PREFACE i have been iteratively working on a full game design document this since i first saw the planetary annhiliation kickstarter video. this is only the combat units tier list but i have it mostly complete. i will be making this into a mod later so dont shoot it down solely by the fact that the game wont probably be initally developed in this way. try to keep an open mind and imagine how each of the following units would interact with each other. i will be following up with buildings, economy, and mechanics when i complete them. the purpose of this post is to generate ideas and improve existing ones. i am looking for feedback not "you cant do that because X said so" WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG DOCUMENT EACH UNIT IS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL AND THERE IS A LARGE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION. ALL THE INFORMATION WITHIN IS SUBJECT TO CONSTANT CHANGE AND IMPROVEMENT. THIS IS CURRENTLY A 20+ INTERATION PROCCESS. ----------------------------------- OVERVIEW: GROUND TI point mech – anti missile/light air fast light. strike tank – anti ground fast armored TII light artillery – anti light grouped T1 ground. mid range aoe rocket mech – anti air rocket mech. Burst fire TIIx missile platform – tough anti orbital/ground very long range missile launcher TIII heavy tank – weakly shielded heavy tank. Strong slow firing anti ground weapon. Slow moving good vs base defenses and T4 rail artillery – anti orbital ground platform. Slow to fire, high single target damage. Long ground range but wide minimum range. TIIIx shield platform – mobile shield generator protects nearby ground troops from direct fire. TIV heavy laser mech – mobile, charges to fire deals strong anti armor damage somewhat slow rate of fire. Beats unshielded very hard. TIVx mega laser platform – slow moving mega platform. Super powerful laser primary weapon, 3 smaller laser turrets. AIR TI scout drone – fast high vision radius cheap hunter drone – medium anti ground small payload of rockets. Light rail gun TII interceptor drone – fast anti air/missile can engage orbit at close range transport shuttle – medium speed armored flying transport. TIIx anti air gunship – medium double missile pod + large amount of anti air/orbit rockets TIII orbit fighter – very fast missile fighter anti air/orbit. Flies in orbit orbit bomber – medium aoe bomber. Flies in orbit TIIIx sky fortress TIV laser Gunship – heavy anti ground gunship 3 heavy lasers + light shields TIVx mega Bomber – anti ground flies in orbit very large aoe/damage. Tough. ORBIT TI sensor satellite – high range sensor limited vision point satellite – mid range anti orbit/air/missile reduced range vs air TII corvette – medium size/speed orbital anti air/missile ship. 4 medium point rails. Short warp drive frigate – explorer, mid range sensor, 2 anti orbital low range medium rail cannons. Long range warp drive can carry 1 shuttle TIIx missile satellite – long range missile launcher can target ground TIII cruiser – missile ship anti air/orbital rockets anti ground/orbital missiles fires in bursts. destroyer – artillery ship anti ship laser cannons. Single target bombard vs ground has to set up to fire TIIIx shield satellite – shields nearby ships/orbitals at high energy cost. Moves very slowly. TIV battleship – sustained barrage heavy ship. Super heavy rail turrets fire constantly at medium long range. Has to set up to fire ground TIVx supercarrier – huge shielded transport that can carry 4 shuttles and launch ground forces in drop pods. ----------------------------------- DETAILS Tier I GROUND THE POINT MECH this is the cheapest ground unit in the game. It's usefulness starts as an early harassment and vision denial (killing scout drones). It loses most battles on the ground for cost but its usefulness does not come from it's combat stats. It really shines against rocket and missile type tech as they are one of the few mobile units that can shoot down these projectiles before they can do damage. (Note that while shooting at missiles you are not shooting at enemies.) it is almost always a good idea to have a few of these units around your high value units to protect them against missile snipes (Note It takes a few point mechs to take out heavier missiles) and against early light air units. this unit should be built throughout the game. THE STRIKE TANK the other tier I ground unit is a relatively cheap dedicated anti ground light tank that out ranges point mechs and deals very strong damage for cost. A squadron of strike tanks can easily overwhelm and defeat heavy tanks and other slow firing expensive units for cost in an open field. A good option for early pressure against a greedy opponent. As strong as they are they fall off very badly against dedicated base defenses as all stationary defenses out range them (slightly in the case of the point defense turret) and they have little in the way of defenses themselves. Very strong dedicated ground raider ----------------------------------- Tier I AIR THE SCOUT DRONE cheap early game scout moves very quickly and sports a wide vision radius. Has enough speed to outrun most rocket/missile attacks but gets shredded by point defense fire as it has little armor. Has the widest ground vision radius of any unit in the game. THE HUNTER DRONE medium cost relatively fragile harassment drone holds only 4 rockets for anti air and ground and has a small anti ground auto cannon on its belly. Moves fairly quickly and is very useful against early tank pushes. Can beat T1 point mechs in small numbers for cost but lose badly in large numbers. Can restock its rockets at air pads. ----------------------------------- Tier I ORBIT THE SENSOR SATELLITE early game space based wide radar. Moves very slowly in orbit. Has low armor and no weapons. Has a medium sight radius for the air layer and a small sight radius for the ground. Very useful for sweeping a planet for enemy bases to send air scouts to get vision. THE POINT DEFENSE SATELLITE slow moving orbital medium point gun. Cannot target ground and has reduced range vs air. Beats tier 2 corvettes for cost and shoots down missiles. Can shoot down unwary aircraft who get too close. Good for trying to deny enemy sensor satellites early and defending against corvette raids. Useful later against cruisers and missile satelites for their point defense and to shoot down long range missiles that pass through the orbital layer. Medium range, slightly longer than corvettes, outranged by frigates slightly. ----------------------------------- Tier II GROUND THE LIGHT MOBILE ARTILLERY The T2 mobile artillery unit must be stationary to fire and out ranges direct fire fire stationary defenses. Deals moderate damage 1 shotting point mechs and 2 shotting strike tanks. Deals its damage in a medium aoe. It has a minimum firing range the distance of T1 point mech range. Its damage type is ineffective against the shields and heavy armor of late game units make this an anti T1 and early base cracker unit. Countered by air strikes and intel, strike tank squads can directly assault lightly defended mobile artillery but when massed it becomes very difficult for T1 to assault. Good to rush to if your opponent is investing heavily in base defense as opposed to tech. THE MEDIUM ROCKET MECH The T2 rocket mech is a decently mobile mech unit built for anti air and anti shield capabilities. Firing in bursts to overwhelm point defenses these units have a fairly low range on the ground at equal range to T1 point defense but have double the range against air units. Their mobility on all terrain due to being a mech lets them easily get in position to intercept enemy aircraft. On the ground strike tanks beat them on an open field despite the range due to their speed but microing on rough terrain can lead to rocket bot victory. Fairly ineffective vs late game ground other than helping bust shielded positions with their shield piercing rockets. When massed can take out even heavy late game gunships. Dedicated anti air mech. THE EXPERIMENTAL HEAVY MISSILE PLATFORM The T2X is a large amphibious platform with a heavy missile rack that moves slower than most other ground units. It has 2 small rocket pods that attack ground and air in close range deals medium low damage. Have very heavy armor lots of life but expensive. Ballistic missile attack has a minimum range the distance of mobile artillery range. Its maximum firing distance is very long out ranging T2 stationary artillery defense buidling and it's missile travels in the orbital layer. Can target ground and orbital. Missile strike deal high damage in a medium AoE slightly wider than the artillery aoe. This missile can be shot down by point defenses that can hit the orbital layer. Fires its 4 missiles over 8 seconds and reloads for 8 seconds. Missiles are seeking in the first half of their range. Heavy anti turtle/anti orbit weapon. Useful to draw out a defensive artillery building player ----------------------------------- Tier II AIR THE INTERCEPTOR DRONE strong air to air fighter can fight against orbital but at reduced range and speed. Relatively cheap and massable, good at mobbing expensive air units and protecting tanks from gunships. Fastest air unit in the game. It uses 3 medium point rail guns and can target missiles in the air layer. THE TRANSPORT SHUTTLE medium speed transport unit sports medium armor and one small rear point defense turret to shoot down rockets. Holds (12 point bots / 8 tanks/ground fabricators / 6 artillery/rocket mech / 4 heavy tank / 2 laser mech) cant pick up platforms. Can be loaded into an orbiting frigate or carrier (1 and 4 respectively) for interplanetary travel. THE EXPERIMENTAL HEAVY ROCKET GUNSHIP Heavily armored and armed rocket gunship sports 2 medium missile pods and a rack of 8 anti air rockets. Powerful anti shield and air gunship. Loses slightly for cost to interceptors but beats anything else in the air layer. Good at busting shielded positions