Rebuilder behavior

[keith.lamothe]

"Unit behavior: make rebuilders target the same thing less often and do less yo-yoing back to FRD point" did very well in the 6.0 poll, so I've been working on that.

I've got it spreading out the targets now, and I can make it not yo-yo back to the FRD point between rebuilds, but I'm not sure y'all will actually want the yo-yo-suppression.  Basically the way I have it they fly out, fire the rebuild beam to turn a remains into a 50%-built-structure, and sit there until their rebuild beam recharges, and if there's another target to rebuild they go after that.  If there's no target to rebuild they go back to the FRD point.

But in the meantime they're sitting ducks   In theory their cloak would recharge if they sat long enough, but in practice it appears to be roughly as long as the rebuild-beam recharge.

Thoughts?

[Hearteater]

I think the problem is we weren't aware of the rebuild beam needing to recharge at all.  Is there a need for that, given creating the remains isn't instantaneous?

[keith.lamothe]

I think the problem is we weren't aware of the rebuild beam needing to recharge at all.  Is there a need for that, given creating the remains isn't instantaneous?

With no recharge at all you could probably have a single rebuilder start the rebuilding process on about 500 turrets in 10 seconds, unless the target-acquisition throttle kicked in or something like that.

I can test that and see how it goes.

[Draco18s]

I think the problem is we weren't aware of the rebuild beam needing to recharge at all.  Is there a need for that, given creating the remains isn't instantaneous?

That's what it looks like five of them repair the same thing and get it in a tenth of a second, then swap, and it waits for full two.

[keith.lamothe]

Hmm, ok, I changed their recharge time from 10 to 0 and it's basically like 1-second because it only checks for a new rebuild target at most once a second (and generally exactly once a second if you don't have a ton of rebuilders all looking for rebuildees).

It's a bit of a buff but I don't suppose the delay in starting the rebuild process is really a big deal balance-wise.

Combined with the spread-out-rebuilding-assignments and don't-FRD-back-until-recharged I think it handles most of the request.  There's still some relatively minor yoyoing if you have more rebuilders than can fit through the throttle, as it becomes possible for a rebuilder to have recharged but not checked for another target, so the FRD kicks in.  But not for very long.

I think I'll go with this, unless someone has something to add.

[Wanderer]

It's a bit of a buff but I don't suppose the delay in starting the rebuild process is really a big deal balance-wise.

That sounds like an effective fix for the moment, honestly, but a comment about your statement above.  I think you'll be surprised just how much of an effect cleaning up the yoyo and recharge will have when dealing with back to back waves, especially if coupled with engineer sorting fixes.

[keith.lamothe]

It's a bit of a buff but I don't suppose the delay in starting the rebuild process is really a big deal balance-wise.

That sounds like an effective fix for the moment, honestly, but a comment about your statement above.  I think you'll be surprised just how much of an effect cleaning up the yoyo and recharge will have when dealing with back to back waves, especially if coupled with engineer sorting fixes.

You mean you weren't just microing the rebuilder target lists to make them more efficient?

[TechSY730]

My only thing would be a change in prioritization.
First command stations (this one CAN preempt rebuilders already auto-targetted something else to rebuild)
Second, either forcefields or reactors (can't decide which yet)
Third, whichever second wasn't (perhaps make the second and third dynamic based on need)
Fourth, fortresses (debatable)

Everything else uses whatever general purpose prioritization logic that we settle with.

[keith.lamothe]

Ok, 5.089 is out and rebuilder behavior is rather different.

If rebuilders are still behaving in radically moronic ways for you 5.089+, please post a save and steps to reproduce.  That makes it a lot easier to try targeted changes

[Nodor]

Ok, 5.089 is out and rebuilder behavior is rather different.

If rebuilders are still behaving in radically moronic ways for you 5.089+, please post a save and steps to reproduce.  That makes it a lot easier to try targeted changes

Thank you.