It's time to talk unit ideas

Name: Totally not a Krogoth
Role: Siegebreaker
Usage: This unit is used to establish beach heads on enemy worlds where there is no allied presence. Can't only be transported via teleport because it is physically too massive to carry on an interstellar transport and would not survive re-entry on most worlds.
Weapons: rapid fire, low damage, wide splash ground weapons and basic anti air capability (maybe basic anti orbital and anti-nuke as well).
Defenses: Buckets of health
Cost: Lots
Strong against: Large groups of tightly packed Ground / Naval / Structure units and bombers
Weak against: widely spaced Ground / Naval / Structure units, artillery, mass air units and orbital lasers

Basically this unit is strong vs large groups but easily dealt with on it's own or without other units as support, forcing players to diversify their ground army to other units besides this 1. Say it's weapon does 1/5 the damage needed to kill an ant but it has the splash area to hit 20 at a time if they are clumped. That means if they send a blob straight at this unit alone it will all die to 5 hits, but if they send 1 at a time or surround it they will still only die after 5 hits each. That makes it great at attacking a turtled base that has been left alone to stockpile, but not good to use in a more prolonged, tactical fight without support. Mass air would also be a problem for this unit to deal with alone. Good for defending the gate you make on enemy planets against raiding squads until you get an established base. Maybe if it's cost is crazy you can add an anti-nuke launcher and mini-umbrella on it to give it all the utility needed for establishing new bases when nukes and orbital swarms are prevalent and giving basic ground armies some defense against those things when these guys are sprinkled in. Also good for the front line of assaults to soften the enemy for the waves behind it and to soak the artillery fire on the way there.

That kind of invisible bonus is one of the things that the devs are trying to avoid. Especially not random choice.

By the way, this already exists in supcom 2, with a substantial cost reduction per veterancy level.

So what were the new units in the new video Uber gave us? I spotted Combat fabbers to make mines. Deep space radar, Stargates and Orbital fabbers, Stargates (Loved the look of that) did I miss anything?

A tactical missile launcher built on the sea floor. Missiles pop out of the ocean then engage their engine like a Trident. It would require a commander or actual sea units (not bombers) to take it out, but you'd have to locate the thing first.

So, something like a missile submarine?

I was thinking a static structure that didn't take as much investment and still had respectable range.

Here's a thought. A land unit, constructed out of an advanced factory, that is a small mobile factory that builds basic land units. You could send a pack out and have a temporary fire base, and build an army there. Just a thought.

Posted this in another thread, but...



Mobile air repair pad

I'd like to see orbital starbases which can be built in ad-hoc orbits (i.e. not necessarily around existing bodies). They should be able to build units and send them on their way via one-way unit cannons.

Quick search didn't show it had been suggested before but I'm guessing it has; an orbital unit cannon, that fires orbital units (fighters and whatever else) from one orbital layer to another. Would cut down journey times by a lot, say 80-90%. It allows rapid challenges to orbital supremacy around a hostile world, as it wouldn't require paired structures as with the ground based teleporter. Perhaps only more rugged orbital units could use it? Anyway, just an idea.

Anti nuclear missile satellite equipped with a laser that can destroy incoming nuclear missiles within the radius below it. Make it require allot of power and take a while to build, also reduce the fire rate so a fully stocked anti-nuke structure can out shoot it. Also an anti satellite ground unit equipped with a surface to orbit missile launcher would be nice, buildable from the

Factory modifiers.

These would give different weaknesses/strengths to units completed from that factory.

eg Stealth Aspect. Units get less firepower But is detected at shorter ranges by radar.
Armor Aspect. Unit is slower More hitpoints.
Firepower aspect. Unit has less hitpoints.
Range aspect. Unit has longer range, but fires slower.
Speed Aspect. Faster, but shorter range weapons.

