Mothership/Starship Warfare Idea

I know that the idea of starships has been brought up and it’s something that may happen in the future but right now it doesn't really work with the interface and vision of the game. I had an idea about that, I think it’s cool, but maybe it’s lame or already been brought up, we’ll see.

Part of what stands out to me in PA is the fact that the game is massive and open but the battles and points of interest are very focused, it’s battling on or over a planet, on a moon, it’s focused around a massive object in space.

I think it would be cool if the game continued this focus with massive stellar objects being the focal point of combat and battles.

What I suggest is utilizing some object in space that could be a place where you can build a shipyard, maybe part of an asteroid belt or something else, something that can logically provide a great deal of resources and materials for the construction of a massive starship, in this case a mothership.

The mothership would be massive and it would be upgradable with things like hangars, different manufacturing wings, planetary assault weapons, anti-fighter and ship weapons, a whole bunch of things. Hell, if you want to go nuts you can land troops on the mothership and try and take out components and cripple it by assaulting it directly.

Then ships that are created you link to this mothership, cruisers, battleships, mining ships, anything like that would be a part of the motherships fleet, so you also wouldn’t have just random ships all over space making things a nuisance without adding any real fun.

I also think this works pretty well within the current interface because it continues to keep the focus on a large object for the combat and isn’t some free camera, there still is a focal point, battles between fleets happen within a sphere of influence around these fleets so it acts very, very similar (in my head at any rate).

I feel something would have to be added to the vastness of space, something that you’d battle over with your fleets outside of just using them as bombardment forces and planet glassing. Perhaps different things, some points that generate massive amounts of energy, asteroids that allow free placement of metal extractors, things that can be used to create massive planetary annihilating super weapons.

I’m bored and this is just a rough idea while I’m at work. I love this game and I think space combat would polish off the epicness.

Thanks for reading.

PA is a massive game but the problem is to keep everything under controle.
1. Even if you focus on 1 planet you can only see 40% of the planet.
2. There are more then just 1 planet.
3. There is an orbital layer

Adding a space layer would not be a good idea imho.
A good alternateve would be a mod for the orbital layer so you would have ships.

You can only put so much in a game before it reaches a point where it isnt fun to play any more.

Definitely mod material.

you can suggest this as a mod, but for Vanilla... no

this is "TA 2" not "Homeworld 3"
but if you want to play a Homeworld 3, the best place to look is Sins Of A Solar Empire: Rebellion...

also there are some mods for Rebellion like Armada 3
http://www.moddb.com/games/sins-of-a-solar-empire-rebellion/mods

Welcome back! Long time no see.

Well my goal with this suggestion is not really to add a space layer but to try and circumvent the need of that layer by treating the mothership as another object in space like a moon or a planet that you have more control over, so the fleet is like the units on a planet and mothership serves as the focal point like the planet would for the combat, it would require some additions in the UI but it would also keep it streamlined since you'd be focusing on the mothership much as you do a planet and the units on it, it wouldn't be like managing thousands of units randomly spread across the solar system, it'd be one or two motherships per player and that's not really something I feel would add much more complexity or be much more difficult to manage than adding two more moons to a map.

I have played and loved Sins, it's a great game. I feel the use of the term mothership was a poor one because it does draw a direct train of thought to the homeworld series, which yes I am a fan of, but I think it would function differently as it would not be the core of your survival, just another layer of gameplay.

There are planets, moons, land, air, sea, orbital... I think it would be odd to not add space combat, one game that has every single form of combat at once sounds like something so profoundly epic, so amazing, and something that just needs to be. TA2 could be served by space combat, massive star ships, orbital bombardment.

It's not Homeworld 3 and it's not really TA2 either, it is it's own thing and I feel like this particular thing could be well served by starship battles.

Disclaimer: I think all things could be well served by starship battles...

I'm of the opinion that the orbital layer should never have been added (blah, blah, blah), I think it detracts from the game, which is mostly why I disagree with any more space combat stuff, as cool as it would be.

Perhaps for a mod, if they made space combat the focus, it could work, but in PA's current state, it would make things too hard to manage (as Ghost said).

Maybe you could combine space and orbital.

I must admit im not personally happy at all with orbit. Its too low. the units are hard to see, you cant really zoom out of a planet before the damn orbital units and buildings get in the way. There is no layer visually to split orbital and the ground.

Space layer stuff that orbits the planet 300.000 km up. instead of orbital thats now 50km up

I dont know something just has to change with the orbital layer. it doesnt feel satifying gameplay or visually for me.

well I think that the best way to combine both is:
make a SW game...
put SW EaW mechnics, but w/ a lot of improvements
and don't allow Petroglyph touch it...

Or a mothership planet cause why the hell not.......

like metalplanets that SOON (tm) become like deathstars?

Exactly what I was refering to as a this is already happening kinda thing.

Only type of mother ship I will want at the moment is one that can cary planes so I can clear the skys for the austrius to arrive and gives builders more time to get the gate up

god nobody wants Star Wars? what a bunch of Sheeple!!!! I'm completely for space combat and your mothership idea! And Uber needs to do this, you release a game with multiple round planets in space without space combat to resolve dem fortified planetary stalemates and the game will flop! I'd been suggesting a space warship as an experimental unit that can fight and bombard planets from Orbit but I like the Mothership Idea even better

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/the-useful-thread-sticky-compilation.55834/ Read this.

That's exactly what I'm thinking, a mothership that functions like a planet that you can direct the orbit of, something along the lines of Hailey's on a moon but with less planet crashing and more control. I mean... You could still crash a fleet into a planet, that would be awesome in and of it self. Once the mothership is suitably damaged, target a planet for annihilation and watch the carnage while leaving a massive reclaimable source of metal imbedded in a crater with half the thing standing out and debris littered all over.

I just came here to say that it should be duely noted that this has been suggested more times than throwing planets into the sun (which seemingly we'll get), metal planet death weapon (likewise) and experimental (which we won't, but kinda do already have) altogether.

maybe if the community wants it so much, it should be considered at least a little bit.

It's hard to not suggest these things over and over again because starships are awesome and they are awesome!

Starships!

In before the awesome quote used out of context.