I think I'm a fan of the idea that only a few key units should have the ability to gain vet. Mainly ACUs, support commanders, and experimentals in my mind. But any unit that where vet can enhance gameplay is fine with me.
I don't know how much of a performance hit the vet system makes, but I'd say it's only worth changing this if there is something to be gained. If we can save some cpu cycles by removing vet from all of my ASFs or T1 spam, I'd be all for it.
I like option 2 the most.
Didn't see it listed so figured I'd throw out an alternative idea. Unit age = veterancy. As in a unit that lives 2:00 minutes gets it's first vet, and maybe 5:00 minutes is the second vet, and so on.... Seems computational simple and would encourage players to keep units alive.
Don't try to protect them all. Expand everywhere with T1 mexes. Sure, you'll lose some but they pay for themselves really quickly. Push past the mexes that you consider to be on "your" side. If your enemy kills some of them, move back when you think it's safe and rebuild them or capture his. You can't be everywhere but neither can your opponent.
Upgrade outlying mexes last. Start your upgrades with the ones you're most likely to hold (i.e. starting point mexes) so that they have enough time to turn a profit. Then pick ones that you think you can defend better.
100% agree with Arma473 but his advice is really besides the point. The AI's general stupidity while in a patrol is not in doubt. It means that any player should be cautious when setting up a patrol route. But if a player chooses to set up a patrol, it would be nice if units could be added to it after the fact.
Not sure if this is even possible, but for what it's worth, I also would like to have this functionality.
I enjoy your posts; thanks for keeping them coming.
Is it possible that this could be "fixed" as a UI mod? Let people install a mod to see the mantis as a tank if they want.
@arma473 thank you for such an in depth reply. That makes a lot of sense to me. I can envision a player giving away their stuff right before a snipe attempt and this seems like a good solution to that.
However, I feel like my experience was not a cheat or attempt at an exploit. I was trying to do right by teammates that I had inadvertently screwed over.
I know FAF development resources are finite. This doesn't seem like it would ever rise to the level of warranting any serious work, but I think forces given away to a teammate should have a countdown timer associated with them. Something like 60 or 90 seconds, maybe even longer, after which time the units fully belong to the receiving player and don't die on the original owner's death.
So it's to prevent some kind of exploit.
Earlier today I finally decided to update my Nvidia driver. I also installed Laticlave's Nvidia Fix mod. Unfortunately, the mod didn't work for me.
I was in a custom Noob Gap game when my PC began chugging. My issues were affecting everyone else too. At the urging of the other players, I left the game early.
But before I left, I transferred all of my stuff to a teammate, walked my commander to a safe area, then exited to windows. As I left the game, I saw all of my stuff blow up, even the things I transferred to a teammate.
Is that intended? If so, why?
Pretty sure this is related to the Nvidia driver issue. https://www.reddit.com/r/supremecommander/comments/kbah0y/disclaimer_the_newest_nvidia_driver_46079_causes/