Increase the amount of TAC OP points reinforcement units cost/giving the TAC OP a cool down/Giving the unit a landing area as opposed to landing hex

[NoDramaLlama]

Not sure if it's because I'm playing on a planet with no tactical operation energy costs, but all the AI does atm is bombard you every turn with reinforcement units. The enemies I've been engaged with are mainly Kir'ko, and it is abyssian after abyssian after abyssian every combat round. Their encase ability is generally affecting a high tier unit / hero every turn which leaves them open for punishment for 2 rounds unless you do something about it, and being able to drop a unit wherever you want with an ability that strong for 3 tac points makes it a no brainer for them to do it. But if it's not them it's Vanguard dropping Valkyries for a stagger, damage, and then melee overwatch. It's not just the initial stagger and damage that you get from a damaging tac op which is painful enough to your support units, but then there's another unit that's posing a threat that you now have to focus on taking out as well as melee overwatch, or being encased etc. All of that for 3 TAC OP points... it takes away from the overall combat strategy when you can cheese it by calling in for reinforcements round after round wherever you want on the combat map.
I'd suggest to implement something along the lines of increasing the amount of TAC OP points it costs, or giving it a cool down, or making it so where they land isn't precise as it's an orbital drop, so instead of a 1 hex spot, a several hex area. Just ideas. Something to change it from working as is cause it's pretty annoying and I'm not really enjoying having to fight the opposing army as well as an extra 5/6 reinforcement units being dropped in behind my line every combat.

 

[Melikat]

I agree that some of the summons are very strong for their cost. Valkyrie and Launcher Turret are both great units. Abyssians are pretty good though rely more on RNG. Constrictors are about the same but more reliable against lower tier units and less vs high (I think? Maybe it's just heroes where Constrict fails quickly). On the other hand the Syndicate ... the name eludes me (Suppressor?), the Syndicate summon is more expensive than the aforementioned units (4 vs 3) and imo much less useful too. I recall Dvar Sappers and the Amazon animal pylon being lackluster as well, but perhaps that just means I need to give them another try.

All that said, I rarely ever see the AI use the summon Ops. Are you noticing this behavior on other worlds without the 0 Tactical Points cost? Are you on the Open Beta? I don't think they should be trying to balance Ops based on a map trait, but it stands to reason that if they are spamming them at 0 TP they'd use them at 3 TP too. (Edit: Wait 0 energy cost? I thought the world trait was 0 TP cost. Interesting, I wonder if the Energy cost deters them on normal maps.)

I think an increase to 4 would be warranted. Maybe even 5 but then you start competing with the battlefield effect ops and its hard to justify their use. Giving them a separate cooldown would be neat. I would not be a fan of a randomized deployment location because sometimes you are dropping a unit at max range or into cover (or Constrictors which need to be directly adjacent). Another idea is to require them to be deployed adjacent to a friendly unit, which would definitely be a nerf but also may require a rework for some of the units (Valkyrie's stagger on deployment, Constrictor not having move points to reach the enemy after summon, I think Sapper has stagger on deploy as well).

Its also worth noting that part of what I think makes these Ops particularly strong is vs the AI where you can use them to split or delay enemy forces, especially when they attack with multiple stacks. I don't have experience using them vs players and they may be well balanced there.

 

[NoDramaLlama]

Honestly it's probably just something I've noticed because of the galactic empire mode and there being no energy cost for TAC OPS on this particular planet, but it's really highlighted how strong calling the faction reinforcements are. Keep in mind I just play solo and don't spam that stuff on the enemy myself. The Galactic Empire mode has really changed my playthroughs and revealed several things like this I don't think I'd ever notice otherwise, it must be hard to keep the game balanced with the randomness it introduces.
The suggestion for a landing area rather than a hex is purely a random idea based on how the Valkyrie enter, I actually like the idea of a 1 turn cool down, but no other TAC OPS have that so could be out of place. It does stop the problem of it being spammy though. The expectation, if any is that it would increase cost by 1, but preference is a cool down