Unit cannon - is it a good idea?

Unit cannons everywhere.

Ones that fire unit cannons.

I searched google for an image of a cannon firing a cannon. The internet has failed me

That's a brilliant idea that I had read somewhere before, then forgot, and then remembered again. Unit cannons and all other means of moving between planets (other than teleportation) should have limitations or penalties according to gravity.

In addition, if we consider the real world for a second, a compact space cannon wouldn't work on the surface of the Earth because the projectile would burn up in the thick atmosphere we have. Unit cannons could thus be imposed a penalty if used on the surface of a terran type planet or any planet with a relatively thick atmosphere. For instance, units might lose health after being shot, and/or units would be forced to travel at a slower velocity, thus taking longer to reach the destination.

The unit cannon inaccuracy is also a brilliant idea.

I hadn't really considered interplanetary unit cannons, and it might well be too early to start talking about moving units between theatres of war when their mechanisms aren't yet known.

I was talking really about the cannon as in SupCom2 - using it on one planet to quickly move units to a new location. Does it enable any interesting strategies? Or do ground-based turrets mince the units so quickly that they have to be fired into an empty area?

If only you'd found one that somebody had taken using a Canon. Perhaps even somebody In the process of being recognised as a saint by the Catholic church.

Im assuming that theres only the one ocean planet and the once desert planet left ingame (Otherwise you could just go to a different planet/moon/astroid).

Let's see, orbital units to clear a space then send in engineers in to build up a base/army while your orbital units defend and harass? (I would be suprised if the orbital layer cant attack ground targets in some way, even if its just a bombarment ability). Or you might be able to do the same with air units (I assume you could build orbital and air on a naval planet, offcourse i have no idea if air units can be transported, but i would be highly suprised if you cant move orbital units between worlds).

But i belive that a situation like this would be very rare, if its anything like the concept trailer there will be aloot of astroids so i doubt they would be depleted before every planet is smashed to bits.

In the concept trailer the unit cannon is used to fire units from a moon down onto a planet. A interview with Uber has stated that moons and astroids can be moved into orbit around planets and that you can use said moon/astroid as a uber carrier that carries a army and transports it down onto other worlds, i assume it would be with units cannons.

I assume they might add other kind of artillery that can be fired at a planet from a orbeting body, so you could use artilliery to clear a space before launching your armada, offcourse i also assume that they will have missiles/rockets/artillery that can fire back at your moon/astroid.

Fair point, I do think it is worth talking about going from moons and asteroids to planet however as that is something that featured quite prominently in the game play visualisation.

People have been discussing whether orbiting bodies should be in PA, discussing planets orbiting the sun relative to each other may not be on topic here so I wont discuss them further, but moons and asteroids orbiting a planet is a consideration where unit cannons are concerned as it impacts the coverage of the cannon.

In order to be fair there are a number of situations that could eventuate.

1) Asteroid/moon orbits the planet, enabling each side a chance to capture it as quickly as the other and doesn't allow for an enemy base to hover in orbit over another players base through chance. In addition owners of said asteroid/moon only have periodic and limited time windows to launch assaults via unit cannon.

2) Asteroid/moon remains static but there are 2 or more which provide players on the planet equal opportunities and map coverage.

Of course this is assuming that players are beginning on the same planet which may not be the case. I for one favour the idea of having asteroids/moons in simple orbits around planets because the idea of optimal attack windows appeals to me.

In my experience firing units into a defended area was paramount to suicide as they would get minced as they arrived. They were generally more useful when fired just out of reach of enemy defences/units. They could be used to box in enemy forces which were on the run from units belonging to an ally or your own forces. More often than not unit cannons were a good way to quickly bolster the ranks of any groups of units you had within range of the cannon.

I could see in the trailer that the units being fired from the asteroid were packaged into groups that split apart just prior to landing, that could make unit cannons more versatile as units are arriving in parallel rather than series, making them less likely to be ground up on arrival.

baahahaha priceless

It's rumored that DaVinci was developing a catapult that catapulted other catapults, but it proved to be unreliable:



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Lastly, I don't think I want my unit cannons in the future to have the same accuracy of a three year old boy finally using the "big boy potty".

I do think that AA should be able to attack units en-route.

Would the unit cannon have a constant energy drain, or would it be like the Bertha cannon in TA where it had a huge drain when it fired but the drain was a short pulse?

I would also think that unit cannons would be only for transportation from and to orbit, due to course correction and avoiding unit cannons skimming units off of the sun.

Course correction and units bouncing off the sun? Don't forget avoiding Space Eagles and dodging intergalactic wizards on manoeuvres.

Where on earth did you get those from?

Well you do need to go around stuff, and seeing as planets move an cannon might not be the best choice.

And going near the sun is fatal, so planets that are on the other side of the system would be unreachable by it.