At the moment the combat fabber can only build land mines. Will it be possible to add the Single Laser Tower, Missle Defense Tower, Radar Tower and Walls to it build command? Also possibly you could just add a weapon to the model and make it like a mini-commander. The Adv. Combat Fabber same thing but has the Adv. Laser Tower, Catapult and Adv. Radar in build command. Idea behind this is to make a quick forward defense post for you units to fall behind.
For cost, you get a lot more out of regular Fabbers based on current balance, The Advanced Bot Fabber costs 200 metal less, has double the health and is a more efficient builder. The balance could change of course, but I haven't see any good proposals for combat Fabbers that work well alongside regular Fabbers and combat units. Mike
If it seems like the Combat fabber is a waste, that's because it is. Constructors simply aren't combat units. Allocating stats to turn a non-combatant into a bad-combatant is an exercise in futility. Construction involves a set of blueprints, and spamming the most efficient constructor there is.
The combat fabbers are more like medics than builders. Besides, I don't get the point of having the adv. version of the same unit. I thought Uber wanted to avoid having 'upgraded' versions of the same type (with the same abilities), because this makes basic tech less useful/more obsolete. The combat fabbers are a nice addition, but I don't think it's necessary to have an adv. version. Also I want to be able to choose between circle and line building for mines. A nice touch would be to have random space between them, making their positions less predictable.
Combat fabbers aren't futile. Right now technically they are buggy and can do high dps, tbh. Yes, you heard me. Anyway, they definitely need balance adjustments. Generally, I don't think they need high health if the follow behind. Also, I wouldn't mind them generating other defense structures. Everything can be balanced via numbers to make them not super-reclaim, not build too fast, not be cheap in cost or fabrication cost, and not be replacements for actual fabbers.
I'd like that they could do something like set up turret defenses, artillery, and walls. Right now they're only really handy for mines. It would be nice if they had some sort of passive benefit besides healing. Most of the time units come into contact with one another it would be more beneficial to have another bot firing instead of something trying to heal since things get obliterated so quickly.
The very notion of a medic-bot becomes much more viable when you have T2 units with larger health pools - particularly dedicated meat-shields like the Vanguard/Inferno. I do have to wonder, however, about the balance between forward defenses and vulnerable workers. Given how monstrously immovable defensive emplacements (especially with walls) can be, they need a drawback - such as being built by fragile fabbers that have to be carefully guarded. Combat fabbers being able to soak moderate amounts of damage while building defenses could be a bad idea balance-wise for that reason.
I have had mixed results with combat fabs. The units are too pop-corny for them to do anything of much use.
I've found in my latest game that they're decent for shrugging off a horde of t1 bombers if you have a few ground based AA units and on the go reclaiming, but t1 bombers are pathetic at the moment and you have to micro effectively to get the most out of some reclaiming. It would be nice if they would auto reclaim things as well. I agree with leadfoot that they're perfect for keeping on a commander and other beefy units like the tanky tanks. It would be cool if they could passively buff other units they're around so they can soak up maybe one or two more standard shots before getting annihilated which would make them useful when scattered around a blob. Like a command similar to how they build mines, only they build an extra armor piece on units around it, or project a passive force field and units inside it gain that 1 additional hit damage resistance, though it wouldn't stack with other combat fabbers around it. Or maybe they passively buff fire rate or something. They just need a little edge over building a much more versatile regular fabber.
Not sure if they are, but I hope that they add Reclaim to the Patrol Routine for Fabbers, also add the circular function to the Land fabbers would be very useful.
Combat fabbers are amazing, and I build them every match that isn't entirely air(lava planets without land bridges). My only problem with them is their insistence on running to the front of the line.
