How to find out if a unit has a viable role or not.

One simple question you must ask: How would the game function if "enter unit here" was removed, how would the game be effecter, and in what way wwould the game improve or be hampered?

An example being the Astreus, how much do you think the game would be effected, bad or good, in normal circumstances (not galactic war) if the astreus suddenly no longer existed? Probably very little would change, maybe very early space exploration/expansion, but not much else.

actually you loose the space race too, because what you win in no gates build time you loose in slower space travel speed compared to the orbital engie.

I don't think it's a good idea to think this way.

you can simplify this game down to chess or even Draughts, why not?

from a war efficiency point of view, having multiple different units that each fill a role bears no advantage over having a single all-purpose one.

but we aren't here for realism so we split up units

which is why we must first introduce a seemingly useless units, then find ways to make it fit into the tableau.

the orbital transport is a fantastic example.

it starts out useless compared to the gate.

all's that's left to do is buff it and nerf indirect concurrents (no direct concurents in this metaphor, that would more or less be the same unit) until it is 'equivalent'

Ideas : it gets more health and ridiculous space speed. also gate travel time gets longer.

in this scenario I can see myself purchasing an astraeus again.

Boom Bot

Its sight is too short, it's easy to take out from a far and has even in early game no use. Would rather invest the metal in dox or tanks.

As for the Astreus, I personally only use as an escape possibility for my commander. As for early space exploration all I need is a Orbital Fab that creates a portal and voila all my units are already on the planet.
I would think producing a large amount of Astreus and sending them with your units in would look epic and all, but all it needs is a hummingbird at the right time and you are done for.

I don't think so, because we aren't looking for what counters what, but how many times the player creates and uses this unit in a game.

The less use, the more worthless this unit in PA is

haha! eat it! no more ninja-ing me today!

boom bots are useful for snipes and quick base destruction and have saved me a few times.

Never use the astreus so thats the prime contender
advance repair bot, cold be useful admitildy but once i get to tech two i want assault units not repair and would put t1 factories for repair bots if needed
air scouts - useful, but fighters do it nearly as well sp they could be dropped
air transports are made redendant by the teleporter. you need armies in such numbers in this game that 1 transport units on the same planet arent that useful.
T3 turret. rarely turtle so t2 will do. but i see others use them alot.

skitter would have been on there but dox vision nerf makes them useful now.

so there are options, now that i think about it thats quite bad to have so many.

The Boom Bot is very useful. It's the best commander sniping unit in the game. Have a bunch of Boom Bots in reserve in case the other player leaves his commander unguarded for a moment is a strategy that has won me many a games. Boom bots can also work much better than Dox against tank blobs.

I don't think that's the right way to think about units. I don't use halleys often, but they are still a huge part of the game to me.
I don't understand the mindset of wanting to remove units that enable people to have different play styles. This is a strategy game, people need to be able to have different strategies rather than there just being one viable way to play.

how to find out weither or not a unit is usefull? playtest the scrap out of it like a metalgrinder ...