Air Unit Concept: Mantis

While thinking about what to submit for the unit design competition, I came up with a few ideas which I combined into a new Terran unit called the Mantis.

I'll be submitting the drawings in the competition, but I wanted to go ahead and submit the unit concept to you guys perusal...

Brilliant (?) Idea #1: Orbital Mines
I was thinking, why are mines and explosives only kept to ground units? Why not have a floating mine that serves as air defense? The idea actually spun off of some modern comparisons. Nowadays we have battleships, these obviously = Battlecruisers. The other main ship type we have are Carriers... the Protoss obviously have those. Then you have all kinds of little frigates, gunboats, etc... none of that stuff is very cool. But I realized there is one element of naval combat which we haven't seen a space version of... submarines!

The main point of submarines is stealth, and we do already have some stealthed air units, so I wanted to use a different core dynamic of the submarine. And hence the floating mine concept. I think it could really add some interesting dynamics.

Brilliant (?) Idea #2: Ramming
I mentioned this briefly in another thread with a different unit concept, but I was really thinking it would be cool to have a ship which uses the most tried and true method of causing destruction to other vessels. This followed right up on the submarine thoughts, because the earliest submarines used ramming to deliver explosive charges.

So I ended up thinking it would be really awesome to combine both ideas in a single unit... the Mantis. The Mantis is a small, very fast and quite agile craft. It has average health, and good armor. Roughly diamond shaped, the Mantis functions primarily to manufacture small, yet powerful, orbital mines which hang virtually invisible in the air, waiting for enemy ships to blunder into them. Secondly, the Mantis has a reinforced nose specifically designed to ram enemy vessels - especially capital ships - and deliver powerful magnetic pulse charges in the ensuing breach. This attack would be quite powerful. Yet with each attack the Mantis would itself be damaged somewhat - thus timely repair cycles would be vital. The attack itself would be somewhat slow, because the Mantis would have to disengage from it's target, fly a short distance away and charge again each time.

Lastly, the Mantis would be powered by several large banks of engines, capable of generating enormous thrust (and speed) and able to use virtually anything as fuel. This would allow the Mantis to receive a, "Universal Fuel Style Engine" upgrade. This upgrade would not change the Mantis movement in any way - but it would allow the Mantis to make a third form of attack. The Mantis could cut back it's engines temporarily, and discharge all sorts of debris which would've normally been consumned... this would in effect act as a powerful flechete discharge to anything behind the Mantis - doing medium damage and slowing anything caught in the area of effect. This attack would have a lengthy cooldown, and the Mantis would be slowed temporarily after casting it.

The Mantis would have one outstanding weakness. With all of it's attacks purely effective against air units, and it's body structure designed specifically for aerial combat, the Mantis would appear vulnerable from the ground. Ground units would thus cause increased damage against the Mantis.

I await your thoughts... =]

EDIT: PHOTOS!!! (sorry, they aren't the best quality... had to take webcam pics tho)

[img width=640 height=480]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/NateSMZ/Picture149.jpg[/img]

Side View​

[img width=640 height=480]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/NateSMZ/Picture148.jpg[/img]

Top Down View​

 

It's great! Will you enter the competition?

 

sure will be =] , I'll submit drawings later today - I'm pretty sure today is the last day to turn things in, yes?

 

Well, actually deadline will be about an hour. ;D You better hurry up.

EDIT: Btw, there're only 4 entried at unit design so if you enter, you'll have a big chance on getting an award unlike the poem and short story.

 

great concept, i hope you win

 

From what I read it seems like a cool idea, very nice, but you'll need a nice concept to make it perfect.

 

i really like the mines, but the ramming seems pretty weird

 

Hmmm sorry but I'm not feeling it. It just seems kinda gimmicky and not that useful.

 

please explain a bit if you don't mind... orbital mines are gimmicky? or not useful? ramming is a gimmick? or not useful? a flechete rear attack is gimmicky? or not useful?

gracias

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also, I updated the first post with my drawings... I got done too late for the competition - but oh,well - felt like drawing it anyway...

 

While i do like the idea as of right now i cant really think of a use for it (besides the mines which could very easily end up to powerful or to weak) The Terrans already have a very effective way of dealing with captital ships Namely the yamato cannon. Also i could very easily see this unit suffer from overspecialization It attacks capital ships what else (within reason)?

Again i think the idea is good but i dont think it woould work very well with the current terran force.

 

well, I think it would - to make a comparison - end up like the Siege Tank -> Thor mechanic in the air...

