Fabricators and build chain broken

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by mazar83, May 22, 2014.

  1. mazar83

    mazar83 Active Member

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    Since the update that made anchors immobile, game play has been nearly impossible for me. The reason is that fabricators seem to begin a job, but fail for some reason.

    1) They do not establish the green schematic of the structure, and therefore do not start construction. They just hover about the construction site in a circle. The issue seems to arise randomly.

    2) They begin construction, but at a later time I find that they are just floating about the construction site doing nothing.

    3) They idle even though they have been given orders; tends to happen when giving orders to fabricators selected using the idle hotkey.

    4) Sometimes I find that the idle hotkey does not select idle fabricators even when I am zoomed in and looking right at them.

    On top of it all, the only way to resolve these issues seems to be to issue new orders. Unfortunately this often results in the destruction of entire build chains, wasted time, and great frustration.

    These behaviors seem to happen more and more, or maybe I am just more aware. One can not survive if they need to constantly micro glitchy fabricators. I did not notice any of these things before the update that made anchors immobile.
  2. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    Are you using WASD for camera controls? Any chance you ignored warning about hotkeys conflict?
    I asking because it' s happen pretty often when players ignore this and then cancel orders ("S" stop hotkey) when try to move camera (same "S" hotkey).
  3. mazar83

    mazar83 Active Member

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    I don't use WASD at all. I use the mouse and 'n' to orient the camera view.
  4. SXX

    SXX Post Master General

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    Any other mods might be? Also when it's happen do you still see order queue when shift pressed or it's disappear too?
    I can say for sure that engineer can't just stop and forgot it's order queue with no reason.
  5. mazar83

    mazar83 Active Member

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    Hi SXX, I don't use any mods. I've looked at some, but never implemented them. I use caps lock when playing. When I encounter the issues with the fabricators the build chain seems to be intact. I only lose queued structures when I give the troublesome fabricators new orders in an attempt to solve the problem.
  6. quazzi

    quazzi Member

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    This happens all the time now. Fabbers will stop building for no reason. Fabbers that are out of range, will start building and stop and keep repeating. It seems pretty common now. So basically the fabbers are building at like 2/10ths of the speed they should
  7. quazzi

    quazzi Member

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    Let's say you have a fabber doing a building chain and you select another fabber to assist that fabber. The assisting fabber will glitch out and basically build for .5 of a second and stop for .5 of a second and repeat. It happens every game now and is so annoying.
  8. tohron

    tohron Active Member

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    Haven't had the problem of stopped construction, but I have had a problem where assisting combat fabbers start assisting from longer range than they should, and seem to be contributing about 1/3 of what they normally would. Sounds like it might be related.
  9. tatsujb

    tatsujb Post Master General

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    queues are not necessarily lost if they aren't visible.

    there are some problems with queue visibility right now, but I take it that's not what you're talking about.

    you sure you didn't issue another order after the fabber has started construction?
  10. mredge73

    mredge73 Active Member

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    I have had this issue since the PTE build.
    Biggest problem that I have found is that they do not auto reclaim properly. For example, they have trouble replacing dead mex generators. I have been using combat fabbers more this build to do area reclaims in combat zones. They also have path finding issues when giving multiple units the same build orders and often just block each other. Playing on moons and grouping fabbers in groups of 2-5 have helped.
  11. lizard771

    lizard771 Well-Known Member

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    ^ THIS
  12. mredge73

    mredge73 Active Member

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    Try assisting with combat fabbers, I have had better luck with this.
  13. lizard771

    lizard771 Well-Known Member

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    They're eating so much energy, though.
  14. tohron

    tohron Active Member

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    They may use double the energy, but that's while spending 6x the metal, so they're actually 3 times more energy-efficient.
  15. mredge73

    mredge73 Active Member

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    Yea, they are great in this build. I adjusted my opening build to pumping out a combat fabber first to assist with initial base building. You just have to start with more power gens.
  16. mazar83

    mazar83 Active Member

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    Hi tatsujb. To answer your question, no. I make it a point not to give new orders to fabricators that are working on a build chain. I paid careful attention to this recently.
  17. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    Sometimes, my commander can't back up enough to get a position to start. Sometimes the build queue is so long, it is faster to attempt to push him with other units until he slides far enough to begin construction.
  18. Pinworm

    Pinworm Active Member

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    I have noticed my commander and fabber doing a thing where they turn, spray for a half sec, and turn back, every second or so. It can be one or two of them in a group that are building something, with the others being fine.

    I have not been able to narrow down what it is doing this at all, but it can be extremely obnoxious when it's your commander and you need something built fast and he just stands there turning like he's raving
  19. mazar83

    mazar83 Active Member

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    Just noticed the update, and played a game against the AI. No more fabricator/commander problems at all. Also nice UI.

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