Thanks
Tarkin!
Yea, The Owl and Odin ideas felt like the cleanest and most right for fleshing out their existence in Zero-K as full units.
I really do appreciate anyone who takes the time to digest the rest. (and this too I hope)
The Crane change to Stork cost/speed/balancing values are probably op as they are now.
The main idea for that change was to make a Blitzkrieg style static defense airdrop kamikaze.
The whole point is to sacrifice eco (metal/energy/time/production invested in making Storks) for quick staying power.
This means that placing Mexes, Lotus, or any very cheap buildings quickly is possible in a constructor safe area.
It kind of leans into this Airplane burst attack ammo type warfare vibe that I get from the Airplane plant.
TLDR: Basically it is supposed to give a way to trade overall economy efficiency for burst spending.
That being said Eagle and Bat don't need ammo to deal damage (Eagle needing to rearm their shield and cannons but not their turret rear gunner and Bat using non-ammo lifesteal), but would make the Airplane plant more of a full standalone factory by completing the unit classes trio more traditionally with the Swift change in a way that seems fair and plane-y to me (turret gunners on a plane feels like a missed opportunity).
I hated how every other factory, even cheeky Gunship starters, felt so much more viable than planes
(I think planes are cool, but wait till you hear my ideas on adding trains, spaceships, and Voltron transformers!)
My thought process for finishing up the Airplane factory as a mainline non-support/secondary factory:
-
Question: Since planes are by identity very fast how do we make them fit into raider & riot roles rather than just long range weak bodied skirmishers?
-
Answer: Turn radius and attack range/position that forces certain approaches
Bat and Eagle have both have a huge turning radius making them "slower" & riskier at maneuvering over the map
Bat has to get into melee range to attack but doesn't need to rearm so it can be a proper damage riot
-
Question: If raiders are closer ranged than riots, how do we make them less ranged than melee?
-
Answer: The plane can has range behind itself so it has to enter enemy range and fly over then attack
That's why the Eagle has to fly completely straight to fire cannons (ammo like the Magpie, like bro I predicted it so I wanted to share what else I thought since I seemed to have aligned somehow) and has all of the non-ammo damage behind it
Also, I thought that a flexible strike aircraft would fit better historically/realistically since strike aircraft in real life were/are multipurpose tools with cannons and close air support defenses. These were of course applied either/or rather than at the same time. Therefore, I thought that, like the Odin, it should have a D-gun for protective measures, but centered around defending friendly air. I found the lack of decoy flares, infrared countermeasures, or any way to protect planes as a missed opportunity. The ammo non-regen shield (idk if they should link to each other or regen shields) is a very Zero-K sci-fi space-tech way to represent those defensive countermeasures in a way that seems fairer than a D-gun or automatic missile only prevention.
Sorry if this was another long winded read, but I wanted to make sure that my explanations/reasonings were thoroughly clear.