You pick the aspect when you build the factory, or you can pick an aspect for your entire build force if you so desire (you can still build any aspect, but picking one aspect makes it your standard)

These wouldn't be huge variations in unit stats (perhaps 10%) but could make for different strategies

+A Can/Brick heavy meat shield bot.
+Cloakable(uses lots of energy) sniper bot for Com assassination.
+Cloakable commander.
+A assault vehicle/kbot with a lightning gun (because it is cool....Like the Zeus).
+That is all for now.

Dunno if this has been posted before.
I had the idea of some kind of orbital unit that creates a gravity flux, causing ground units beneath it to be first sucked into the air, and then dispersed into all kinds of different directions. A great way to disperse large unit blops. No damage inflicted in the process. But maybe that would be a bit hard to implement.

Imagine it like a tornado sucking in and whirling the units around before shooting them in random directions. I saw this in another game before, I just can't remember in which one.

Death Punch

The weapon requires a Basic Orbital Launcher, capable to put in a low orbit small satellites.

The weapon consist in a modest sized satellite composed by two parts:

1. Guidance
2. Shell

Once in low orbit, the Death Punch has to be positioned above its target (manually or with area damage), and from there it separates the shell from the guidance apparatus.

The shell drops dead from the sky acquiring kinetic energy thanks to the acceleration of gravity (E=m*v*v) therefore releasing an impressive amount of energy at the impact. Therefore the Death Punch may be not usable on low gravity corps like tiny moons and asteroids, unless the shell could accelerate by itself.

The delivered damage may be enough to highly damage a factory, destroy a power plant or energy extractor. It could vaporise a small group of units or a big artillery piece like the Holkin. Not enough for seriously damaging the Commander or other high valuable infrastructure. It may be the equivalent as an orbital artillery weapon system, usable only once per piece.

It could be countered by the Catapult in a way that the missile could target the shell, exploding nearby, therefore nullifying its action. Or causing it to change its course, sending it to impact somewhere else.

Since the Death Punch is put in a low orbit, if not used within a due time it will ultimately fall on the surface by itself, causing damage on a random spot on the map. Like real satellites sometimes do.

If used, the guidance part will stay in orbit acting as space junk, in practice an orbital mine that could crash with other celestial body around the planet, like Orbital Radar or others infrastructures, eventually destroying them.

How about a stunner missile that could be launched interplanetary thats stops factories even jams galatic gates, temporarly disables radar satellites, stops halley engine from running stuff like that. Aw but in a perfect world we would have Mel Brooks rasberry jam radar jammer.

- wrong thread

Planet diversity and moving forward with the next phase of adding new units.

Long title I know and I will try to keep this OP as concise as possible.

As we have it now there are a few classes of planets. Earth, Lava, Moon, Ice, Tropical, Metal, and Gas (eventually). Now this is with a large semantic "but" meaning that not all category’s are exclusive to each other or in other words truly unique. I.E. a Tropical is a Earth planet with more water and jungle and a Ice is a Earth with frozen oceans. To simplify just think of type of plants based on their predominant game play style. There are three branches of units available to us, Land, Air, and Naval, and Orbital ( all planets have a orbital so I will ignore this part of the game for the purpose of my argument).

Earth types will be the generic standard. Any unit can be built here that is not a exclusive unit meant for a biom of a different world type. Ice also falls here as it is a Earth but with one predominant Biom. Then there is the Moon/Asteroid that lack oceans, they tend to be much smaller than a normal planet so some interesting Low G units will be mentioned later. Then there is Lava. This planet type I most want to point out how it should be treated differently to force players to think on how to play them. I will go into more detail later but the molten lava that replaces the ocean should be impassable to all but some specialized bots and only specialized structures can be built there. Next we have the Metal planets which should be given some significance in my opinion and as been hinted at by the devs. Whether that be special access to "Elite Unit Factory’s" only constructable on Metal planets or something else is very much up for debate. Finally that leaves us with the Gas Planets which as you all know have no surface so there will be much to discuss as to what game play you would like to see and how you would used them.

