It has frequently been opined that flying units are missing from Aurora ground combat, and that assigning space-based fighters to ground combat through FFD doesn't really scratch that itch.
The typical suggestion is that to remedy this, a 'flyer' unit type should be added alongside the existing vehicles.
I want to propose an alternative:
Make 'aerospace' a capability similar to 'Boarding Combat' This capability could be connected to any vehicle type and would do the following:
- Provide superior evasion; either a simple HitMod*0.1, or (Hitmod^2)*0.1 - flyers are fast/high and hard to hit; AA weapons should inherently ignore this modifier and revert to HitMod
- Reduce armor (and perhaps hitpoints) by a factor of 0.25 - the main problem with flying platforms is they need lift at the cost of armor, and these structures render them fragile.
- Increase GSP Resupply Cost by a factor of ~2.5 maybe depending on technology - Flyers eat fuel.
- They cannot benefit from Fortification - a flyer may sit in an underground hangar, but if it is then it's not fighting
This achieves 2.5 things:
- It continues Steve's design philosophy that labels are roleplay-agnostic.
Use a Light Vehicle to imagine an ornithopter or an unmanned drone; Super-Heavy can be anything from steampunk attack-blimps to flying Gundams; whatever you can imagine. - You (Steve) would barely need to mess around with unit types or weapon types!
- Fit your 'aerospace heavy vehicle' with bombardment weapons if you want it to be a durable, RE-stationed bomber
- Fit your 'aerospace light vehicle' with Light AA if you want a front-line interceptor designed to take on other flyers.
- As an extension of [2] you fix the 'AA Horizon' problem that all AA units on the planet can fire at any aircraft: AA units are now only engaging hostile forces that their formation is in combat with, and their combat doesn't need a separate mechanic
Of course flyers that are hard to hit could potentially bring a host of balancing issues, but that's eminently tweakable by (for instance) altering AA cost/effectiveness or flyer resource requirements.
The point is to add interesting options and expand our roleplaying potential at a manageable development cost!