It's one thing that feels lacking to me in the concept. If you're going to stretch the map out to a solar system rather than a single square chunk of land on some anonymous place you need to start thinking about orbital units. Here's a bit of brainstorming I've done on the subject of orbital warfare. Let me know what you guys think. Spy Satellites That's map hax people. Say goodbye to the fog of war, We see everything. This small but potent high tech unit gives your team what every general has dreamed of since the dawn of time. Unlimited map awareness. At least until the enemy shoots them down with their rockets. Ground to orbit missiles All them darned pesky satellites have to die. No need to go up there and deal with it personally, we can build missiles and shoot all that stuff down! Orbital Weapon Platforms While you're in the business of placing satellites in orbit, why stop at simply spying? Why not put lasers, or kinetic bombardment weapons on these suckers? Single out and pulverize your enemies from space. Naturally, these being mere satellites, cannot ever be as potent as moon based or asteroid based weapon platforms, but they certainly should have their place in things. Hunter Killer Satellites All these pesky satellites in orbit need to die! Why not send up intelligent killer satellites that can fly around and kill those other guys satellites. Control the space above your ball of rock. Don't let that other guy build stuff up here. Orbital Constructors With all of these orbital goodies, you need a constructor built to navigate its way around in space. Fitted with limited directional rockets, this little guy can fly around in space and build all them fun things you want to put in orbit to blow up them other guys.
I made a couple posts on this that are relevant, here's one in "Planetary Landings": And here's one on the tech tree (tying it into your orbital constructors):
I'm still having a rough time wrapping my head around the idea of an entire solar system with multiple planets, moons, and asteroids as a battlefield. The idea of a battle that includes multiple systems is even crazier to me. (and awesome!) Practically, the hardest step is the first one actually. Getting off the damn planet. Once you're in orbit, getting from there to anywhere else is just a factor of time. You can get to the far reaches of the galaxy with nothing more than a flashlight as a propulsion system, look up ion drives sometime if you're not already familiar with the concept. I do agree, there should be a reasonable tech progression, which ultimately is a game speed and balance question. How long should the battle on the surface of the planet evolve before it moves out into the larger field of the moon, asteroids, other planets, and even other systems. anyhow, I just felt like the idea of orbitals, should be explored a bit. You shouldn't necessarily need to get to the moon just to start screwing up your enemy from orbit.
Yeah, but I think it's safe to say that ships/transit mechanisms that aren't FTL should take longer than those that are at relativistic speeds (which will need a way of decelerating...)... which should be faster than just using your asteroid lander to get to your enemy's star system. I'd like it to be slower paced... but that's a personal pref. It's been confirmed that there will be T1 and T2 factories and units, and then beyond that, possibly some experimental gantries... (from that POV, I'd argue that a shipyard/launch-platform should be an 'experimental gantry'... ) (Emphasis added) Agreed. IRL, ASAT surface-to-orbit weapons have already been developed, so it would make sense to have anti-orbital / anti-space defenses on a planet that can be built. Similarly, if naval units are in this game... ASAT ships (because that's what happened IRL).
Why would a spy satellite make you see everything on the planet? Planets are round (not flat), and generally not made of glass. How would a satellite go about removing all fog of war? Anyway, I love fog of war (due to my love of hidden bases, radar jammed armies, and so on), and would hate a unit that completely got rid of it. On the other hand, nothing wrong with a satellite that provides a HUGE LOS, but can easily be destroyed.
seconded, a swarm of satellites should be able to reveal the map, but should be able to be shot down when too close to your secret base...
Yeah! You should be able to set satellites to geosync orbits / stationary positions, or have them sweep the surface. Obviously... if the enemy hemisphere has ASATs with enough range... your spy sat is going down. Basically, it should only reveal things that that satellite can see (maybe you can set the area... like placing radar towers...)
