Allied units should not auto targed enemy units loaded in transports

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PRs welcome.

but said insta kill attack can be countered from arty range x,x

Zero-K and logic?

quote: Allied units should not auto targed enemy units loaded in transports

This sounds ok for some cases, except in other cases you would want some sort of toggle that made them target enemy units. Manually targeting enemies below a transport is a pain.

quote: Its thematically incoherent. If transports can disable enemy units perfectly after picking them up, why is that technology not used in offensive units? Why is there no flying robot chipper unit?

I don't think having unit designs that make sense in terms of realistic military design is part of the theme of ZK, so there isn't anything incoherent about it. Is Fencer's weapon really so heavy that a Ravager chassis could not carry it while moving? Why are the 'best' units spread around between factories? Why don't bombers fly much higher?

quote: I would endorse the removal of offensive transport usage. Based on previous conversations I don't expect it to happen.

I don't want to restrict interactions without sufficiently strong reasons. One good reason is that you shouldn't have your units stolen through inattention. This is an argument for having kidnapping only be possible on stunned enemies, but then transports no longer force Crab out of position.

quote: I don't think having unit designs that make sense in terms of realistic military design is part of the theme of ZK, so there isn't anything incoherent about it. Is Fencer's weapon really so heavy that a Ravager chassis could not carry it while moving? Why are the 'best' units spread around between factories? Why don't bombers fly much higher?

As I mentioned I understand Zero-K is full of examples of this, but transports having a "weapon" that nobody else does is a particularly egregious example.

And the problem with completely ignoring military design coherence is that it makes the game unintuitive. Normally you don't expect a transport to have secret weapons nobody else uses, which is why newbs always fall for traps like this and why even veteran players regularly forget transports can do things like this. Things that completely contradict intuitive logic ultimately feel like BS, even if they're balanced.

Also, one might argue that Zero-K's design doesn't quite allow transportation to be simulated properly. Disabling units during transport is also a limitation on interactions. Enabling them during transport isn't an option because balance. Not allowing transporting enemies makes about as much intuitive sense as allowing it, if not more so.

Yesterday I tried to make a small zoo in a lobster pot from newbz coms(gnats+transport+cap car),

I got 2, captured 3rd but it was low HP, almost carried it to my zoo and then nearby wubwub auto targeted it with his com and killed...
In the same game I captured enemy jug, allied sniper shot at it but hit my transport instead(wtf?), killing it

Also transport does not have a secret weapon, think of it that they have some kind of temporal stasis device(which would be true looking at how coms lose their innate income of e/m while being transported)
You can only put your units inside this device or enemy units that have been disabled(effectively becoming useless metal bricks)

That is great frustration when nearby ally killing your napped com or unit which was to be converted and make another glorious journey. Hercules should also not able attack units which it carry.
Napping is cool. Offensive transport tactics is hard to use in most cases especially of enemy have decent air. So i don't see any argument for removing it. Even if it high risk and high reward strategy. Sometimes it work as great crab counter or even rushed counter against strider.

"I don't think having unit designs that make sense in terms of realistic military design"


no this game is real life and i dont want to let the fans down so i spoke to the engineers and they told me..


"the emp pulse has been so effective that machines are now emp resistant.. after a while more powerful generators allowed stronger emp.. but however the emp is much weaker over distance.. the transport uses a close contact momentary emp but sadly cannot generate the excess energy required to run hacking, nanobot lathes, or even any lasting emp effect upon breaking contact.

another prototype was scrapped early in development by ai simulated trials the ai assessed the likelihood of the transports encountering a capture and kill scenario .. in the end the belly d-gun was dropped. opting to keep only the ability to deactivate an enemy. because it was cheaper and the ai was programmed to conserve resources while new front-lines were being formed

additional:
although in space the front-line generally consists of sensors and stealth hunter seeker drones and these are of course cheap.. space is so vast that it costs a staggering amount.. so much so that the ai re wrote its own directive when ordered to strategize the liberation of the home sector.. insisting the ground forces could not be entirely overlooked. "to win the war in space we will loose a million worlds for a thousand years.. but to win this war at all many key strategic battles must be fought and won on the ground."

additional additional .. you know all those times i express creative unstructured ramblings.. and then people are like ohh its weed dragon again and then im like all in a huff or whatever.. well today i really did have a smoke.. soooo..

i guess it doesn't really matter too much.. but still going to say ~ dont do drugs kids..
i may be a hypocrite warning people all the time not to smoke if i have the occasional =/


oh and happy Halloween unless you hate Halloween in which case sorry lol

Charon's slot could easily be a pure logistics (multi)transport, while Herc gets to be the evil assault flying prison.