Missile Launcher Payloads

I'm all for EMP missiles

Imo they should be for fairly short duration, intended for disabling defences when you're attacking, or disabling an approaching force to give you time to organise a proper defence.

That's the exact same implementation I had thought up in the past ^^

all i can think of this is ...
yo dawg i heard you like counters ? ..... ....

Uh, the EMP missile would be countered by the anti nuke (it has to be really so you can't EMP the anti nuke so you can hit with an actual nuke). I don't think mobile anti's are required however as the duration would be fairly short (say 20 secs).

Sounds nice but the issue with this is that a load af cheap nukes are just used to wear down the anti nukes for the big motha to strike.
And thats how nuking now already works: overwhelming

sounds wasteful ... how long would that emp be suposed to last?

I don't think there's any need to change the gimmick or introduce a new one. A simple stat change and we can be balanced.

the simple truth is right now the anti nuke is severely outmatched. And it shouldn't be. this way such a thing as nuke rush strat can exist. Right now it doesn't exist because it's not a choice, it's an obligation which by extension excludes it from the strategy category.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to once again point out my displeasure at the idea of interplanetary nukes not being a question of distance but a question of orbits.

which changes the strategy entirely : any system where you spawn on a planet with linked orbits, means nuke war game.

It would be nice if instead of catapults there was one missile launcher, capable of making nukes and other warheads. To return catapult functionality, you would just set the launcher to auto-build standard missiles, that would act just as catapults do now (auto attacks targets within range).
In addition, the missile launcher could also construct orbital nukes and even inter-planetary nukes, as I have heard it is planned for these to be separate from regular nukes.
To add to the "what you see is what you get" desired feauture, each different warhead would have a distinctly different appearence while constructing/idle on the launcher, so scouting players will know what to expect.

I am aware that these changes alone will not fix the binary nature of nuke play. However cheaper missile variants will allow for deeper counter-play. This is no solution to the problem, but is a step closer. What I am personally most excited by is the interesting situations this will open up in especially in tournaments as players will try to predict the others missile choice.

About nukes (or any variant), i'd like to have more options for managing them, like:
-set a target for each warhead and launch a massive scale attack with all my launchers on all the targets simultaneously at a chosen time without having to shoot each nuke one by one.
-launch some MIRV, or use multiple launchers to attack a large zone and let them automatically cover all the area with maximum efficiency and coverage.

The EMP should be quite short duration imo. The idea is you emp something *as* you move you're forces in to attack or on an incoming force to buy time. It should disable things for so long that it becomes an insta win- it should require timing. Perhaps the EMP could be a short (ish) range missile and not be stopped by the anti. If it's duration is short then it would be very difficult to use it to disable an anti to hit with an actual nuke- and it wouldn't work for interplanetary.

TA:Spring has a good range of EMP weapons and they really mix the game up a bit. They have light t1 emp air drones (it takes quite a few hits to emp anything but it punishes players who neglect anti air), a t2 emp spider bot (all terrain), a t2 emp bomber that has reasonable aoe to get groups of untis (and that one can stand up to some light aa) and a medium range emp missile launcher. The emp weapons do no damage at all, just paralyse whatever they hit. The commander is also highly resistant to EMP.

It's not a major issue if EMP isn't part of PA, it's just a mechanic that I quite like and it can mix things up a bit.

(?): should or shouldn´t ?
doesn´t realy sound all that intresting to me honestly ... also in your case emp would have nothing to do with the nuke launcher anymore ... insteald it could be part of the catapult or be its own launchertype ...
i rather think emp could be a nice part for mobile bombs as for when they don´t blow up their targets but only damage they disable them aswell for a few seconds

An emp(STUN) weapon could fit on pretty much any package. It could be part of a standard bot as a force multiplying weapon (TA spider), it could be part of a long range weapon to sew chaos in the ranks, it could be part of a superweapon designed to deal catastrophic non lethal damage on a large scale. The only downside is how do you choose where it can and can't work? Does it hit everything without prejudice? Is a Commander immune? Is a superbot immune? These are big questions that have major repercussions down the line.

You don't HAVE to use stuns in every way, shape and form. Nor is a paralyzing effect the only way to implement an EMP. Don't forget that a great many units in PA rely on access to the resource grid or have their own personal energy tanks to function. Zap either one of those (or both) and you have done considerable damage to a specific unit heirarchy.

An EMP(mana drain) bot would be super effective against things like bombers, cloaks, stealths, base defenses, and anything else in that category. It is much more easily tweaked against its intended targets, and gets to be vulnerable against other units in the same size category. Those are good things.

Sorry bad typing there (updated that from my phone) mean't to say *shouldn't*

Well I think the missile could be built from the nuke launcher, or it's own launcher, doesn't really matter. EMP bomb bots could be interesting as well. What's nice about emp is it is very tactical. A well timed emp attack (from whatever source be it a unit, air craft or missile) combined with an attack force is devastating, however on it's own it's usually pointless.

I think some of the best strategy in these games is where you have to combine tactics together for better effect (e.g. tanks up front as damage soak with Gil - E behind). At the moment there are only a few cases where anything beyond mixing a few aa units into your ball of death really impact the battle.

For EMP to be really fun it also needs to be combined with radar jammers so you can sneak in close first.