can't build mass extractors anymore

hi, it's been a while since I've played this game but when I logged in and started a game, I was quickly flatfooted because my commander couldn't build any mass extractors.

I realized that I needed to click the button in their build menu which was weird to me because I'm used to just clicking on the mass extraction point.

I realized it was the same for engineers building a hydrocarbon plant.

I looked through the in-game options and I couldn't see an option to re-enable the old behavior.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? Thanks.

You're recommended to use the context based templates. It defaults to tab if I am not mistaken. The feature you're referring to was removed from the game because of various reasons. If you just want it back, there's a UI mod for it now:

... I'm confused, why is the context based template system better than the system I described? It seems like extra key-presses for... marginal at best gain. I'm assuming that I'm missing something. What else would you build atop a mass deposit than a mass extractor...?

and to clarify, to get the functionality I want I need to mouse-over the mass deposit and hit tab? will attempt in my next game

@gabrilend said in can't build mass extractors anymore:

... I'm confused, why is the context based template system better than the system I described? It seems like extra key-presses for... marginal at best gain. I'm assuming that I'm missing something. What else would you build atop a mass deposit than a mass extractor...?

You can tab hovering over anything and it will do something. You can also hit tab when you're in a build preview (like a radar) and it will automagically turn it into a radar + pgens template so that it has adjacency bonus. The same applies to for example an extractor - if you want to build not just a (tech 2) extractor but also surround it with storages then it's a single tab away. You can see the number of options for your current context at the bottom of the screen. The Wikipedia that I linked also does a great job explaining it.

The problem with the 'hover over to get a mass extractor' feature is that it was horribly inefficient from a performance* perspective. On top of that, when I used it myself, it would often trigger when I did not want it to. The context-based templates solution does not only fix those two issues. It also provides much more control and you can even mod it to add your own templates.

In the end it is up to what you prefer. Therefore the UI mod exists.