Unit cannon - is it a good idea?

I always liked the unit cannon idea from SupCom2, but as I've not played the game to any great extent (read: half-hour into demo), I don't know if it's any good.

So, is it? Should a version of it be in PA?

It worked fairly well in SC2, (Note the demo was horrific).

From what I can see however in PA it won't also be a factory, requiring your own factory's to load it.

To clarify: does it produce the ability to have interesting new strategies without being overpowered?

yes, by inserting small squads on units behind enemy lines before the enemy has time to react, however this does tend to reveal the location of the cannon on radar by following the stream of units.

Usually when used on an opponents base, defenses and units can kill the landing troops before they can respond, making it an inefficient choice for base assault.

The idea that we can 'load' units into another unit, and 'launch' them in a particular direction is awesome.

A natural evolution of the concept is a bomber-transport that drops pods full of troops on the enemy. I've always wanted to do paratroopers

Agreed, it seemed to have limited use in a direct base assault from what I played of SupCom2, more a way to shift units rapidly in to position, reinforce an allies base, reinforce your attacking force currently locked in combat, etc.

I do think that it will come into its own as a concept more in PA. As a means of moving units between planetary bodies as shown in the trailer it is already shown to be more a core mechanic rather than an experimental novelty like it was in SupCom2

Cannon = good
Big Cannon = better
Biggest Cannons = best

a unit cannon like the one in Supcom 2 could be something nice that way you could quikely reenforce your frontlines or atleast to a certain range ....











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Something like the unit cannon (Not nessesarly the unit cannon but something simular) is needed for transfering units between astroids/moons/planets. So yes i would consider it a good idea.

Considering that the unit cannon is included in the concept teaser/trailer i would assume that they are planning to include it.

I'd love to see other mechanisms, such as orbital drops and teleportation myself as well as the unit cannon. Each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

For instance:

Orbital drops:
Orbital unit that drops the units can be shot down
Allows for large amount of units to be dropped

Unit Cannon:
Units arrive only one by one, so enemy could 'camp' landing spot and take down each unit as it lands
Indefinite number of already constructed units can be dropped

Teleportation:
Only a relatively small squad can be teleported, or amount of resources required to teleport increases exponentially with number of units teleported
Units all arrive at once and with almost no travel time

The orbital drop and unit cannon is basicly the same thing, since the unit cannon shots them from a body in orbit (moon/astroid) at a planet and then drop down. If the developers think ahead they might fire the units at different speeds so they arrive in small groups instead of alone.

I think some kind of teleportation between planets is confirmed.

Well, the difference between unit cannons and orbital drops would be the difference between unit cannons in SupCom 2 versus transports. Wherein orbital drops are based on units that travel between planets and then land to unload a bunch of units onto the surface, during which time they can be shot at by anti-orbital, anti-air and eventually anti-ground. And unit cannons are unit cannons.

I see, i think our definition of "orbital drop" is different. So your basicly suggesting:

1. Unit cannon.
2. Transport.
3. Teleportation.

The unit cannon seen in the concept trailer is most likely in, teleportation has been said to be

So that will most likely be included, we shall see about transports.

I would like to point out that they have plenty of ideas about transporting units between worlds, so no worries..

I think they already have thought ahead, in the kickstarter video it shows the unit cannon firing a 'pod' which splits apart to reveal 5 units inside, and it was firing them quite fast so 3 were close together (@ 0:59), meaning all 15 units landed pretty much at the same time, hopefully thats the design mechanic that will get implemented.

Note also the bots having landing jets to give them some last minute maneuvering in case of a bad landing zone.

You guys do now that its a pitch/concept video right? Details like that are often included in such videos even if they arent in the finished game (Since it looks cool and sells, i have no idea why companies often dont include everything that the pitch video's show ingame later).

Offcourse we can hope.

Usually because they notice it doesn't work well in-game through testing. Or because they realize it's not technically feasible after all.

Having several different interplanetary transport options is probably the best way to go. As long as they feel different.

The unit cannon could have a really wide spread depending on how far it's shooting. So if you are going from planet to planet you'd end up shotgunning your army all over the map.

The transport would have to land, drop of units, and fly home again. So during the whole process it would have to pass through all the layers and would be shot at by orbital units, anti air, and then ground fire when it lands.

There are a couple of different things you could do with teleportation, but I am in favor of making people build two connected gate structures that units would instantly move through.

Also one thing to keep in mind, how do you invade to a planet that doesn't have any similar terrain to the planet you are on. So lets say you were on an all naval planet and could only make boats, how do you invade a desert planet? Remember in SupCom when people would complain that they couldn't build naval factories if their enemy was spamming subs? Imagine that problem but in space.

I remember the old Half Life 2 preview videos had these ribbons that would come out of the water and impale people. I think they left it out because it just wasn't very fun.

And In that new XCOM game they kept showing preview videos that would end with a massive Godzilla sized monster showing up. But it never made it into the game, probably because it was difficult to code in.

The only issue I really have is with teleportation. I really dislike the idea of open ended teleportation of units. If we are talking about moving units between planets then I would much prefer the use of a system that requires a fixed point structure at either end. Something like a galactic gate would be an example of such a structure.

I'd tend to agree. I would like to see teleportation, but requiring a structure/some kind of deployable marker to be constructed on planet means players actually need to make planetfall via unitcannon/rocketgantry/othertransportmechanism before they could transport units instantly. It also means a defending player can knock out said marker and cut the planet off from instant reinforcement. I'd even suggest that a teleporting reciever would need a fair amount of space to operate in (like how ACU's cause damage when they teleport in) making them more vulnerable to attack as you cant keep defences too close to them (unless you plan ahead and leave a big space in the middle of a base)

Hmmm I went a bit off topic there, anyway, any teleport mechanic would need to allow for unit cannons and whatever other form of interplanetary transport to remain relevant.

I'd imagine an ocean planet would need some kind of floating platform available to players for the purposes of constructing interplanetary transport stuff, be it rocket gantries, unit cannons or teleporters. Whether it is available in the form of abandoned oil rig type structures, something that the player constructs seperately or part of a contextually available, select number of seafaring versions of structures could be debated but I would see at least one of those being a nessessity for those kinds of planets.

On another note, what do people generally think about where unit cannons should be applicable? I think they should be limited to use in low gravity environments, like moons and asteroids to fire down to planets or across interplanetary distances to other planets/moons/asteroids. I think that rocket gantries should be nessesary to leave planets.