I have been playing nova hard for quite awhile and truly believe the planetary fortress upgrade for nova would be a phenomenal improvement to her kit. you got the extra minerals towards the late game and really could use a decent non supply defensive option. You only get a few units and they are irreplaceably expensive, being able to build a planetary would really help her in defensive engagements.
Letâs add PF to Nova 
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Letâs get this out of the way⌠nobody needs a PF.
As for want⌠yeah, I guess she could use one.
why do you think that?
Can it float AND shoot?
Swann was the one supposed to receive the PF, his upgrades (like turret range upgrade) even affect it.
As for what I would do, I would have included it on a new commander: Reigel. With Moebius foundation technology, his SCV would quickly and cheaply make âstructure foundationsâ (temp name), then the SCV would leave as the foundations start warping in the structure.
Now, the trick is that for CC and defenses, it would not start building automatically, and you could instead warp an existing CC/defense from elsewhere (leaving only foundations there).
With that mechanic, the PF would become interesting as the fact it cannot fly could be compensated.
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So, if enemies have got to your mineral line, youâre already in trouble and a PF ainât gonna do much to help
If you go out and build one⌠Well, thatâs quite a bit of money you could have used to build units, summon drones, or, you know, air strike the whole wave before it even gets to you.
PFâs in coop are always going to be more of a ârule of coolâ thing. They take up a lot of space, donât do that much damage compared to other things in coop, and is a big investment for something that canât go on the offensive.
Use Novaâs siege tanks. Theyâre literally more bang for the buck.
P.S. Not even Swann could make much use out of them, even with his upgrades. You could literally fit more Blaster Billies and a Flaming Betty in the same space, theyâd do more damage, and are cheaper.
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Yeah honestly of all the commanders who should have gotten a pf, i feel like Swann would have been one. Nova/tychus could be more debatable,
The lack of flying would probably cripple tychusâs eco more than a pf would, nova already has airstrikes as a dump and building 20x cc center sized mineral dumps to clog a map doesnât seem as âcovert opsâ ish as others. Tychus doesnât really float minerals outside of lone wolf until like 20+ minute mark maps which is pretty much just the last 4 minutes of a malwarefare i think thatâs hard limited to 23-24 minutesish for the transport if you double spawnkill towers on spawn and maybe 25-33 min if people donât, and mist opportunities which is hard capped at like 30. And like 20-40++ mins dead of nights where iâm not even sure anyone would enjoy the real estate clogging.
It definitely would fit most for swann as the defence specialist, or maybe karax if he was a terran or had planetary defence nexuses.
You could maybe make a argument for even Swann > Raynor >= Tych/Nova perhaps as Raynor has less traditional âmobilityâ tools over âmass murder hold M redeployâ p0 or splitting a p1 army into 2 control groups. But i imagine maybe one reason why planetaries havenât been tried is they want people perhaps defending their base in coop, and having some 2000 hp command center tanking all hits and attacking might seem counterintutitve to that.
Plus as seen with raynorâs hardly used bunkers (bar DoN / mutations) vs Mengsks. You pretty much have to give defensive towers for free, OR have instant deploys or teleports.
I donât think a upgraded planetary that could fly but couldnât shoot mid air (or a few seconds after landing if needed for attack planetary balancing) would be forbidden. Just nova is a commander that already does fine.
If anything a mineral dump like a 1000 mineral dump for a +8 supply Covert operations supply center that maybe also increased nuke recharge rates and ability recharge rates +5-10% could probably be neat.
I mean after all, sheâs not in a bad space and nova was one of the stronger/early powerhouse commanders at her time of launch vs the classic p0 raynor/kerrigan/swann/karax/pre buff artanis was meh. Nova had a strong army, great positioning, griffin airstrikes and unit dumps, a powerful hero unit + good army.
Great versatility, and benefited greatly from control groups or tab targeting and was a good âeasy to learn, hard to masterâ themed commander where you could either just hero nova or micro each of her unitâs abilities for great benefit from healing drones, raven micro for turrets and attacks, + ghost snipe squads or unit abilities plus cds, etc.
I donât think she ever got weaker, other commanders just generally got stronger or directly compete like Tychus competes heavily with nova with 3 free medivacs on good cd and very powerful and diverse ability focused elites but design space to allow each in one menu while trading the Aoe and nuke into a Tychus Odin cage with a base wiper that could do 10-11 minute pug que void thrashers with light difficulty.
Plus with the p3, she has a very unique prestiege that allows her to be one of the only truly supercloak invisible heros in the game that can lead to some cheese like probably just walking over to each lock and load point, using a sabotage drone to clear and maybe baiting a pre âcookedâ drone to lure and kill units like abathur/ pre pulled grenade, etc.
I definitely would have pretty much no qualms against a swann or maybe raynor getting it. I think novaâs intended mineral dump is well done with airstrikes, (or killing her workers for more 100/100 supply lmao). Iâm just not sure if the design suits them.
I could kinda see tych maybe having it but he already has the mobility and prestieges like p3/p2 and sirius and glass cannon turrets already.
Iâd rather have the hp on the turrets souped up a little or have some like gas octane mineral dump for post 20+ minute play like mist spawncamping as he literally has 0 gas dumps after 5/5 + 4/4 all outlaws. but heâs already overkitted enough and i think most people agree for a base brutal heâs extremely strong but not the most mutation diverse and post 20+ minute gameplay is hardly a concern.
