Honestly, in the previous incarnation the Laser Platform was really good at commander sniping because Advanced Radar and very few things other than the Umbrella could shoot them. Now it cannot hop planets and it can't see what its shooting... What role should the Orbital Laser perform now? Is it just a tool to force your opponent to build some orbital defense or does it have more of a role than that? Also, why are we restricting this unit to the planet it was constructed on? This used to be an invasion tool. Don't we need more invasion tools? What do people think about making this unit faster (it's super slow) and making the advanced radar satellite faster to provide vision for the orbital strikes? You could double the speed and still not move anywhere close to fast. I am not seeing players building Avengers and Laser Sats that much now. I would like to hear what other people's thought are on the current incarnation.
Orbital UI needs some work to help figure out how orbital units will be balanced. The flight behavior of the current laser sat feels weird and loopy, and there's no visible indicator as to how close the satellite's firing zone is to its intended target. The only orbital units you can come close to moving sensibly are radar sats, because the radar/vision circles illustrate where it is relative to its effect on the planet. Not being able to move the stupid thing in a comprehensible manner is a worse problem than speed, IMO. That said, I do like the idea of having to fight your way into an orbital sphere before you can rain death down. The only question is whether the additional build time for making laser sats on-site screws with the pacing of an invasion, and/or if allowing what amounts to a "bomber" with very few "AA" defenses to contend with to go planet-hopping by the dozen is a good idea.
I think you might be surprised how much the acceleration and speed of the orbitals might help them feel less wierd and loopy.
I think that the laser platform should do aoe damge. Kinda like a small nuke. It should fire a beam and not a bolt. Then people might finally start feeling the need to invest into building more orbital.
