So, while watching the livestream I had some ideas about fog of war. Other than your individual units & structures' sight range, it would be cool if you could spot units on the surface with spy satellites in orbit. In fact it would be cool if there were different levels of fog of war pertaining to orbital craft. For example, you could have a transport craft or space fighter in orbit that could spot structures on the ground because they can easily be seen from orbit. However, because these units weren't designed to do reconnaissance they could not spot smaller units, such as tanks and planes. That's where the spy satellite would come in handy. As the game progresses into the space race you could launch spy satellites into a low orbit. These satellites essential shine a spot light into the fog of war and can see only what is in a certain radius below them (so the more spy's in the sky, the more map awareness). To counter the satellites you could maybe build a special missile silo, or you could just launch a space fighter to go take it out. Just my ideas, feel free to expand or simplify the idea!
Oh and I forgot to mention that the spy satellites would be uncontrollable. After you set the inclination of their orbit (north to south, east to west, west to east) and launch them, they would just relay their video feed back and not be able to run away from any dangers.
This is what i imagine the current satellites we've been shown will do. It might be worth it to have the T1 satellite only provide either a medium-sized radar or a small vision radius, and have the T2 one give both, plus something else to make it more than just a straight upgrade, which would invalidate the other one's existence.
I agree that satellites would be a great addition to the game, especially if implemented in the way cheeseless suggests - with T1 satellites perhaps limited to radar coverage and T2 capable of line-of-sight. It would be important for any such satellites to be vulnerable somehow, probably with some kind of ground-to-orbit missile complex or space fighter as suggested. That got me thinking though, that satellites could perhaps be upgraded to provide some offense too, a bit like the UEF satellite weapon in SupCom. Might be a little overpowered or unnecessary but just a thought.
Sound´s quiet intressting maybe some Tx unit later that can launch a Kinetic strike or else (Endwar like lol, Player Fired not auto) besides the line-of-sight capability, but the Kinitic strike has to reload before the first shot and the last ,Time is to be tested out so that the Satellite is not to OP would stick to max. 5 Mins for testing. To the Satelite Itselft: - A sort of Anti-Satelite missle fired from the nuke/anti-Nuke silo should do it(2 for the Tx) - A launchpad would be an Idea so the Satelite is not avaible at the game start! - the Satelite itself should be "Controlable" that u can change the Moving from like south-to-east to west-east (Add a fuel System?) - From a specified number on u should have Full line of sight/radar view Depending on the Planet scale and the Satelite types!
I'm thinking it maybe shouldn't just be upgraded forms of a satellite, like T1, T2, but have the unmovable surveillance satellite that has good vision, such as all buildings and units directly beneath and only buildings/large units in a larger radius around that. The attack satellites would be at least aim-able and could be dragged around by space-tugboats, but have very limited vision and much easier to detect from the surface than surveillance ones.
I especially like the idea of this. An option to build satellites with or without maneuvering thrusters.
I very much like the idea of having satellites that get launched and after that stay on a predefined orbit. Also it would be great to have (as suggested) different levels of detail that the satellites can deliver. For example there could be the very cheap T1 sat that could only spot buildings (or large units) and an expensive version, that could basically see everything within its sight radius. This would (in my imagination) give the game interesting tactical and strategic possibilities.
Hmmm. I like the idea of kinetic missiles being launched from attack satellites, but I think that either they would do no damage or to balance them you would have to send up space ships with a good deal of mass to reload them, these ships could be killed and reclaimed for a great deal of mass or something. Making attack satellites more of a risk reward play. As for other satellites, I think t1 with basic radar and "building sight" and t2 with both vision and radar. Are good. I'm not sure if stealth units have been discussed but maybe room for a t3 with stealth detection and wider vision radius. An interesting point to bring up is power consumption, I feel that they can be reasonably priced for power if they can't be aimed, however if one of them could be aimed such as a possible t3 satellite then it would have to require a great deal of power to run. But that may be too complex for what uberent is aiming for, as it seems they are trying to move away from micro.
That's how I envisioned satelites too. Fixed movement on different orbits. It makes them different then airplanes (IN SPACE) and should make it easier to balance the orbital layer considering that most units on the ground probably won't be able to shoot at them. As for satellites consuming massive power, that's not really bad micro itself. You have the option of building enough power to keep them shooting or to only activate them when you need their firepower. Having to manually rearm them, that would be bad micro. They'd be similar to the Big Berthas or Buzzsaw from old TA. Not something you leave on autofire but also not something you need to spend way too much time babysitting.
The best way I can see autonomous attack satellites functioning is that they have a base that consumes constant energy to give them sight radius meaning they are a drain on the economy. The attack satelites will require a constant mass drain along with a higher energy drain when arming (simular to the tactical missiles in supcom) and store a limited number of projectiles. Along with their predetermined path when launched (that should be possible but slow to change) it would mean that satelites can fly over an enemy base and do bombing runs on ground targets with mixed levels of inaccuracy, before needing to reload once they pass over the target. The downside to choosing to bomb this way is that an enemy can errect defensive installations on the ground that shoot incoming satelites down (wasting all the mass and energy that went into arming them) or building geo-sychronous satelites that will fire at enemy satelites that move unto range under them, since remember that geo-sychronous satelites are much further away then a spy satellite. This makes all forms of satellite recon a gamble, as they are expensive and can be shot down (just like a normal scout or bomber), but it means that will enough work one player could gain orbital superiority for a tactical advantage.
I don't know much about satellites or kinetics, but it seems a satellite would have to do quite a bit of work to offset hurling high kinetic missiles/bullets at the planet below, to avoid altering it's own orbit, or leaving the system entirely.
Yes and no, what a satellite can do is run its thrusters before and after the firing to balance out the force of the firing, expend equal energy in both directions and you will stay in place. Optionally what it can also do is fire in the opposite direction at the same time with the same velocity to balance out the force, the counter balance projectile just is lost into deep space. Also keep in mind that a satelite doesnt need to exert a huge amount of force on a projectile thats falling, gravity will do that for you, you just need to know when and where to drop in order to hit the target.
Also, you can let go of it before it starts falling, so it's in the same orbit as you, then the munition has a deceleration rocket motor on it to cause it to fall down (with just gravity it's between a small nuke and largest non-nuke in yield in RL). Then the satellite doesn't need to do anything to stay in orbit.
