Make high tech engis more efficient than low tech engis

T1 engineer spam often results in pathfinding problems and more lag. If we encourage concentrating bp in t2/t3 engineers instead of t1 engineers, that would often be a boon to pathfinding and lag reduction.

T1/T2/T3 engineers presently have equal efficiency of build power per mass. If we change it so that bp/mass efficiency increases with increasing engineer tech, then people would make fewer total engineers (concentrating their bp into higher tech engineers) on average.

pfp credit to gieb

I was wondering about this not long ago and was thinking that people don't want to dedicate their t3 factory to engines when they can spam t1 engines for bp and keep the factory (or factories) pumping out t3 units. The only thing that makes sense to me. I like using t3 engines so I use my HQ for engines only and a support factory or 2 for units.

Let there be light

Hmm, what if T2 eng had a wider reclaim radius than T1. And T3 wider still. Might encourage fewer units..?

You make t1 engies to reclaim because it doesnt take much setup to get t1 engies out and reclaiming. T2 engies cost more mass both in setup and in general cost. You won't stop t1 engie spam because t1 engie spam primarily exists to get reclaim and then serve as mass spenders once the reclaim is fed into mex upgrades. Recycling t1 engies into t2 engies is massively tedious micro that will almost never be worth it.

@scout_more_often said in Make high tech engis more efficient than low tech engis:

Hmm, what if T2 eng had a wider reclaim radius than T1. And T3 wider still. Might encourage fewer units..?

That was added in patch 3714, May 2020.

http://patchnotes.faforever.com/3714.html

At least, I'm assuming the reclaim radius is the same as the build range. I'm too lazy to check that.

@arma473 said

That was added in patch 3714, May 2020.

http://patchnotes.faforever.com/3714.html

Hmm, not sure if i'm stupid because i didnt know that or a genius because i came up with it independently also lol

Pretty sure it doesn't affect the factory attack move reclaim radius, and on normal attack move range doesn't matter much. So unless you are going around manually reclaiming with T2 and T3 engies it isn't going to make a noticeable difference.

@Emperor_Penguin I like this idea, but I would suggest a broader focus on making T2/T3 engineers more convenient instead of (only) more effective. It opens less of a balance can of worms.

For example make T2 engineers significantly faster and make T3 engineers really tanky with hp regen.

If you want tanky build power use factories

put the xbox units in the game pls u_u

@emperor_penguin said in Make high tech engis more efficient than low tech engis:

T1 engineer spam often results in pathfinding problems and more lag. If we encourage concentrating bp in t2/t3 engineers instead of t1 engineers, that would often be a boon to pathfinding and lag reduction.

this is why they are already more efficient. Some setoners also switched to spamming t2 engies for assisting the naval factories. Just for the extra bp density and survivability.