It's my understanding that combat fabs in the PTE are already unable to build and assist the everything, which is definitely a good step. However, I like the idea of combat fabbers doing combat fabbing, so here's some ideas on how to tweak the current abilities and extend them to other tiers: The t1 naval and bot fabbers could stay as the latter are: fast, quick medics that can hang with your forces and assist as needed. They can also build mines (sea mines in the naval version), so a suggestion would be to allow them to build anti-structure explosives, which would give their tier and unit groups some extra siege capability that they might find useful, provided you can keep the relatively weak C-fabs safe. Tier two C-fabs aren't used much as is. My idea for how they could work involves moving the t2 Bot c-fab to Vehicles, because that better fits the role I would give them.. They could be slower, tougher and more powerful field medics for heavy engagements and the like. They wouldn't quite be merely support units, but have a decent punch in their own right: in addition to their build lathe, they would pack a dedicated reclaim arm that they would use aggressively at enemy targets within range. Two other utilities that they may or may not have are the ability to build and assist defensive structures such as walls and turrets to help in combat and establishing forward bases, and a tactical (tier 0.5?) radar for extending the range of their armies and spotting minefields. These would apply to T2 Naval C-fabs as well, with the additional note that they might have more turrets a la the Leviathan.
I wouldnt like combat fabbers as assisting in building destruction. They are not destructive units, they are for support and defence at the battle field. Mines are good (they just need to be made not visible to enemies). Building walls is also ok. Radar fits in too I guess. I dont agree with building turrets, because turrets can also be used offencively and if you can pop some up in a second they are going to be OP as well as micro heavy. IMO the firepower for offence should come from offencive units and not buildings, so the buildings should be passive defences only (walls, mines).
Combat fabricator mind you, it's not entirely unreasonable that they have combat capabilities, it just so happens to do with their lathes as well. (Also the T2 one has a little turret, that isn't actually used, but it's there..)
So I haven't tried using combat fabbers to mass reclaim things yet but I have used orbital fabbers to reclaim enemy commanders. You do need a ton of energy to pull that off, but it is so worth it. I should see if combat fabbers can still reclaim enemy structures....
I love the idea of combat radars to detect hidden minefields. Assuming people start to use mines, that would make ComFabs essential in combination with their healing. I also like the idea of them suping up base defenses.
