I have an idea for the Manhattan that would make it far more useful in your average composition and remove the helios teleporting nuke. This is by giving it an "armed" toggle. When built by default it is on safe. This means when it is killed it does not explode and leaves wreckage like any other unit. When its used to target the enemy it will still explode as normal on this setting. This means it would be an option to mix one or two into your late game armys to make things more interesting. However you can click on it and arm it. It now explodes on death and also while targeting the enemy, like it does currently. How to fix the broken Helios Nuke teleporter? Force it on safe mode for 20 seconds or so it comes out of a teleporter. If the enemy spots and destroys it in their base in this time it does not go off. If they dont and its in the centre of there base under that huge Helios then I think a nuke is well deserved.
I like the idea that a Manhattan is always armed. Makes their use a lot more risky, but I think that's offset by their power.
Agree 100%. The Manhattan is clearly inspired by the crawling nuke bot in TA and it was constructed much the same way. Having the damn thing blow up inside your base is the trade-off for building a cheaper nuke that the enemy may not notice. There's no reason to give it a toggle as it would bypass the unit design as a tricksy, sneaky way to eliminate an enemy blob or base. The unit is niche, but it is actually fairly frequently used in team games.
I like this idea, it can really solve the Helios nuke drop. It also make the Manhattan more practical to be used. Otherwise, it is extremely dangerous to store them in the base.
With this modification the Helios Manhatten drop will just become the Helios Vanguard drop. Effectively the same. It just means the Helios should have a cool-down after arriving in orbit like the SXX has now. It's not fixed by taking out the risk of using the Manhattan unit.
But if the Helios gets the cooldown it will just become a glorified orbital fab building tepelorter, as unusable against heavily defended planet as is everything else except halleyed asteroid and anihilaser. Maybe just make it more expensive?
No, because having to move a nuke through your own base is the essential tradeoff for having a nuke that is not countered by an anti-nuke. Besides that, it doesn't solve the Helios problem. If the nuke is in safe mode you can still detonate it at will. So if you drop a Manhattan in an enemy base and you see that it will get shot down, just attack the next unit, or the ground. Voilà same atomic mushroom as before.
