[WIP] Free Energy

Is it working in GW?

Yes.

Wow, back when they revealed the economy system I (and others) pointed out that their change from TA (don't prorate energy) just punished players for not micromanaging all their constructors. With a powerful mod the PA system is equivalent to TA. This seems to be one such mod.

I am not sure what to think if this is continued to be allowed in competitive play. Surely if this is allowed then the devs should have implemented energy proration at the start. The lack of energy proration implies to me that the economy micromanagement to save energy while metal stalling is an intended mechanic. But Uber gave the impression that they are against this sort of micromanagement. Widespread use of this mod could revitalize the economy system discussion.

Also priorities, nice.

I think I remember Uber saying they went with the new system to make things easier to understand for people unfamiliar with Annihilation games. If that is the case, it would be the same thing they did with the hotkeys; a less efficient system built into the game for simplicity and a better one for people looking to get everything they can out of the UI.

Can you elaborate on this? Do you mean that it will screw over teammates because it will be pausing and unpausing things they don't expect to be paused, or does it break something else? If I was going to try to use this in shared army games, based on your description of what it does, I assume having one person on the team install the mod would be better than having everyone install it.

Yeah if one person has it and all players communicate that with each other it'll work out fine. But if more than one player has it there will be pretty random chaos and if your team mates just don't know their pause/unpause orders will not only be in danger of being overwritten, they also have chance of resulting in mistakes in the management through free energy.

Alright, that's what I figured. I play with a group of friends so I think I'm going to try it out (letting them know of course) and see how it goes.

I think exposing possible design issues of the game with mods like this is a good move.

I think this mod is hurting me way more then helping. Could be good for people that have better eco management then me, but not for me a silver scrub .

It is a great mod.
I think this mod can be father improved by setting the priority automatically.

The fabricators which are building the defensive structure should have the highest priority.
Secondary priority is the fabricators which are building the power plant or metal extractor.
Third priority is the fabricators which are building factory.
The factory and the fabricators which are assisting the factory should have the lowest priority.

Please add a hot key to turn it on and off during the game.
It may trouble other teammates when the game is in the shared army.

I'm a bit late to the party, but holly F* this mod is powerful... Back when i was gold (and probably after that lol) econ management was the biggest pain in the ***, especially power stalling. As clopse pointed out, this will hurt good players more than it will profit since factory pausing would have a greater impact, but with a few tweaks and this can become and APM game changer.
Great work @cola_colin !

*I still have to agree that it gives an unfair advantage tho, and it probably will make new players who use it dependent on it for econ management, so there's that...