Differentiating the sub fabber vs the boat fabber (as well as others)

So I hope that eventually there will be a use for building the sub fabber. It would be interesting if the sub fabber could actually build while submerged. Underwater bases, anyone? Submerged bases should cost more metal or maybe have less health, but there are a lot of cool possibilities with this. I read in another thread where someone suggested an underwater air factory that floats to the surface to build air units; things like that would be really cool and make naval more unique.

As for other fabbers, it would be really nice to have more differentiation between each fabber. Efficiency is one thing, but how about range? Health? Repair rates? Mobility? Maybe even have a certain fabber be radar stealth? I feel there is a lot of untapped potential for fabricator uniqueness and I was unable to find a thread that discussed this in detail ('fabbers' is quite a common word in threads here).

I was thinking that the basic veh. fab. could have the highest health (per metal, of course) and maybe even give it a small gun so that it can defend itself from early scouts or even when outnumbering doxes.

-basic bot fab. could be the fastest.
-basic air fab. could have good repair/reclaim rates (keeping the inefficient build rates) making it ideal for maintaining defense lines and reclaiming wreckage after a battle.
-adv. veh. fab. could have double range or something
-adv. bot fab. could ignore most terrain (spider bot legs?)
-adv. air fab. ...???

Thoughts?

The repair and reclaim rate is determined by the build rate. They suck up as much metal as they build with.

Yes, I do realize this, and I hope that it changes.

Why? It makes sense. They have one tool and that's a nanolathe sprayer/vacuum cleaner.
It has the same power both ways. It either sprays nanolathe or it liquifies a wreck and sucks it up, like a spider that is eating some flies' innards. Well, that's how I imagine it at least.

Presently, it's nice having Vehicles be efficient and slow, Air mobile and fast, and Bots a nice midrange... but it does leave something to be desired, as these are not immediately visible effects. Many new players might mistake Air builders as being the absolute best because their mobility is very apparent, while their inefficiency is not.

A unique builder per subtype (vehicle/bot/air) could be interesting but might be a "bloat" in terms of structures available.

Since the boat fabber takes the most mass it would be nice for it to have something unique. A gun is a good example but maybe something along the lines of better armor maybe. I think the air fabricator already has the perks of flying unhindered on the land scape. The land and bot fabricators need a better differentiation to show upside and downside. Or maybe not since they are the main two land forces. I'm for unit diversification but not towards a unit that clearly has a clear advantage to the other builders.

Well, the boat has an advantage... it takes a lot of metal. The amount of metal they take to run is the exact amount they put into the building, meaning that boats have the fastes build rates.

The sub fabber does currently have a use: it builds more efficiently than the boat fabber, costing less energy per unit mass built. On water maps, I usually build sub fabbers to assist other naval construction and T2 naval yards and drive up my overall build power. When subs are properly implemented they will be submerged, too, which is probably gonna be handy.

I guess you need all the other T1 fabbers for their ability to build the relevant T2 factories?

Not sure that any of the basic fabbers should have a gun though. It would reduce the need for escorting/looking after them, and weaken the importance of harassing other players' expanding engineers.

Sub fabbers should build on the ocean floor, boat fabbers on the surface.

Underwater bases would be quite fun, but I agree with leadfootslim that Air, bot, and vehicle fabbers all have their own advantages and disadvantages as is.

That is interesting. I did not know subs had a different efficiency than boats. Still, their (intended) perk is suposed to be their ability to submerge and sneak around putting up torpedo launchers/hijacking metal spots/etc. Maybe even sub-fab offensive salvage squads making enemy structures disappear mysteriously...

Taking the sub as an example, however, what if certain builders were unable to build certain structures? Air fabbers being able to build only single laser turrets, or double turrets instead of triple at T2, for example.

This would be quite cool and you could easily see know what the difference is between the two. However, can the subs build the T2 shipyard? And can subs assist boats?

Would an underwater base be stealth? Hidden underwater nuke-launcher.

Sub fabbers can't build nearly as much as the boats:
http://www.pa-db.com/unit/fabrication_ship
http://www.pa-db.com/unit/fabrication_sub

For now...

I hope to see that it gets a special purpose, under water bases or something. Because currently it's basicly the ship fabber underwater that can build less that half of the things the ship can. Who knows it might become a Uber unit!