I've hesitated asking this to play a few more games and confirm that it's true, but I'm still not sure about other air units, just haven't had the scenario come up. It seems like pelters can either hit air fabbers, or air fabbers can be damaged by the AoE. Is this supposed to happen? If it is supposed to happen... um... that makes no sense.
They can be hit by pelters (all projectiles are simulated), but the chances are slim since pelters don't aim at them directly. The AoE is what will kill them. And yes, that makes sense. If they're in the AoE range, they're damaged by AoE.
It makes sense that air units can be killed by artillery impacting the ground? Sorry, you're gonna have to let me know which universe that makes sense in.
In one where the air unit is close enough to the ground for the explosion to damage it, which is the case here.
About 4 meters in the air. They're practically hovering. Look, the explosion radius is large enough to hit them, it's simulated, if there's a problem with that, you should argue that air fabbers should fly higher. I personally like that they fly low, building things inside the range of a pelter should always be a bad idea.
The real question you should be asking is why can't tanks/bots shoot at air fabbers that are hovering so close to the ground?
You understand it wrong. The pelter projectile can hit a air unit when it cross the way of trajectory. Or, the air unit was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I don't feel it makes sense for pelters to kill air fabbers by AOE, there is no way it's AOE reaches all the way up there. Holkins however can keep that. For pelters to hit them, fluke occurance, makes sense to happen, can't be done intentionally, can be mildly avoided by not literally hovering in the way of the shell.
All I can say is this: If artillery can hit air units or damage them with AoE (barring HUGE explosions that enter the upper atmosphere like nukes) then... what's the point of having air/ground units that have specific targeting roles? There is a reason why flak was invented to shoot down planes instead of just shooting them with normal artillery. I am fine with the occasional fluke mid-air hits for giggles... but this has happened in every single game I have played since I first noticed it's possible. That's not a fluke occurrence.
If targetting what the air fabber targets (building, repairing, assisting), you are flying directly overhead and the shell sort of drops down from above. You are literally in the path. If it is the AOE, it could do without.