It's time to talk unit ideas

Hopefully they are working towards that. It's a big ask and very ambitious but would be a big pay off if they are. The satisfaction in pushing the boundaries like that would be great I'm sure.

I find the planet siege factory to be a cool idea

Well that gives an interesting solution to a problem people have been predicting. Maybe will need refined to simplify it so they might actually add it in.

Though I assume no one else gets the reference, this reminds me of the BETA hives from Muv Luv Alternative, where aliens shoot a reactor core into the earth where it becomes an alien-producing machine. Then, slowly, the aliens destroy the surrounding landscape.

edit: An alternative could simply be orbital factories that stick parachutes onto the units and drop them into freefall.

dive-bombers. These would perform better than strat-bombers against mobile and naval units, but would not have enough firepower to be worth risking against major economic targets.

Leech: A satellite designed to reclaim enemy units and structures slowly from the relative safety of orbit, providing a way of stealing additional metal directly from the enemy.

Boxer: Short ranged turret-less tank designed to directly fight enemy defences, weak weapon but impressive HP, making the unit a effective bullet sponge.

All I want for Christmas is a super tanky T2.5 bot. Slow moving, slow firing, massive HP and damage. There is nothing quite as satisfying as having a couple of units like these steamrolling the enemy defenses!

Perhaps go all the way and turn it into a "walking wall" -- a slow-moving unit with no offensive capabilities but high HP, which could act like a wall for your artillery to hide behind while being shot at by the enemy bot army.


edit: Walking walls could work as nice bodyguards for walking bombs...

I'm going to retoast this, as I consider it important.

In addition to this, I'm noticing a lot of people are bringing up the more interesting units from TA. Which were pretty much all the units except the duplicate CORE/ARM units.

I'll add my crazy ideas to the pile -

Mine Artillery - Allows the Commander to paint minefields within its range; will mine areas with variable density depending on how long the "paintbrush" is hovered over the location. Fires mines in clusters of 5-20 (balance dependent) with decent spread every 30 seconds to a minute. Can support a limited number of mines (in the hundreds) before ceasing fire; it will inform the Commander of its inability to continue mining. Multiple artillery pieces will work together to mine an area instead of just firing haphazardly in the same spot. The Mine Artillery could also be a secondary function of the Unit Cannon, though I would like to see a unit like this costing less than the Unit Cannon.

Reclamator - Simple idea, reclaims stuff at a range larger than Fabbers. Will use its nanolathe as a weapon if an enemy fires a weapon within its sight range.

Resurrection Bot - Also from TA, just like the Reclamator.

Pontifier - Pseudo-Latin for "Bridgemaker", freezes liquids (lava and water) to form bridges. Commander can paint down areas for bridges to be created, and the structure will build "nodes" to form the bridge. If the Pontifier itself is destroyed, all of the nodes will fail and the bridge will quickly melt. Multiple Pontifiers can be built to support the same bridge; this will increase build rate and add redundancy in the event that one is destroyed. Can be used to immobilize and block off ships.

Decimater - Weapon that causes any units it destroys to fragment into smaller pieces, damaging any nearby units. Good against swarms and hordes. May be energy weapon, projectile or missile.

Cicada - Launches all units as well as itself at a target location within limited range Y for energy cost X. The size of the "bubble" it launches units from can be sized up or down by the Commander, but the energy cost gets exponentially larger as the bubble gets bigger. Maximum range is up to balance. Could be a candidate for automation.

Perviator - Pseudo-Latin for "Thoroughfarer" (there is a Latin word for Thoroughfare, but Perviator sounds cooler). Air Transport, capable of traveling at extreme speeds when moving in a straight line. However, has to slow down to sub-Bomber speeds to turn, and has horrendous turning rate. Mechanic could be used for other aircraft. No, traveling along the curvature of a planet doesn't count as turning.

Tiber Dog - Name is a poke at C&C Tiberium series. Short range (possibly PeeWee-like?) unit, maybe Melee, that will burrow into nearby wrecks; destroying itself. However, that wreck will soon turn into a certain amount of Tiber Dogs depending on the amount of metal in it; if M is metal, floor(M/100). Could also be balanced to not destroy itself when infecting a wreck. Tiber Dogs can be removed from a wreck by a Nanolathe; Fabbers on opposing armies will automatically do this. May also be able to infect living units for EXTRA CARNAGE.

