Should T2 air transport should become T1?

So far I have not seen much use for T2 air transports being used at all.

The only good situations in which they are used are:

- Putting the commander in it, so as to set to area patrol, as a counter to SXX laser-snipe strategy
- Ferrying Vanguards/Pyros to the enemy commander to kill it via a sneak attack

Considering its 60 metal cost, and its limited use (portals seem to do better), why not make it T1, so as to increase the range of strategies available in the early game for launching sneak attacks etc.? By the time one builds a T2 vehicle factory AND a T2 air factory to ferry T2 units across, most probably many bases would already have good anti-air defenses, and also a single T1 air fab building portals to link up 2 places is more economical than using T2 transport.

Doing so expands early game strategies, and also provides a cheaper alternative to portaling.

Last time it made rushing really, really easy.

When the T1 air transport was T1, it broke the game with Commander rushes. It was an uncounterable strategy and a huge bummer.

The only way air transports would work as T1 would be if they couldn't pick up Commanders, or if Commanders had mutually assured destruction.

But the issues with that rushing problem have been solved with the armor system and the uber cannon's reload time.

We started them in the basic tier, and it made mobility so readily available at the start of the game, a rush was generally always correct, even on larger maps.

Even if it wasn't commander rushes, it would be inferno rushes instead.

As in 3-4 minute comander drop/6 minute inferno drop of doom easy. Transports need an unload and load time as well as slower speed in vanilla.

Doesn't the new commander anti-air and the buff for the AA towers make this rush risky enough to change the air transport again? You potentially lose everything against the com, AA towers or T1 fighters if you transport stuff with the transporter. Maybe raise the cost of the transporter too, so that losing it does actually matter. High risk, high reward.

The commander now has a great anti-air weapon. It is possble that t1 transports are reasonable again.

Also, maybe this thread belongs in the balance forum.

If they could only pick up T1 units and had a slow "drop off" animation I think they could work.

Aaaand then I'd also like to see multi unit transports which can either carry like 30 Dox or....

I think I might have to learn how to 3D model and start a gunship/transports mod

To make a realistically sized 30 unit transport it'd be of larger size than the T2 air factory sadly...

Maybe just 5 or ten then.

Squad size transports are as large as id go.

but now it's vanguard rushes...

as much as id love to win in 3 mins by dropping infernos on unsuspecting victims, please no....

I explain again.

Slow landing animation so they have plenty of time to get shot down, slow movement (maybe even slower with heavy things like infernos in them) so that they can't run away from fighters, and maybe a slight cost increase to the transports and/or T1 air factories.

I don't see what everyone is so afraid of.

I think with 4 or so rows of units, like the T3 UEF transports from SupCom, I think you could probably fit at least 20 Dox in a transport that would fit inside a T2 air factory. Not that I'd do that... I'd use them to transport Boom bots obviously ;P

Do transports even have animations currently? Unit's seem to just teleport off them don't they?

Well the problem is at the moment there is no way to make it use multiple bones to hold units- basically it's impossible to make a transport that holds units in multiple places, at the moment, it's one of the biggest reasons that Uber hasn't implemented it I believe.

O MY GOD I REMEMBER THOSE RUSHES AND THEY PISSED ME OFF SO MUCH I ALMOST THREW MY MONITOR OUT THE WINDOW AND THEN KICKED MY DOG OUT THE SIDE DOOR

But in all seriousness with some balance tweaks making T1 air transports would be a good thing on larger planets because ATM there is no reason why anyone would go Air Transports ever in any situation especially with something like teleporters.

Supcom got around this by having the transports be compact while being built, and then unfold as they were taking off.