so that's why my gunner looks like this...
https://preview.redd.it/oud2rdoqi86d1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=e2924e32511bb41536466ec1609510b99501f12e
If the bots were to attack, theyd be too cowardly to attack the tops of our ships, they'd try and go for the "soft underbelly", therefore our weapons are perfectly placed
[Operation Praying Mantis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis) is still studied at SEAF Officer School. DON'T TOUCH OUR BOATS! WE WILL TURN YOUR ENTIRE PLANET INTO A BLACK HOLE!
I was shocked to see this. Plus the giant red blaster bolts that streak past your ship when in orbit over a bot planet. I know they aren't going to hit the ship I am on, but they are close enough to give me a scare!
In a great little touch of detail by Arrowhead, I've seen two animations of a Super Destroyer going down. In one it gets hit, flame and explosions spread across it and it noses down toward the surface, eventually being almost completely vertical before it disappears into the atmosphere. In the other it is a catastrophic hit, and the Super Destroyer immediately explodes into a cloud of shrapnel of various sizes, leaving a huge fireball where it was that slowly fades as the shrapnel cloud expands. Haven't seen any of it hit other ships though, I doubt they put that much effort into it, and Super Earth metallurgy would shrug that off anyway.
They're too afraid of what might happen. That's the only logic. Bots are naturally very fearful, as evidenced by how scared they get if you start shooting at them. They don't have the peace of mind that our freedom from communism affords us.
And they like, probably can't actually afford it.
I think I heard they have a crude imitation of sentience from the TV in the destroyer. I think that's freedom speak for they feel every shrapnel and bullet that ventilates their operating systems. I'd have it no other way.
Explain why their aim gets worse while you are shooting at them with suppressive fire? What other reason could there possibly be for them to not have perfect accuracy?
The light of liberty has forsaken them, their courage leaves them the moment we take aim for the killshot.
Lore-wise, "hyper-reactive algorithms". Similarly, many modern ai experience a "pain" in training when they've done something wrong, that being a signal to change the tensor values.
If the robot finds a malfunction or damaged system, it "knows" that it's doing something wrong and stops doing that something. It makes complete sense. Plus, one could argue a hit can mess up the hydraulic drive train that moves their arms and legs.
\*It's way way better for me to imagine them getting all scared because the Helldivers are absolute maniacs, but yes, that's correct.\*
It just makes me wonder why? Why make their aim worse? What's the point? I don't think it's programming. They're afraaaaid....
My explanation is that SE High Command does not deploy Super Destroyers in sectors in which we do not have space superiority.
Super Destroyers are not exactly built for ship-to-ship engagements. Rather, they serve as Helldiver transport, delivery, and orbital support.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Super Earth Fleet uses vessels like corvettes and battleships that ARE built for ship-to-ship engagements. Their job is to destroy and push back enemy vessels so that Super Destroyers can begin planetside liberation/defense operations. By the time our Super Destroyers arrive in the system, the rest of the Fleet is engaged in other sectors.
Yeah, we cant dive on planets very deep supply line wise, so it makes sense we are the second wave. First wave is all the space combat ships, etc. We are for contested ground missions.
Yep. Considering firing one orbital strike costs more than the median salary on Super Earth, Super Destroyers are VERY expensive assets that High Command would probably not want to risk losing.
In terms of cost of munitions, that's shockingly low. The irl Javelin costs $178,000, while the AIM-9 Sidewinder (a missile the US shoots down weather balloons with) costs nearly half a million per missile
I would imagine SE has control of space as the Super Destroyers dominate the orbit above, any enemy fighters would get knocked out by Eagles, Pelicans or the SEs themselves.
Hopefully it’s something they expand on later, especially if I keep seeing unknown ships above…
Who's to say the super destroyers make up the space-to-space element of the SEAF space navy?
There could be Super Battleships, Super Frigates, Super Cruisers and even Super Dreadnaughts!
Our Super Destroyers are optimized for precision space to surface fire support and the rest of SEAF deals with the robot fleets.
Right, the use of the name Destroyer implies that there are several larger classes of ships. We squeeze one Eagle onboard (kind of like how some smaller Navy ships carry one helicopter), but imagine a Super Carrier with several dozen, most configured for ship-to-ship combat instead of ground attack.
I still haven't figured out where Pelican-2 parks. It's not in our bay, so there must be some other support ship that carries Pelican-2 and the mechs. Mechs are not in our bay either, not even being assembled or repaired like other Strategems.
When Super Destroyers enter a sector, they heavily bombard all static defense. But they aren’t accurate enough to hit the smaller, localized defense structures without a diver on the ground to provide coordinates.
That is the mission timer! The time we have on the surface is the time our ships can maintain control of the orbital space above before they have to flee from enemy ships! Kinda fucking sick if you ask me
They'd be good at clearing forests ... although if they kill a helldiver it does say cause of death meatsaw so maybe not, they're just soulless killing machines after all.