Moon, Personally I do not wish to do too much with the moon as for one they make great arenas for matches as other than mass distribution they are as balanced a map type as you will find. And I don’t want to rush anything that would mess with the pureness of that. But some T2 bots that may be cool would be some jump infantry that can cross a span in a short amount of time but be highly vulnerable to AA during flight.

Lava, as I believe that the lave should not be walked on by units that only air should be used. Just as a watery world you would go heavy naval I want to insist that a planet with lots of lava should be heavy air. This would mean that we can make a lot of new air units in particular hover units. As we saw recently they are working on a gunship unit but I think this idea can go further. Also Lava planets should allow for the construction of a hovercraft unit factory that will skim across the surface. Fast like a bot but hits like a light vehicle they are good for moving across the open lava. Also a bit of econ love why not have Geo thermal generators for Lava planets. Don’t need a special command just have a alternate model build for regular power gens.

Metal, for quiet some time now we have been trying to think of what these ancient super worlds could be. Are they a halo'esq doomsday device? Are they interstellar travel nodes ala Mass Effects? I think this, what if they contained the one thing that it seams that these machines want? Data, more in point data form before "The Reboot" I cant remember the lore name but this is what comes to mind but I digress. What if this data contained blue prints to factory that allowed for a Tire 3? You bring a Tire 2 fabrication bot with you and on a metal planet you then notice that you have a new building type option. A "Elite Bot Factory" that will then make T3 bots and a t3 fab bot that will allow for some new super super weapons. To the latter definition I do not know but i would think they will be limited to being built on the Metal planet but have system wide affect. Maybe if the devs allow it that is how you get your mega units. the T3 Fab builds a "Goliath Factory" that will build titans that then you can send across the system.

As for what kind of Elite units, for air i would like to see a Stratospheric Superiority Fighter. This fighter will not only own any thing in the sky but also has the reach to low orbit. Land I would like to just have heaver hitting Tanks but a mobile pelter vehicle would really cool if the coast was right. as for a Bot I would like to see something like a entrenching bot. it would dig in and act like a turret but have a HP bonus. Also keep this in mind of all these last few units, they can only be built on Metal planets and can only be built at a expensive T3 level so it should not throw the games balance off.

Gas, I see Gas planets as being more for staging purposes for building in orbit but I can see the idea of constructing structures that descend into the gas for something. Maybe the clouds can be converted into mass or energy. and then on Gas planets you can have structures for converting between the two? I really don’t know with this one.

So this is my musing on the subject of units being built based on the planet they are constructed on. You of course are free to move units across form planet to planet. I would like to see the low G bots suddenly have a jump ability that can move then across short distances. And of course the unlocked ancient data of the Metal planets for new Elite Units. Those units you will what to move to your front lines across the system.

But I have rambled for long enough, the floor is yours.


//Side note: I am adding to this thread but as it is quiet old and long I was wondering if it would be right for me to start a new thread but I will leave that up to the Mods

Drop pods
They can be loaded with 5 or 6 bots or only a tank they would be extremely cheap but very weak, flak, and single shoots air and orbital defence can take then down fast but they can be produced in vast numbers easily, they can be regrouped and ordered to attack together soo they all can fall at the same time swarming the enemy defences and making a beach head into enemy heavily defended planet
http://images.wikia.com/warhammer40k/images/6/65/Drop_pods.jpg

Well with gas planets we obviously need gas fabbers, gas type units and buildings would have a pretend layer for "ground". So say gas units could fight air units....that or internal pressure gives air units a timed exposure limit before the pressure destroys them. Gas units would require the ability to fly as would the buildings....technically we could have armor plated units attacking from the below level but at a time and metal duration extension for that surprise factor for balance.....for Lava planets I'd think switching energy and metal so you can build unlimited metal spots but have to use geothermal energy so you'd force players to switch their build order to keep it varied....