Late Game Planetary Invasion and Other Constructive Thoughts

Dear PA Community and Development Team,


I was hoping to foster some more discussion regarding late game planetary invasions and the difficulty players face in mounting them. While I understand that this is my first post, I hope that the community will do me the service of hearing me out in my entirety. Thank you!

I have seen several threads discussing the inherent weakness of our only orbit capable transport- the Astraeus.

[1] The Astreus is fairly slow when traveling between planets
[2] It can only ferry 1 unit at a time regardless of size or tech level
[3] Establishing a beachhead is already hard enough when you can't bring any orbit-to-surface capable weapon systems with you (such systems must be constructed on site).

My solution is two-fold here.

[1] Increase the number of units the Astraeus can contain while also increasing velocity and hit points. I would say allow it to ferry 10 Tech 1 units or 2 Tech 2 units (more on this reasoning later). This change serves several purposes. I would also like to see the ability for the Astraeus to "hot drop"- that is, for the attacking player to simply select his Astraeus fleet and select "deploy" to the surface of a planet that the Astraeus is not currently orbiting. The fleet would then transfer between planets and immediately begin dropping in to the atmosphere. Perhaps they could do some sort of velocity changing maneuver while in orbit. The purpose of this is to keep them in orbit longer and build in an inherent exposure/danger while performing the invasion landing.

• It allows the invading player more options in the early and mid game. By providing the player with the ability to rapidly transport an invading army it encourages both attacking and defending players to pay more attention to orbital play.
• The invading player can rapidly deploy a considerable invading force to defend the construction of teleporters.
• Players are given more incentives to put up Umbrellas/Anchors/Orbit penetrating radar.

[2] Create a new Tech 2 orbital transport capable of both orbit-to-orbit fire and orbit-to-surface bombardment. Maybe we could call it "Assault Carrier" or some such. This transport should be able to ferry say, 25 Tech 1 units or 5 Tech 2 units and have similar orbit-to-orbit and orbit-to-surface damage capabilities as an Anchor. However, I think this Assault Carrier should also be build teleporters (EDIT: Strike this- I know understand that sending massive amounts of teleport building units in conjunction with an invading fleet could only realistically be countered by nukes). Assault Carriers should also have very fast celestial transit times. Lastly, and I would consider this final mechanic more or less debatable and I am simply including it because I think it is a neat idea- the Assault Carrier does not ever leave orbit. In order to load units in to it, units are first loaded in to a ground based building (like the Orbital Launcher) that will then boost the units up to the Assault Carrier once enough units to fill the carrier have entered. Then, once the carrier arrives in orbit around the target planet, when you tell the carrier to deploy, it will discourage 5 drop pods with each pod containing either 5 T1 units or a single T2 unit (for 25/5 units total).

• Combining a heavy transport with fire support in to a single unit ads much needed teeth and survivability to an invading force.
• REMOVED (Teleporters)
  
• While this tactic is still vulnerable to nukes, it now gives the player the option to land en force at multiple simultaneous locations.
• Granting Assault Carriers orbit-to-orbit damage further increases survivability as (a) the carriers can defend themselves against swarms of avengers so as to (b) live longer to provide orbit-to-surface support.
• Multiple landing craft splitting off from a single carrier further increases survivability as it serves to overwhelm surface-to-orbit fire from Umbrellas. This being the case, I am not opposed to a secondary surface-to-orbit defensive structure that has (1) high rate of fire (2) fast tracking rate and (3) decreased per shot damage. These attributes prevent the structure from becoming an anti-orbital machine gun. The decreased damage makes it far less useful against assault carriers, but the increased tracking and fire rate would make it more effective against incoming drop pods or Astraeus swarms. In the event of added interplanetary non-nuclear artillery, this version of the Umbrella could also server as small azimuth point defense with a specific chance to miss incoming ordinance.
  
• Adding Assault Carriers retains the games focus on army versus army warfare and grants players a (hopefully) viable solution to invading late game turtle planets. Specifically this should serve to re-balance metal planet Death Star Mode as an invasion force is more likely to survive in the event of a hard turtle with saturated anti-nukes.

I welcome any and all comments, but I would like to keep our discussion focused on helping Uber further develop our tools for dealing with mid and late game planetary invasions.

