Even if you aren't (I don't know, is this some sort of meme?) your post is still very relevant. 10/10, would read again.
I think i seen more gamers wrong about game design, than devs. I just see many gamers praise buffing their favorite weapons at the growing imbalance of the game. They don't care if they benefit. Not this case, but i say let's see more before we decide. We don't see real orbital currently.
I'm definitely in favour of orbital units that actually orbit. if the units are constantly in motion and all you can do is alter their heading, I think that's much more interesting than floating radar. To reiterate one of Nanolathe's points, what does concern me is the implication of escaping the gravity well at all will be tremendously expensive, making the interplanetary phase end-game. I don't think anyone actually wants that though. Including Uber, otherwise, why go to all that effort for 5% of the game?
They had plans for a "t1 rocket gantry" and a "t2 rocket gantry" iirc, and iirc one is for no-atmosphere asteroid/moon escape, the other is for regular-sized-planet escape. Generally, that is good, but with what you said in mind they could ever so slightly tweak this where it is fairly expensive but "t2" to travel off a full sized planet with a single non-commander unit, and it costs for the structure and per travel rocket... but "t3" allows you proper launch of the commander or a reuseable transport for small units. This depends on if you can start on a moon already or if your spawn is limited to planets beginning of game. Generally, if your map is a gas giant with tons of small asteroids and moons, you could skip stone across them all fairly quickly anyway.
I reckon it's worth waiting for Uber to finish and release the full set of orbital units first to see how they play like before deciding whether real orbits or not are worth it for the layer. I trust that Uber knows what they are doing since they are professionals and have been dealing with RTS systems in general for years at a high skill level, that's what they even get paid to do. In fairness 3 orbital units (1 being the factory itself) isn't just cause to go on crusades about one way or the other without having the rest of the units available (not only orbital units but the ground based systems as well). Patience is a virtue, so let's wait and see first.
Yes I know I'm invading all the threads, but do check this fake orbit proposal. I have spent hours on the diagrams and explanation: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/...s-intuitive-queuing-of-movement-orders.51056/
I agree. They are not very orbital. I also thought the Radar Satellite would move around the planet by itself.
