Planetary landings, how do they work?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by acey195, August 22, 2012.

  1. acey195

    acey195 Member

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    Say you are playing a 4 player FFA game and you have defeated the other player on your planet and want to attack the player that is left on the other planet.

    how is this player able to defend against your transports, and how are you able to secure a foothold on this planet?

    space combat itself would be very hard to design a decent interface/camera for. But I read that the game could feature a orbital layer with satellites and such, maybe here space battles can be fought, with support of long range defenses on the planet?

    I guess for an assault to be a success on a mostly occupied planet, you would need to be able to destroy a not-well defended area and start building an outpost there.

    another way would be just landing a troop transport there. But without the other player able to guess where you are going to land, or able to stop you from landing, would be a kind of lame imo.

    also just spaceships in orbit giving support fire...
  2. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    Planets should be so big that it is hard enough to cover everything with point defenses.
    Landing transports should imho just at first count as an air unit, as the have entered the atmosphere and then just act like air transports in FA.
    We dont need spaceships for this. However I think some air-fighters, that are capable of "jumping" between planets could be fine.
  3. conqueringfools

    conqueringfools Member

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    In the promo video there is that cannon on the moon loading up little kbots and launching them towards the planet.

    Maybe have something similar for aircraft? Something along the lines of a long railgun type structure that the planes fly through and accelerate out of, kind of like the way they would when you had them pass through an aircraft carrier in SupCom:FA.
  4. ghargoil

    ghargoil New Member

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    I would like to see space battles, IF possible. Neutrino or some other rep for Uber said something like that they'd see if it worked out and was do-able (in an intuitive / playable / fun way).

    Even if full-on space battles are not present, I see three scenarios for space-travel:
    • In-Transit - Units/Missiles/Packages are between planets/moons/asteroids
    • In-Orbit - Units are in orbit around a planet/moon/asteroid, OR units/missiles/packages are passing-through orbit to either the surface or deep-space.
    • Atmospheric - Units/Missiles/Packages are in the atmosphere of the planet, either taking off, or heading towards the surface (or towards a flying target)

    Targets that are "In-Transit" can be engaged by long-range missiles, railguns, and/or lasers. The particular weapon systems that can be used vary depending on whether or not the target is "In-Transit" between a planet and its moon, between planets, or between star systems. (e.g., long-range surface-to-space missiles could hit targets between a planet and its moon, long-range orbital missiles could hit targets between planets, and only the most powerful railguns could [possibly] hit targets between star systems.)

    Targets that are "In Orbit" can be engaged by orbital defenses, and surface-to-orbit weapons, along with any extreme range weapons capable of bombarding the planet's surface. So for example, ASAT weapons could be launched from the surface to hit targets in orbit, etc. Targets that are attempting a planetary landing will pass through the 'in-orbit' phase briefly, allowing orbital weapons to target them before they land.

    Targets that are "Atmospheric" can be targetted by any AA defenses, aircraft, etc.. just as though it was an aircraft. This applies for anything that passes through this 'layer', including ground units that are doing a planetary landing.
  5. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    There is actually something we've kinda forgotten, Just because you put engines on an asteroid or moon doesn't mean you HAVE to ram in into something, I think it's been mentioned somewhat that you can move they things into orbits around other planets. so you wouldn't have to necessarily capture his moon before having a decent platform, if he even left it in it's orbit you know?

    Mike
  6. ghargoil

    ghargoil New Member

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    Yeah!

    And, what if I built up an asteroid to be bristling with guns... I could use that as my ASTEROID OF DOOM and send it as part of a fleet to bombard an enemy planet into submission (without having to sacrifice the asteroid in the process...)

    Also, what about resource asteroids? I could move my resource asteroid to help build up stuff on a new planet (or to help out a friend)...
  7. acey195

    acey195 Member

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    well yeah that could work :), I don't know if there need to be any alternatives though.
    But yeah, bringing a couple of asteroids in orbit, crash one of them into the landing spot and launching a assault could work I guess.
  8. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    Well, I'm assuming all asteroids will have some form of resources on them, it adds the risk/cost of using them as a fortress and/or a KEW (aside from the cost of building the right buildings) and forces the player to choose between more resources or using it as a weapon.