with its missile pods and taking out siege tanks. Can fire its missile pods at orbital but has medium low range and loses slightly to corvettes. Primarily an air superiority gunship. ----------------------------------- Tier II ORBIT THE MEDIUM CORVETTE fastest unit built in orbit (orbital fighters are much faster) this medium armored raider is equipped with 4 medium rail auto point turrets. Medium range can target air orbital and missiles with reduced range vs air. Essentially it is a mobile point defense weapon platform in orbit very good at shooting down missiles It loses to point satellites however due to it being out ranged. Has a very short range warp drive with a long charge time. Can travel to orbiting moons/asteroid but generally not between more distant planets. Generally a system defense craft. THE MEDIUM FRIGATE medium speed medium armor transport craft can hold a shuttle and transport it at the cost of increased charge up time. The frigate also has a long range warp drive with a relatively low base cool down. It is only lightly armed with 2 heavy rail cannons with just over the T1 point defense satellite. Cannot shoot air or missiles only orbital units. Beats corvettes fairly well because of range. Its primary use is mid game extra-planetary exploration and fabricator/commander transportation to start new colonies. It is also the only navy unit with a medium sensor suite making it a very useful intelligence ship. THE EXPERIMENTAL MISSILE SATELLITE expensive orbital missile silo move very slowly. It has a heavy primary missile launcher that fires extreme range missiles with reduced range vs ground and slightly reduced vs air. These missiles deal low AoE heavy damage and can in many cases target enemy orbital units around the horizon of medium and small planetoids. There are many available counters to missile tech by this point in the game so this is mostly built to try and take orbital control and forcing enemy land units to have to take point defense escorts. Good to use if you are trying to make a big ground focused play and want your opponent to build the weaker point defense units that your tanks can eat up. Can take out unprotected navy ships as well and force corvette escorts to assault them efficiently. Its reload speed makes it very vulnerable to lighter faster air craft that can easily mob it and get in close. This is the first orbital unit that can target ground but is very easily counter-able on the ground by basic T1 units. This is what you build to start a fight. ----------------------------------- Tier III GROUND THE HEAVY SIEGE TANK The T3 heavy tank has a very weak shield that provides excellent defense against stationary laser turrets and late tech laser weapons. Moves slowly, has a lot of armor and has a slow rotating heavy impact cannon. Primary weapon fires slowly but deals very heavy damage. Has just under the range on T2 laser turrets. Its primary use is to kill expensive units and to soak up some late game laser firepower. Very good at cracking base defenses. THE HEAVY RAIL ARTILLERY The T3 artillery unit has to set up to fire. Its range is just under that of the T2x missile platform. It deals very high damage in a small aoe and targets orbital and ground. Wide minimum range. Countered by shields. Good against mass orbital navy. THE EXPERIMENTAL HEAVY SHIELD PLATFORM the T3X shield platform is a large amphibious expensive and relatively fragile unit for the cost (still has more armor than a heavy tank) that generates a protective shield around itself and allies protecting them from artillery, orbital bombardment and late game laser fire. Countered by missiles, rockets, and concentrated direct fire. Moves very slowly. Good for advancing on heavy artillery positions and granting protection against powerful late game units. Uses lots of power to maintain. Has a medium low maximum shield capacity but a medium fast regeneration rate. Making it good against long term bombardment but weaker to concentrated burst fire. ----------------------------------- Tier III AIR THE ORBITAL FIGHTER fast rocket orbital fighter drone built from the air factory. Strong mid range anti armor rockets target air and orbital fires in volleys of 6. Very good at sniping gunships but note that engaging air targets brings the unit into the air layer for a short time making it vulnerable to anti air. Loses to point defense satellites for cost but can very easily out maneuver them. Slightly beats interceptors but in small numbers interceptors win out for cost due to point defense. Can beat destroyers and even battleships (but only slightly) for cost but lose hard to corvettes. Vs cruisers is a fairly even fight just in favor of cruisers. Both sides end up with heavy casualties in a mass cruiser vs mass orbital fighter fight. Cannot be targeted by ground based anti orbital rail artillery only anti orbital missiles and it can out run those (very difficult to kill by ground). Air and orbital superiority fighter. THE ORBITAL BOMBER