It's time to talk unit ideas

TBH I'd really like this on T2 artillery bots to distinguish them form vehicles.

Probably been suggested, but some Land/Sea hybrid units would be nice. Some sort of combat hovercraft, maybe from the normal vehicle factories, or maybe from a new line, though I don't really see the need.

might also be nice to see some land units that scale up to the same sort of size and power as the big naval units, leviathan tanks.

Last, wouldn't be so much a new unit, but a restriction I'd like to see for the promised Unit gun. That it only be able to fire Bots. As it stands I find that I just spam tanks, and AA tracks, bots don't have the staying power, it'd be nice to see a solid advantage to incorporating a bot production line into your Econ.

This is how I currently see orbital units.

(T2) Orbital laucher (builds and shoot into the atmosphere)
The Orbital launcher, builds: (the folowing units and shoot them into the planets orbit.)
-Radar satalite
-Interplanary Spy satalite
-Solar array
-Orbital fabber
-Transport Pod (one way trip, On launch you must load up a unit and choose on what planet you want to sent it to.)

Orbital Fabber, builds:
-Orbital Factory (static or slow moving)
-Orbital Defence platform (static or slow moving, anti orbital units)
-Orbital Gas Mine
-Orbital Anti-Nuke Defence
(These might need to be interplantary)
-Seidge Orbital Drop Factory
-Seidge Orbital Drop Laser Tower
-Seidge Orbital Drop AA Defence

Orbital Factory, builds:
-Orbital Fighter (anti orbital units)
-Orbital Laser (anti ground, can track targets under it.)
-Orbital bombardment platform(anti ground, AOE)
-Orbital Nuke launcher
-Advanced Radar Satalite
-Advanced Interplantary Spy satalite
-Orbital Lander (can land on moons and stuff with low admosfeer)
-Orbital Dropship (yes, transport; picks up units from a planet. Drops them from orbit or must decent, I dunno)

Anti-Orbital
-AO Tank (Anti-Orbital)
-AO Submarine
-Umbruella (AO Cannon, Good vs stationary/slow orbital units)
-AO Laser ( Good vs moving orbital units)
-Nuke it. (if orbit can nuke me, I can nuke orbit; right?)

To get dropship: Commander, T1 Factory, T1 fabber, T2 Factory, T2 Fabber, Orbital launcher, Orbital Fabber, Orbital Factory, Dropship.
To get Astroid: Commander, T1 Factory, T1 fabber, T2 Factory, T2 Fabber, Orbital launcher, Transport Pod, 3x Halley Delta-V.

This is just my take what units should orbital have and units to counter orbital. Good units, bad units? Good build order? Let me know!

Anti orbital tank I like the sound of obviously T2 tank just a giant cannon aimed permanently upright. could call it the Giraffe

I would love to see a wide area short duration EMP caused by this.

Really? I find bots crazy strong. Atm they can kite and run circles around tanks all day, and those slammers in a deathball wreck pretty much anything.

Fire up TA and FA and pull out unique things. Now that I think about it, vehicles and aircraft were pretty cookie cutter, kbots is where all the diversity was.

Mobile point defence (destroys large, heavy damage projectiles like rockets)
Edit: Maybe also fixed point defence for a base

Pop-Up weaponry, which is completely undetectable, until it pops up.

Yeah, Pop-Up defense is a cool thing!

Proper wall segments (with building system) and wall gates.

Orbital troop transport with tether
I think the current lander, Astraeuss is broken in design; it needs a launch stage to go in initial orbit but can then land and go back in orbit on its own...
This large troop transport has a capacity of 10 or 20 T2 units, can travel to a geostationary orbit around target celestial body, then shoot down a nanotube ribbon anchor into the surface down which the units can slide down to the surface and start colonising.
Much cooler than landing pods imho.
It can be loaded via the ribbon anchor or units launched via the unit cannon can rendez-vous with it.
This is a space elevator but it doesn't require a ground based unit like in most ideas I've seen here so far.
Skip to 6:10 for a take on that concept.


Not sure how to get it up into space in the first place though.

