PTE build 79270-pte now up

@mered4 Unless I'm mistaken, it isn't so buggy that I can't set number of planets, size, starting positions or Halley count. It can't calculate Mex per player though.

The mod does clearly have benefits since it's just adding numbers into a field, but at that point, it's hardly random.

How about this; energy walls do not actually drain your energy on their own, but they do so by absorbing projectiles and they would shut down if your energy stalls?

Have no idea what kind of impact this would have in CPU drain though.

In reference to the walls, I LOVE the new artwork on them. However, since they already have an animation where the panels come up just after they are built, maybe you could provide a menu option on the right of the screen to lower selected ones back down, so your units can pass through them? Also, when you choose multiple wall sections to build in a row by dragging them across the screen, you cannot build a row of less than 6 wall sections (can't we make this 2?). This means that when you are trying to quickly enclose something with 4 wall sections, your Com/fabbers get stuck inside after they are done (because building them from inside out is the most efficient with respect to movement), which is another reason to have an option to lower walls.



Another off the cuff idea that the new artwork gave me is to make the walls solar, gathering energy from the sun when it shines on them. The sun could also possibly provide an HP boost when it shines on them. So, essentially what time of day that you attack would come into play. I'm thinking that night raids would become a strategic decision at that point. Until now, nothing has been done with the fact that we have a sun shining on the planets, besides introducing a shadow effect from it.

If the idea of making walls solar to create an alternate energy source, to address the energy problem, doesn't agree with people, then another idea is a cheap ground based unit to take advantage of the power from the sun. I'm thinking of something that looks like the Deepspace Radar, which opens when it's working in the day and closes at night when it's not.

This would be for people that don't want to take the time to actually create a system in the editor (which is getting more complicated now) every time they want to play something different. Also, this way, you can play the game as the host with the surprise of not knowing exactly what you are getting. With the way it is, this implementation is semi-random, but if you wanted truly random, then you would not provide a list of systems to chose from, would you?

@jables With the potential change to celestial observers what do you see as a viable strategy to detect someone building up on the gas giant? I definitely like the idea that deep space radar won't instantly give away your position anymore but I'm unsure of what method would now be viable to scout a Gas Giant.

Maybe the T2 radar should be given the ability to spot all Orbital units on the planet it is orbiting? Land visibility would be kept the same.

Been there, done that in the OWOM. There is a new building Darksteel created that has a very large orbital vision, but costs quite a lot of metal to make and is T2. It works quite well at 1500. Giving something *all vision* is a terrible idea and completely screws the intel game.

Use Adv. Orbital radars - they have a very, VERY large orbital radar range.

Sorry I was actually meaning the Adv. Orbital radars, not the T2 radar.

Again, let's not give something *all vision*. It breaks the intel game completely.

It's not "all vision" I'm asking for... it's just vision of all the orbital units of the particular planet that the Advanced Radar Satellite is orbiting. Currently the Deep Space Radar gives vision of all orbital units across the entire system plus those in transit between planets and it can be built by T1 fabbers. I'm asking for something that is built by the Orbital Factory and is quite expensive to have orbital visibility of one planet only. The change to the Deep Space Radar is game changing and I just think it will change the game too much without something else being added. Don't get me wrong, I think the change is a good move, but I just think something needs to be added to fill in the void. You would still have to invest quite a bit of resources and time for what I am proposing. The Advanced Radar Satellite would not give full "land" vision, this would still be limited to it's current radius, but gives full orbital vision for that planet. It's just an idea and I'm open to suggestions for tweaking my idea.

Again, no This Gives You All Vision of ANYTHING. The old Adv Radar sat had that and it was pretty much the thing EVERYONE used, even though it was the same cost as a nuke.

The game of orbital layer intel is here. There are plenty of ways to get orbital vision on planets you own, planets you don't own, and gas giants. There could be better ways to do this (add in a T2 structure that gives excessive orbital vision from the ground layer, for example), but what we have is just fine. It doesn't need fixed.

So what is the best way to scout the orbital layer of another planet that you are not currently on?

You have three options:

1. Send a Radar satellite
2. Send a ton of avengers
3. Send a Unit Cannon with a T2 Engineer in it, build a T2 radar and/or deepspace radar.

It's not easy to get vision, nor should it be.

I agree that it shouldn't be easy to get vision, but I also think you should be able to get some vision without having to blindly send units to their death.

You aren't blindly sending units to their death unless he already owns the planet. It also encourages orbital strongholds, especially early. Just drop three fabbers, build a couple of anchors, put an adv radar sat in the middle, and you're good. Expand as needed.

I can only assume you are seeing this from a 1v1 perspective only. I only ever play team games and with respect to team games i still think this knee jerk change to Deep Space Radar is too much. Only time will tell. I might be wrong.

Scouting a gas giant is going to be a slow process if you ask me. Maybe if they flesh out the orbital unit roster then things might be different.

What?

Since when?

FYI, I detest 1v1 play at the moment and hardly ever play them. I also have the most hours in the Orbital Warfare mod aside from the three developers.

This is not a knee jerk reaction. The Deep Space Radar has been broken since day one.

Knee jerk as in "swinging totally the other way". That was possibly the wrong term to use but you now know what I mean.

The radar was broken. The celestial radar somehow included all orbital vision, which was never intended. Fixing this problem and adjusting the orbital vision values on all units containing them is somehow extreme?

What?

I don't often agree with mered on balance issues but the orbital vision changes have definately been needed for a long time - i'm not convinced all the numbers are right yet but thats something we'll find out with lots of gameplay. Its never been possible to do anything sneaky in orbital and these changes totally change how I view the orbital layer, I suspect you'll see much more orbital now in standard 1v1 play even on single planet systems.

@mayhemster
I agree orbital will be used more in 1v1. The large cost of orbital kind of balances things there, but in large FFA I think orbital will be very strong (especially if gas giants are involved).