medium fast orbital bomber drone drops medium small AoE medium strength bombs in “runs” dropping 6 bombs in succession to maximize AoE very good at destroying clustered low tier unit swarms. Vulnerable to anti orbital missile attacks. Bombs take a long time to land due to height and detonate on shields. It takes 5 orbital bombers dropping at the same time to pop an experimental T3 shield platform. They deal medium damage to heavier late game units like siege tanks and heavy mechs but destroy T1 units very easily. Also very good at destroying clustered buildings and engineers. Due to physics, falling bombs may sometimes hit air units like gunships and larger air units like the sky fortress. Units hit in such a fashion take large amounts of damage except the sky fortress which has shields. THE EXPERIMENTAL SKY FORTRESS Super Heavy expensive floating aircraft carrier (think avengers movie but PA style) with a small shield field. Refuels/resupplies air units under the shield. It has 4 large rotors with individual HP and an anti air/orbital rocket pod. You can destroy the center which has very large hp and generates the shield/resupplies, or you can kill 2 of the rotor/weapon systems to make it crash resulting in it damaging ground units where it lands and explodes. If the center dies it just explodes in the air. Incredibly useful to support front line air forces to reduce their resupply flight time significantly. Its weapons systems are fairly weak for the cost and it is vulnerable to missile strikes. Destroyers and cruisers rip sky fortresses apart so the need heavy anti orbital support. ----------------------------------- Tier III ORBIT THE MEDIUM CRUISER the T3 medium cruiser is the longest ranged navy unit in the game. Fires 4 long bolt missiles weaker than the T2 missile satellite and slightly less range. Can target ground, again slightly less range than the satellite. Has 6 medium pod missiles at lower range for orbital and air targets. This is primarily an air zone control weapon. Can overwhelm low numbers of corvettes but en masses corvettes win out for cost. Can beat destroyers and even battleships due to the range and their lack of point defense, but when escorted by corvettes destroyers and battleships can beat cruisers very handily. They are like a long range orbital attrition unit. THE HEAVY DESTROYER the destroyer is a heavily armored navy superiority ship. Armed with a frontal heavy laser and 2 medium laser turrets. Has less range than cruisers and battleships but a fair bit more than frigates. Must align itself at its target to fire primary weapon. Heavy laser can destroy most unshielded ships in a few strikes but charges slowly. Can target ground targets but must rotate the whole ship to aim at the target, a slow process and has low range vs ground requiring it to be almost directly over its target. Deals very heavy single target damage and can 2 shot an unupgraded commander. Its 2 medium laser turrets charge faster but can only target orbital and have slightly more range than frigates. The primary defense against these formidable ships are shields, long range weapon, and mobs of small aircraft. THE EXPERIMENTAL SHIELD SATELLITE very expensive and very slow this satellite is used to try and bombard ground positions defended by lasers and rail guns. Its slow speed and relatively low maximum capacity for the cost (it has decent regeneration) it can easily be spotted incoming by a player with intel and you have plenty of time to bring out countermeasures. Like all shields missiles and rockets ignore it making navy units using those attacks are especially useful against them. Its shield radius is medium small and can just barely fit 2 battleships. It is the only orbital unit that can protect other units with a shield. ----------------------------------- Tier IV GROUND THE SUPER HEAVY LASER MECH Mobile expensive heavy walker charges up to fire its primary heavy laser. Has medium long range anti ground. Super heavy single target damage, deals minimal damage to shields. Can target air but has a large minimum range against air. Cannot hit orbital. Ground superiority weapon, countered by shields and orbital weapons. THE EXPERIMENTAL MEGA LASER PLATFORM super heavy expensive amphibious platform primary mega laser weapon can hit ground in sight range (based on arc of planet), orbital in sight range, and in some cases (based on distance/position) can hit orbiting moons/asteroids. Must charge up with large amounts of power to fire. Can 2 shot a battleship with direct hits. Countered by mass ground/missiles/artillery firing from over the horizon and bomber strikes/ gunship swarms. Heavy ground weapons are inadvisable to use against this platform as it can 1 shot most unshielded ground units with its primary weapon. This is the ultimate weapon for planetary defense on the ground. ----------------------------------- Tier IV AIR THE MEDIUM LASER GUNSHIP the cheapest tier 4 unit is an efficient anti armor weapon that can also shoot down