Transports

I do support that if I don't have to micro all those transport. More like move new units to that location. I don't want to command every single tank to every single transport. As you said. Transport is a common thing in large scale wars. In Short, I don't want Transport tycoon

With some slight tweaks (making ferry orders 1st class entities, for example), sup com's transport system would easily scale into having hundreds of transports. And damn, wouldn't it be cool to see a hundred units being transported in under fire.

Should transports change speed with their cargo?

If the capacity is 1, then there are only 2 speed modes: Fast and slow. Slow represents the vulnerability of carrying the unit, and fast lets the transport quickly move to grab a new unit.

Good news Ted! It's not in closed beta, it's a featured mod on FA Forever. You can host a Nomads game as easily as a standard game.

As for units firing from transports, the ghetto gunship in FA is a good and interesting unit that is no longer OP and I would like to see something similar in PA.

I also would like it if mobile stealth generators stayed active whilst being transported. Also mobile radar units.

It would also be good to have a dedicated gunship with limited transport capabilities, like the UEF T2 gunship from SupCom - the feature is hardly ever used so it's certainly not OP, but the few times I've remembered it's there I've come up with some very novel tactics.

I would say no. The only difference is the time to accelerate to max speed is different. I expect the transport thrusters to be powerful enough to get to top speed fully loaded.

Id like to see ferry transport structures that creates a fixed ferry start position for the player to use, able to automatically produce transports for it's use it would replace lost transports and would give the player a stronger transportation option for moving units from the base to the front line.

Hopefully that would cut down on the transport management when transports get shot down.

I don't like the idea of having more than one unit on a transport, in TA, it was rather tactical, you'd use them for snatching a "napping" commander (my favorite), and evacuating your own. If there was water in the way, you built a navy or a hovercraft fleet and transported like that. The transportation holds of such vessels were large indeed, but they were vulnerable (and I believe expensive), so you had to be cautious, unlike SupCom, when you could send in a crapload of units on T3 transports and annihilate a base for relatively cheap.

That's fine.......if they can be easily managed, but the idea that I need 50-100 transport for a 100 strong army can be more annoying than anything.

I think there is a nice medium where you still have an impressive amount of transports without 1:1 or 1:2 ratios.

Mike

Individual transports are pretty much the bottom of the barrel. As large numbers become too expensive, more efficient and large scale options will become available. Supcom transports could assist factory rally points, so we will likely see that used again to keep them relevant during the game.

The strongest option for a transport, is to not need one at all. Jump jets and hovers etc. are pretty sexy, and don't have to worry about their transport being shot down. They work anywhere and can have their own high speed to stay dangerous.

If you need fast, low altitude support, then build a gunship. They're practically a combination of unit + single transport as is.

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One potential role for a transport is to bring units across orbital boundaries. Invading local moons is desirable, and not the same scale of challenge as jumping between planets or stars. Cheap transports can get armies to do some island hopping.

It says I need access for the nomad mod on FAF
-EDIT- Never mind, that was yesterday.

Maybe a large transport that can carry multiple units inside the transport would make more sense. It seems like carrying units exposed to the open world would be able to fire at enemy units (like a gunship).

But how many units do you think are designed to shoot the ground under them?

Considering the Context an Open Air design makes the most sense, both from a realism and gameplay perspective.

Mike

I am not for the idea of having transports act like gunships I am just trying to figure out an idea that makes sense. It seems like a unit in the open air would be able to shoot something that’s why I think a closed system would make more sense.

If you were riding on a transport in the open air with a weapon and saw an enemy wouldn't you want to shoot it. That's just my opinion though.

You're piloting a tank, how do you shoot a ground target? Or if a Bot, A, how do you aim? even if the arms are capable of Aiming down(obviously Dependant on arm design) and the legs aren't in the way, you still have the issue of sighting the target to properly aim, assuming the other occupants of the transport aren't in the way either. If you overcome all that, you need to consider how firing the weapon might affect the transport itself and it's flight.

As for the Transports flight Mechanics, honestly Gunship style movement makes sense(not that you can change things up to not make it identical), doing more of a fixed wing style makes sense.....until you look at the landing aspect, this is also why an open air design makes more sense, you need to get in, and get out if you're doing a combat drop, honestly the way the SupCom/FA transports worked is honestly perfect in my books, you don't have to deal with magic teleporting units(SupCom2/Starcraft) or arbitrary loading/unloading times(Starcraft) to makes things work, SupCom2 is one of the worst Transport implementations I've seen......

Mike

The reason why transport aircraft in Supcom2 is suck was there was no reason to use it since all factions have alternative movement system (Noah cannon, jet-pack and teleportation).
Since there will be the unit cannon, the transport should be more than just a transport (Even transports in Starcraft 2 have nice features other than transport).

Do it like supcom, peewee transport. Also, transportable torpedo kbots that would otherwise be useless unless put onto a transport, torpedo gunship.
granted, they shouldn't be able to carry many units, leave that to the hovercraft... But they make great raiding, much more capable than gunships, unless the enemy has some form of AA :roll:. It makes transport use more strategic, they make great raids on undefended units without AA cover, but with AA, they're screwed.

Transports I like:
Sup Com w/ Ferry system.


Transports I don't like.
TA with manually selecting units to be picked up and dropped off.


Macro with smart GUI good.
Micro, bad.