So how do you make the first move when attacking a planet?

So lets say 2 players have expanded over multiple planets and they finally come together. If ur not hurling moons at each other or using cannons to blast units at a planet what other mechanisms are there for launching an invasion?

The way it stands players are gonna have to tech race to moonslam each other all the time and never use units?

Part of me wishes i was just getting an updated TA without all this planet stuff. If they pull it off it will be cool but i am just finding it hard to imagine right now.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

From the articles, interviews and concept trailer im assuming that every starting planet will contain more then one player. So the first battles would most likely happen on those planets.

Other then that we do have unit cannons (You can load a moon full with your units, build aloot of units cannons, move it into orbit around a enemy world, and send down the armada), teleportation has been mentioned (as likely to be in the late game), they have also claimed to have "aloot of ideas" for transfering units between worlds, so dont worry.

Theres also the fact that you wont allways profit from destroying enemy worlds, it depends on how much they have on the world in question, if the enemy presence is small it may be worth it to invade instead.

There will most likely be a counter to the astroid planet killers, in the trailer they used missiles, i assume that if enof missiles was built it would destroy the astroid enof for it to burn up when entering the planets atmosphere.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

begin by clearing a small area , possibly with missiles or equivalent, to quickly establish a landing zone clear of the enemy

land ground troops, by unit cannon or dropship equivalent and construction units and throw up some basic defenses, keep some units in orbit to use with unit cannons as a fast reaction unit, cleansing the planet with an asteroid is a last resort

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

alcheron mentioned some tactics you could use but to be fair its too early in development to be able to give specifics on units. Moon slamming is, clearly a last resort even if there are only two players. Because first of all, it is not necesserily a sure win to destroy a planet, or necesserily even going to be successful if the planet is defended well enough. Second, there may only be so many moons.

I think the game is engineered so that eventually there will not be any more space to expand, every moon you throw away is less resources/space for you to build on so a guy who may simply be sitting back ,defending himself and not destroying his moons. May have more resources and unit production, furthermore, I dont think anyone is just going to let someone tech up to moon slamming as easy as that, theres going to be battles fought over moons eventually. Rushes on the engines before it can be finished etc.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

Can't forget about Moon/Asteroid Carriers.

I'm quite surprised the planet stuff doesn't interest you at all though. :I

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

If you really don't like it you are able to play games featuring a single planet and no other celestial bodies.

Everyone's a winner

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

One question to consider here is what does it cost to hurl an asteroid at a planet? Now consider that vis-a-vis the other strategic options available. It's a high cost but potential high reward strategy that cost wise only makes sense in a "target rich" environment.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

true a kinetic strike would be cheaper, but i would lose access to a potential source a resources to better enable me to project my power across the battlefield

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

As an alternative, send engineers under the cover of radar jammers to begin building enough infrastructure to unlock your resource base, and then attempt to match their production in an all out brawl that they never saw coming.

I think that's kinda how it worked in TA's story, remaining hidden or undercover until you can openly engage the enemy.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

As a follow-up question:

Should nukes be able to travel to other planets, or are they limited to lower orbit of a specific planet?

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

I think that there SHOULD be nukes that can travel to other planets, but it wouldn't be the default nuke. Basically, a longer range should equal a much higher price.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

if you think about it, I don't that would work. Can an anti-nuke stop an interplanetary nuke? If so then by the time you can make the more expensive nuke everybody will already have anti-nukes.

Conversely, if you need a separate anti-nuke for the different missiles you would get the slightly absurd situation where a “better” nuke would be stopped, but a surface nuke could get through if the target had only the higher-level defence.

It would be like having a TMD in SupCom that could stop tac missiles but not the missiles launched by mobile missile launchers.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

I can say I like how easy it is to stop enemy strategic missiles, most likely interplanetary nukes would have to be built from rocket gantry's, requiring the cost of both.

I could easily see Mirv warheads being used, allowing you to throw off anti-nuke missiles.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

I thought the whole point is that anti-nukes are far easier to build than nukes. That way you can't just rush nukes and win. You have to destroy the anti-nukes through some other means first then launch your nukes. This would make sense in this context if the anti-nukes could destroy both.

I've always thought that was just how the concept worked.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

Indeed, but I feel like in SC1 nukes become totally invalidated in the assault of actual bases.

Either anti-nukes should take longer to build or nukes should be more devastating for when they do hit, none of this factory's surviving an atomic explosion crap!