missiles. It has 3 multi-directional laser turrets that each fire and charge slowly. Has a very weak personal shield and moves faster than experimental missile gunships but slower than T1 gunships. In gunship fights T1 gunships can beat the T4 gunship for cost due to rocket swarming and the laser point defense being a slow energy weapon. Is very very good at killing unshielded ground units. And rips buildings and commanders to pieces. Cannot very effectively engage anything in the air other than other gunships. Ground superiority air unit. THE EXPERIMENTAL STRATEGIC BOMBER Super heavy orbital bomber moves slightly slower than T3 bombers but drops a single mega bomb that deals very large damage in a medium AoE. Great for leveling unshielded bases and commanders. Slightly less armor than a frigate. Has 2 mounted light rail point defense turrets one on top one on bottom. Very expensive and a big juicy target for destroyers. The only air unit that can be hit by anti orbital rail artillery. Takes up an half the hold of a super carrier for interplanetary travel. ----------------------------------- Tier IV ORBIT THE SUPER HEAVY BATTLESHIP the battleship is the heaviest navy unit in the game. While it is outranged by T3 navy ships it is by far the most heavily armed. 8 super heavy rail cannon along the hull fire just under the range of the destroyer's primary laser. But fires in a constant barrage at its target. Used to bust down shielded positions through brute force, is vulnerable to missiles and laser fire and relies on other units for protection from these attacks. It can target ground but must set up and orient itself to fire all weapons at the ground and has low range requiring you to be almost over your ground target. What ground target it can hit are pummeled by a constant heavy barrage of heavy damage medium aoe blasts. THE LASER DEFENSE SATELLITE the laser defense satellite charges up slow powerful laser blasts slightly weaker than the T3 Destroyer's main weapon but much much cheaper. Can target ground directly below and air within a medium radius. Against orbital units it has a long range and can make a quick work of unshielded enemy spacecraft. Due to its slow attack rate it is vulnerable to air swarming and is of little use against shielded ground positions. Can shoot down enemy heavy missiles THE EXPERIMENTAL SUPERCARRIER the invasion class super carrier can carry up to 4 transport shuttles (or 2 mega bombers or a sky fortress) for interplanetary transportation. It has a weak fast regenerating personal shield and high armor. It also provides and stores a small amount of metal and energy when the shield is down letting fabricators start building. Can launch ground units in drop pods from inside loaded shuttles directly to the ground for a fast safe assault. The pod drop quickly but can still be targeted by anti air defenses so you still have to be careful of the drop zone. This is the turtle planet cracker and invasion spearhead. Has 4 short range light point defense guns vs rockets and missiles. ----------------------------------- Hope you enjoy reading and hopefully i am able to bring my vision for this game into reality through modding . this post took a long time to set up and im sure there are typos and errors i will make edits and add additional information where needed over time. #TL;DR #OMG space battles are dum they already said no space battles #wall of text
ECO.NOMY and BUILDINGS WORK IN PROGRESS METAL Metal is a resources that is tied to each planetary body and is displayed as the primary “economy value” for each planet/moon/asteroid. Obtained via Metal Extractors (MEx) this is the primary production resource. There are metal sources scattered across the surface of planetary bodies and these sources come in small (5/MEx) medium (20/MEx) and large (50/MEx). MExs have a radius and the metal produced from a MEx is based on how many sources are within the radius. THE NEW METAL EXTRACTOR you can build your MEx anywhere. it extracts 0 metal and uses 0 power by default. the MEx has a radius associated with it based on tier (small radius cheap T1, large radius expensive T2 ect.) the rate at which the MEx generates metal for your economy is based on how many Metal sources (metal points) are within it's radius. for now we will say that metal points are worth 5 metal/sec each EXAMPLE: if i had a T1 MEx and built it within 500 units of 2 metal points it would generate 10 metal if i had a T2 MEx and built it within 2000 units of 7 metal points it would generate 35 metal. this means if you build a T2 MEx and it only has 2 metal points within it's radius it would generate the same metal as the T1 MEx in the example. conversely, if a T1 MEx was within range of 7 metal points it would generate 35 metal. if the current general layout of metal points stays this way (moderately dense clusters and a few lighty clusters spread around) then the new MExs would generaly be used like this: T1 MEx: early game requires most micro but also