I know they can't right now. But the advanced combat fabbers can, along with other defensive structures. It'd be awesome, though, if the basic combat fabber could build walls. It's not a point defense solution so much as a hardening of a line (during an offensive push and/or a defensive stand). I think it would make the basic combat fabber much more worth the build. It would make early offensive pushes much more interesting, and it would make it easier to build defensive lines in response to offensive pushes. Thoughts?
I think combat fabbers need: Price decrease. Anything else should come after these things are affordable. It's a very very situational unit to cost this much (600 and 6000 if I recall correctly). Then, when we can use it more, other changes might come (walls, not useless mines, longer range, slight health increase, etc.) But, walls, yes, I like.
Yes. And remove that ability from the comm and the basic fabbers. It will finally give the combat fabber a role. And for fucks sake, remove the advanced combat fabber. its so pointless.
With the unit cannon it can get a teleporter up faster than anything else and keep a small task force alive better than anything. Completely worth the 6000 metal. and yeah walls would be nice.
Yes. Decrease the price and give them the ability to build walls. Also make land mines invisible unless you have a minesweeper building or bot. Maybe a t1 'Intel bot' with radar and minesweeping, using the old AA bot model updated. Or give minesweeping to the t1 combat fab.
I kinda like the minesweeping idea. To work with it a bit further: Make T1 and T2 combat fabbers the only way to detect mines. Give all fabbers the ability to reclaim mines. Make T2 combat fabbers the only way to construct mines ... OR ... Give T2 Combat Fabbers a mine that detonates with a far greater radius and far greater power. Also provide a couple of different triggering states for mines, including manual detonation.
paging @tvinita as I think this thread has some very constructive ideas for improving the combat fabbers, which is really needed!
This is an awesome idea. Walls are amazing but hard to build near enemy troops without getting the comm involved.
I wish they would change the combat fabber selection type from combat to fabber. It's really just more practical this way given the way combat fabbers are used. No-one uses them to repair as staple combat medics, and never will due to the variable and sometimes high metal cost per hp of most units.
I agree with giving combat fabbers the ability to build walls. In fact, I think they should be the fastest at building walls, even moreso than commanders. On top of that, make mines invisible to radar, and make only combat fabbers able to see them within a certain radius, or give that role to the scout. you now have a really good reason to build combat fabbers.
Honestly I just think their role needs to be refined some more, combat fabs need a buff in a certain way and a nerf in another. I definitely believe they need more health, or a lower metal cost. As they're ridiculously expensive and risky to use. 950+ metal I believe?
250? Ooh! (I apologize for my skewed number, I haven't played in a month at least due to moving, so it was guesswork )
combat fabber changes are live, whaddya think? Oh my god clearing forests is actually a possible task now. Combat fabbers actually can strike unprotected enemy buildings quite easily since they default to reclaiming enemy buildings on right click. They're everything I wanted them to be and more. I think they could even take out a commander given enough of them at once piled on top of each other, and not hit by an ubershot. They're still squishy and doing anything offensive with them is micro heavy, but the fact those options are there helps a lot. Oh and rings of walls everywhere. Such amaze.
I would really like it if combat fabbers used their lathes as the default weapon, so ordering them to attack would make them go reclaim. You have walls? Not anymore. Where those infernos? Well, now my factories are turning them into dox.
I almost like them as micro heavy unit to do things it wasn't really built for. Despite being a combat fabber, its role isn't really combat.
At 250 metal, there's really no reason not to have at least 1 or 2 mixed in with your tank armies. Also the ability to quickly throw up walls anywhere is super useful. Also I actually used mines in a game today. Wow.
I unit cannon'd an advanced combat fabber onto enemy territory so I could Super throw up walls and turrets 64. Enemy bombers probably didn't expect to run into a boatload of missile turrets by the time I was done and it held quite a while against an absurd computer.