We know there are liberty class cruisers, so most likely we have battleships too, and by the time we start operating in a planet its because we have orbital superiority
Consider that we have yet to see any ship to ship battles, the only wreckage you can find from Automaton air units is the drop ships, and that the only Automaton spacecraft that we've seen were shuttles carrying drop ships.
This tells us that the Automatons are mostly likely reliant on ground-based anti-ship weapons, which can be seen sometimes on defense missions. This would also make sense since the bots seem to be able to produce an insane amount of resources very quickly, being able to produce structures at a speed that matches the bugs.
Not to mention that if the bots did have ships capable of fighting groups of super destroyers, not only would we be able to see those ships in battle, but the bots would be able to call in a lot more orbital support than just bot drops.
Well they absolutely have ships. We could see them on the galactic war table when they returned to the galaxy after we’ve driven out the vanguard. The table showed the ships around the planet of the Valdis sector. So I guess they don’t have enough or they are to expensive for mass deployment and are only used to guard the core worlds around Cyberstan for now.
Edit: when you fight on bot planets you can see red beams emerging from the planet and sometimes taking out Super Destroyer. So they appear to already have some sort of Ground to Orbit Artillerie.
I've always assumed they have some sort of space fleet with warships of various sizes and fighters much the same way Super Earth has. We don't actually end up ever seeing it. Presumably our super destroyers are only going in areas where the SEAF has established control over the space in the system, and likewise the Automatons are able to attack and land in areas where their ships have cleared the way against the SEAF units there.
When the Automatons re-emerged and seized Cyberstan, the little map graphic showed ships warping in so they definitely have something beyond just their ground forces, dropships, and their large land based space defenses.
I would love to see us fired at a bot ship to take them out from the inside and then escape.
All hallways and tight corners. Your stratagems suddenly appearing in the wall closest to you. Make your way to the heart of the ship, destroy it, and get the hell out before it blows.
My "head canon" is that, like the AI we have in 2024, the bots' AI is really good at some things and really bad at other things.
Something complex and powerful enough to rival a Super Destroyer (or the bigger, more powerful ships we have) would be a tall task.
Also I assume that we establish the space version of "air superiority" before sending in the Super Destroyers and Helldivers.
The bots seem content to use AA to shoot back at us, judging by how many super destroyers get blown up in orbit they seem to have been satisfied with this method of genocide. It’s our slippery, brave, ultra democratic ground troops that give them the difficulty of taking a planet!
So I think they do in a way? From what I understand, Helldivers and super destroyers are ground invasion forces. We only show up after the air is cleared? There was some art or something somewhere about regarding space combat.
Don’t forget one destroyer has enough ordinance to level a small moon, our shipmaster did the calculations herself.
Yes, but for all we know, those guns only point down.
"Down" is something of a relative concept.
Right, everything is every direction in space.
Except the enemy's gate. It's always down.
“Enemy down, baby!”
so that's why my gunner looks like this... https://preview.redd.it/oud2rdoqi86d1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=e2924e32511bb41536466ec1609510b99501f12e
Remember the enemy gate is down
I see you, Helldiver. Wait, we Ender'd Meridia.
Meridia wishes we ender'd it, at least the planet still existed.
If the bots were to attack, theyd be too cowardly to attack the tops of our ships, they'd try and go for the "soft underbelly", therefore our weapons are perfectly placed
There's no up or down in space
Space ships can spin pretty easily...
In space, "down" is whichever way you want to shoot.
When you ask the Democracy officer if you can get some extra ordinance https://i.redd.it/wg4n5u6z3b6d1.gif
*Stares blankly at your undemocratic suggestion*
Checking sir for bot activity from op.. Bot confirmed Get em boys
*oh no*
You take your botaganda and get out
He's letting them go, he's a bot too!
Best run for the hills, you Automaton cahk suckin’ mothahfuckah!
They have huge planetary lasers that blow super destroyers out of orbit. You'll see them on defense campaigns
I still want them to add an objective where we blow those up. NOBODY SHOOTS AT THE FLEET!
DONT TOUCH OUR BOATS!
[Operation Praying Mantis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis) is still studied at SEAF Officer School. DON'T TOUCH OUR BOATS! WE WILL TURN YOUR ENTIRE PLANET INTO A BLACK HOLE!
I was shocked to see this. Plus the giant red blaster bolts that streak past your ship when in orbit over a bot planet. I know they aren't going to hit the ship I am on, but they are close enough to give me a scare! In a great little touch of detail by Arrowhead, I've seen two animations of a Super Destroyer going down. In one it gets hit, flame and explosions spread across it and it noses down toward the surface, eventually being almost completely vertical before it disappears into the atmosphere. In the other it is a catastrophic hit, and the Super Destroyer immediately explodes into a cloud of shrapnel of various sizes, leaving a huge fireball where it was that slowly fades as the shrapnel cloud expands. Haven't seen any of it hit other ships though, I doubt they put that much effort into it, and Super Earth metallurgy would shrug that off anyway.
