Engineers

Are people ok with just one kind of engineer? It would be the robot. That would keep the unit designer's job easier. Robot engineers are used in Supreme Commander and it works well.

I think we could include a ton of different kinds of engineers just like TA or Zero K, but considering our development window I would really like to keep it to one. I want the unit designers make cool things that blow up.

So there would be:
-the Commander
-tech 2 engineer built by tech 1 factories
-tech 3 engineer built by the tech 2 factories

I would think that the engineer could both float, submerge under water or submerge to the ocean floor.

The tech 3 engineer might have jump jets. It looks like they have jump jets jumping from the moon to the asteroids in the promo video. Also it looks like the tech 3 engineer has flying nano builders. I would imagine the flying nano builders give the tech 3 engineers an easier time reaching their target project faster, but probably also allows players to stack their production activity much easier.

I think neutrino wrote somewhere that he likes the aproach of TA to have different engineers. I cant find the quote anymore, though.

I think in TA any builder could build anything in its tech level without the need of an engineer. There were truck, flying, and submarine builders if I remember correctly. The flying ones were great as they could go anywhere but they had slower build rate than the trucks. I think only the submarines could build the underwater tech.

In any case, I agree that having only one type of builder could be a good idea. It is some sort of flying builder that work for both land, submarine, and orbital. In TA the trucks would get in the way when unit numbers began to ramp up; no so much for the others.

Rebuilt

All the construction types in TA (with CC) were:
- K-bot Tech 2/3
- Vehicles Tech 2/3
- Aircraft Tech 2/3
- Ships Tech 2
- Submarines Tech 3
- Hovercraft Tech 2
- Commander Tech 1

I'd prefer to see a construction unit for each 'realm' and tech level. Air, land, and water. Any variety beyond that seemed unnecessary.

Different environment based engineers are ok. Land, sea, air, orbit. Some or all can be combined.

But why do we need different tech levels for engineers? I never understood this. So much more complexity ... for what? A T1 factory makes a T2 engineer, which makes a T2 factory, which makes a T3 engineer... it's almost like a joke.

I don't think the game would suffer if there was just a single worker unit that can go everywhere and build everything after you somehow unlock the requisite techs. I would prefer upgrading your commander to T2 to get those buildings instead of having to build a new kind of worker.

Multiple types of construction units adds texture and feel to the game IMHO.

I agree. As someone else said above, in TA flying engineers had much better range and maneuverability but land engineers could build faster. One was weak to AA the other to land projectiles. And lvl 1 engineers were quicker and cheaper to build even though they constructed things slower.

All this allows for a few more strategic options and more flexibility to the game. All good things I think.

I agree that multiple types of engineers is Good. one thing I always did in TA that was taken from me in Supcom was to build a pack of T1 construction planes, get a patrol of air units on it, and encroach targets with defensive emplacements. It never seemed to work as well with non-flyer engis, especially on naval maps.

Another vote for multiple types of construction units. Even though the construction planes TA didn't build as fast as their land based counterparts, they did a much better job at repair patrol, especially since in TA units weren't smart enough to move out of the way when they were blocking new construction. Slightly off topic, one thing I really liked about SupCom engineers that TA didn't do was allow you to see the build menus when you had multiple construction units selected. I hope PA allows that as well.

actually i liked it much too, the only bad thing about lower tech engineers they felt useless, if in the middle time of a match, so my advice is, try to consider that and let them still be good for special buildings.

On one hand, multiple engineers are more interesting. Faster air engineers, amphibious engineers to build things everywhere, bot engineers to climb slopes...
On the other hand, varied engineers not building varied things is for a micro-feast.

So the best should be the Zero-K way. Each lab has its own engineer, the biggest variation being its movement type, speed and HPs (and cost). The flying ones have less buildpower, though. Some also have special abilities, for example the heavy tank one, while being more expensive, is sturdier and armed. The cloak bot one, obviously, can cloak (and climb cliffs). The spider one, being a spider in this game, can climb any cliff...

I would be very happy to see TA flying engineers again. I missed them in SC.

i think different engineer types are essential (especially if they can't all build exactly the same), it adds a layer of complexity. If any constructor can construct all tier 1 and 2 buildings you take away a lot of diversity, not to mention that something like airborne constructors had further strategic depth to them then being the only ones to construct tier 2 aircraft factories additionally they were agile, and thus useful as frontline repair support...

In SupCom or in TA?
In SupCom people spammed tons and tons of t1 engineers xD
And my guess is that people probably spammed air t1 engineers in TA. At least I do, but I am only playing campaign xD

Well, seeing as construction units in TA gave lots of resources just for existing, I've actually seen people build a bunch of the of them just for that. They would sit around doing nothing, but generating more resources.

Plus all construction units increased your metal and energy storage by 50 (100 for adv. ones), so again, even if they weren't doing anything, they stayed useful.

Finally, I still see people build them late into the game to reclaim wreckages, seeing as if you lose a normal construction unit in the front lines to that, it won't be as expensive as losing an adv. one.

EDIT: Oh, and only normal construction units could build advanced construction plants, so if you wanted more of those, you had to keep some t1 builders along with the t2 ones. Also, guardians and defenders (both t1 buildings) always remain useful, and are continuously made late into the game.

I feel with the scale of the maps, that having many types of engineers would just bog you down in micromanagement. I would prefer to be able to select any engineers and get them to build where I need.

I did like in SupCom that one or two of the front line units repair and reclaim mass. I think this could be more widely used to add some of the strategic depth that might have come from more engineer types.

I felt like there were too many types in TA, and it was hard to keep track of what structures which engineers could build. I'd prefer 1 engineer per terrain type (so land, water, air, orbital/space) and they can all build the same stuff. and I don't want T2 engineers, I don't think it especially adds.

+1 for streamlining the TA system, having an engineer for each terrain type is good enough, at the end of the day I want all of my workers to be useful as more than mobile resource storage.

I'm not sure how i think building on the orbital layer should work, do you launch everything from the ground, or just space engineers? Are those workers transferable to other planets, how do you prevent people from planet hopping with space spam in that case?

More engineers

Having multiple type of construction workers can be fun and strategic, but I wouldn't like to see engineers of different tiers. I think it adds too much complexity and there are tons of other interesting things to do than worring about which engineer can do what at what tier.