    Mike
  9. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I was just thinking: it should be cheap to send off single small units to other planets.
    You need to be able to spread over many planets quickly, so games can get really epic with many planets involved
  10. acey195

    acey195 Member

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    ow yeah, what is also bugging me, what if an asteroid would make a "soft" landing(an asteroid remaining intact upon contact with a planet)... if that were allowed, that would also screw up the game logic quite bad... so I guess that is out of the question?
  11. KNight

    KNight Post Master General

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    Well based on the Video, it'll take some investment to leave the planet, to top it off so far we've only seen the commander do this. But once you get to the Moon it seems like it'd be a lot easier to travel between different planets/moons/asteroids.

    Which I like, it's kinda like a natural tech progression, once you get to a moon and expand your Eco all that more expensive stuff because a lot easier to do, promoting your expansion to other planets and such.

    I don't see it being an option, I'm sure we'll be provided with other options for getting troops from space onto a planet.

    Mike
  12. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    It could just end up beeing a big piece of stuff to reclaim.
    Actually in the pcgamer interview they said that they have to actual idea that with stuff like asteroids falling on planets the planets will get unusable, so it would perfectly fit if, i.e. the remains of the asteroid just stay on the surface of the planet and block it, turning it into a wasteland.

    EDIT: er, wait you mean like land so soft that units on it are intact and moving after the landing? No... not so soft xD
  13. acey195

    acey195 Member

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    well yeah, that was basically what I meant :p

    but unless the devs already have an solution to this, I think this is never gonna work (terrain and camera wise) I just wanted to get the idea of my heart XD, not to give the devs headaches (just some mental practice to keep in shape)
  14. gearsb

    gearsb New Member

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    Soft landings would be very awesome, imagine, you build a base on an asteroid, built some engines on the other side, the put the asteroid on a collision course for the enemy planet.

    Once you get close to the planet, flip it around so the engines decelerate the asteroid so you can surf your base down from orbit on the asteroids back.

    Pure Awesome.

    Once you land, have the asteroid basically merge with the planet, leaving you're base on top of a asteroid mountain, with a crater around it.

    The shockwaves would be useful for clearing out any enemy units around the impact site, and you can have your army just march right off and go to war.
  15. Regabond

    Regabond Member

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    That would be pretty cool. Think of landing that asteroid in an enemy base then unloading all your troops right there.
  16. ghargoil

    ghargoil New Member

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    I'm gonna second this.

    It doesn't make sense from any stretch of a realism POV, and you'd crush side of your asteroid base. And... ah, yeah, no, please no! :lol:

    Lets just leave that kinda stuff for some kind of Orbital Dropship filled with troops and tanks...
  17. neutrino

    neutrino low mass particle Uber Employee

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    The basic idea is the deeper the gravity well the more resources you need to invest to get out. For example the landers can fly from airless moons and asteroids below a certain mass. If you have an atmosphere and a large planet you need something like the rocket to orbit or a escape.
  18. majord

    majord New Member

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    How would it screw up the game logic? Couldn't the rock just cease to be orbital and lock itself to the planet's surface until re-launched? I think Kerbal Space Program doesn't something like that with objects which count as in-atmosphere.
  19. acey195

    acey195 Member

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    I am no programmer by trade, but since the asteroid uses its own map and camera when you rotate around it (I think) it would be really strange to have that on one planet. Also, what would happen to the aircraft that are in the sky, can they simply go around the asteroid? Could the terrain handle such a change, or would the asteroid be so large that it would create all kinds of issues. These kind of things would all need to be addressed, just so "soft" landings would work. While cool, I am unsure the devs will find it worth the trouble.

    Thx for explaining how the planetary lift-off works :). But I actually meant planetary assault, maybe I should have phrased it better:

    Basically taking over a planet without destroying it (entirely).
    How would that work? Also if there is no definite answer yet, that's fine of course. ;)
  20. Raevn

    Raevn Moderator Alumni

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    Please please please let epic mass airdrops of some description be possible. It was shown in the first trailer for the original Supreme Commander, but never actually worked like that due to the way ferry was implemented (the ferry point would dissappear if the transport that made it died).

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