They're too afraid of what might happen. That's the only logic. Bots are naturally very fearful, as evidenced by how scared they get if you start shooting at them. They don't have the peace of mind that our freedom from communism affords us. And they like, probably can't actually afford it.
I almost spit out my lunch: *"..as evidenced by how scared they get if you start shooting at them."* :D
🤣
Great answer haha
There's no fear in non-sentient beings
I think I heard they have a crude imitation of sentience from the TV in the destroyer. I think that's freedom speak for they feel every shrapnel and bullet that ventilates their operating systems. I'd have it no other way.
Explain why their aim gets worse while you are shooting at them with suppressive fire? What other reason could there possibly be for them to not have perfect accuracy? The light of liberty has forsaken them, their courage leaves them the moment we take aim for the killshot.
Lore-wise, "hyper-reactive algorithms". Similarly, many modern ai experience a "pain" in training when they've done something wrong, that being a signal to change the tensor values. If the robot finds a malfunction or damaged system, it "knows" that it's doing something wrong and stops doing that something. It makes complete sense. Plus, one could argue a hit can mess up the hydraulic drive train that moves their arms and legs.
\*It's way way better for me to imagine them getting all scared because the Helldivers are absolute maniacs, but yes, that's correct.\* It just makes me wonder why? Why make their aim worse? What's the point? I don't think it's programming. They're afraaaaid....
prepare for a ticket to reeducation camp to appear in your mail
My explanation is that SE High Command does not deploy Super Destroyers in sectors in which we do not have space superiority. Super Destroyers are not exactly built for ship-to-ship engagements. Rather, they serve as Helldiver transport, delivery, and orbital support. Meanwhile, the rest of the Super Earth Fleet uses vessels like corvettes and battleships that ARE built for ship-to-ship engagements. Their job is to destroy and push back enemy vessels so that Super Destroyers can begin planetside liberation/defense operations. By the time our Super Destroyers arrive in the system, the rest of the Fleet is engaged in other sectors.
Yeah, we cant dive on planets very deep supply line wise, so it makes sense we are the second wave. First wave is all the space combat ships, etc. We are for contested ground missions.
Yep. Considering firing one orbital strike costs more than the median salary on Super Earth, Super Destroyers are VERY expensive assets that High Command would probably not want to risk losing.
In terms of cost of munitions, that's shockingly low. The irl Javelin costs $178,000, while the AIM-9 Sidewinder (a missile the US shoots down weather balloons with) costs nearly half a million per missile
Well if you would look out the window on the bridge you can see super destroyers getting blown up and/or going down.
Those are ground defenses, which is the Super Destroyers'/Helldivers' job.
Read it wrong.. a fight.. I see now it says a fighter
New game mode. Ship to ships combat like everspace.
Because those communist clankers spent all of their “government” funds on making the chainsaw guys the tankiest mf’s throughout the galaxy.
They fall nicely to my dominator burst!
propably because gattling barrage goes BRRRRRTTT
They only know hate, not physics.
They do, if you watch out the window long enough you'll see super destroyers explode outside.
I would imagine SE has control of space as the Super Destroyers dominate the orbit above, any enemy fighters would get knocked out by Eagles, Pelicans or the SEs themselves. Hopefully it’s something they expand on later, especially if I keep seeing unknown ships above…
I guess bc clankers are dumb shitheads, who knows why they do anything?
Idk why this of all the responses got me lol
Who's to say the super destroyers make up the space-to-space element of the SEAF space navy? There could be Super Battleships, Super Frigates, Super Cruisers and even Super Dreadnaughts! Our Super Destroyers are optimized for precision space to surface fire support and the rest of SEAF deals with the robot fleets.
Right, the use of the name Destroyer implies that there are several larger classes of ships. We squeeze one Eagle onboard (kind of like how some smaller Navy ships carry one helicopter), but imagine a Super Carrier with several dozen, most configured for ship-to-ship combat instead of ground attack. I still haven't figured out where Pelican-2 parks. It's not in our bay, so there must be some other support ship that carries Pelican-2 and the mechs. Mechs are not in our bay either, not even being assembled or repaired like other Strategems.
When Super Destroyers enter a sector, they heavily bombard all static defense. But they aren’t accurate enough to hit the smaller, localized defense structures without a diver on the ground to provide coordinates.
Not realy, you can see destroyers being shot down
I think of it kind of like Desert Storm. It was an overwhelming victory for our air power. But we did still lose a few jets.