requires the least power. radius can get 2-3 metal points in a cluster making them better at efficiently taking smaller mass nodes. T2 Metal Storage: stores metal for large projects has very large radius and it's fill rate is based on the metal production in its radius (the storage capability is for the whole celestial body) T3 MEx: mid game expensive and slower to build but can claim large section or sometimes whole clusters of metal points. good at claiming rich territoy quickly but not very efficent power wise and is wasted on smaller clusters. T4 SuperMEx: late game mega building can claim very large sections of territory and you can claim most moons and asteroid with 1-3. great for long multi planet games when trying to claim a new planet with as little micro as possible so you can spend it on the fight. Note that as you progress through the tiers the less actions are required to claim resource territory at the cost of building more power buildings POWER COST RATIO the power consumption rate of these new MEx is based on the metal points as well as the tier of the MEx. examples (to be balanced of course) T1 would draw 1 power per metal point T3 would draw 2 power per metal point T4 would draw 5 power per metal point so now the tier level of the MEx influences the build cost, radius size and power consumption per metal point in that radius. OVERLAPPING RADIUS in the case of multiple radius overlapping a metal point the metal point gives 1 less metal for each additional MEx in range. this results in an interesting efficiency pattern: 2 MEx on 1 point each get 4 metal instead of 5 resulting in a net gain of 3. 3 MEx on 1 point each get 3 metal instead of 5 resulting in a net gain of 4. this means you are at your most efficient with 3 MEx influences/point (but incredibley power ineffecient) this means that turtlers can still viably exist but require large amounts of power to squeeze each metal point under their control for every last drop. note that you require 3x the power to increase a metal point by 80% GAMEPLAY THEORY I am hoping this system promotes interesting map control based play but allows for certain defensive styles. the spread/density of metal points can really allow the map generation to create lucrative dense zones that can be extracted highly efficiently with T1 MExs that would be highly sought after in the early game. and as the game progresses, the higher tier MExs will be able to more efficiently cover the sparser regions where building a bunch of T1 MExs for single points would not be worth it but building a single T3 to cover the widely spread out 8 metal points would be. POWER Power is required for all buildings to function. Each power gen building provides a value of power that can be used within its radius. Example: T1 power generator: provides 10 power in a small radius. Very cheap T2 power storage: provides a 500 power buffer when fully charged T3 power generator: provides 50 power in a wide radius. expensive T4 power generator: provides 250 power in huge radius. Very expensive most buildings only require 1 power but buildings that lose power become unpowered and no longer function (like pylons in starcraft) excess power is pooled locally and is used to power units, shields, abilities, ect. Buildings take priority in the power network but can be toggled on and off with a hotkey. Buildings Tier 1 Basic MEx – small radius low power cost. Good for capturing small densely clustered metal points and isolated large metal points Basic Power Gen – small radius decent power radius early game power gen good for quickly powering up small forward positions and isolated buildings. Ground Factory – early and mid game ground unit producer. Unlocks ability to build tier 2 units in the presence of a Munitions Depot Air Factory – early and mid game air unit producer. Unlocks ability to build tier 2 units in the presence of a Resupply Pad Basic Gantry – early game satellite launcher. Builds orbital fabricators and can auto build/fire tactical missiles in the presence of a Munitions Depot Point Defense Turret – early game base defense targets air and ground. Can shoot down enemy missiles and rockets. Out-ranges tier1 ground units Sensor Array – medium range radar good for scattering around the perimeter of your base to see your enemy coming Tier 2 Munitions Depot – very wide radius building unlocks tier 2 for ground factory and basic gantry. Tier 3 ground factories must be built in radius Resupply Pad – wide radius building allows air units to restock their missile weapons and unlocks tier 2 for air factories. Tier 3 air must be built in radius Orbital Factory Station – built by orbital fabricator. Orbital building that produces tier 2 spacecraft and tier 1 satellites Orbital Relay Station – sensor array warns of incoming warp drives and allows metal sharing between planets and nearby moons and asteroids Metal Storage – allows storing of metal locally Power Storage – allows storing of power locally Artillery Turret – must be