Mantis would be a good heavy hitting unit, if a bit slow to attack - since all its attack forms are a lil tricky to pull off right - while the Battlecruiser would also be able to hit hard, but take a much larger damage soaking role....

I do realize however that this unit kinda overlaps the Predators role (anti-air support) ... as such I doubt it even bears real consideration - but I just like the ideas

 

Again i really like the idea but until the battlecruiser losses its ability to deal with carriers/battlecruisers the unit just wouldn't be practical.

But just for the humor of the idea what would happen if this unit attacks an air superiority fighter? or what happen if it could attack ground? Finally what kind of attack would the flechete attack most resemble?

 

oh, as I imagined it, it could ram other fighters - just it would be most effective against capital ships, because those are less agile and also higher priority targets....

it would be pretty funny to attack ground targets - I can't come up with a way to make that viable... it is a funny mental picture tho

the flechete attack would resemble a psi storm most I think, in that it would damage a pretty large area of effect - it would however be much less dangerous - it would be more of an annoyance, and possible last resort style attack than a typically used ability in battle

 

The reason i asked about other fighters is because the bigger the mantis is the less maneuverable it will be and in turn it would be harder to hit enemy fighters. But the Mantis would need to be somewhat large to be effevtive against captial ships at all. So they seem like mutually exclusixe attacks. As for ground attacks what if it could just attack buildings because they share similar properties as captial ships?

 

ahhh - well, we get around that problem by giving the attack more of an effect than just ramming - basically, it rams to deliver a powerful charge of some sort - the weapon type, whatever it is, isn't able to be equipped to missles, rockets, etc yet... so the Mantis delivers it point blank - rams, delivers payload in the breach, then skidaddles

thus it's effectiveness against vessels much larger than itself - and a bit of a waste to do it to a small fighter type

 

Yah but how does that explain what happens when the unit hits a zerg considering the zerg are biological. Also considering the size of carries and battlecruisers relative to the size of a fighter. I keep getting th image of the mantis being like a bee relative to captial ships and its sting having a similar effect.


P.S. Im sorry for repeatedly poking holes in your ideas i just always try poke as many holes as i can inot an idea and then when it is fixed it is that much stronger.

 

don't worry - I don't mind constructive criticism - in fact I like it... I only get annoyed when ppl give negative feedback without any explanation - when you for instance go: "I'm not sure about that because this reason and that reason, etc". I'm happy about that, because it gives me something to think about and perfect the idea or spawn new ones. But when somebody is just like: "I think that idea is imbalanced." Then the steam starts coming out my ears =P

And I don't think the zerg being biological really changes much.... standard weapons hurt all three races the same, whether it's tough skin, metal armor or mental energy. So I think blunt trauma and whatever the payload is, (I haven't pinned down the idea for the type of energy that should accompany the ramming) should be effective regardless of which faction is on the receiving end.

And instead of a bee, think of it being like a spider... even little spider can kill big animal. =]

 

i like your idea.it's very intereting and creative.i see your unit basically as a vulture with a melee attack(sorry if this sounds ofensive,it is not,i asure you),and i like it,but i am not so sure about the ramming thing.i mean,it sounds ok and all,but wouldn't the Mantis be destroyed far too quickly that way ??i am sure it wouldn't have as much health as a BC,so i'd guess it would be able to do one attack,and then be destroyed.also,i'd guess the discharge attack would be auto aimed once activated,right ??because otherwise it would be a bit too difficult to use it...

but don't get me wrong,i really liked your Mantis,it was very well done ^^

 

far less health than a Battlecruiser - but it's nose is actually armored heavier... I'm working on fleshing out a concept describing this right now... I've got the basics in my head, just trying to figure everything out before I post about it... and it dovetails right in with the key to the ramming... the ramming isn't really to cripple the other ship, (although I suppose ramming a Mutalisk would cause grevious damage in it's own right) the ramming is mainly to cause a wound that can be exploited with a direct powerful attack, which current tech can't put in missile form yet

The discharge from the rear... I hadn't thought of it as auto-aimed... that might be good... but the idea I kinda started from was that basically, lets say you've got a Mantis that has done several ramming attacks already and it's trying to get back to base to get repaired.... a swarm of enemy fighters approaches on a trajectory to cut your Mantis off however - you take evasive action and dump a cloud of junk in their path - the forcefully ejected debris causes some damage and slows them down as they try to avoid it.... letting the Mantis get safely back to base

So it would basically be fired somewhat blindly - just at whatever was behind you, come out in a cone... if it hits you prolly get away - if not, you prolly get caught and destroyed since it slows you down temporarily too

 

Why doe's it look like an aurora bomber cross with a stealth fighter night hawk?