New Unit Idea: Wartrain

Hey Commanders,
Ever feel like it's a bore to move your awesome land army? Do you chase after an enemy commander, only to find he's feebly turtling on the darkside of the planet and you can't seem to build enough bombers to finish him off?



If you answer YES to any of these questions, Wartrain is for you. Build a Wartrain and gain the ability to move and consolidate your army, from one side of the planet to the other.



Using proven MAGLEV technology. Wartrain is up to 100 times faster than the average maximum speed of a tank, giving you the ability to quickly land massive armies on the outskirts of far off bases.



But wait, there is more! Wartrain has built in construction tools, and is able to contruct and repair additional tracks as well as train cars!



Order now and get a second locomotive constructor for free, giving you the ability to build in BOTH directions



Like what you've seen here? Don't delay, ask your local Uber devepment team about Wartrain today!

I don't think this fits in with the normal game, but I would love to see this as a unit in a modpack. Watching trains haul units from my main base to forward outposts would be pretty cool.

i like this idea but what if instead of being a train it was a high way created in a similar way this train makes its rails. it could be created to make a B-line to an enemy base over poor terrain, water, maybe even mountains

Why not add this to the thread about new units?

This is definitely mod material. Given how much Uber budgeted for the naval and orbital layers, convincing them to add trains would probably involve you ponying up a few hundred thousand dollars. They'd mess with the pathfinding of other units, wouldn't work with the standard UI, and wouldn't work with the current "heightmap and base brush" terrain system without modification.

I'd be interested in playing (possibly even contributing to) a mod which focussed on trains, but I doubt it's going to be viable. It's not a simple problem.

I agree, this would be an awesome mod, a little too much work to be implemented in place of easy, equally awesome things (like better orbital, or balance, or bugfixes, or galactic teleport gates). When the game comes out I might consider trying to make something like this, provided I end up learning the engine and everything...

For one, this completely changes the way that transports work. Everyone always assumes that transports mean moving units to the enemy's base more quickly, but trains would change this. Instead, since there's an economic reason to not make rails indiscriminately, it becomes strategic to be smart and conservative with your supply routes. The biggest use I could see for trains would be to establish a fast-response defense -- surround your base with train tracks, and when the enemy appears on your radar, quickly move your units from your production facility's train station to wherever the front lines are.

There could also be differing mechanics on how tracks work. Do enemies get to destroy them like normal buildings? Do trains on destroyed rails automatically repair them when they come across a broken track section? You could have a surprisingly intricate system in this sense.

By the way, where'd you get the models from? Did you make them yourself? Is there...is there an RTS out there that already does this? If so, I might want to look into it...

Bonus points if you can mod it to build bridges over craters/water and tunnel thru mountains

we are in the far future. Why would you need rails. What about hovering fast land transport^^ (still would be less effective than flying transports probably)

Because railgun rail guns. End of discussion.

i like the idea, it's fun

I really like the design of your concept model, even if it turns out trains are impossible to add to PA, you should keep designing units for modpacks. The lines are very vanilla-like.

It looks like a fun idea. But I just can imagin it in the standard game, it would be a fun mod thou.

Guntrain


(Anime: Isekai no seikishi monogatari)

Maybe for the metal planets. Some old technology that transports units across the planet.

Rocky planets I don't really know.

I feel that the best way to get a reliable stream of units to the front/closer to the enemy, is to simply build proxy factories. They build surprisingly fast with just a couple of fabbers, and no transport micro involved in getting a stream of units directly to the front.

Just like other people already mentioned I too like the looks and the idea for a different gameplay that for example a mod could deliver.

Fantastic artwork, and 10/10 for outside-the-box thinking!

Agreed with others above, this would be an extremely fun mod. Are you a programmer? Would you be able to make this mod?

Awesome idea! But what role would that train fulfill in game? Since transporting would be rather limited, considering you would have to build tracks first. What would be its advantage over other means of getting your guys from A to B - including but not limited to moving them on their own, building factories at the endpoint or near to it, airborn transportation (not confirmed yet?).

Not to take away from your idea, I am just curious =)

Just smart !
I really like your idea.

• It answer to a real need, fast transport around the planet.
• It does it in an innovative way.
• It is maybe a bit difficult to integrate in term of UI, but seems possible (like the airlift in supcom)
• It brings new gameplay element on the table (communication lines)
• and to finish nice artwork

Great job !

It would create an interesting base design tool, allowing engineers to rapidly traverse across distances to build new bases. But why just leave it to one unit, why not make it another type of unit with it's own factory?

The most original and best delivered idea yet. Whether people like it or not they should at least be impressed with the work you put in and your sales pitch. I love the idea but I prefer that it could only transport bots so it's not a game balance issue.

It would be fun to test with some basic art, see if it adds something to the game.

Definitely get an A+ on the idea.. I think it would be nice to actually build the track. so that you get access to faster resupplying of your front line, if you put in the time and affort to make a maglev rail.