Should combat fabs 'attack' with their build arm?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by stevenrs11, February 5, 2015.

  1. stevenrs11

    stevenrs11 Active Member

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    Right now, if you have an army with combat fabs mixed in and you issue an attack move order, the units with weapons stop when they enter attack range and do their stuff. Combat fabs keep moving forward though, and generally get blown to bits as they have no weapon.

    Now, if you are really good, you can order these combat fabs to reclaim the enemy units. Done correctly, this is very powerful, especially against infernos and walls. As in, they pretty much evaporate.

    In my opinion, this is the type of micro PA tries to avoid. It gives a very large advantage to the person who can mash hotkeys faster and pick out the infernos among the mess of units.

    What do you think about making combat fabs use reclaim as their default attack behavior? It would make them more useful and prevent them from wandering in front of your army.

    I also see myself putting them on patrol behind walls, and instead of just repairing the walls, they would reclaim/attack infernos that got too close trying to breach the walls.

    It might also justify a change to the combat fab's spray, so the particles move towards the fabber instead of away, and possibly a buff to infernos (which really could use one anyway).
    DalekDan likes this.
  2. theseeker2

    theseeker2 Well-Known Member

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  3. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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  4. stevenrs11

    stevenrs11 Active Member

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  5. emraldis

    emraldis Post Master General

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    I think it would be interesting, though healing allied units should have a higher priority. Either that, or they should stay back with the rest of the units. This could probably be done by giving them a zero-damage weapon with a range a little higher than an ant's range with no PFX.
  6. nick2k

    nick2k Active Member

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    Why not? They are "Combat" fabbers after all. Repairing should take priority, but why not reclaim when enemy entities are near.
  7. sebovzeoueb

    sebovzeoueb Active Member

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    Yes, and I also think that normal fabbers should reclaim enemy stuff if you send them to say build a bunch of mex, and there are already enemy mex there.
    pieman2906 and lapsedpacifist like this.
  8. websterx01

    websterx01 Post Master General

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    Attack move for fabber should perhaps be translated into repair-move so that they automatically try to repair and don't rush ahead.
  9. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    They should, because a normal player would manually, so micro reduction and all...

    ...but their default behaviour should be avoiding going to the frontline. If with units, it should stay far back. But, if combat fabbers are all that is selected, and they are ordered to move into a blob of tanks, yes they should immediately start rapidly reclaiming repeatedly as many enemies as possible because that would be why a person would call combat fabbers into enemies and a person should automatically have this happen without being asian... excuse me, being able to crick leally fast...

    ...and some how prioritize walls.
    Last edited: February 5, 2015
    sebovzeoueb likes this.
  10. stevenrs11

    stevenrs11 Active Member

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    You could probably have them prioritize based on health/mass cost, so they prioritize the things they are most effective against.
  11. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    combat fabbers are not meant for offense they are meant to heal your forces and build impeding defenses ... so no ..
    feel free to issue reclaimorders ....
  12. endurrr

    endurrr Active Member

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    Keep in mind that combat fabbers would probably prioritize helping allies before destroying enemies. I don't understand why not have the combat fabbers auto reclaim enemies when they aren't healing allied forces. It would get rid of a ton of short range and low health units before they could do significant damage, and would probably look cool as hell too.
    DalekDan and ace902902 like this.
  13. squishypon3

    squishypon3 Post Master General

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    Combat Fabricators.

    Besides you do realise by telling him to just continue issuing reclaim command yiu are promoting micro! =o
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  14. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    yupp they fabricate stuff while in combat that doesn't make them a offensive unit but support ... you have to micro as well when you want to reclaim scrap rocks or trees when your storage is full ( uber what is with the unitscrap?) .. and you have to micro them anyway when you want to issue buildorders ... DUNNDUNNDUUUNNNNN!!!!

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