Yes, the lander's design is awkward, you should build it first, load it with one/two units while still on the launch pad, and finally you fire the rocket directly to the targeted planet/asteroid. As its name states, the lander should only serve to provide a smooth landing, it's not supposed to be powerful enough to take off from anything bigger than a small asteroid that barely has gravity.


but i'm sure uber staff is already working on it.

How about a range of "trailers", which can be hooked behind many of the standard vehicles in the game. These trailers could contain lightweight versions of equipment such as anti-air, radar, anti-radar, artillery etc.

These can be assembled in an established safe base, and then used to quickly rush their payload to another map area. This may be helpful in trying to start a relatively well-guarded new forward base. As the new base becomes better-defended, the mobile trailers can then be redeployed elsewhere. If the towing vehicle gets damaged or destroyed, the trailer then obviously becomes static, but still useable.

If the idea is feasible, and all the units are a standard square shape, they could possibly be used by other systems, such as the excellent "War Train" idea by Neuralize (https://forums.uberent.com/threads/new-unit-idea-wartrain.52488/)

Whilst this may not be game-changing, it could certainly allow for a range of alternative tactics to be used.

Necron:
Has a channel ability that uses A LOT of energy to create 'improvised' units from nearby wreckage

Just throwing out a few ideas, some of them might have come up already. I must admit I haven't read all posts yet, so bear with me if some stuff was already mentioned. These are not necessarily ideas I came up with myself or that are novel for this type of game. Basically these are more core concepts than concrete unit ideas.

Movement Type
Spider bots and Hover tanks have already been mentioned.
They fill niches that are not necessarily represented well at this point.
For them to make sense we need to see some diversity in terrain that also has to affect the other movement types already present in the game:

• Bots accelerate well, are somewhat fast and maneuverable. They can reach rougher terrain than hover and tanks with less of a speed penalty.
• Tanks are slow to accelerate, they have a slightly higher top speed than bots but are worse at turning.They are slowed down significantly by rough terrain and inclinations.
• Hover tanks accelerate well and have the highest top speed of all land units.They have the highest turn radius and cannot traverse rough terrain at all.Contrary to other land units they can also function on water, with slower speed but better maneuverability.
• Spider bots are the slowest land units but can traverse virtually any terrain above sea level.Most crawling bombs will be spider bots.

Hybrid movement types (e.g. hover being able to move on water) could also be considered.
A few examples include:

• Air/orbit hybrids can move between both air and orbit at will.They are useful in both air and orbit but cannot compete with units geared specifically to either domain.They are lightly equipped and quite fragile.
• Amphibious units can move on the sea floor and on land.Some of them might be able to rise to the surface.They are inferior to most submarines and land units but have the singular advantage of being able to move between bodies of water.
• Jump bots are largely similar to regular bots, they have a unique ability though:They can jump over certain distances, being able to traverse crevices, mountainsides and weak defense lines.Their jump ability needs to charge up for a short time during which they are stationary.Their speed ranges between that of regular bots and spider bots.

Projectile Type
For now we have bullets, rockets, bombs and laser bursts as projectile types.
I'd like to iterate on those and add a few new ones:

• Bullets are the plainest projectile types but a bit of diversity could be added to those as well.
  • Depending on their speed some bullets could pierce units to hit those behind them. While being able to hit several units with a single shot each hit deals less damage.These projectiles usually have high range and accuracy.
  • Shotgun type bullets would have high damage but low range and a wide spread. Units with those kind of weapons are best used against groups of small and weak units.
• Rockets can similarly be divided into rough groups:
  • Guided, direct fire rockets that pursue their target. They have high accuray, medium damage and are blocked by obstacles.
  • Unguided, indirect fire rockets follow a fixed trajectory.They can be avoided by most mobile units but can circumvent obstacles and deal high damage to stationary targets.
• Bombs are usually unguided and are differentiated by their area of effect:
  • Precision bombs deal high damage to a single target with small AOE. They can be avoided by the fastest of units.
  • Area bombs deal moderate damage to a certain area. They are effective against groups of small units and large/closely spaced stationary targets.
• Laser bursts are not all that different from bullets and can be diversified in largely the same way. Laser type weapons should use energy though to operate. They deal more damage than bullets but are worthless during energy stalls.
• Beams are extended bursts/continuous attacks on single or multiple units. Units equipped with a beam will continue firing as long as a target remains in range. Damage is inversely proportional to the length of the beam (i.e. damage is higher at close range).
• Melee weapons are not a type or projectile but should have a place as well. These weapons deal the highest amount of damage but units need to be in (almost) direct contact with targets. Slashing, piercing and blunt weapons are all conceivable alternatives.
• Auras affect targets in close vicinity to units wielding them. Examples could include electromagnetic fields (cf. EMP damage type, see below) or seismic disruptions (that roughen or flatten ground).

