSE IN TIME.

THE SHIPS WOULD BE CONTROLLED THE SAME AS SATELLITES AROUND EACH PLANET NOT IN MID SPACE BETWEEN EACH PLANET

SHIPS WOULD TRANSPORT BETWEEN PLANETS AND BATTLE ON THE SAME LAYER AS ORBITAL FIGHTERS SOLAR PANELS ETC
*new unit ideas*

- orbital cruisers

they are like the battleships you have to defend your aircraft carriers and defend against other cruisers and attack others​

= abilities

specialized in attacking other large orbital ships
strong v fighters & gunships
weak v orbital guns, orbital bombers​

- orbital-craft carriers

deploys carries and builds orbital fabrication bots and orbital fighters/ bombers for rapid deployment​

= abilities

deploys carries and builds orbital fabrication bots and orbital fighters and orbital torpedo bombers
weak v everything​

-orbital transports (that don't just carry one unit)

picks up and unloads up to 50-100 units (maybe 300?)​

=abilities

weak v everything​

-orbital torpedo bombers

can bomb other orbital large ships​

=abilities

specialized in attacking other large orbital ships
strong v cruisers, orbital craft carriers, orbital transports
weak v fighters, orbital guns, gunships​

______________________________________________________________________

*Also troop transports for aerial units that can hold up to 10 bots or 2-4 tanks*

/support

Devs have already commented on stuff like this;

Mike

i keep encountering the issue of stalemates between planets and its frustrating. if they take control of a moon your skewed and doomed to loose. that or you both forfeit cause its impossible to attack the other team and planets cant be moved.

oh well i just recently got the game and its in development so why not suggest something that i thought may be cool. just trying to help with development since i do like the game a lot.

The Stalemate issue is well understood in the current state of PA for some time now, but there are things that work to change that like the Unit Cannon, Asteroid Belts and improved Smashing along with improvements to balance and all kinds of other things.

Mike

well i ment that when controling the orbital ships they would be controled on the same layer as the orbit thats already implemented. so no interface change or extra programming required (beside unit scripts and programming)

I'm not sure who you're talking to here? I never even mentioned Orbital.

Mike

oh. the links you gave earlier mentioned that it would require ui change and etc because they wouldnt be in the planets orbits

I'd like to point out that while that is a confirmed non-feature, because of the way orbital is currently implemented, and the way this was phrased in the OP, it's already a feature.

The OP is talking about 'spaceships' fighting battles in the orbital layer.

Currently we have the orbital fighter, and the orbital frigate. And they fight battles in the orbital layer. The anchor is being changed to be more of a turret, but we're still going to have orbital fighters to deal with, and if nothing else changes the orbital fighter are still going to be fighting battles in the orbital layer.

Following are Neutrinos/Mavors posts on the subject.

The problem as I see it is that in the current game, it's not satellites. It's space armadas. It's not the focus is still mostly ground-based. You jump out of ground based combat more or less completely, to fight a war in the orbital layer.

There aren't many battles in the Star Wars movies that do not occur in orbit around another planet.

I think orbital has started feature creeping away from satellites. Orbital factories don't seem to be part of a trend to correct that.

I'd like to ask how current orbital isn't massive space battles?

well my point was to solve a way to invade an fully occupied planet with aground force (thats what the senario was for) the orbital ships wont be able to attack ground troops and buildings if it means that it overkill

Please reread your own OP, specifically

and don't' be confusing about what you mean/do not mean.

Either way, my concern is equally applicable to orbital as it is currently implemented.

well that can be cut if its too overpowered as i said its mainly to defend the transports and carriers

Yes Kiwi, but that doesn't mean we should embrace it and expand upon it either! ;p

Uber knows Orbital has issues and I believe that the delay of the Unit Cannon plays a big part in why Orbital ended up the way it is now, because it needed to do a task that should have been handled by something else.

Maybe not before release, but at some point I expect/hope that Orbital to get a major gameplay re-work.

Mike

im looking at a way for orbital to allow you to have somekind of combat. cause currently if you have fighters and gunships up its impossible to have any form of invasion leading to a stalemate. im proposing a way for one to get through the blockade.

CURRENTLY maybe, but like I said, there are many things that can change that and Invasion is not always the answer you should be looking for.

Mike

Well yeah that's my point. If GW has had its guts ripped out and started again from scratch, that may be what is required for Orbital at this stage.

to be fair it's a lot easier to do that with Galactic War because it's pretty isolated, making changes or completely overhauling GW doesn't really affect anything other than itself you know?

Trying to completely re-do Orbital, while not impossible by any means, has a lot of potential "domino effect" scenarios that needs to be dealt with and honestly as much as I'd like it right now I think getting the "Surface" layers(Land, Air and Naval) to where they should be in terms of things like balance/variety and such first makes a lot of sense to me from a design perspective, especially considering that I figure Orbital should be largely function in support of the Surface layers rather than trying to be "all inclusive" like Land or Naval. That is to say, I don't think it needs it's own Fabbers, factories and try to cover all potential unit roles type of thing.

Once the Surface Layers are good and functional it would be a lot easier to revamp Orbital because you have something solid that you would be injecting the new Orbital stuff into.

Mike

i agree with what your saying its poinless to add this if the ground warfare isnt optimized to its full potential. theres also maybe other ways to deal with planetary stalemates. now what that could be? no idea but its something to think about. hopefully the developers see this pposst

I pretty much had, and posted a really similar idea to you earlier on. So I pretty much agree with this suggested version of orbital.