Why are the following things as they are?

I don't really see why:

1. We don't get a naval teleporter
2. Astraeus can't carry naval units
3. Astraeus can only carry units one by one, making it effectively useless for carrying anything but Commanders/single fabbers to empty planets
4. Astraeus requires so much micro to use for anything other than what is stated in 3
5. Area reclaim command doesn't work so you can't even quickly convert the now-useless naval vessels back to metal now that the enemy is out of the planet and/or destroyed
6. Unit Cannon can't be built on water while Halley can (that's some really dense water)
7. Uber Cannon cannot be set to fire automatically
8. Tactical Missiles have such low range

If anyone could answer any/all of these questions, it would be great; thanks.

3/4: I think astraeus support area commands
5: Area reclaim does work on wreckages and trees. The problem is that dead units leave no wreckages. A big problem, that I fully agree on

Uber Canon has a long reload, costs energy and requires precise placement to be effective, which is why it doesn't auto fire. That said it's probably possible to mod although I'm not sure it would be a good idea.

Tac missiles were totally op, so they got changed to sort range but with ability to target orbital as well, so they're a nice all round defence now (also quite cheap for t2).

Automatic Ubercannon launches are among the things I will try with the new API.

This. I know Uber Cannon is most effective when micromanaged properly but automating it should be an option.

But that's the thing, PA has a system designer used by most of its playerbase and planets designed with naval in mind needn't be rare. This is like saying that land units will be rare if the system is almost entirely a water system.

I personally have at least one water planet in every system I make and I would add more if the navies could be moved on to other planets. One of the reasons navy is rare if at all is that you can't move it on to other planets.

Just as caution, this is probably going to be "one of those mods" that is unfair for competitive play. But it's still awesome.

Btw, how are you going to differentiate between high and low threat situations, if at all? I wouldn't really want my commander to uber cannon a single skitter

I was thinking about just having it like any other factory. You put it on endless build queue and put a waypoint where you want your units. They just don't have to walk there themselves.

I guess you could also make it that you tell a bunch of uber cannons: "please once I scout an enemy commander directly automatically launch all your units at it and have all those units automatically attack that commander". At least if among the commands is whatever command is actually used to shoot the units. Not sure about that, but my guess it is there.

There'll be more mods "unfair" for competitive play. Better just everyone who thinks they are good gets them. The API exists now in PTE, pandoras box is open.

Yes please, splice man and machine, create the ultimate PA experience.

Auto Ubercannons seem worse imho - they need to be well placed to do any good. The Ai is a good example of this (

It should simply be an option.

You can just change "auto_attack": false to true in pa\tools\uber_cannon\uber_cannon.json, that works
I can also say that I like autofire better because you don't have to micro it, even though not every shot might be a brilliant multi-unit hit, the weapon gets put to more use.

That requires a server mod

I didn't know that flag exists though. I guess what it does is change the behavior of the unit cannon in the simulation?

"auto_attack": true is in the base_weapon blueprints so it's true for every weapon that doesn't specifically set it to false.

Wait wait wait...

Colin is talking about the Unit Cannon, seems like some of you are talking about the Uber Cannon.

Would those of you who were talking about the Unit Cannon please do the forums a favor and edit your posts to clarify?

Lol @wpmarshall did the same in his multi planet 1 v 1 musing thread... It's easy to get them mixed up apparently..

Gotta admit, a mobile unit cannon would be kinda awesome. Pointless, but all the more awesome because of that.