Something I was surprised by how I never wondered about before

I was thinking about advanced fabricators recently and I realized how odd it was that they could only build factories of their own group.

I mean, there is some sense in the T1 fabricators, in that they can build any factory at their own tier but also only the advanced factory of their own tier. You go a tier higher but you can only use a certain kind of fabricator, which is fine.

What I find odd is that advanced fabricators can't build other kinds of advanced factories. Now what exactly is the design reason behind this? The precedent is already there with the T1 fabricators that can build other sorts of factories of the same tier and only their own kind for the higher tier but for some reason T2 fabricators can't build all factories of their own tier. Consistency is sacrificed here, but it's not immediately apparent what for.

It would help with the issue of T2 being underused if getting the different factories wasn't a lot of hassle. For example, I would have liked the ability to build a T2 air factory on a planet I teleported to without having to build a T1 air factory first that will only get 1 dinky fabricator out to enable construction of advanced factories, and then only serve to spam Icarus. It feels rough around the edges; the transition could be much smoother and I would like an official word on why exactly it was designed this way. As even if we take it as an axiom that "T2 shouldn't build other kinds of factories", why can T1 fabricators do just that? It's not like the commander can't build other types of factories, and T1 only building their own kind, while a bigger deal, is very similar to the situation with advanced fabricators. Heck, at least the Colonel could get this distinction to make him differ from the Advanced Fabrication Bot further and actually get a more unique position.

Why, Uber?

it is their way of branching out the techtree it was like this in TA aswell ... otherwise it would be just like supcom and there would be no real reason to have the various builders ...

You mean besides the changes done in PA:T making bots faster than vehicles, vehicles more durable and better at building, and air being able to travel everywhere but with reduced efficiency? Okay.

You mean besides the fact that only orbital fabricators (more vulnerable, less efficient) can build all the titans while the others can only build titans of their own kind? Okay.

Sorry but your reasoning feels a bit forced after these changes to make the fabricators distinct. Plus, why shouldn't at least the colonel do that?

in supcom engineers are able to hover which takes away the need to add extra engineertypes .. the colonel is pretty much a subcommander without the upgrades and economyboost but has access to any surfacebuildoption and is the strongest builder not to forget he's amphibius as well ...

be honest out of any fabricator which one would you likely build the most of? probably bots ... now allow those to hover/fly (with wings or jetpack like in the pa concepttrailer) over water/lava you wouldn't realy need any other engineer if it weren't for their buildingrestrictions of advanced factories and titans ...

No, I don't see why I would build bots the most. And your argument is that we shouldn't let these build all factories because of some abilities they don't have? What? Also that's my point, the Colonel SHOULD have every surface build option but he does not. He can only build bot facts.

From another thread:

It looks like this may be a mix up from a test, so I would not put any weight on this..