Orbital Units - What would you like to see?

So we all know that there are going to be tanks, bots, planes, boats, subs, and all the other usual suspects in PA. But orbital stuff is a rather new paradigm for an RTS game.

What types of orbital units would you like to see in PA and how do you think they should interact with the Air, Land, and Sea units down below on the planet's surface?

Should orbiting laser cannons be able to shoot at ground targets? Should ground based guns or missiles be able to shoot back? Should you be able to build ships or subs in orbit and drop them though the atmosphere in drop pods down to the water below? What about air units interacting with or shooting missiles at orbital units or dropping planes into the sky from orbit? Should subs be able to fire anti orbital tactical missiles? Should it be possible to damage or shoot down drop pods fired from the unit gun?

We have this whole fourth dimension here that needs to balanced with the other three traditional ones. What would you like to see? How much and what type of role to do you think the orbital layer should play in the endless conflict?

This isn't supposed to be Homeworld, but I think we can do better than an orbiting Ion Cannon.

I think an orbital laser sort of like the novax is a good start. A slow burn that can't really be dodged unless you take the sattelite down. Which hopefully with orbital gameplay would be a lot easier than in supcom.

I found the Novax incredibly uninspired as a unit.

Orbital transports are obviously the most important unit. In terms of functional orbital units, I would like to see orbital factories and drop pods first. And space carriers that have suborbital birds. These craft might also be used to fight for space superiority, or take down enemy spacecraft or satellites around a planet.

If I understand correctly space battleships that fight each other are outside the purview of PA. It would be awesome to have them, but it would require a huge amount of work to make space combat. Most likely PA will have a very simple system with either very limited or very simple orbital-to-orbital interaction.

The type of orbital bombardment we might see will depend largely on the kind of space combat PA will have. Is space combat completely deterministic, with all craft in orbit around a particular planet effectively able to attack each other at all times, with no real player input? Are they using guns, beams, missiles, or all three? Can all three be used to attack the surface of a planet? How are fire missions requested?

We would also need surface-to-orbital weapons, missiles being the most sensible. It seems logical that surface weapons would also just shoot constantly if there were enemies in orbit above the planet on which they are located. I suspect the entire orbital system will be quite simple, and involve relatively little player input. The entire orbital layer essentially serves the planetary layer, but it should still be possible to destroy orbital assets.

Your point? It does what it needs to, does it very effectively, and without creating any issues. Don't go hating on something just because it's not basked in obscurity.

Spy sattelites are a must!

Reinforced Asteroid.

Imagine been able to use an asteroid as a base and reinforce it and attempt soft landings in an ocean, then have it set up with factories to squirt amphibious tanks to a previously undefended frontier on a planet.

Solves some of the super unit requests too.

Wrecking Asteroid!

A giant asteroid suspended by a metal cable from space. It is dropped into the atmosphere and smashes into things, making them dead. The metal cable is attached to a giant crane-shaped satellite.

BEST IDEA EVER

Id like to see orbital platforms that can be built on and be used for building bases on and stuff i think that would be cool.

"Rods from God"

:? Awesome

Like good old Metal Fatigue!

Only then we'd need some mechs that could make orbit...

I am a bit late to the party but I think a Halo 2 like MAC Cannon that would annihilate incoming invading armies would be cool. It would be in my opinion a turtler's dream. To balance have it balanced it would be big, slow, very accurate, and require a massive amount of materials to make. As many materials as the asteroid, if not more.

+1 on that

small list of stuff and ideas

solar satellite that collects energy
anti nuke missile platform
radar satellite
anti radar satellite . so the enemy cant see your units on radar
early detection satellite for asteroids/bots that was shot by the bot cannon
auto targeting system for base defence that targets enemy on the radar
defence system weapon satellite for incoming bots in space (shot my the bot cannon)
kinetic weapon satellite that drops lots of small metal ball (meteor showers) on the enemy

Dropships of some sort.

Like an orbital unit cannon?

I think we all want a death star really lets be honest

it's not a death star, it's a peace moon.

http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0541.html

homeworld... such a great game ^^
but really hard

I don't want a death star, it would be way too powerfull