Well, since orbital gameplay hasn't been discussed in depth too much so far, i'll post my early thoughts about it Since it's adding a 3rd layer to the current mix, which is land and air, I feel that orbital gameplay should of course be distinctly separate from both in a few ways. 1 Later-game 2 Gameplay style 3 Cost 1 To begin with, getting into space should be no easy feat. We saw a rocket in the pre-vis, and that seems like a good idea, having to build a fairly expensive rocket that gets in to space then seperates out into an orbital builder. This builder can then proceed to build orbital factories and structures, just as a commander would begin by building his first factory and resource gathering plants 2 From a factory, more orbital builders can be produced, as well as any orbital units that will be present. How to create mobile orbital units is a more difficult subject, as they would invariably end up being just a clone of either land combat or air combat. Since a lot of players would certainly like to see bigger units (and I can't blame them), perhaps larger orbit-locked ships would be a possibility, with carriers and destroyers and such. I don't honestly think this is a good idea, but it's just one idea to make the orbital game feel unique, which I think it really needs to. A better idea might be smaller units that send out attack drones, which would be a nice visual effect from a distance, but i'm open to any better suggestions. The builders could of course build geo-synchronous orbital defenses that can shoot at incoming orbital units, as well as larger cannons that can target units in a certain area below them on the planet. I would steer away from guns that can target aricraft, if only because it would make thing a little more complicated. That's not to say that it wouldn't be a nice feature to have, i'm just seeing orbital stations a larger, slower stations, rather than many smaller installations as ground-based AA tends to be. There would need to be a way to counter orbital units from the land, just like AA. Probably in the form of big *** Magnetic Acceleration Cannon structures pointing upwards =P 3 Space-faring units should probably be more expensive than land and air, if only to prevent players from assembling orbital stations very early on, and to keep the whole ground game viable. This would mean the the "Space race" would be a potential and welcome change from the Tech races that we've seen in SupCom or indeed the Krogoth in TA. Getting units into space would give you an expensive advantage over any area where your opponent hasn't put up any ground-space guns. Anyone have any further thoughts on orbital gameplay? Since we're probably reaching that stretch goal. Just sayin'
The other possibility was to go with the same system of orbital units as in SupCom. You build a control center on the ground and every control center launches exactly one unit into orbit. One of the mods made units in orbit targetable by anti nukes which worked quite well at defending against them. I would not send engineers into space, getting a supply of metal up there might be a bit difficult. Energy is not a problem (can be transmitted via laser or alike, therefor energy themed weapon systems only) and can be shared with the planet, but metal would require to much efford to get it up there.
Treating space as if it's just a layer with factories and standard units is silly at this point. Mainly because it has this whole 3D part that is huge, but is really hard to UI well. For the not stretch goaled game I'd rather see something similar to a satellite control room screen. You have a map, you pick an orbit to chose your coverage (how far north/south you end up, see http://www.n2yo.com/?s=20580), you pick an altitude to get a speed and how big a patch the sat can see (geostationary orbit is just really high regular orbit). ASAT weapons are simple, you pick a satellite and it does the math for you and launches, maybe have limited A-ASAT satellites to guard nearby ones, but they should cost about the same as building and launching a smallish satellite. Then you pick what you want from: Intel-optical or radar or IR, each has a different job Comms- I don't know what this would do in game Navigation- think gps, adds some accuracy to some weapon types? i.e. cruise missles Strike- rods from god, lasers, etc. strategic defense- hit nukes, kew's, etc. point defense- protect a small patch of satellites at their altitude and higher interplanetary transport - name speaks for itself
True, maybe a ground-based launcher factory would be better for making orbital units And frankly, I can't see a decent way to make orbital combat work without it getting in the way of what's happening below, air tends to get in the way of ground as it is, a 3rd layer of things zipping around it only going to confuse things even more What about launchable sattelites that can then be moved around, is that what you were getting at? I'm not sure about the 1-building per satellite thing though, and i'm also not sure how this would work on gas giants, as the only plane there is orbit, so how would units get there? A tricky one for sure
I agree. Orbit should be special. It should not be an easy task getting there. Having orbit be just like ground or air would be lame and repetitive. I think orbital units should be expensive so the orbit isn't filled with units. I would like pace stations and satellites. Atm I do know what I don't want but not exactly how I want it. I hope they come up with an AWSOME idea.
I rather disagree with the orbit being a difficult task. These are robots who've been fighting for centuries, they already know how to get into orbit... they got to this planet to begin with! I think it'd be just as fun if you could build space transport rockets early to mid game, they take alot of energy to launch but aren't hard to build. (say will crash early economy for 5 minutes if you gotta get there within the first 15 minutes of the game, but after that why make it difficult?) Maybe have the rocket itself take abit of mass to build, or at least build slow cause it's gotta be made perfect. But depending on the size of the game your playing it may be quite fun to populate an entire solar system quickly As far as orbital units ie satelights... I think they should leave that for the stretch goal honestly. It'd probably add to the game, but mostly I fear it'll wind up really being a headache and making most players annoyed / turn them off (with or without mods) with a few exceptions of super late game orbital weapons platforms. You'll already be torn between possibly 3+ fields of play (planet, moon, asteroids) more depending on map, do you want there to be 2 fields PER orbital body? talk about dizzying New thought: have rockets easier to build/fund, but have them on a 3 minute countdown timer (adjustable via in game menu) if you're scouted they can either stop your launch or start their own?
You want to build bases with orbital units? Sorry, but no, I think that makes the game way too complex. You can move an asteroid into orbit and use it as a base or a unit carrier, which should be more efficient, since the asteroid can provide the resources you need to do so and you therefore don't have to launch them into space. That's imho way better than having space stations or sattelites.
Getting to other planets should be relatively easy, since a big part of this game is the ability to bring this war between planets, moons, and asteroids. Getting off your starting dirtball should be a relatively quick affair in most games, especially when the players start on different worlds entirely.
Let's just group together a few options for what's going on in space here, since there's a lot of ideas: Structures: -Orbital structures that stay in one place much like the ones on the ground, in geo-synchronous orbit, including orbital factories, orbit->orbit and orbit->ground turrets -Or just no orbital structures Production: -Structures on the ground that create orbital buildings(/units) and launch them into orbit once completed -Space based factories and engineers that create the objects IN space, instead of launching them from the ground Units: -Units that move around in orbit like aircraft (Unlikely, would bee a bit overwhelming having them whizzing over your existing aircraft) -Units that are more like satellites that move around slowly instead of zipping around (Would get in the way less) Vision problems: Let's just acknowledge that things in orbit will get in the way a bit, and not focus on it as a problem, as you could either zoom in past them or they could be made transparent when zoomed far enough
Some of these replies seem to indicate a desire towards the opposite of what the gas giant & enhanced orbital units stretch goal actually is.....
That's the thing, we don't really know what the orbital stretch goal actually is, and frankly I don't think the devs do, the forum's really just here for idea spamming =P I for one like the idea of some orbital structures/units, so i'm seeing what everyone's opinions/ideas are, it could be a welcome addition if implemented properley, or just an annoyance