*EDIT*

I forgot to include a poll option for:

"Yes, but the transport should not be armed."

Thanks again!

*EDIT* The purpose here is not to provide the player with another SSX type orbit-to-surface weapon, but instead give the player another tool by which to use ARMIES to invade enemy controlled planets without having to resort to nukes or the far more time consuming Haley/Death Star strategies.

~Ash

Developers already answered on it in case you want to know. As long as transported units aren't visible in process of transporting it's possible to appear in game.

What, multi-unit transports?

I don't see how this really addresses any of the points that I've made. Even if the Astraeus is capable of ferrying multiple units simultaneously (I have not yet discovered how to do this, by the way), I would still like to see a heavy assault transport capable of providing orbit-to-surface fire support for the purpose of cracking heavily defended planets in the late game.

Well both anchors and sxx lasers can do that.

Shields first.

Ehh Id rather not.

True, but anchors cannot move and the SXX takes considerable time to build.

The purpose of the assault carrier is to be a one stop shop for invading a planet. It combines heavy transport with enhanced survivability. It can have more health than an SXX because it deals less damage.

Also, can SXX and anchor move between planets?

The anchor is build by orbital fabbers.

And the SXX laser can indeed move.


But a one stop shot for invasions?
Im not sold on the idea, but would see how you might develop it WITHOUT turning it into sins of a solar empire.

I thought that Uber has stated that they are against shields?

I personally would not want them- right now the game is tipped very heavily in favor of the defender (in my opinion) and I think any increased defensive capabilities at this point would only hurt game play. Even if the attacker can field shields or shielded units, so can the defender... and the defender already has his base's production capabilities to wield as well.

Perhaps a shielded teleporter? Personally I don't like the idea simply because I would like to see Uber further develop our orbital tools, but I am willing to entertain the suggestion.

Two words: Unit Cannon

I have never played SINS, but I have seen this mentioned several times. Would you mind elaborating on this concern?

Additionally, I know that anchors can be produced by orbital fabbers (which are mobile), but what I am suggesting is a single unit capable of both transporting useful numbers of units while also being able defend itself and defend the units that it is deploying.

To me, using fabbers, anchors and SXX is (1) ad hoc and (2) far too vulnerable- even if you bring a swarm of avengers with you, it leaves you vulnerable to surface-to-orbit fire. My idea for the assault carrier is to provide the player with a tool that is immediately usable (and dangerous to the enemy) upon arriving at an enemy planet- even in the late game.

I don't think you've been playing for too long, the only defence is offence.

I was kidding with shields.

I still say drop pods would be an excellent addition to the game. Really good for gameplay, and relatively cheap/quick to implement.

My main concern is giving the orbital layer the equipment and forces to effectively replace the ground oriented gameplay.

Rather then sending troops to enemy worlds, or using super weapons you would simply go into orbit and glass the surface.

And that would be kinda terrible to do to ground naval and air elements of the game.

Overall the orbital layer is a support tool for your air, sea and land forces.

While I can see the use of larger orbital transports (To a degree) and even transports armed with anti air and anti ground weapons to be used from within the atmosphere, I really can not agree to having even easier forms of orbital-to-ground based weapons.

Dropped from like, shuttles?...I can see that.. especially with a ferry route.

I can see your point here. Even if the transports were only capable of orbit to orbit fire, I think I would be OK with that- the main thing is I want them to be able to deliver useful quantities of invading units and live long enough to build a teleporter. I would still prefer it to be able to shoot the ground, but depending on balance, I could see that being maybe 1 ability too many.

I'd like to see a mobile, orbital based teleporter. Unit walks in > drops out of the sky.

Yeah, As personally with a speed boost in the atmosphere the orbital transports biggest threat is enemy AA.

Getting to the ground will be hard, but ultimately, a transport force of massive size is the best bet.

Something most people seem to not want to do.

But 3 landings of 300 orbital transports, each with fabber support to build teleporters is only really possible to effectively stop with nukes.

But I have yet to see people even doing large enough singular landings.

I would like to see the Astraeus changed into this one shot, multiple unit transporter, fast, cheap, exposable... for everything else more energy expensive advanced tech tele-gates.