Another thing I really would like to see is a way to saves routes. There could be an icon (for example an tranparent +) if you click it you could choose a starting point and then additional waypoints. If your planned route is complete you save it and an icon (A then B and so on) would appear beneath the + icon. You could then right click a factory output on the icon A, and some units or additional factories and all the units would travel along that route. The routes could be changed by left clicking the route icon and then shift left dragging the waypoints and you could also add new waypoints or delete waypoints. This way you could preplan different attack vectors and change them as you see fit. Perhaps it would even be possible to include timers in the routes, like for example at waypoint 4 of route A wait till game time 03:45 before travelling on to waypoint 5 to better coordinate attacks from multiple directions. Or set a unit size (for example 20 units) that has to be reached before travelling to the next waypoint. I think this way you could unclutter the GUI because you dont have to set waypoint for each factory.
hmm. interesting. why would it supplant the factory waypoint(s) though? EDIT: actually I see contexts where this would be useful. especially on big planets.
If you have 5 factories built over time, I think you would make waypoints for each of them after you build them. There could be a big time difference between building the factories. You then would have 5 routes. If you preplan one route and then add the factories to it when the are build in the end you have only one. Also adding a timer (or unit counter) to a route would let you coordinate attacks better I think.
+1 on dragging the waypoints around! and i also love the "unit count" before the group travels to the next waypoint. i guess this exposes me for the n00b I am, but several times I've checked back to find an aggressively set waypoint is sending a steady stream of units to their death, one by one...
I've suggested similar smarter waypoint management only rather then creating routes I suggesting just marking entire areas as safe or hostile to achieve the same thing. I kind don't like the idea of having to select factories to tell them to get there since I can see it causing a lot of micro-management problems when you actually want to change things, ie. point 30 factories all scattered around to completely different routes. The problem of computing route distances especially with your system that's based on actual waypoints being there is fairly easy and factories could do it magically for you with just a "prioritize routes" button; there's really no reason to make "sending your units somewhere" any more complicated since obviously some players will just have a natural advantage of optimal route being a really dumb straight line, potentially just from their starting location—which is an unmitigated, outside of better controls, disadvantage for the other player. Imagine player on water and player trying to attack via flanking to avoid catastrophic ship fire. (I actually intentionally do that; who cares about logic, if it doesn't work just make a ton more and send it everywhere)
Sorry I didn't answer well enough. It wouldn't supplant the factory waypoint. The factoriy waypoint would just be mapped to the start of the route (for example route A waypoint 1) like you map a factory output to a location on the map. You could remap the factory anytime to a different spot. But as long as you mapped it on the route (A1) all units would travel there and then travel to A2, A3 and so on. Let's say you have 16 factories. You map 4 each to the preplaned routes A, B, C, D. These routes would go to the north, east, west and south of an area you plan to attack. The waypoint before the target area has a timer set (07:00). The units of 16 factories would then automatically assemble to the north, east, west and south of the target area, and then start attacking synchronous at 07:00 (without any micro). I also forget to mention that the GUI could show the distances between the waypoints, so then you could calculate travel times for units with different speeds. Or you could create a waypoint which collects 20 units before sending them to the next waypoint as a formation. It all depends what means of programming the waypoints behaviours you would have. I hope this clarifies the idea a little bit. Sorry for being slightly vague before
