Aircraft carriers commands and usability improvements needed

[Evildrew]

Hello,

So I am one of the crazy aircraft carriers fanatics who loves to load them up with t1 bombers and launch 50 at once into the enemy base to scare them to death -_-
I unfortunately have no idea how to rework FAF since I am not a techie guy outside of making excel macros. I know the aircraft carrier is only used for AA in Setons f.ex., but I do believe that given the proper improvements listed below it would also be feasible and therefore used by players a lot more frequently.

I have been playing around with them for a bit now in sandbox and do think that they are actually a really cool tool but not easy at all to operate due to the following reasons:
1) When unloading planes or issuing move commands (like the ones to dodge tempest blasts crucial to survival), the build order stops and needs refreshing, this is annoying and cost additional apm that some of us dont have or should be using for other stuff.
2) there are 2 choices for a loaded aircraft carrier for the player, go into unit selection and click each unit individually to send out or send out all of them.
-Now lets assume f.ex. we have 20 inties and 30 t1 bombers in the Carrier and we see 15 torpedo bombers heading for us which will kill our precious if we dont get out some planes, however we dont have time if we have mixed unit build to click out 20 planes as the torps will be there by the time we do so and we will take a lot of damage, so this option sucks.
-And now lets assume we use the other feasible option, sending out all 50 planes with the deploy command. In this case it takes time to unload all planes and we might be launching bombers in front of inties and causing some inefficiencies. Also we are launching bombers which cost 60% more mass and have less hp and may be subject to other ships firing at them or whatever.
*Bottom line conclusion, carriers versatility is restrained for the player due to the lack of appropriate commands and display.

Suggestions to improve usability of carriers and improve gameplay by adding new options to players:
A) Carriers need to have the units displayed as single image (i.e. Inti (number), Bomber (number)) instead of having the display (Inti, Inti, Inti, Bomber, Inti, Bomber, etc). The display should be like the display of troops/building when you shift click select your entire base+troops.
B) Players need to be able to click on the single image of the group of 1 troop type to select how many of these he wishes to deploy, similar to how the build queue is set on factories. F.ex. I may have 50 torpedo bombers however I only require 5, shift click on the torpedo bomber to select 5/50 and launch would be really useful.
C) Carriers have to have the ability to build while they are moving and deploy troops while they are building without the queue being broken.
D) Carriers should stop building troops when they are full instead of launching newly built ones after max capacity is reached (Why? -This is not to give away to the enemy that aircraft is being built in the carrier which increases the value of its destruction)

I am happy to learn how to work these things out with the right guidance by someone with the abilities which I obviously do not possess if it is feasible

Overall I believe that as these improvements do not alter the balance but makes players be better able to use the aircraft carrier and engage naval battles in a more strategic way, it is a good idea which can be developed and add something valuable to the FAF experience.

I am happy do discuss any improvements, concerns or disagreements.

Thank you for reading.

Best Regards,

Evildrew

[RoLa]

C) Carriers have to have the ability to build while they are moving and deploy troops while they are building without the queue being broken.

This has been tried and is very dificcult to implement.

[Evildrew]

Thanks for the reply.

-difficult- leaves hopes that it may at least be possible


Is the reason something like the coding defining that moving objects cannot be a factory?

What has been tried before?

Maybe there can be a workaround, I noticed if you put a carrier on patrol with build order it will sail to its patrol point,stop and build a unit. Maybe something could work like using an instant build/infinite build power on a carrier and setting a cool down timer similar to f.ex. a mobile t3 arty that needs to roll down before it can finish the build.

Regards

Evildrew

[zeroAPM]

I recall something about a "setbusy=TRUE" either in unit blueprints or the build function.
Also something about the "hologram" of the unit being built to be left there in mid-air.

Maybe a less-than-optimal workaround would be to give all "move and build" units a special macro where "move" is expanded into "copy production queue to array->delete production queue->move->load production queue"

[Valki]

Isn't there some kind of work-around possible where carrier units / mobile factories produce 'building credits' in the same way that submarines produce missiles?

[yeager]

I'd like carriers more like those in world of warships, easy to manage, still maneuverable, fun thing to use

[Evildrew]

Isn't there some kind of work-around possible where carrier units / mobile factories produce 'building credits' in the same way that submarines produce missiles?

Seems like the issue must be coming from the way the units is created by the code. Does anyone know how the unit gets credited to the aircraft carrier once it completes the build cycle? Maybe there can be a workaround using this?

[IceDreamer]

Things can't build on the move because units use code states. Since the movement and build states are separate, it can't be done without refactoring the carriers. Can be done, but not easy.

Missiles will build on the move because they are handled in engine, independent of the lua states.

[FunkOff]

Yeager that is just a horrible idea. If you actually know how it works in WoW then you know that there are just squadrons of aircraft. So you would either have to add in a bunch of dumb generic units for carriers only to build and add extra micro for those aircraft (like WoW) or totally change the current air units (no). Is it really that hard to launch torpedo bombers and then right click something? No.

They're rarely used to build air anyways. The games are utterly incomparable.

I once experimented with carriers by making them auto-attack. Like, I gave the carrier a script weapon that could attack any enemy unit within range (250, compare to battleship's 128). When ordered to attack an air unit, it would launch a squadron of T1 interceptors. When ordered to attack a ground target, fighter bombers, and torpedo bombers for any sea unit. Any air units that perished would be respawned for free. The carrier would, therefore, attack perpetually.

[yeager]

Actually i think it makes perfect sense, you put in your build (say 1 intercepter, 1 torp, and 1 fb) and then if you tell the unit to attack a land unit it sends out fbs, subs= torp bombers, surface boats = fbs and torp bombers, air units = intercepters and fbs. at the very least you should be able to select all of any given airplane in the carrier wit ha double click, so you dont have to send everything or micro it for no reason.