Unit Cannon: Design Vision

Just because it can pick up more than 1 unit doesn't make it a space ship, it doesn't even have any sort of weapon and so it wouldn't end up with star wars esque space combat, nor will it fly freely through the solar system.

A transport that could pick up five, maybe ten units would be perfect.

Just had a quick go, against normal AI. Rushed orbital, had some fun. 1 cannon wouldn't work for a comm snipe, three did though! Personally I see this as tool for sneaky counter attacks. This will add tactical strategic value. Well done Uber looking forward to seeing this develop.

@jables Can you tell us what sort of balancing / bug fixes to expect for the Unit Cannon before we all go crazy with suggestions and complaining? For instance is it intended that Orbital Defence or AA will become more adequate at targeting / swatting?

Why? Just build five or ten transports.

Well that's an argument that only go's so far with most.

Personally I agree with you, just build the needed transports, but until we have the UI to facilitate their mass usage, we might consider avenues.

I'm kinda hoping the unit cannon will get a little cheaper, and become a bit harder to counter by air units (it's currently too easy to invalidate an attack), I was hoping to be able to use it to reinforce an army during an attack or send a small flanking force.

I think that a 5 unit transport is enough. It sufficiently reduces micro without obseleting the need for a huge amount. Also, it could likely cut down on time a bit, which is just nice over all.

Edit: It would be even better if the astreaus was still cheaper per unit capacity. Doesn't make much of a difference late game, but pushes towards keeping the astreaus useful early/early-mid game.

Silly us, this thread is about the UNIT CANNON.

Just one complaint about the way the unit cannon works.
I do not like how the units arrive pinpoint (they did it in supcom 2 as well) and it looks weird.

If it is possible I would like to see the unit cannon pods arriving within a small area instead of 100% pinpoint.

Agreed at the moment it looks very very weird because they clip into each other and stuff, it looks impossible.

All we need is a couple meters of variation.

Seems expensive O.O

I would rather (in each pod):...
Dox x8, Slammers, Boom Bots x8, Grenadiers x3, Bolos Infernos (they are beefier and look like they would survive a fall), Spinners Stingers x4, and all t1 and t2 land fabbers, including combat fabbers.

Not being able to make T2 fabbers would help decrease the value of the unit cannon because you'd have to send other fabbers to the planet first and then teleport the T2 in or make a T2 factory on that planet.

That said, if we could make the combat fabbers a bit cheaper, then they can effectively replace the need for real engineers as they can set up teleporters and defences on a landing zone.

Even sending in 2 advanced fabbers right now lets you quickly build flak and towers needed to deal with any breach.

Very funny against the AI who shot in with bombers to kill my teleporter and having their whole air force shredded in seconds.

In the end it was more annoying than limiting, though. Staging facilities were required for extended patrols, much less for extended raids and suicide runs.
Fuel should have been much, much lower, and going without fuel for too long should have resulted in Mercy-style crashes.
Plus, fighters should have had much less fuel than bombers. With that in place, carriers would not have been needed to be relegated to pure factory work.

On topic: Unit cannon, yeah! More spread on impact would be welcome, as well as bigger batches for T1. And how about a self-constructing teleporter, send via the Unit Cannon? would make for awesome beachheads.

no to the last .. you have fabricators for that reason ...
what do you mean with bigger batches?

Just a short note: Unit Cannon should be also unlockable in the Galactic War Mode. Or is it already available and I just have to start a new war?

i don´t think they have included it into GW yet since it is still pte ...

I'm sure it'll be added once it's actually done and they have it's functionality nailed down and a bit closer to finished.

I still think the thing should be limited to firing between planets that orbit eachother. Both ways of course, but it just reaches too far this way.

Yeah maybe a kind of area target zone thingumabob would be good. It would make sense after all.

As it will be a far reaching change in gameplay, why should there be no testing for single player, too? It will probably need a lot of rework with the ai also.

Definitly supporting this!
I don´t like the unit cannon that much in its current form, but that´s mostly because it doesn´t feature any "continuos attack"-mode and you cannot see how many pods are loaded in right now! But in general, it´s great value and suiting very well. It doesn´t replace the gate strats, it doesn´t replace SSXing, it doesn´t replace Vanguard Drop AND it doesn´t cause much payne concerning general gameplay (Umbrellas are both anti-orbit and Anti-UC; you don´t need a dedicated unit to counter the pods1)

In other words: Diversity of tactics is supported without ruining any other option!

BTW: I prefer Kestrel-Patrol instead of Bomber-Patrol. Kestrels are just perfectly suited for that task. Bombers are more point-attackers and very vulnarable afterwards, while Kestrels are good all the way long!
Edit: On top of that, the unit cannon does even support gating! As you can UC some CombatFabbers on an enemy planet quite easily you are now able to build up many gates at once with ease!

I think a new separate ammo bar should help with this. If anyone has played the original dawn of war series, you might remember the "garrisoning" bar under garrisonable structures? It was this gray slotted bar that would fill up a slot each time a unit was stuck inside a structure. I think something like this would be useful for any weapon in PA, you can see how many shots the weapon will be able to fire, and then the bars can slowly fill up again while it is recharging.