Hey guys! Not sure if this has already been addressed or what, but I recently saw this thread on bridges, and I couldn't help but wonder, Will we be able to build roads or paths on a planet or asteroid? Here are just a few of my personal ideas: 1. These roads will obviously allow a speed boost through whatever terrain it encounters. 2. They could be used to organize bases or have a way to evacuate quickly. 3. I even had an idea about being able to build a "fake" road of sorts. Something like you could booby trap the road with mines. I'm not a very techie person, so I'm not even sure this would be feasible. What are your opinions?
Building roads/highways falls under the guise of low level terraforming. Might be cool. It really depends on how strongly unit movement responds to terrain. Since you're new I'll mention that transports and unit cannons are popular options to get units across distant reaches of land. Roads may not even be required if a superior option can be used from inside the base. At the very least, it's virtually guaranteed that we'll be able to suck up obstructing foliage/wreckage/rocks to make clearer paths for units.
Yes, however, this thread was made back when the kickstarter was nearly brand new. I would like to see some updated feedback. I appreciate your concern, but I actually have been on PA Forums since the Kickstarter. I just tend to be a lurker sometimes Concerning the actual topic at hand, I think the cannon would be a bit overkill to get from one side of the base to the next. I could understand Moon to Planet, but to get a few miles wouldn't do much. Which is another reason why I seem to enjoy the roads idea a bit more. Smaller scaled.
You don't think 6 pages of discussion is enough for the subject? I'd think the thread speaks for itself really. It's not like the mechanics of roads in RTS games has changed drastically in the last few months(to my knowledge at least). At the very least we should be using the old thread instead of starting new ones for discussing the same topic. Mike
Edit: I was trying to figure out why the link wasn't working. Looks like it doesn't like returns in the link. It'll work if you put it all in the same line.
I think the general consensus was that the extra work involved in making roads would be an irritating nuisance, plus you're not likely to use the same path many times on any relatively-open map. I agree with this for the reasons above, and also because it reminds me very strongly of drawing endless power lines in SimCity, and I don't want to be doing that in SuperRobotSmasher 3000. And also from a realism point of view, tanks do not really function better on roads (and they make a hell of a mess of them), and theoretical legged bots would gain little advantage either.
An engineer could conceivably terraform any type of terrain to fit perfectly in its tracks. But it's even easier to modify itself to speed across the terrain. Considering the cost of road building, it is not a good idea to create something that can be used by the enemy. It is similarly a bad idea to build something that is trivially destroyed (roads tend to be non hostile). If the terrain provides a natural advantage, there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of it. Worlds are just a resource like anything else, and it is better to milk it for oneself.
Or just invent a kind of ferry system for aircraft? Could be fun to have an intergrated ferry port for the use of drone transports to go from port to port that the player selects. Might be a little easier then creating one manually, and could be useful when moving mass units with a structure to rebuild shot down transports.
I fixed the link, not sure how it got by me like that. So then are you saying you know of points regarding the topic that were not raised in that thread? Exactly, between FA's ferry system and the hope for Orders as First Class Entities in PA a Ferry system would be very powerful indeed. Mike
What about if roads formed automatically? Like if terrain is traveled over a lot roads would form from all the tank treads and foot steps. That ways you don't have to worry about making roads. They just form where you actually need them!
Well, one new bit of information we DO have is that they have a terrain system where they're going to be able to paint on the terrain permanently (tire tracks, sand tracked onto dirt, scuff marks etc). Having a unit 'construct' roads like that is probably possible.
While I don't understand the intricacies of it, SupCom has several different methods of ferrying units with air transports. First, simplest and fastest is to assist a factory with an air transport and put the rally point where you want your units. This will make the transport collect units from the factory (or factories if you assisted the master factory with several slave factories) until it is full and then transport them to the rally point and return to do it again. Now the the other I haven't fooled with much, but you can set two waypoints for your air transports, select ground transports and then the waypoints and sometimes they will ferry them out and back, and sometimes they won't. If someone actually knew how that worked that would be great, but as it is air transports are more than capable of moving units at higher speeds than standard travel.
I was aware of how they worked but thanks anyway. But also to the idea of a automatic ferrying structure, designed to be equiped with drone transports that get automaticly rebuilt if shot down as a kind of solid transport system.
