New Plane Suggestion

The flying infiltrator is currently also known as Gnat.

This plane needs range and survivability otherwise it just does what Gnat should do. But is it really a good idea to have an EMP sniper plane? Perhaps, it seemed to be working in Imperial Winter. A fighter would increase options in fighter composition. The question is whether to have a reload between shots or whether to require repair pad reloading. This plane would be dangerous vs. ground (compared to fighters) so would need to be classed as a bomber for target priority purposes. AA and other fighters would kill it first which could make engagements with it quite expensive.

The has to be expensive, otherwise it could be spammed and split-attacked to do area-disabling similar to Thunderbird. It should also be expensive to increase the cost of the perfect Commander snipe. Such a unit could also be used by itself in conjunction with raiders. Thunderbird is at 550 metal and it is perhaps uninteresting if both disabling planes have similar cost. So 800 or 400 cost for the emp plane sounds reasonable, depending on the desired weight. At 800 cost it would want to disable most targets, depending on its survivability. Wyvern has significantly lower damage than Skuttle due to how much easier it is to target so perhaps the emp plane would lack the damage to efficiently stun Reapers. Or it could have less time as a different method of differentiation.

quote: Does that mean if someone makes a model it has to be used?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Well, we have precedent with flying Skuttle. The flying Skuttle is just 4x more expensive and has 1/4 the damage.

quote: Used with Ravens, it would allow them to hit a mobile target like a com without diving.

Thunderbird makes diving safe.

quote: It could be used to shut down single high value targets like Golly/DDMs with a reliability that the Stiletto dosn't have (often only partially-disarming heavies).

Thunderbird is cheap in comparison to those. Get more for reliability.

How about a flying unit that fires a continious beam of raw power that melts everything including flying units? It would be relatively fragile but have lots of dps.

Or a wizard plane, with a magic staff and riot sidearm :P

quote: So far as I'm concerned, you'd have to convince me that the inclusion of such a unit actually benefits the game.

I dont know about this unit suggestion, as Snuggles point about EMP being attached to plane being dangerous is probably true, but choking conservatism aside the Planes lab has the least interesting or varied lineup of all facs - two almost useless niche units (Vamp, Phoenix) and a lineup that otherwise offers very little in the way of alternative compositions.

How about a transformer that can switch from plane to robot?

quote: How about a plane that can morph into other planes?

Ditto

i think if you buff phoenix in some way you can safely remove raven dive. maybe a phoenix with a low-flying (though not slow) a-10 style strafing run would be easier to aim. Everyone loves the A-10