So I was messing around against the AI, and stumbled upon something terrifying: Orbital fabricators. "Oh, but they're expensive, can only build a few things, and use a lot of energy". Ah, but you see, like other fabricators, they can reclaim structures and units on the land. This means that if you can get an orbital fabricator over to the enemy base before they can finish building an umbrella, it's pretty much gg. Your fabricator can reclaim their structures without being attacked. If you notice they're starting to build an umbrella, just reclaim the fabricators, then the umbrella. Commander building the umbrella? Just reclaim the umbrella while he's trying to build it. The reclaim rate is faster than the commander build rate. I realize this doesn't work if the enemy builds an umbrella right away, but it is still absolutely hilarious. What do you guys think? Is this balanced? If not, what should be done about it?
Yeah. It's a nice way to snipe opponents. Also a great way to finish off wounded commanders. The better way to use them isn't to go straight for the Commander. Instead, reclaim the entire enemy base first. That normally takes your opponent longer to realize what's going on as opposed to the glaring commander under attack notification. Personally, I don't think they should be able to reclaim from orbit. Instead, we should get a new, cheap, satellite that can shoot at the ground but isn't nearly as effective as the SXX. Probably more of a high rate of fire, low damage. More ideal for unit killing and general harassment. And if we were to get such a satellite, then we'll need a vehicle and/or bot that can shoot at air.
That's what I've been doing. 1) Reclaim any umbrellas-in-progress. 2) reclaim factories. 3) Reclaim econ buildings / fabricators. 4) reclaim commander, and anything he tries to build.
I see this sometimes, but it has never worked that I have seen. Orbital radar usually goes up early in the team games I play, and after that it's easy to build an Umbrella if you see suspicious enemy orbital movement. What's more broken in my opinion is that Orbital Fabricators can assist ground fabbers with buildings, adding their fast build speed to anything you're building. At least it seems that way, I haven't done any extensive testing.
Investment in an orbital launcher and a fabber and time to reach the enemy base is quite considerable. Scouting their base and building a cheap orbital radar both hard-counter this strat.
Basic run-down from someone who has done this in competitive play against competent players: It only works if the other player is brain-dead to the orbital layer. Trying to rush it is stupid because you won't have enough army to defend your expansions (which you need for an orbital factory) and without an army, boom bots can eat your comm alive.
Just an orbital radar doesn't necessarily counter the strat. It takes basic fabricators quite some time to finish an umbrella. If the orbital fabricator reaches your base before the umbrella is actually finished, you're screwed. Scouting time isn't horrible, since you can use an arkyd.
@Frenotx As awesome as orbital fabbers are at reclaiming your opponents base, they are even more awesome for powerbuilding t1 factories and pgens! Think of it as t2 at half the cost. Also, don't listen to mered. I did this against matiz the previous kotp, and he is not a 'brain dead' player. It might not outright win you the game but it will definitely give you big advantage if you can reclaim enough energy or factories. The reclaim strat will work pretty well for the majority of skill levels if the map is large enough, your opponent doesn't attack you, or there is t1 stalemate. There are for sure situations and maps where orbital fabber rush is viable. It's risky ofcourse, but always a fun thing to do. Mered forgets that you can just reclaim your opponents metal instead. Umbrellas cannot be everywhere. It's really kool to see more players coming up with creative ways to play the game.
....Mered4 didn't forget any of those strats..... Not exactly sure how nooby you think I am. Would you mind not insulting me at every chance you get? Thanks!
Let's just say that Matiz doesn't make the most intelligent decisions when it comes to orbital. Plus he was already being overwhelmed by the first stages of the dox nonsense.
He didn't scout it and as a result didn't take any measures to counter it until the damage had already been done.
Iv had the orbital fabber rush sent above my base, and it was useless against me... BUT its still a strong strategy in some cases. My enemy sent orbital fabbers to me before I had gotten up into the orbital layer and yet I had very little trouble building my umbrella's and launcher to counter. I simply overwhelmed the reclaim power with my fabbers & commander. The reclaim speed may be high on the orbital fabber, but being able to produce a massive amount of ground fabbers creates a fabber force that can overwhelm very easily... Of course (Before anyone trolls me over this) you must be able to produce these ground fabbers... and to do that you must be set up properly before the Orbital fabbers arrive. This being said if your a build fiend like me, you probably have enough fabbers to counter the orbital fabbers. Simply put you can produce more fabbers on the ground then you can in orbit if you have structured your base in such a way. It all is defendant on the opponents style and set up of there base because being a build fiend I can be overwhelmed by other strategies that would find the orbital rush difficult to counter. I think arguing over who is right or wrong about the strategy is useless since every strategy has its strengths and weaknesses and should really be refined by talk and not belittled. But of course again this is my opinion and experience with PA, and I am sure someone will come along and rant/insult me over this. Lets try to remain friendly, and not fall to the dark side of the internet.
An orbital If your oponent was clever / paying attention, he / she would have reclaimed your fabricator units- an orbital fabricator can reclaim fabricators faster than you can build them, unless you already have a small fabricator army by the time they get there. Considering you'd also need lots of energy to power said fabricator army, and that people tend to only build a few fabricators, this is unlikely.