Damage Type
Most attacks deal direct damage, either through impact or explosion.
This could be extended by some different damage types, although this might require an extension of game mechanics.

• Fire damage deals damage over time (DOT). Units are all more or less vulnerable to fire. Fire can be passed from unit to unit (by close proximity) or by environmental hazards (e.g. lava, burning foliage). This could be used to e.g. set a forest on fire, making traversing it hazardous for a certain amount of time.
• EMP damage would disable most units and buildings for a short amount of time. The effect could be restricted to units' weapon systems so they are still able to move. Less effective EMP weapons could reduce accuracy of targeting systems or increase radar wobble.
• A damage type that would impair movement and firing speed of mechanical systems. Examples for this would be caltrops restricting movement or some kind of goo jamming moving parts.

Specific Concepts

• More diversified terrain (e.g. bottlenecks) would make area-denial attacks much more meaningful. Examples include carpet-bombing, AOE artillery and mine fields (those could also consist of cloaked or burrowed cloaking bombs). Area denial could employ any damage type (see above) to make traversal hazardous for friend and foe alike.
• Most economic needs should be satisfied by basic buildings (i.e. T1 metal extractors and energy generators). For specific situations and/or locations there should be a selection of specialized T2 buildings though:
  • Energy generation based on environment that provide increased output at specific sites:
    • Thermal power plants in/near forests.
    • Geothermal power plants for rift lines on lava planets.
    • Wind power generators that yield more power on high terrain.
    • Tidal power generators that yield more power on coast lines.
    • Gas mining stations on gas giants.
  • Metal deposits on the surface can be reclaimed by engineers. They only provide a certain amount of metal until they're depleted.
  • Advanced metal extractors can be built on metal spots. They provide increased output on the short term but they deplete a metal spot which doesn't happen with basic metal extractors.
• Currently radar in T1, T2 and orbit are linear advancements, each uses more energy for larger circular coverage. This could be diversified:
  • Basic radar covers a certain circular range around the radar tower.
  • Rotating radar covers a larger circular range but only has a narrow cone that slowly rotates.
  • Directional radar with largest range that covers only a cone in a specific direction.
  • Radar shadow (i.e. radar is blocked by terrain) exists for all ground based radar. This makes building orbital equivalents worthwhile.

Has anyone suggested jet-pack infantry?

You know, so you can jump over ravines/ridges in order to attack from an unexpected angle?

Or would that not matter in comparison to aircraft?

jet pack infantry or jumping infantry or stuff like that has been proposed, yes. I'm not so fond of that because that would make the ravines meaningless. and it's basically stuff from starcraft.

i like the idea of a fighter jet that could shift between air and orbital, i'm not sure how it would balance though. that would force people to build a few orbital fighter before rushing orbital stuff, but wouldn't that render air dominion completely impossible to escape from ? The idea is definitely good, but i think it needs also the opposite counterpart : how about some kind of anti-air satellite that could clear the sky from above ?

rotating/ stationary radars seem cool, but to be honest i don't think the added complexity and the work needed makes that worth it, plus the planets are not that big, so having a dozen of different radars isn't really appealing. however, i agree that i don't see the point of making radar satellites, i think these should be converted into observation satellite that give direct vision.

I thought so too, then I remembered that those sats can leave orbit. They are "cheaper" scouts than the vision sat, plus they might move faster. So if you need to check if someone is on a planet, you can go there. Although, you could just Chronocam it...

Has anyone mentioned the idea of Missile (Tact/Nuke) Scramblers, that distort the pathing of missiles by X, where X is range/scrambler range, which increases/decrease by power fed to it up to a level