Place one building normally, and the mod calibrates a world-aligned build grid.

It works out of the box without requiring any configuration. Everything can be customized.

It is meant to make spacing, symmetry, and adjacency placement easier.

Main features:

• World grid anchored from your first building placement. (reset possible)
• Every value customizable; colour/style settings are saved automatically.
• Hover reveal while placing buildings. It is based on the same calibrated world grid.
• Vision-grid display around your selected builders

Quick Demo:

How it works:

• The first building sets the grid anchor.
• The build mode / selecting an engineer will show the calibrated grid.
• If the first building was misplaced, use Reset Anchor and try again.

Settings window:

A Toggle Build Grid Panel hotkey action is available in FAF key bindings under the Build Grid category.

Disclaimer:

This mod was developed with Codex, then manually reviewed and adjusted in-game.

Notes / Limitations

• Can the Shift build overlay be enabled permanently?

  No. The in-game build overlay is hardcoded. Keeping it active would require engine modifications. And simulating a key press would interfere with hotkeys.

• Not every mex / hydro spot fits perfectly on the grid?!

  The map author has placed them with a different grid offset. You can either re-anchor the grid near those affected, or kindly ask the map author to make the whole map a little more grid-friendly.

• Is it terrain sensitive?

  Not yet. The grid uses a fixed height for every line, so hills and slopes may cause minor visual issues. Height support needs more testing.

Credits:

Thanks to @c0rtex and @nomander for sparking the idea and providing feedback.

Bugs? Report, please!

Please attach the whole log.

When the host has cheats enabled, you should expect cheats to be allowed.

You also need to update the game path in the FAF client. Only moving the game folder is not enough. The log indicates it:

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin\ForgedAlliance.exe": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified

You can change it in Settings in the FAF Client. If you cannot find it, gimme a ping; I am currently on mobile.

Could the numbers also be randomized?

I think it may be fun to have a regular mode with standard values, and a separate "Chaos" mode where the numbers can vary much more.

Yes, and it is cooking.

Current concept:

Yes. Kinda.

My Aigent will release it as a UI mod later today or tomorrow with customization options and give you a ping so you can check it out, @c0rtex.

@nomander Are there any ideas for how a fix might be possible, or is it too complex to make any progress currently?

While processing reports, I run into broken replays, and having to contact players for their local replay files is not ideal.

@skrat Thanks! Fixed, verified and v3 uploaded.

Edit2: v4 - Added camera coordinates (customizable)
Edit3: v5 - Fixed frigates, sonar, and Nomads AA.
Edit4: v6 - Added auto-overwrite for old Enemy Tagger markers when FAF's 15 marker limit is reached. (customizable)
Edit5: v7 - SACU preset tagging, tiered transport tags
Edit6: v8 - More unit-specific tags, shield tiers, and SACU clean-up.

Thanks @wilson_ Fixed it, verified, and uploaded version 2.

Thanks @nuggets Good point. I moved the config into the regular FAF UI mod options, and updated the first post.

Thanks for the feedback!

@wilson_ Integrating the mod into the base game is something that could be considered. The little time-savings really add up over time. I am also not a fan of adding more clutter to the UI.

@skrat I double-checked; they are getting tagged correctly. My guess is that the mouse-hover did not resolve the name of the T4 unit due to partially fog / limited intel. When the mod (your mouse hover) cant resolve the name of the T4 unit then it will fall back to just EXP. If you can clearly see the EXP's name and HP, but it still gets tagged only as EXP, then please tell me the replayID and time.

Reclaim is unfortunately not taggable that way, because it cannot be selected directly. But I will look into it, if there is another solution.

Hmm, should be in:

%APPDATA%\Forged Alliance Forever\client.prefs

"user" : {
   "notesByPlayerId" : {

Hover over any enemy unit/structure and left-double-click (customizable) to automatically place markers like:

SMD 15:34
NUKE 18:42
T3 ART 22:10
T3 LAND FAC HQ 9:31
...

For unfinished enemy structures, the marker can include progress percentage, e.g. HYDRO 37% 1:22.

Setting Window:

Limitations:

The percentage is based on visible health/max health. This matches build progress for unfinished structures, but damaged completed structures can show a similar percentage. Keep that in mind.

Disclaimer:

This mod was developed with Codex. I reviewed, tested it in-game, and spent time fixing tag cases. If you still find a wrong label, let me know and the Aigent will get it corrected quickly.

By default, time and structure percentages are disabled to keep the mod simple for new users. Advanced users who are familiar with BO timings may find them valuable for their bigger strategic picture.

Coverage:

The mod folder includes COVERAGE_REPORT.html, a readable reference that documents the current tag mapping and shows how units are labelled by the mod.

Credits

Unit coverage and reference data are based on @etfreeman FAF unit database.

Under normal use (just starting the java client and playing a few games) it usually sits at around ~650 MB for me. Even when left alone in the background for many hours.

After repeatedly switching through all UI tabs and clicking on random elements, memory usage peaks at 1.3 GB and drops back to around 1 GB.

Has been updated to work with the latest patch changes.
Added logging and a retry watcher for easier future debugging.

Congratulations on this milestone. It looks very promising, and I will definitely test it out.

The map meta build orders are a nice touch. GJ!

@wilson_ said:

From my understanding, this forum is the main platform for me to do so. From here, it's on the moderators / community managers to pick it up.

I respectfully disagree.

Posting an idea on the forum and expecting a community manager or moderator to make everything happen for you is unlikely.

Senior developer @brutus5000 already suggested the next crucial step: create a feature request and start defining the requirements. Then Brutus, or any other available developer, has the necessary information to do "their magic" and actually start working on your idea in their personal free time.

That is the opportunity to put this idea on a path towards implementation. If nobody is willing to take that first step, it becomes difficult to expect others to invest their own time into it.

That being said - I will happily assist anyone who needs help creating a GitHub feature request. Just send me a PM here or on Discord. There are already examples in the repository, so getting started is straightforward.

Please share the related game and client log. (How?)

Those mod compatibility issues can be really annoying to narrow down.
To fix this, enable mods one at a time to find which mod, or combination causes the issue.

I know that you already experienced with debugging, but can you still share the game logs with debugging attached, just in case?

Just to confirm: you do not get the "scroll and crash" crash when all mods are disabled and you play on a default map, correct?

Please share the related game log and the client log.
(Where are those? Click here)