Tank Destroyer - Extraordinary stopping power, decent fire-rate. Positively TERRIBLE turn-rate and acceleration, may be balanced to take extra damage from behind and the sides. Turret pitches even slower than most tanks, and cannot yaw. May also have high AoE, but could become an unstoppable all-purpose wrecking ball if that were the case.

Siege Artillery - Cheap, low armor, medium-long range, small-medium splash, DPS relatively high. Turret can only yaw in about a 10-20 degree range, pitches slowly, large blind spot. Takes extra damage from direct-fire weapons, resilient to indirect-fire weapons. Bombers count as direct fire. Used to besiege bases and whatnot, as well as act as a quick assist to armies in a protracted engagement. Deployed by Fabber, Orbital Satellite, Unit Cannon/Mine Artillery or Air-Dropped; pick two.

Booby Trap - Air-dropped walking bomb with vision cloaking while immobile. Has two unique toggle orders; "Activate once touched/detected", "Activate once built on", or "Inactive". Second toggle order is "Cascade Activation" or "Individual Activation". Deals AoE damage with a sharp inverse exponential falloff.

1. Mobile anti nuke
2. Basic and advanced naval RADAR
3. Unit transports
4. Advanced anti air

Doesn't the current advanced tank act like this?

The current advanced tank IS an unstoppable all-purpose wrecking ball, except that it can turn just as fast as the basic tank, and has a fast-yawing turret. So no.

Edit: I almost forgot my catch-phrase; LEVELERS, HO!

No terrible turn rate and acceleration. If they had this they might be a little less unbalanced...
edit: darn you ninja, Mushroomars...

More stealth options would be awesome. That's what I am looking forward to the most.

Ow......then that's how it should be!

I personally love the Brawlers in TA. Fast and fragile, more reliable than bombers IMO. I would like to see some iteration of them in PA.
Perhaps a bulky T2 gunship with minor construction/repair capabilities? Like, it'd have weak guns and no ability to construct (or maybe just walls and turrets) but could keep beefy units healthy while providing a little support.
Though I'd still love to see a T1 vtol gunship with rockets. Great for taking down structures (that are unprotected by aa) but a slow rate of fire makes them bad against many targets (any army with any aa). This would also be the only air-unit that doesn't die almost instantaneously against resistance.

Other ideas:
Amphibious vehicle transport. Allows a number of bots to board and cross oceans (and maybe travel quicker).
Orbital dropship. Acts as inter-planetary transport for a number of bots or vehicles. Can drop them off slowly or smash into the ground (killing transport unit) for a quick, shock-trooper attack
T1 mobile wall. No idea what factory. Maybe bot. Unit is tough but unarmed. Runs to a place and then plants down to become a permanent fixture. Could be a lot of fun- probably a lot of frustration too
Indiscriminate healing encampment. Heals any unit within its small radius. But if you're units are chased out/destroyed, it can heal your enemy's units at the cost of your energy (give a little more purpose to the DEL key)

I'd like to see a rail gun & Laser tanks.
They have an extreme range, but the problems are their turrets are too large to elevate more than five or ten degrees. Meaning they can shoot into orbit... if orbit is near the horizon. They can't shoot around the curvature of a planet, so not too good on small moons for anything except anti orbital work.

Some sort of anti bomber munition flack, ie: it shoots down incoming missiles for when the enemies send off a lot of bombers against you. Not a shield, not 100 % capable. But some sort of active defense.

sub marine structures

I've found there's a lot of places you can't build metal extractors on due to terrain or so on instead of fixing that, how about we turn it into a feature?

Mass Extractors on stilts - think of a modern day oil rig.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Types_of_offshore_oil_and_gas_structures.jpg
It'd be more expensive, but able to expand the economy to places you wouldn't otherwise get.

Explosive Tank/Bot - An unarmed tank or bot that could drive into a base or group of units and self-destruct, damaging everything nearby.

Mobile Radar - Unarmed units that could provide mobile short-range radar coverage.

Orbital Bomb - Some sort of small-scale orbital bomb or kinetic energy weapon that would float in orbit until given the command to deorbit and drop onto a group of enemies.

Telescope - Either an orbital unit or a ground building that would give a small area of radar coverage or visibility on a distant planet.

I think this should be how all metal extractors behave. Terrain shouldn't get in the way of metal extractors; so long as you can reach it with Fabbers you should be able to build on it. It also forces players to have a bit of variety in their engineering force; they can't have all land Fabbers, they need a few Air Fabbers too.