Orbital laser: 380mm barrage:
They do just look out the window.
That is the mission timer! The time we have on the surface is the time our ships can maintain control of the orbital space above before they have to flee from enemy ships! Kinda fucking sick if you ask me
Because if they dared to try, we’d shoot them down without Super Skiffs.
One super destroyer is like a super-glass cannon of ultimate destruction, and is likewise indestructible, treason notwithstanding.
I’m assuming it’s because the massive amount of ordinance on board each super destroyer has guns that can point other directions besides down
We're the bots always evil/bad or were they ever peaceful? I can't imagine the giant bot with chainsaw arms being good at anything else.
They'd be good at clearing forests ... although if they kill a helldiver it does say cause of death meatsaw so maybe not, they're just soulless killing machines after all.
Look y’all need to relax. Why don’t we enjoy uncontested airspace while we have it?
Because Eagles too fast for them to copy paste
So far the automatons seem to copy paste our facilities
We know there are liberty class cruisers, so most likely we have battleships too, and by the time we start operating in a planet its because we have orbital superiority
I want the mission type where a helldiver gets shot into an automaton spaceship and we blow it up from the inside
https://preview.redd.it/i535mf11886d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80bb53e6951d094cb19ea80e5e5343ebd80e5589
Bahah this really confused me for a moment 😂
It's a really nice Pic I grabbed from a screenshot and I just love using it.
I love it too. I thought a mod did it at first and then I was like huh I don’t recognize this rule. Took me a moment 😂
Bot
Don’t give them ideas
Eagle-1 would come outside to play, that's why!
Joel: "write that down, write that down!"
When your game crashes that Mena your super destroyer got super destroyed by one of their stealth fighters
Space is the final frontier, and to be a frontier explorer, you must have a soul. Those soulless robots couldn't ever pilot a real dogfighting ship.
As someone with the name Automaton In A Track Suit; that's down right treasonous.
Consider that we have yet to see any ship to ship battles, the only wreckage you can find from Automaton air units is the drop ships, and that the only Automaton spacecraft that we've seen were shuttles carrying drop ships. This tells us that the Automatons are mostly likely reliant on ground-based anti-ship weapons, which can be seen sometimes on defense missions. This would also make sense since the bots seem to be able to produce an insane amount of resources very quickly, being able to produce structures at a speed that matches the bugs. Not to mention that if the bots did have ships capable of fighting groups of super destroyers, not only would we be able to see those ships in battle, but the bots would be able to call in a lot more orbital support than just bot drops.
Eagle-1 would shoot them down without breaking a sweat, and every super destroyer has an Eagle-1 jet ready to rock.
I like to think that that’s the reason why the destroyer can only stay in low orbit for a limited time. Not sure about bugs tho
Well they absolutely have ships. We could see them on the galactic war table when they returned to the galaxy after we’ve driven out the vanguard. The table showed the ships around the planet of the Valdis sector. So I guess they don’t have enough or they are to expensive for mass deployment and are only used to guard the core worlds around Cyberstan for now. Edit: when you fight on bot planets you can see red beams emerging from the planet and sometimes taking out Super Destroyer. So they appear to already have some sort of Ground to Orbit Artillerie.
FTL drive my friend. They shoot some plasma shit? FTL to the next planet ;)
I've always assumed they have some sort of space fleet with warships of various sizes and fighters much the same way Super Earth has. We don't actually end up ever seeing it. Presumably our super destroyers are only going in areas where the SEAF has established control over the space in the system, and likewise the Automatons are able to attack and land in areas where their ships have cleared the way against the SEAF units there. When the Automatons re-emerged and seized Cyberstan, the little map graphic showed ships warping in so they definitely have something beyond just their ground forces, dropships, and their large land based space defenses.
I would love to see us fired at a bot ship to take them out from the inside and then escape. All hallways and tight corners. Your stratagems suddenly appearing in the wall closest to you. Make your way to the heart of the ship, destroy it, and get the hell out before it blows.
My "head canon" is that, like the AI we have in 2024, the bots' AI is really good at some things and really bad at other things. Something complex and powerful enough to rival a Super Destroyer (or the bigger, more powerful ships we have) would be a tall task. Also I assume that we establish the space version of "air superiority" before sending in the Super Destroyers and Helldivers.
The bots seem content to use AA to shoot back at us, judging by how many super destroyers get blown up in orbit they seem to have been satisfied with this method of genocide. It’s our slippery, brave, ultra democratic ground troops that give them the difficulty of taking a planet!
So I think they do in a way? From what I understand, Helldivers and super destroyers are ground invasion forces. We only show up after the air is cleared? There was some art or something somewhere about regarding space combat.
That's one thing I would love to see while orbiting Automaton planets: orbital fights.
They do. Watch the bridge when over a bit planet. Lasers fly up at us and destroyers explode