@magge said in Developers Iteration III of 2023:
The mobile factories look very promising, and this is how it should have been done in the first place 20 years ago -> produce while moving IMO. My suggestion would be to add an icon to the "main unit" that hints that you can select the "building-entity" to produce units or even link it directly to it, if possible.
I tried to create a similar toggle / button that the UEF ACUs have with their drones. After spending a few hours I couldn't figure out why that implementation works and I dropped the idea for another time. Ideally this exists, of course.
Similarly that there would be a toggle to allow an aircraft carrier to immediately pump out the unit instead of the unit ending up in the cargo of the carrier. That too was not intuitive to add at a first glance and was dropped for another time too.
@magge said in Developers Iteration III of 2023:
I am really used to automatically selecting the building unit when I hover over an empty mex- or power plant spot. Hopefully, I will see this feature again, because having to press an additional key to have it feels odd (to me).
I understand, but I'm afraid it generates a significant amount of (memory) garbage that may negatively impact your framerate. For a UI mod this is fine, and someone can re-implement it as a UI mod. But the base game should be a stable, consistent experience that allows for smooth gameplay. Specifically referring to frame stutters when the garbage collector kicks in. The only way to tackle those is to reduce the amount of garbage that is created, and this specific function was a prime target.
Assigning the alternative to tab feels natural to me. Hover over the mass deposit, hit tab and you're done for a tech 1 extractor A nice bonus is that you can queue a point defense or anti air turret right after by tab'ing the ground.
@magge said in Developers Iteration III of 2023:
The same goes for the blueprints for the buildings, they are great and are a nice QoL, but when I have only engineers selected, and I hover over a building, it would be nice to see the most used template already selected, instead pressing a key to get the blueprint selected.
This is not something I thought of. It would be an interesting, alternative way to create some sense of order to the templates. I'll adjust the framework to allow a UI mod to hook in and adjust the order.
The mod could do it through the preference file: just assign a number to each template and you can create an order over time like that.
@magge said in Developers Iteration III of 2023:
The Engineer Filter stuff is another good QoL - Would it possible, if I had selected a bunch of mixed tier engineers, to show me the highest available tier in the building menu bar instead the other way?
With this mechanic, when I build a T3 building, the lower tier engs should automatically assist it. I would guess there were some engine related issues to not have it that way which felt much more natural?
The engine doesn't work like that I'm afraid. We have very little control over how the user (e.g., by using the mouse and not through script) assigns order. And what would happen in your example is that the tech 3 engineers would start building the tech 3 power generator while all other (lower tech) engineers remain idle. That is the best situation, the worst is that the game crashes. I've tried toying with this and found it to be unstable. The engine is just not designed for it.
The hotkey exists as an alternative that works the way the engine wants it. I removed it previous patch because I thought people weren't using it, but then I got a few messages so it was re-introduced again.
@magge said in Developers Iteration III of 2023:
What are the obstacles to not finalizing them as well for the incoming patch - Have you encountered different technical obstacles which need to get solved first or because it is simply very time-consuming to code that stuff?
The idea of the factory modules is that they are consistent towards the user. Therefore all the factories are at and beyond the 'back side' of the unit. In the case of a CZAR this is difficult: the unit doesn't have a natural 'back side'. The unit doesn't even appear to orientate to where it is moving, like other units do.
In order to help players understand where to click we'd need to adjust the model of the CZAR. It being an iconic unit makes this difficult and time consuming. On top of that I don't have the skillset to do it, so I rely on others that I ask for help.
The Megalith is special in another way. Unlike the other units the Megalith doesn't have a build site but it creates or drops eggs. I like the way that the Superior FAF Experience mod does it, but when asking I wasn't allowed to integrate that approach. So we need to create it from scratch. This is again model and animation work and that is not in my skillset.
@ftxcommando said in Developers Iteration III of 2023:
Honestly I’d rather just convert the mega into having the ability to reclaim over building, extremely dumb to have to lay eggs one at a time as it walks across a line (which 9/10 times would be perpendicular to the direction you actually want mega to face) and the reclaim was the real use of it anyway. Also don’t really like ideas about units just dumping out of it, just a copy of fatboy when that’s already the t4 it most associates with.
I honestly didn't know that people used the Megalith to reclaim wrecks. I've never seen it happen, but it surely works. To jump into your suggestion, giving the Megalith a reclaim ability is possible and we can add the effects or an animation to make it look more 'believable'. I'm fine either way.
