Let's start with interplanetary transitions. They are just way too long (purple). Do you remember that 33 pages long thread about realistic orbital units versus "floating" like we have now? Well, same arguments that lead to the current floating model apply here too. There is just no benefit to the gameplay in those long transitions other than "to make it look more natural". But it doesn't even look good with all those sudden speed changes and paths that don't interact with anything. So why not simplify it? One slightly curved line (green) A to B with a little hooks to get where you need to be. At near constant speed, with a nice little boosting animation at the start and the end. It will make more sense. Second, I want to talk about solar panels. They are in a strange place right now. Tier 1.5 with ability to move and produced by a factory... It just feels so weird... So, why not make them buildings? I always imagined them being placed in lines like this: And they probably should try to catch the sun, rotating towards it (and maybe doing some random motions at night). So, the lines will look like this (except there probably should be some side antennas to make them always take same amount of space): And you know what this is? It's a space wall. And with fortifications on orbital layer we can talk about some interesting stuff. Orbital units can now be balanced with maneuverability (rather than just acceleration/deceleration) and with ability to shoot over (under?) those walls, or even bypass them. We can have quite a bit more variety there.
That is silly. I know they are on a layer, but in actuality there is a whole 3d plane to use, a wall wouldn't block a shot, the unit would just ascend or descend and fire above or below it. That is assuming a minimal amount of realism, being that "orbital isn't a flat surface"
That last bit was certainly quite silly, but let's not get sidetracked from an otherwise high quality post. I do find the solar panels to be a bit weird (I never use them) and since the OP provided such quality doodles we may as well discuss them here!
If they were to make the transitions too long, it would bring up the argument of why planets need to go around the sun, but not units. It would also remove the bonus of controlling a planet and it's moons, rather than just a bunch of planets. Being able to just throw a planet at your enemy within 10 seconds is too much. It's already in the game, so it would be best to just keep it as-is. Just because something is only slightly realistic doesn't mean that you can make it completely unrealistic without reason. I agree with everything else, though.
Satellites? Staying in place without being on geostationary orbit? That's just silly. There are a lot of silly things in this game. If it leads to a more interesting gameplay, then why not? Orbital units already have to go around orbital factories, if I recall correctly. Maybe it's really too silly... Still, I would like to see solar spines, even if they are not walls. I don't think it would. If you want to hit something hard it's better to speed it up and Oberth effect near the sun can help it. And it just looks cooler that way and doesn't hurt gameplay. So planets fly like they used to. It would reduce this effect, not remove it. And it would add similar bonus for timing your attack right. I remember Uber talking about having systems where planets change between being close together and far apart and how it would add a rhythm to gameplay. You can't do that right now. First - I do have a reason. Transitions take too much time and this time doesn't benefit the game in any way. It's like if orbits had realistic speeds - that wouldn't be fun at all. Second - how is that unrealistic? When Earthlings launch stuff to Mars it flies from Earth to Mars, it doesn't go on a low solar orbit. Sure it doesn't go in a straight line (it's more like half of elliptic orbit), but I never asked for it to do that.
We have that. Orbital cannon. This is too silly. You can't "wall off" empty volumetric space in the traditional sense. Unless you want to build a Dyson shell or something.
The Interplanetary Pathfinding bothers me as well. If you've ever played Kerbal Space Program, it should be like that, where you increase/decrease the size of your orbit in order intersect with a planet.
This isn't Kerbal Space Program. If the units did it by themselves, fine. But doing it manually is just unnecessary.
