Orbital Lasers need to be cooler

The important feature about the GDI Ion Cannon was that it was extremely powerful against a single target, but you could only use it very infrequently. For orbital weapons I think this is a good idea, as opposed to relatively constant DPS ground army units.

Making orbital bombardments expensive, powerful, and infrequent creates an incentive to actually attack with units if you have a lot of targets to blow up.

Would be cool if orbital weapons revealed them selves to ground targets when firing, a bit like siege tanks for starcraft.

or artillery from tiberian sun.

I think that something like the Ion Cannon from C&C 3 Tiberium Wars would be good since it would give the person on the ground enough time to get out of the way if they are paying attention, and would look badass! Though that would mean that they would use one beam instead of three shots, or maybe they could have the swirling beams act like a targeting system for the three shots?

Just for the hell of it, I'd like to mention using KEWs from death satellites. They could have a pretty re-entry effect and everything for the sake of readability.

Independence day mega beam effect for satellite weapons,
gives the weapon the kind of shock value that orbital bombardment weapons should have even if it only does damage in a small area or to a single unit, the player on the recieving end of that orbital bombardment should be going "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!!" when hit.

Making anything "cool" or "shock value" or making players go "what the hell was that" will always wear off. After every player has seen it a thousand times, nobody will be going "what the hell was that." They will know exactly what it is, how it works, and what that means within the context of the game.

Which is why we should focus on gameplay features, like having large costs per shot for massive orbital bombardment alpha strike attacks. This would make them far less efficient than other methods.

Players should prefer to use their orbital bombardment capability sparingly and on key targets, and should instead generally opt to use surface units to directly attack the target whenever possible. Failing direct attack, less exotic indirect methods like artillery and air strikes should also be more efficient than orbital bombardment. Even dropping units from space should probably be more efficient in terms of damage that could be dealt per cost than directly shooting a target using weapons in orbit. However if the more efficient methods are not available due to enemy defenses, needing to use them elsewhere, or for some other reason, then it makes sense to go to the last resort and obliterate the target with an ion cannon shot.

Which is great if you never intend to bring in new players.

A laser from the sky needs to be clear and obvious to the player on the ground, not anonymous.

Indeed I would rather have a massive obvious to every one over the top laser beam than a small unnoticeable laser blasting apart units and defenses, if you are implementing an orbital laser at least make it epic and memorable experience for all players.

Anyone remember the earth's orbital gun in Robotech? More like that please

My point isn't that it should be small. My point is that you don't design it so that it looks awesome. You figure out how it should be designed, and then make that look awesome, not the other way around.

I am totally in favor of a giant Independence Day style orbital death laser. One which takes an immense amount of time and energy to charge before it can be fired.

But the reason is not because giant lasers are 'awesome', or for nostalgia factor for a movie, TV show, or old game. The reason is because efficient, constant DPS should be a reason to prefer to use troops whenever possible. Failing that, artillery or air support. Failing that, dropping troops from space. And if all else fails, then bring up the death laser.

In order to make orbital direct fire act as fire support, and not as a dominant weapon choice replacing more interesting ground forces, it makes sense to make its weapons big, unwieldy, and expensive to use as well as to construct. Make orbital cannons and missiles cost metal to build their ammo. Make orbital lasers enormous and require a huge amount of energy, as well as only capable of being used infrequently.

I would prefer the Ion Cannon from TS to be honest, not that big of fan of super duper weapons like that TS3 one that can take out a base in one shot imo.


As for the orbital cannon I never notice when it is firing as the design is now.

I've never said different.

The important feature of the GDI Ion Cannon is that it was a NUKE. The visuals may be different, the unit may be different, but the end result is a big attack on a long cooldown.

Then it's a TAC NUKE. Supcom had these as its stationary tactical missile launchers. The missile was pretty cheap, and it dealt HUGE damage to a small area.

Such weapons are ideal Comm killers.

No we wont have a friggin acient reactiveable planetbusting metalbaseplanet of death but we want a satalite that that does a third of it ... srsly guise ... SRSLY? For me its more then enough if its obelisk of light like ...

First of all, if the visual appearance of the orbital laser is the only feature of the unit that you care about, I am sure the art team will come up with a suitably epic pillar of light.

As for how it will be used, I really don't have an issue with the Independence Day laser being extremely effective as a commander killer. Certain weapons should actually be good at that job. The only reason tac nukes bugged people in this regard is that they could actually be quite unpredictable, and tac nuke snipe focused strategies were rather cheesy as a result.

One of the biggest orbital guns, however? Seems perfectly fair that it instantly destroys anything you target with it. The very fact that the laser can be used to snipe a commander makes it a difficult decision regarding when to use it, since it will be offline for some time after each use and you may miss an opportunity as a result.

Well there are some things in a game that every time they happen I love to go watch it (and the death from above could and should be one of those)

On a side note though..... wouldn't it be AWESOME if the made a thing you built on an orbiting moon that could blow up a planet..... kind of like in star wars 4!!!!!!!!



And just think about the visuals!!!!!! or sound effects!!!!!!!

It could take a really long time..... longer than the halleys.... but look so much better!!!!!!

I Kind oft find it funny oft how people depict the beamsatelite ... To me its not bombardmend at all its just single Static or slow target assasination
Bombardement is what bombers missiles artillery and nukes are for...
Thats why i vote for flashy obelisk red beam
Independence day beam was a friggin citybuster for that you got nukes already...

then have an Independence day style beam that isn't a citybuster weapon but provides an emp style effect in a small area while doing damage.

Why does a killersat need emp? It is quiet dangerous already since you can only destroy it by 2 expensive defenses

Got to do something with that blast wave