Finding buildings to build things vs. a build panel

One of the biggest things I have always wished other lines would borrow from C&C is the persistent on-the-side build queuer. Having to leave the action and hunt around for building X (as you were doing in the latest live stream) or bind buildings to command groups for quick access so you can queue up more units, to me, has always seemed stupid.

It feels much more intuitive to me to have a panel you can pull out and collapse any time for queuing up builds. Please give us the ability to run up our queue without having to leave everything and go hunting. It should definitely be collapsible; you don't want to lose real estate all the time to it like in the older C&C games. But this would make controlling large unit groups much easier.

Also the panel should give you a way to move the rally points, again without having to go back and find the building to do it, so you can have reinforcements moving into a dynamic front line.

http://planetaryannihilation.wikia.com/wiki/Orders_as_First-Class_Entities_(OFCEs)

I don't think having a consistent build panel will really work on this scale, not only will you have to deal with having multiple bases on multiple planets(each base potentially having more factory structures then you would in an entire game of CnC) and the shear selection of units and structures would make such a feature unwieldy.

Not to mention that CnC's build style is completely different, in CnC the "construction" is handled 'off-screen' and you just select where the finished building goes and it pops up ready to go., TA/SupCom/PA have engineers that have to physically arrive at the location and build the structure over a period of time.

Mike

I am only talking about units, not buildings (though there should be a simple control to get you to your constructors without having to try to select them on the map). Multiple planets are handled by toggling right and left in panel. If anything this illustrates the need. Building on multiple planets by having to select buildings all the time will take so much time jumping between locations that you will never be able to control your troops.

Still suffers from the same problem, there are going to be way more units in PA than a CnC title, and again you could have multiple bases on even a single planet, and what about units types? Do you need to Toggle between tank, Bot, Air, Naval and Obirtal al on the same panel?

This kinda makes me think you've never played SupCom, with Repeat Build Queues and the Factory Assist system you spend far, FAR less time managing your factories than in any other RTS.

Mike

i feel that the supcom idea of repeating build orders would be a good way to go about it .. set up each base once and the zerg will flow . if you need to edit army population its a small amount of micro to go back in and build more or less of what is needed.
if build orders repeat then you dont have to baby sit each planets assault and deff.. jsut have to update your tech plants way points .. way less micro

The issue with repeat build queses was teching up. When you would get to the next tech level you had to drop everything and run around cancelling construction at lower levels that you had outclassed. It was less of an issue than in some games since a lot of SupCom units remained useful even after you build higher level stuff, but it was still a concern. If you got caught in a battle just as your higher tech came online you would end up with a ton of low tech stuff and no high tech ready because you couldn't leave the battle.

You can queue up units from higher tech before the factory upgrade has finished. You can even have the factory on repeat while doing so in SupCom.

This REALLY makes me think you've never played SupCom. Lower Tiers were completely outclassed by higher tiers once you got 5-10 of the higher Tier units. As godde said, in the same instance that you had the factory upgrade, you could also set up a new build order based on the new units available.

But more importantly that particular situation won't be present in PA, factories won't be upgraded, T2 factories will be built separately from T1 Factories.

Mike