I recall someone mentioning Orbital fabricators Somewhere... I want to give them credit. *sigh* Anyways, a mechanic or concept for orbital fabricators was an Orbital space station. So what I was thinking was this: Orbital Fabs. could build a "Station core". The Core would consume a mass energy. So this unit would be strictly Late-game. Around the core, platforms could be constructed. The platforms would act as essentially like the surface of a planet. Bot and tank factories could be constructed on the platforms. The units and factories on the Station would all be tagged with "Space". So... Space bot factory, Space Dox, Space bot fabricator, etc. These tags would allow construction of unique structures. EG: Space Pelter. basically a pelter... but it fires artillery lasers at incoming Avengers. Avengers bring me onto the next suggested structure: T2 orbital Factory. A T2 orbital factory wouldn't have a launch platform like T1, rather would look and act more like an air factory. It would construct T2 avengers, Space frigates, Space nukes?!... any and all crazy Space units.
Yea the mention in the live cast about changing the whole way that you build space..... the fabricators I think are a nice idea.... but I also think that they are really trying to keep the main focus on the surface of the planets..... (not saying that the orbital isn't important) but you want to keep it "simple" if you can put it that way...... They way your stating it is would be like having another "layer" on a planet for battling. The whole point behind having orbital stuff is to assist your ground operation ex.... by full planet vision, attacking the ground via orbital, and so on...... you could remove the avenger all together and it really wouldn't affect "game play" per say because the only other unit to attack it is itself ...... Now they might add more things to the orbital layer... but I think all in all they're trying to keep the orbital layer assisting the ground layer..... (like having another strategic option for attacking an enemies base!!!!)
I see you're new to the forums, and welcome! Orbital Space Stations have been discussed a lot on the forums. So far it's been mostly rejected. You should do a search and check out some of those threads. What's the point of building bots on one of these space platforms? I'd just shoot it down with orbital fighters making those space bots and ants invalid. The idea of a modular space station is kinda cool, and could very well fit into the new direction Uber is taking Orbital. However, it's also a heck of a lot of economy invested into a single structure. If it gets taken down, you're screwed and you'll have practically no way of gaining a foothold in Orbital. Orbital stuff should be like planet side stuff, in that, it can be spread out and diversified. Not put all of my economical investment into a single structure where if I lose it, I'm gone. Space frigates and most anything similar to Star Wars/Star Trek style space combat has been said no to by Uber. Orbital needs to be different than land or air based combat. It should be the exact same thing as what happens below, but up higher.
The Idea comes to mind when we get into the huge games. the 10v10s. basically the space station is an end game platform that allows construction of Large Space vessels, and Intense Orbital deffence. Turrets on the station would be able to destroy count less Avengers. A "bombing" turret could be added which is basically a catapult that shoots from space. Just some Ideas I don't really support this for going into the vanilla game- It would be kind of useless, But as a mod it'd be pretty cool. Also thx for the welcome.
why not have an orbital elevator that has a unit cannon attached so that you can ferry units from the ground to space and transport armys across the system with this would be useful in systems that don't have moons for you to build standard unit cannons on.
This stuff has been covered a bit in similar thread topics such as one dealing with orbital unit dropships that would dock with a space elevator/station to transport units across a system and then could drop them from the orbital layer etc.. Personally, I think the unit cannon should be left as a planet/moon surface only unit launcher with a range that will allow it to support only the planetoids in the immediate vicinity. I'm sure Uber is working on solutions for invading planets across the solar system. I'm just excited to see what they finally come up with!
Most of the posts i have read want the Unit Cannon to only be usable on moons not full planets the Orbital Elevator idea is for maps that don't have moons to build them on. So if you have a 2 full planet system with no moons and the 2 players are on diferent planets there is no way of getting your army from one planet to another without sending your commander to build an army on the spot. Of course the units when they reach the orbital layer can be shot down by Avengers and Umbrellas to prevent units from dropping in the middle of your base and killing your commander.
Im personally against launching a fabber up and building there. I eant orbital t feel unique rather than jist anothervgroun layer taped on top of ait layer. Im not strickly against modular spacestations though. We already have the orbital solar array which has exactly the functionality one woul expect feom an orbital base - extremely slow and cannot leave orbit. I think orbital bases shoyld be consteucted on the ground and then launched up into orbit. I have no problems with these stations then having an ability to consteuct addons for themselves or constructing units in orbit.
I made a little mention on a different thread about orbital Carriers, that was the main unit in mind while writing this post. Orbital carriers being constructed on Orbital platforms. I think I'll make a whole thread on orbital Carriers.
I agree with the "Orbital units backup surface units" stance, but i do think there could be room for these space stations. (Forgive me if this was covered somehow previously) So everyone's throwing rocks around and obliterating planets left and right, you've been lucky enough to be spared the major aggression, but unlucky in that you have no rock of your own - why not dedicate your economy towards a large, last ditch, space station you could set into orbit around another body, like the sun? Multiples of these station around one planet/star swiftly becomes another M.A.D. scenario with both/all stations wrecking each other and falling from orbit. 2c
You're kind of working backwards. You need things that can be built in orbit FIRST. Then you can worry about what how they get built. Gigantic ark-ship transports can be very useful. They carry lots of war and deliver it to new worlds. Interplanetary war is always a good thing.
I find this a difficult topic to discuss. We know orbital kinda sucks, we also know Uber is working on it. I'm gonne wait and see what we get and start with suggesting things then. It also really really sucks that they didn't build Rome in a day. I wish they had, then I could have PA v1.0 tomorrow!
I think that an orbital elevator attached to a modular space platform that you can build unit cannons and other structures on is the way to go, that way it gives you a substitute for the moon so that you can build things like the unit cannon on.
So the station would act like a planet? ^^^^^^^ Epic. hmm... now I'm thinking one should only be able to move the station around if they add a engine module of some sort. or just a couple of Halleys. Actually! why not allow the construction of very small metal planets?