Is the astraeus completely pointless now?

Pretty much what the title says, since orbital fabbers can build teleporters (quickly I might add) do we REALLY need the astraeus?

Seems like a pointless unit at the moment, so... does it have to stay?

The Astraeus doesn't need to be removed. Just needs further balancing.

I figure the astraeus is different from the teleporter in that it offers the "get the hell off this rock now" option without having orbital established elsewhere.

I think it's the other way around, building things on the ground from orbit is silly. It's only needed right now because you don't have any other way of getting things on the ground.

I think that the orbital constructor should not be able to build stuff on the ground, it's silly.

It can only do teleporters and that makes it eve more silly...

Yeah I have found that to be rather strange.

I use the asterous to transport my commander all the time.

Never an engineer

The orbital fabber has the same cost as the transport, but I think it is less efficient at building than normal fabbers. I will hage to check the unit database to be sure.

I think it would be good to have the Astraeus (or a similar unit) which carriers multiple units so its easier to do a planetary invasion. Imagine sending a band of Astraeus which you land to clear a landing ground to build a teleporter for your main invasion force...

According to the game, the orbital fabber uses 40 metal and 4000 energy/second.
Just as efficient and faster than the T2 bot fabber.

Yeah you are right. I checked that as soon as I posted and was very surprised at the build efficiency. It might be interesting to start using orbital fabbers for making teleporters even just in one planet games, since the fabbers are so much harder to kill.

TL;DR: I think the Astraeus should be more rocket-like, shouldn't be able to be killed by T1 fighters and should carry more 'passengers'.
Partially depends on if we get an Orbital Teleport to allow planets to be invaded en masse. Currently interplanetary invasion is a bit impossible as you can't build a Ground Teleporter if your opponent has Bombers/Holkins/Nukes, and any single unit you land with an Astraeus will die straight away.

I think the Astraeus could have a role in transporting multiple units to a planet's surface, potentially allowing you to build footholds/teleporters quicker than the Orbital Fabber/mount small invasions with continual transport links via a similar command structure to the Air Transport.
As I've suggested in other threads, I think the Astraeus should have a "loading" Lander on the ground, which picks up units and connects with a Rocket in orbit. This way it'd be like the awesome multi-stage rocket we saw in the Kickstarter. A larger rocket would also make more sense for carrying more units. This enlarged Orbital Transport could, of course, be implemented as an entirely separate orbital unit, though that might make the Astraeus a bit obsolete. This Orbital Transport could be a permutation of the "Egg", with Factories/Lasers/Flak built in.

I just don't like the Astraeus swooping in like evac Dropships all the way from Orbit - Quick evacs are a role for Air Transports in my opinion. Rushing off-world should be something you have to plan ahead for - not simply a matter of telling your 100 assisting bots at the Orbital Factory that you need an Astraeus.
Buuuut eh. Conceivably all I'm asking for is an expansion of the Orbital Unit roster, which I'm sure will happen as UBER work their magic ^^

Right now, as it stands, its almost always a bad chocie to build 1 over the orbital fabber because it's so much slower than an orbital fabber that by the time you get there the planet is already taken if someone else sent a fabber instead.

Actually, I did ask if it should be removed, in the poll.
Also "does it have to stay?"

Yea I modified that once I re-read. It needs not be removed, but currently there is no reason to build it

I think it should get a significant speed and health boost for purposes of invasion.

basically make it a drop pod until we get real drop pods.

austreus should stay simply for the reason to have an option to get important unit out of planet if need be
an orbital fabber may built teleporters but you always have to have two of those or 1 on each planet you want to travel to ... with the austreus you just pick up the unit and go even though traveltime may take longer ... the other option may need more setuptime ...

just one thing i like to ask:
are surface fabbers supposed to be able to assist the orbital fabber on building stuff?
go try that and see how your surfacefabbers dance it is quite hilarious
is there a way to upload pictures instead of just linking?

Astreus should definitively be able to carry 1 commander or 1 small army (20 maybe) of units.

Makes the orbital landing a valid course of action, instead of just making a hole and making teleports...

IMO

No, it is used to move your commander or other units to other planets when you do not have a hold on a planet. You can try building a teleporter 1000 times but never get it if someone has a planet heavily patrolled. You can drop your com and just uber cannon everything with an astraeus

I didn't make my mind about this, therefore I did not vote.

So far the Astraeus is more time consuming and less efficient than an Orbital Fabber.

With the latter, you can issue orders in sequences for a bunch of Orbital Fabbers, and as soon as they arrive on site, they start to execute.

With the Astraeus you can't do the same. You have to keep an eye on it. Specially because it became pretty fragile with the recent updates.