Teleporter Cost (tldr: the Teleporter is way too cheap)

The Teleporter currently costs 400 metal.

That's cheaper than the Vehicle Factory (600 metal) or even the Energy Plant (450 metal).

And the Teleporter only costs 1,000 energy to run. So you only need 2 basic energy plants to operate a teleporter.

For the ability to instantly transport units anywhere in the system, that's crazy powerful.

Teleporters should cost more. However, with current mechanics and units, that would make interplanetary combat be very expensive and time consuming. Which is bad.

So this segways into other things. As the devs keep on saying, if you change one thing, it changes others. So if teleporters cost more, which they should, then we need other ways to inexpensively transport units.

The answer: one way drop pod.

We need a one way transporter unit that is very fast. No moving into formation over the planet before dropping down, and when it drops off the unit, it's done. So we can have a very cheap way to transport units inbetween planets and have our epic drop pod scenes. So this lowers the interplanetary barrier.

And at the same time, we should keep the Astraeus a multi-trip unit, and increase its cost. And make it so there's a spin up and cool down time when moving between planets so it can't instantly hop from planet to planet indefinitely.

tldr: Increase the metal cost and upkeep cost of the teleporter. Increase the cost of the Astraeus and remove it's insta-hop capabilities. Add a new super cheap, fast, one way trip drop pod.

Wouldn't mind having that. I think teleporters should be fast to build until we have another way to get units to other planets and break up planet turtles (unit cannon please) but I agree upkeep should be higher.

please search: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/iterate-on-the-gate.62599/

Just because there's a thread on the Teleporter doesn't mean there can't be a thread talking about something different with the teleporter.

my thread is all inclusive about fixes to current teleporter.


there is no bit of this thread's content that doesn't belong in mine and it's only two posts long, that's quite a feat.

i demand a merger.

Are you serious? Why are you so angry?

Only two posts long? That's because it was just created. Why are you so aggressive and bitter?

There is no such thing as "all inclusive" – and your thread does not mention increasing the cost of the teleporter nor introducing drop pods.

it does mention the cost. definitely does. and if you read a bit more you'll find it's not only me imputing. there are others who posted (as is normal on a forum) and i asked for them to suggest the options that were not included in my poll as polling was limited and even my own ideas didn't all fit.

the anger/aggressive/bitter part I don't know where you got that from.

Aren't one-way drop pods just basically a unit cannon?

In a way, kinda.

Except they can come down all at once and be clumped up and can go from large planet to large planet that don't share orbits.

With a unit cannon, it fires just a few units from a moon to the planet it orbits.

These drop pods could be amassed by the hundreds and all come down at once on any planet.

I was thinking that this was Unit Cannon.

But a big distinction is that you can mass-launch. At which point I give heavy favor to this, and I delegate this unit manufactured either by a dedicated ODST factory or the orbital factory. It flies at air level, lifts onto a unit then waits on the ground until you set it off to another planet.

Building a drop pod from a factory seems clunky. As drop pod carrying ships seem to be ruled out, I'd rather have them be built by fabbers and have the units go to the pods rather than the pods to units.

That could work as well.

Have a massive field of drop pods and give an area load command from a factory. The pods fill up automatically over time and when they're full, off they go.

Or you know, just change the mechanic that the unit cannon only fires moon-to-Earth, to moon-to-anywhere and there you go. I suspect that will happen anyway though.

Oh! Drop pods!

There we go, drop pods. These are robots, with robot magic. Slam them into the ground! What's the worst that'll happen, 10-50% hit on their hitpoints?

A sub-par Unit Cannon implementation like that is actually my biggest fear. The problem is that for the last 6-12 months Uber has been designing PA specifically around the idea that there wouldn't be a Unit Cannon, it's understandable to do assuming you've made the choice to not having it around but it creates a problem.

What happens when they do get around to putting the Unit Cannon in? Will they go back and revisit things like the teleporter and other mechanics to create an Interplanetary system filled with complimentary mechanics that allow for a diverse set of options......or will they decide that's too much work and just just try to wedge it in, like trying to square block in a triangle slot?

Mike

I never knew why people thought/think the unit cannon is going to be moon-to-planet.

Correction: For the ability to transport ground units somewhat faster than orbital anywhere you can manage to build a teleporter and support it with a handful of orbital units, the hassle is still more troublesome than its resource cost.

If it could legitimately instant transport any units anywhere in the system, then sure, it would be overpowered. If only it did so.

generaly i would say leave the teleporter at basic, raise its built cost and general energy maintanance ..
and that is for when building transports and carriers is the more common thing to do
unitcannons in advanced however should be like THE invasion tool with the other 2 being the option fo further reinforcements ...

i am still against droppods ... instead make austreus cheaper (at least temporarily) and add in factory assist and ferryfunction ...

What we need is a drop pod factory on the ground that can load up the pods with ground units before launching them into space (or all the way to whatever planet you want to land on).

going by the KS that is what the unitcannon actualy IS ... it loads the units into drop pods and launches them