Planetary Invasions

why not have an orbital version of the unit cannon that the Astraeus and other orbital units are loaded into and fired into the orbit of other planets and moons

Id like the orbital laser to be replaced with a scatter shot gun, so we might get some battling between bombardment and static emplacements.

personally the orbital laser needs to be scaled up to the wmd category rather than being a unit sniper that way they the slow fire rate can be justified

Yes, clearly a weapon that already does 2500 damage every 2 seconds in a layer that is very hard to deal with isn't powerful at all...... >.>

Mike

then why is it that i can place one in orbit over an enemy base and have it do no damage what so ever while it is attacking???

*Shrug* It's still like 5+ hits for advanced factories and like 10 or so hits for commanders from what I recall off hand. There is also the potential that it's missing, the current implementations has a hard time hitting moving targets.

Mike

kk will try again with one
P.S. I'm a big fan of your black ops mod for SupCom: Forged Alliance

Yeah, clearly my intent of modding games more than playing them is still going strong! xD I've been getting ready for PA for awhile now.

Mike

Love it, love it and Love it

Especially the anti tactical missile unit, not sure on anti projectile though, I would also love to see an expensive Anti ICBM unit (which functions like the stationary anti nuke except its mobile) as I have had huge tank armadas destroyed by people using nukes defensively, not calling for a nerf on nukes, I just want to make it more interesting and force the defender to bomb my anti ICBM unit before he nukes my army.

Like many others I would also like to see a Orbital transport ship built by orbital factory that would either beam tanks aboard and down or land on the surface. Maybe even a orbital bot factory functioning like the hangar ships from supcom in which it produces its own units you can drop/beam to the surface.

I still think an orbital transport that deploys (rains?) the loaded units via gravity from the orbital layer and is loaded by building an expensive space elevator structure would be a great solution for planet invasions. That way the infrastructure for invasions would be on the invading player's side and if done correctly, an entire army could be deployed onto an occupied planet in seconds to establish a front line.

Solid idea here! (yes now i am stalking you).

I would change it up just a bit though. The value of jumping off world outweighs the cost. I would make the Astreus a one shot delivery system, with the ability to reclaim the rubble when it lands/crashes on the planet. Build it at the orbital launcher and as you pitched, Brian, have the unit loaded into it while it is still in the launcher.

Have its location designated before the Astreus even launches but once its sent that's it and its been used. This would make it more expensive overall, and maybe hinder a ZaphodX bloke from dominating the entire system so fast.

*Hell it actually makes sense to just load units into the orbital launcher for breaking orbit. . .that's what it is for right? What if you add a unit load feature and queue to the orbital launcher?

Or what if the Astreus was reappropriated to be the single unit transport, make it unable to leave orbit. Doesn't really make sense that it can anyway?

And then just add a one time use transport pod to the Orbital Launcher's build option for sending units off world. There's your Unit Cannon without a whole new structure, just a shell to skin for the unit, an icon and cost to set up for the Orbital Launcher, give it a load/unload feature and a designation tool for where to send it.

While this pod is in the Orbital launcher, anything else you want to build gets queued up.

May be the most economical way for UBER to handle all this.

I like the idea the Egg.

Make a capsule which can build in the T2 orbital launcher and but max 10 units in there or let the capacity depend on the weight. The t2 orbital launcher can fire bigger rockets in the orbit maybe the ramp is build in the ground and only a little structure is on the ground or its only a platform which the EGG is build on. If the EGG reaching the orbit from a planet it lands on the point where you send it after the units are unload the EGG fying back in the space and will be gone. That means you can only use The EGG one time then you have to rebuild it.

Ive been thinking about this and was wondering what people would think about combining the megabot experiment with planetary invasion. You get to construct a large, very expensive megabot (launch-able, once only) to land on another planet and do as much damage as possible before blowing up. This would allow enough room to send an invasion force and form a beach head from where to take over the world! (My inner Brain coming through there)

As a restriction it could take a huge amount of power to use and would have to be shut down if it ever survived so normal construction could continue.

Just sounds alot more awesome than interplanetary nukes.....

Also, depending on how asteroid belts end up working, the smaller ones might be able to wipe out moons in the same way all planet drops do now, while only wiping out a modest area on the bigger planets.

This has always been the only way I can see the megabot working. It can't be made in a way that would efficient to build, but it can be better to pack a lot of firepower into one unit to make travel cost cheaper. PA is unique to other RTS games in that it already has a built in scenario that is perfect for adding a megabot that isn't even unbalanced. Also, should we call it an Uber-mech?

They did it! CURSE YOU INTERPLANETARY NUKES!

Well it seems like a pretty nice addition. At least now there are ways for planets to strike at moon bases and vice versa in a less clunky way than spamming orbital units.

This also means you can be a bit more successful at opening up a beachhead against a locked down planet.

(They'd have to carpet the entire planet in catapults, umbrellas, AND anti-nukes to completely lock you out)

I agree. Orbital is starting to feel more balanced. I also just realized that you can send laser satellites between planets.

no more running away to a moon if you are overwhelmed...

Just allow the Astras to take normal units too.

This way if you want to invade another planet, you can pick up your entire army with 80 or 90 astrauses and just zerg the planet. Umbrellas cannot fire that fast, and will only knock out so many before you can land your troops (levelers) and start getting a foothold. Also now with Nukes able to hit things as well, you can easily captalise on a good nuke strike by dropping off a small force.

Many games I have wanted to invade a planet with a bajillion Astrases loaded up with my army.....this just needs to be done so you can properly invade a planet.