ACU/SCU Drone Rebuild Toggle

[IceDreamer]

Hey people,

There have been some requests that the drone rebuild process be made toggleable to prevent the inherent resource drain from crippling a player in the early game. It is proving problematic, and it would greatly help to know HOW you all want this to be done.

1 - Use the Pause. The easiest option, I can tie the rebuild process into the ACU's pause button. If the ACU is paused, which usually occurs when the player is trying to save resources, the drone will not rebuild. The trouble is that it's a catch-all and there are a few situations I can see where this would not be good, like where you want to use just the drone's buildpower.

2 - Create a new button entirely. This is tough, the ACU UI is already short for space, especially with both drones... I'm also not actually sure how to code it. Advantage is it would give total user control.

Which one?

Also, when the toggle is off whichever method is chosen, we have a choice. We can either create a timer thread, which will wait until the toggle is turned back on, then rebuild, or we can have it so that if the rebuild fails due to the toggle, the enhancement is removed. We don't want a situation where we have an enhancement constructed but the drone permanently gone!

[Ithilis_Quo]

Second one, (Y)

It dont need 2 toggle, for 2 drones, one is enought only give on drone number of drone 1/1 1/2-2/2 for double drone upgrade.
And change acu drone build from automatick to manual. you can copypast code from tml build.

on qestion how to make a new toggle, you can ask Brute51 he was making toggle on units for nomad mode, and probably would know how to make it on uef acu too.

GL

[IceDreamer]

Sorry guys. It looks like the Drones and the Missiles being on the same slot is not an accident. ACU units only have two spare command spaces in the UI, which means I cannot create a new, dedicated toggle for this. I think I have to tie it to the ACU's pause, or possibly to the Drone's own pause if that would be better for people, in order to make it work. Unless I can give the Drone itself a new order key, and so far everything I've tried to do that has failed.

[E8400-CV]

Make it not rebuild on it's own?

[IceDreamer]

Autorebuild was introduced as part of FAF, and I think it's a great change which should stay. 95% of the time it makes the upgrade worth actually getting and using, as without re-acquiring the drone means standing still and building the upgrade again, this way you can do it on the move, and while building other units or reclaiming or whatever. Non-rebuilding at all is just bringing back frustration.

[Ithilis_Quo]

Make it not rebuild on it's own?

this is how it can work. rebuild drone cost same price as drone upgrade. So it is extremly easy solution who will totaly fill curent wrong situation. every one can control drone build. its nearly same as drone build toggle.

What is wrong on this, (but still better as automatic rebuild) is that acu must upgrade where cant fight/build nothing. )
this can be solve in two posible way.

fisrt more easy -> make drone upgrade faster, bigger drain but same price and less time. less time dont change balance with drones because on start of game player dont have energy. and when have then still do it on similar time with endy assist.

secodn complicate -> not sure if it would work and if its posible. but on blackops it work. make on acu upgrade new "upgrade" after first drone and again new "upgrade" after second drone. this upgrade would be only for build drone, with 0,1sec build time. and diseaper after drone destroed, it would work as drone build toggle where is not place for it on acu, then it can be moved here. Its quite cheate solution, but still much better as pause acu

[IceDreamer]

The current system will be staying until I can solve this elegantly. I'm currently looking into introducing a new button on the drone itself, which has plenty of UI space and also gives the player maximum control as they can tell one drone to rebuild and one to not, if they want. I'm aiming to have it work like this: The toggle will default to auto-rebuild. If the player left-clicks the button, it will toggle simply to 'Off' and if the drone is killed the upgrade is removed. If the player right-clicks the button it will toggle to delayed-rebuild, so if the drone dies it will not rebuild until the toggle is turned on again, and the upgrade will stay in place.

I think this is the ideal solution, but coding it is proving troublesome

[Hawkei]

Option 2 is the more elegant solution. Though it would prove difficult to code. Usually in situations where you want to disable the auto build would be when enemy interceptors are overhead and killing of your drones repeatedly. Which, as the UEF player can't control the rebuild, means it is a constant resource waste to rebuild the drones. Usually, in those very same circumstances the ACU will want to be building AA. So pausing everything is not the answer.