How to make the rocket silo gameplay relevant

[Frightning]

Right now, it is a glorified counter incrementer with the launches (with satellite on board) incrementing it by 1 each time. There is a rather popular mod known as Orbital Ion Cannon's which imo seems like a good concept to implement for an alternate payload, but there's more opportunity here:

My idea:

3 different payloads available:
-Communications Satellite
-Ion Cannon Satellite
-Observation Satellite

The current satellite will become the first of those, and is necessary in order to take advantage of the other two, it's how you are able to get commands to the other satellites, but there's also a ground building needed in order to produce a strong enough signal (something else...maybe expensive?...to build). The building would have a sizable but ultimately limit range in which you could use it to access controls for the other two types of satellites. It also has a control limit of how many other satellites it can manage, hence you would need to send up more of them occasionally in order to keep expanding your satellite system.

So what about the Ion Cannon?
-Costs a lot, especially resources that are frequently used in military products, particular late game military products. Once in orbit, can be directed to blast a target area via the satellite control system (this requires a communications satellite in orbit as well). Very long recharge delay (read: hour of game time?), but does heavy damage in sizable area (bye bye biter base?).

Observation Satellite:
-Less expensive than Ion Cannon, but more so that the communications satellite, uses all 4 science packs in it's production chain somewhere (note: some new intermediate products for these satellites as well research to unlock them is entirely reasonable). The Observation satellite provides vision in an area roughly comparable to a Radar's Radar range, the site being observed can be controlled by the same system that lets you direct Ion Cannons, there would a modest but non-trivial delay in moving the 'monitoring area' for the observation satellite, based on distance (maybe 5 minutes to reposition a radar range away). The value of this satellite is that you can keep tabs on an area in real time (no more biter bases showing up inside your radar range while they are busy scanning elsewhere, not to mention you can also see biter attackings coming on the map now).

[TheDagmaar]

Ion cannon should use "uranium" or "fairy dust" for each shot, so you need to send supply to that thing. It could be like the one in Akira.

[bobucles]

What if rocket launching was a research component? Fill the rocket with a "pile of science", launch it, and work that way through Gun Damage XII.

[Woodmn]

I proposed a couple of similar ideas a few weeks after this without seeing this, shamelessly linking my post but the reply's look to be the sort of thing your'e looking for: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31164