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

I thought the whole point is that anti-nukes are far easier to build than nukes. That way you can't just rush nukes and win. You have to destroy the anti-nukes through some other means first then launch your nukes. This would make sense in this context if the anti-nukes could destroy both.

I've always thought that was just how the concept worked.[/quote]

Personally, I'd like to see nukes used for more than attacking bases. Due to their cost, they're unfortunately pigeon holed into the "super weapon" category. I'd like to see nukes cheap enough to be used for other strategic purposes, such as clearing an area for an invasion. In exchange, there could be more ways to counter them (satellite anti-nukes?).

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

Personally, I'd like to see nukes used for more than attacking bases. Due to their cost, they're unfortunately pigeon holed into the "super weapon" category. I'd like to see nukes cheap enough to be used for other strategic purposes, such as clearing an area for an invasion. In exchange, there could be more ways to counter them (satellite anti-nukes?).[/quote]

Id like to see the idea of anti-nukes missing be expanded, as it is now the only time they miss is when there was another target.

I think a type of tactical nuke might also be good, similar to tac missiles but for the role of AOE bombardment in places artillery cannot reach.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

Heh, I like this because it actually ties together about three or four other topics that have existed here at one time or another. IMO I think that there are grounds for several means of engagement. I do feel however, that there is no reason why a player should have to land on a planet in order to defeat an enemy. Much the same way that you didn't have to land on islands in any other game to conquer them. In a lot of cases the method used to erradicate enemy presence on a planet is contextual.

There are a lot of things we have to consider here. For example:
1.) Strength and density of enemy presence.
2.) What our current state of technology is.
3.) Relative distance of attack to the enemy planet.
4.) What we currently have available to attack with.
5.) How much resource we have available to build new things to attack with.
6.) What kind of defences the enemy has to prevent an attack.

And this will effect the means that we might choose to engage by. More examples:
1.) Send a commander/engineer via rocket gantry to planet to establish a rival colony.
2.) Use unit cannon (or dropships depending on distance) to land an attacking force planet side.
3.) Orbital bombardment with artillery or satellites to clear a landing zone for a beachhead.
4.) Orbital battles for control of orbital 'airspace' leading to point 3.
5.) Asteroid strike! When all else fails.

It's safe to say that this list isn't exhaustive, but I think it gives a few good ideas about how there should be many ways of attacking an enemy occupied planet. I think the important thing is to keep the gameplay dynamic and engaging. Players must be able to fight effectively at every layer of the game. This means attack, defend and counter attack. However, like in previous games I think players should be punishable by an observant/experienced enemy if they neglect aspects of the game. For example, a strong presence on the planet surface with no orbital presence should result in heavy losses or even defeat if they fail to address the issue quickly.

I acknowledge I also neglected to mention a few things. For example:
1.) Mobile asteroids and moons. Though that does fit in with some of the above mentioned points.
2.) You might not even necessarily want to land on the planet so you might stop at orbital layer and use satellites and artillery to shell them to oblivion if the enemy is stupid enough to let you do it. Then you simply drop in a small force to go down and mop up.
3.) If you do land on the planet I think there should be various methods available to you to reinforce your troops. More dropships, unit cannons and building factories are obvious ones.
However, I think there should also be options for you and your enemy to utilise the rest of your galactic empire to reinforce your front lines via the use of galactic gates or some other such mechanism of closed end teleportation. Build units all over the solar system and harness the build power of your entire empire to reinforce your war machine. Not that you couldn't do this by transporting your units with dropships and such like. But it's much faster this way and there's a lot less logistics involved. Plus teleportation has been mentioned a few times here and I must say I heavily object to the open ended variety.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

Planetary invasion opens up a whole new world of awesome strategic tools. Drop pods, orbiting cannons, moon carriers, hollowed-out trojan horse asteroids, building a stealth base under radar-jamming... the list of possibilities goes on.

If the enemy is heavily entrenched I would love to use a few drop pods to deploy a squad of heavy hitting, close range bots that could clear a LZ right in the middle of the enemy. I like in-your-face, heavy, aggresive tactics.

And here's an example of what I think would make a good researchable unit upgrade: reactive hulls on drop pods that detonate on impact, dealing heavy damage to anything within a given radius.

Re: So how do you make the first move when attacking a plane

once you're in orbit you don't have to hit the enemy where their troops are, you can choose to hit them where their troops aren't, maximize the destruction by sending down small groups to multiple locations spreading out the defenders before landing a larger force