built in munition depot range. Slow firing heavy medium aoe dmg explosive shells. Very long range SAM Turret – anti air/orbital missile turret medium firing long bolt missiles medium long range Tier 3 Advanced MEx – wide radius medium power cost. Good for capturing sparser regions of metal points Advanced Power Gen – wide radius takers longer to build but can power large base sectors on their own. Good for powering large infrastructure. Advanced Ground Factory – large building produces tier 3 ground units. Must be built in range of a munitions depot. Armory unlocks tier 4 Advanced Air Factory – large building produces tier 3 air units. Must be built in range of a Resupply Pad. Control Tower unlocks tier 4 Orbital Shipyard – large orbital building produces tier 3 spacecraft. Unlocks tier 4 spacecraft in the presence of a manufacture station Orbital Solar Power Station – orbital building produces power when in sunlight Advanced Gantry – launches ballistic missiles and can build and launch nukes and laser satellites when near an armory Advanced Sensor Array – power hungry large sensor building. Very wide sensor range. Good for covering a conquered planet in radar. Shield Array – power hungry large shield building protects against laser and explosive attacks but provides little defense against missiles and shells Tier 4 Super MEx – expensive and large the radius covers large areas and relatively few are needed to completely cover a planet and claim all its metal Super Power Gen – expensive and large the radius covers about half of a small planet. Good for powering large projects and late game units. Advanced Armory – wide radius building allows tier 4 for ground factories and advanced gantries. Must be built in radius of munitions depot Advanced Control Tower – wide radius building allows tier 4 for air factories Orbital Manufacture Station – wide radius orbital building allows shipyards to build tier 4 spacecraft Advanced Orbital Relay Station – super sensor station can focus a far away planet with radar. Allows long range resources sharing between planets Planet Cannon – super heavy ion cannon demolishes incoming asteroids and orbital units. Requires large amounts of power to fire. Can target moons Teleportation Gate – super expensive gate building can connect to any other friendly powered gate. Connection requires enormous power GAMEPLAY THEORY I am using a system where the 2 tier factory system already in place is split into two tiers each by supporting tech structures (the munitions depot and resupply pad and the control tower and armory) this section is still in progress and needs some cleanup/work will work on it when i have the time
Firstly, if you are suggesting this as a mod, this should probably go in the modding part of the forums. Secondly, out of curiosity, do you have any experience in RTS modding? It is easy to come up with a unit list for an RTS game. It is orders of magnitude more difficult to bring them into (virtual) reality. Particularly if it's a total conversion which replaces everything from the ground up. There is reason most total conversion mods tend to be done by teams of talented individuals. This isn't to be discouraging. The more mods - the better as far as i'm concerned. It's just, there are reasons why the more experienced modders like knight haven't posted detailed unit lists for their projects out yet. It's because they know that for every mod that actually gets released in a state that's even close to it's original conceived form, there are a million more that didn't even get as far as a first build. If this is your first attempt at modding, you may want to practice with something a little simpler. Regardless, best of luck.
I am presenting it as a mod because so far every time space navy/orbital spacecraft is brought up it gets shot down by people saying that it would be unbalanced in favor of the orbital layer and that they dont want the game to be all about the orbital layer. the point of this is more of a design exercise to show that it can be balanced in a way that favours ground combat and yet still makes orbital combat a fun and engaging experience in its own right that feels a little like the naval combat of TA and SupCom. the interactions between the orbital units and the air and ground are almost identical to the interactions between navy and air/ground. the only difference is the dimension in which they are seperated. cruisers still act like cruisers, destroyers still act like destroyers everything works as you would expect it to. the wide variety of anti orbital countermeasures on the ground make orbital combat safe away from defended positions. another part of this is the warp drive which would tie the orbital layer to interplantery travel and essentially make the battle for the orbital layer the gateway to the ground layer in terms of interplanetary conflict. i am trying to make a large case in favor of the orbital navy (and shields) and will attempt to create it eventually with help.
