There are two features I would love to be implemented into the game and I apologize if they are poorly worded: 1. Being able to associate numbers to factories and have the units that come out tied to that number. Ex) You use ctrl+1 on a bot factory and ALL bots coming out, no matter what type, are selected when you press 1. It would be very nice to be able to send out squads of mixed units in an intense game to different locations, just as you could in TA. 2: Having games not be labeled unless they are specifically labeled as "Casual", "Competitive", or whatever else. This one is not nearly as important to me, especially from all the latest drama around the word "casual", but I thought I might bring it up anyway. A lot of people just ignore this label and leave it as casual which misleads some players. This leads to some miscommunication as some players really mean to play casually with others and some don't care what it's labeled as. The first suggestion is of much higher importance to me and I hope it is considered.
the problem with this is that numbers are already used for control groups. that and you will have much more than 10 factories. of course if you could hook multiple factories to one number the second part would not apply. still, you need a solution for the first.
The idea isn't that your first 10 factories are labeled 1-10, its that you can assign them a control group manually like you could unit,s SupCom had this feature. Mike
that's what i meant, but if you want more than 10, with only one in each controll groupyou have no room for more. if you add multiple to one group then yes it would work.
I'm saying it's just like selecting control groups now, but the number for a single factory or multiple factories is applied to the units they create.
You can actually create an unlimited number of control groups in the game engine but you are limited by the ui. If someone can come up with a better way to do control groups we will have a lot of new possibilities.
While I completely agree that we need better command and control systems to manage the large numbers of units and large amounts of economy in PA, I don't think using the classical RTS control group system is the right approach. The way I would do it is the player has hotkeys to group (and ungroup) selections of units, which are not uniquely tied to a number on the keyboard. Like a platoon or a company of units. These units would stick together and receive orders together, without needing to box select them or use a control group key to recall them. The player could click on the group, or on any individual unit in the group, and thus select the entire group. Factories could then be instructed to construct groups, not individual units. If the player defines a "Dox Platoon" as 20 Dox, then the player could instruct a factory to construct Dox Platoon, on infinite repeat. Instead of a big blob of Dox, you would get neatly organized squads of 20, per your request. Furthermore, instead of assigning each individual factory a control group number which would be inherited by units it produces, it makes more sense for factories to work together. Such as giving a single build queue to a group of factories. For example, you assign a group of 10 factories to construct two Dox Platoon, one Tank Platoon, one AA Platoon, and one Artillery Platoon, on infinite repeat. Specific build orders for individual units are automatically distributed to all the factories. Groups of factories might include fabbers which will assist production. Furthermore, if the group is commanded to increase the number of factories (or fabbers), the units in the group will arrange for those factories or fabbers to be constructed and automatically added to the group. Newly constructed factories will automatically begin receiving orders from the factory group, and newly added fabbers will automatically distribute their assistance. As a result of this arrangement you don't have to micromanage the build queues of dozens of factories. You have one build queue for each factory complex you choose to designate. And you can expand that factory complex easily, without needing to manually manage each factory's construction and build orders.
wait why someone call PA as Casual? ... because if a BF (for example) is not casual... then PA is (one of) the PRO'est RTS game in history of man kind
We had a whole thread on this recently. What we concluded was that you can't really compare "casual" and "competitive" in PA with other games. Obviously PA is a fast-paced competitive game, but within it you can still easily find people that just want to have fun watching robots explode. Not everyone is playing to improve their standing on the (unofficial) ladder or to win a tournament. Sometimes you just want to relax and make the biggest army of boom bots you have ever seen. "Casual" games in PA can even be played with the intent to win; the precise definition of the word is up for interpretation but to me it means a game that is played without any concern for ladder standings, tournaments, or player reputation (for skill at least).
well if someone want to play "casual" PA... the best thing he/she can do is see a ZaphodX video for example
