Shift-loading units into transports

As of now, shift-loading units into transports is like this: You have a lot of units and several transports, you order the units to get into a transport, then shift-order them to get to another transport, all you units now wait for the 1st group to get into the 1st transport, and only after they move to the 2nd.

Is it possible to make it so for the rest of the units don't have to wait?

@Melanol, I dont think you can do it however you have some workarounds.
Select all transports and units, issue drop order. Transports will pick up units and drop them where ordered. Its fairly unreliable sometimes so make sure all units are in one bunch and not stretched out otherwise they might decide to take a walk. Also iirc you cant select path for transports that way so you have to select them when loaded if you wanted to go around dangerous places or sth like that.
Also you can create ferry routes but its kinda annoying because order will not appear until all (or maybe only some idk) transport arrive. And only then you can queue units to ferry route.

We could create a new command to make loading of transports easier, would there be interest for that?

@jip Of course. We need Zerg mass drops!

Use the ferry command. You can assign multiple transports to it (if you want more than the ones you had selected when you issued the command, just have them assist the existing ferry), and ground units commanded to the ferry will automatically load into the transports. By holding shift you can issue commands after they are dropped off by the ferry.

If you don't want to constantly ferry, just one-and-done, then select the transports after they've loaded and issue the orders you want.

You can also have transports assist factories and they will pick up at the factory and drop at the factory's move command.

If for some reason you don't like the ferry command, there was a UI mod that allowed you to distribute units among transports, but I can't remember what it's called.

EDIT: I remembered, and also posted below for notification purposes.

I stumbled across that mod, it's UI party.

@pearl12 So many hidden features in this game.

I think my biggest problem with transport is that they struggle to pick up units and just hover for 2 min over them before finally grabbing them

@jip said in Shift-loading units into transports:

We could create a new command to make loading of transports easier, would there be interest for that?

Anything that improves transport behavior and predictability would be awesome.

i often just select land units and transports, then click "unload" in the area where they all need to be and transports will load as many units as they can and other will walk, but this method is not super reliable. and transports don't come together.

for doom drop i'd setup some random ferry just to load units in with one click, then select transports (and cancel that ferry) and then move transports whereever i need to make a big drop

The biggest weakness with ferry commands is that the ferry route dies if the initial transport dies, no matter how many transports assist it. That makes it basically useless
I'd love @Jip to fix that

But he's not talking about using it as a ferry. He's talking about using the ferry command to get units loaded on the transports. Then he grabs the transports and gives them new move orders and sends them to drop somewhere. The ferry command doesn't need to live on. If somebody is murdering your transports then your big ferry drop situation has bigger problems than "the UI canceled my orders to load units onto these transports"

I'm aware of the issue @Brutus5000 , but I have not found a workable solution yet.

As a guess could you make two hot keys, 1 start ferry point, 2 end ferry point. Making it that you could make a ferry even when you don't even have air factory

@jip On the "initial ferry transport dying" problem: Perhaps making it so the transport can build or special ability spawn the invisible and intangible ferry controller beacon? You then select the beacon and set up your route like normal, and have transports assist it.
Possible?

As for loading whole fleets of transports, some variant of the ferry command seems like it would work. Using the same behavior that sends all the units to an appropriate transport, but then the transport just hangs out instead of ferrying.

Transports are my favorite part of the game. Making them more useful and viable would be the best.

I used to play the game SOLELY by setting a patrol route from a factory, having transports assist the factory, then moving the patrol route to attack places or retreat. Obviously not PVP viable, but it really makes you feel like a general! And the idea of 'platoons' that automatically get reinforcements is awesome.

I would also like a "wait" command that I can issue that just does nothing and everything waits, so I can cue up their overly complex flightplans and attack patterns, then cancel the wait command so everyone goes at once.

Oh, and orders contingent on other orders. Actually if the whole order system could be touring-complete that would be great.

I stumbled across that mod, it's UI party.

from what I understand this functionality already is in the game. You just set up ferry from transports and than click on the ferry mark having units selected. You can give complex routes to ferries via shift, but that's not necessary. You can select transports once loaded and give them order just as if the ferry never existed

Vote up. Im have used "Split groups mod" and it kind of usable but have a very very messy keybindings. Really - there are too much of them.

Ferry is very APM and time wasting option, especially, when you try to load many units, you literally need to watch and catch transports on dispatching.

Some command, what checks selection list for land units and transports, divide land in equal groups by transports count, after gives every group to load, would be perfect.
But im very unfamiliar with game lua-API for that.
In some cases all transports will be overfloed OR underflowed. But it is ok. Much better than now.