You sound very defensive. Rest assured, that although I would be disappointed if stock PA went down this route, I would be delighted to see it explored in mods. PA was sold to us backers on the premise that it would be a game about surface warfare, and so it should remain that way. However mods are a completely different story. I would have no problem at all with a mod using the PA engine as a platform to make a space-navy game. If you build this, I would be more than happy to give it a download. I strongly suspect that you will find that orbital combat invalidates ground combat, but thats a chance that mod-makers can take that Uber cannot. Regardless, I would be more delighted to give this mod a look. Hence, why I asked if you have modding experience. I wanted to ascertain if this is a mod that you have the experience and motivation to deliver. If so, It belongs in the modding section of these forums, and I can look forward to it. If not, then it's a transparent attempt to suggest feature implementation for the stock game, whilst hiding behind the facade of a mod. You're probably not doing that, but it's something that people have done on these forums. If that's the case, i would enjoy discussing about why these features might be fine for a mod, but wouldn't work for the stock game.
sorry if i sound defensive i am just a little frustrated by the arguments against space navy and shields in particular to be shallow in thier explorations. i hope to, as i work on this, be able to reference back to this work when i bring these topics up again. i do fully intend to create this mod down the road but i hope to use this as a dual purpose exercise. if a mod really wants they can move this to the modding forum but i was hoping to also start some discussions on the concerns and what would need to be addressed to make space navy and shields as fun and balanced as possible for the majority of people who want to play this way. i have little modding experience when it comes to full conversions but this game has sparked a passion for me and i hope to see this through after release. maybe i can even meet like minded people here who want to work on it down the road.
This is a very valid question. You wouldn't believe how people I've seen that came to the GPGNet Forums over the last 6+ years with these grandiose modding idea but little actual experience and dive in head first only to have forgotten they were diving into the shallow end of the pool and crack their skull. The first thing I tell ANYONE asking for tips is to; A] Never start with the project you want to work on, if you don't know what you're doing you'll butcher it and then feel depressed about it. B] Start SIMPLE! UYou know what the first unit I got functioning in the SupCom was? It was this [urlhttp://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g281/MikeTehFox/boxtankcopy.jpg]Tank[/url]. Not exactly ground breaking but it was something I could quickly and easily test with. Oops, I lost the UVs completely, that's okay it only took 2 minutes to Map them out in the first place. Even when you have a team, it's no guarantee it'll work out all strawberries and whipped cream. Waaaaaaaaaaaay back when I was working with a few other guys to bring a 40k TC, I even did a whole bunch of models and testing on how we could do squads and such, but the other team members just up and vanished. I mean, it took the BlackOps team years to get Unleashed, Advanced Command Units and Special Weapons to where they are now, big projects are big. All this is not so much to discourage you as much as just caution you, Big projects are doable, you just gotta tackle it properly. Mike
i thank you for the advice i take it to heart. i will note though that my plan is to use as little art based modification as possible (using existing navy unit models for space ships) and i do have 3d modeling and animation experience and training. for now i am focusing on getting this design document finished and then i will start to partition it into manageable smaller projects.
The problem is not about having experience in terms of 3D, but rather figuring out and adapting to each platforms specific quirks. For example I was taught when working on model to 'freeze' the mesh to cut down on hardware usage once the mesh was satisfactory, but doing this messed up the UV format and when exporting despite the fact that in my 3D app the texture were all good and proper, it'd get reset to 'default' projections as you can kinda see in the 40k pictures that were taken in-game. Then of course there is all the coding aspects........ Mike
I'm trying to think of how much time I would have to spend in Blender to model 4 tiers of units. I think I would model a gun and shoot myself with it.
its more like tier 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 there arent that many more units than what will probably be in the final game. i would just have to fill in the gaps. 31 units total is not huge for an RTS (most spread them of 2-3 factions)