It gives commanders like spawncamping swanns with teletanks the opportunity to shine lategame and Stettmans/Mengsks/dehakas to shine in brutal+ or mutations. Itâs good each commander has a unique playstyle or pros and cons that makes them invaluable to each mode.
But Swann > Raynor >= ??? > Tych/Nova is probably the order iâd personally lean put planetary fortresses in, with a heavy no if it removed flying.
Iâd rather see nova perhaps just have that cd prestiege reworked to maybe have reduced cds but perhaps ship no longer picks up allies and airstrike costs more but has itâs cost reduced over time the longer you go without using it, etc.
It could probably be reworked very well into being a mineral dump rubberbanding topbar that lets you dump minerals easier at the top end, but still use it cheaper or even potentially free if you wait longer, etc. She already has like ridicolous hp on her buildings.
I think they want us to react for defence rather than afk a moving all the time or attacking with ccs haha. XD
Nah, Swann could use it more. Novaâs fine without the PF. You have Airstrike for a mineral dump.
What if I want to spend 600+ minerals with gas investment for a structure that canât move though⌠so I can âidefâ better on 15min of DoN where I take half that time to saturate? You are restricting my liberty!!!
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Han & Horner deserves this before Nova, their defense is pitiful.
That said even they donât NEED it. On DoN, just defend with units for night 1 and 2, make strike fighter platforms and end the map before night 3 .
I donât think that it makes mechanical sense on Swann. As TheFalcon says, itâd fit Han & Horner very well mechanically. Also worth mentioning that thereâs a variant Planetary Fortress within StarCraft called the Mercenary Fortress â pretty perfect for Han.
There is a gameplay fantasy to the Planetary Fortress: you defend a base with a combination of a Planetary Fortress, sim city and all your SCVs on repair. The fantasy doesnât really fit building them out on the map at all â itâs very much about Terran mineral line being a tough nut to crack.
Itâd need to be redesigned significantly for Co-op but the gameplay fantasy can work. Iâd see a PF in Co-op as follows:
- Single target damage.
- Very high damage, slow rate of attack.
- Very slow attack point/wind-up â will suffer immensely from overkill, becoming almost useless if itâs not the only attacker as it would constantly be shooting something thatâs already dead.
- Very long range (~15).
H&H is the only Terran commander whoâd really benefit, but itâd be really nice on them for automatic Ghost-proofing your bases (depending on your base layout) and defending against the odd Hybrid on OE or against e.g. Outbreak.
Nova does absolutely fine without it.
To be fair, a widow mine or two and a missile turret does the job nicely as well.
I wouldnât really say H&H fits for it either, since mechanically they were designed to be very heavy on offence and light on the defence.
Buuut, it does have a nice nod to the WoL mission that introduces Mira.
It does, but I get the impression people donât like it very much. Personally, the Mercenary Fortress idea I described above is one for a Graven Hill commander concept of mine, and the reason itâs on him is because he has an unusual army design that means he sometimes canât easily leave a defenders at home. But I like the Planetary Fortress gameplay fantasy enough that I wouldâve been pretty happy to see it on some existing, real Co-op commander â and still think itâs a nicer fit for H&H mechanically than Nova.
For me, this can be spun as a positive. The Planetary Fortress fantasy does fit someone heavy on offence and light on defence. Itâs all about being able to send your forces out aggressively knowing that your mining colonies can defend themselves with spit and a prayer â the key is that the Planetary Fortress derives its power from the SCVs scrambling to repair it, which makes it feel like a desperate measure.
Oh yes, letâs add a âfunctionally mineral-line defensive structureâ to any CO, in a mode where mineral lines are never touched⌠and if it did usually meant gg⌠or I suppose bg lol.
Letâs trade the resources spent on such a PF against a non-resource dependent enemy, who clearly cares so much about their free waves of units.
While weâre adding non-sensical things, can I just get some bug fixes instead?
Step 1. People request to add planetary fortresses to coop, but no one can figure out what commander to give them.
Step 2. Microsoft considers buying activision blizzard to add more games to their collection.
Step 3. ???
Step 4. The monkey paw curls, Planetary fortresses are added and coop is updated!.. With Master Chief. The first coop commander with first person controls played on xbox controllers who spawns instantly and gets a mic to trash talk your mom.
The Microsoft Sc2 lore meanwhile, sitting in shambles on a oblivion express to hell lmao. XD
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Congrats to your next 6000th post. You are now 5999.
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Step 1: Hit 6000 posts
Step 2: Profit?
Step 3: Gets lost on the staircase to nowhere
Immediately goes into existential crisis 
In general i dont believe they can fly around at all. basically stationary defense also helps defend your mineral line. Nova has a reduced supply max, and her units are very expensive putting up a PF would work well to defend the siege tanks who have increased range (as if they were made to be built behind a PF) and helps them survive because there is no replacing her units, 2 siege tanks take 600 vespene gas. PF doesnt win you the game but it can help defend your mineral line from harassment because you have a small army, and help defend your Precious Precious units in defensive situations.
What harassment though? The only harassment you might face is from the mutator Aggressive Deployment. If the enemy has made it to your mineral line, theyâve already gone through everything else, an Air Strike, and your Army (which you can also move around with the Griffen). Coop has Amon sending never ending big waves straight at your base while you do objectives. Thatâs it. Not really much more to it.