Engineer Repair Preferences

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, that sounds like a really good idea, actually.  Super-specialized units, but cleanups are already like that... well, wait a sec, would it kill balance to let cleanups or rebuilders repair engines?

[x4000]

I think so, yes.  The players need to be able to specify with a high degree of fidelity what they want to have happen (and, preferably, a high degree of simplicity).  Thus the point of rebuilders and cleanup drones being so specialized.  I'd add the "Engine Repairer" as a third specialized type of engineer sitting on top of their stack.

Reason being: I build rebuilders, I expect them to be rebuilding my stuff, pronto.  Not getting distracted with engines.  And the problem is even worse with bringing cleanup drones to other planets, for example.

[keith.lamothe]

True, ok, will put the repairer on the list.  For the official, or after?

[x4000]

Whichever works for you.

[Anticept]

Wouldn't it be better to have a little build queue type menu on the engineers where you can set the preferences? Theres only so many specialized engineers one can take...

When you click the button for the engineer preference, it puts a checkmark on it like with research stations. The difference is, when you pick another, it get's unchecked and the new preference becomes checked. Don't forget a "default" setting

When a unit is set in a specialized mode, it will give it an outline color, just like with attack move and FRD mode.

We already have QUITE a few different tugs, I couldn't take anymore engineers :/... It gets really difficult to try and hunt down your specialized units for your tasks, sometimes I'm spending more time trying to find them, than actually getting the job done!

[xeren]

I'm inclined to agree, I already find the control nodes to be a pretty cludgy solution, and space tugs are definitely awful, but dealing with engineers + cleanup engineers + rebuild engineers + now engine engineers is getting a bit excessive.

I'm not sure what the elegant solution is, but I know the current implementation feels a bit messy.

[Doddler]

Maybe if engineers were split into two categories, one that can assist structures and construction, and a repair engineer which worked the same except only repaired military units (but with a higher engineer rate), that would be much cooler.  Of course that kind of makes the MRS kind of pointless, but the MRS is too unwieldly atm anyways.

[TheSilverHammer]

In general, I prefer my structures to be repaired over my fleet.  In fact, my fleet comes last in most cases.  I think this might be best served by coming up with a list and maybe everyone can agree.   Here is my suggestion in priority order for repair:

1. Force fields repairs
2. Command station repairs
3. Damaged engines repairs
4. New construction command station
5. New construction force fields
6. Infrastructure repairs
7. Most damaged ships
8. Least damaged ships.
9. New construction assistance.

[TheSilverHammer]

Maybe if engineers were split into two categories, one that can assist structures and construction, and a repair engineer which worked the same except only repaired military units (but with a higher engineer rate), that would be much cooler.  Of course that kind of makes the MRS kind of pointless, but the MRS is too unwieldly atm anyways.

I really hope the MRS is re-worked.  FRD mode would be sweet with tugs (who dock with it ) to fetch distant ships.  However at the moment MRS are very slow to repair a large, slightly damaged fleet.   If the tug mechanic stays, Id like to see a priority change for this one as well.

1. Damaged engines
2. Most damaged ships over less damaged ships.

I really think the key to this is to make them like star ships.  Just greatly boost their repair radius and include them in your main fleet.  Maybe they should just be repair star ships that come out of the starship factory.

[Buttons840]

Or a really effective MRS would be helpful.

[keith.lamothe]

Yes, we're planning on revisiting the MRS after the next official release, and we might fold the engine-repairer stuff into that if it looks like it will work.

[Fox Soul]

The engine repair only drone should be half the research cost for a MKII engineer drone. I don't believe it should have its own branch of MKs.
Also, I should be able too act as a regular engineer drone but those regular actions would have too selected manually.

[keith.lamothe]

Dunno that it would cost any knowledge at all, depending on what else it could do.

But I'm not sure that the unit will get added depending on what we do with the MRS.

[TheWordWillSetYouFree]

Just came to me, why not have a ship that slowly repairs the ships near it. Like the shield booster or munition booster but slowly regens health of nearby ships?

Theres no need for a specialist unit for repairing mobile military ships, just increase the repair rate of engineers.

[TheMachineIsSentient]

Good Evening. I like the ideas here. How about a sidebar that pops up with priority boxes to control engineer behavior? What is a priority box, you ask? The most recent example might be Dragon age, where you control tactics with a priority box system. Another example would be the gambit system of final fantasy 12.

-----------------------
[1]  [ repair engines -->]
[2]  [ repair defensive structures-->]
[3] [repair starships-->]
[4] and so on....

On the right column, we have selectable boxes (denoted by the arrow). I only mention these other games so as to give precedent for the success of the system in a popular title, consumed by the masses.

I don't like the idea of specialized units because it quickly becomes messy trying to maintain one of this, one of that, three of those, and so on.

I do like the idea of being able to configure behavior. I wouldn't worry about confusing your audience. This is, by nature, a cerebral game- I think we can handle checkboxes or some sort of configurator.