Auto-Repair on Idle

[errorblankfield]

Fairly straight forward, I think when something with build power goes idle, they should start a repair on anything nearby. Wouldn't move or anything, just repair nearest thing in range.

I originally thought of the idea because of the cybran mantis. The poor guy never gets to use his coolest feature most of the time because it's ridiculously time intensive to micro. I would LOVE for my mantes army to heal up anytime they are stationary. (And adding a few to other groups for some slow healing would be a bonus.)

So if there is a way to get this to only work for the mantis, that's fine in my book. (Trying to see if I can mod this currently, not making a lot of progress admittedly... trying to make it UI only. Any help would be... helpful.)

That said, all units with build power might as well be able to do this. (Or toggleable...)
For mass sake, it should only kick in when you have a certain level of mass. Zero would work just so this wouldn't interfere with building new things and the like.

Anywho, thoughts?
Tips on modding it myself (preferably as a UI mod for obvious reasons)?

[ColonelSheppard]

when my engys idle they idle because i lack energy or mass it would be insanely stupid if they start doing something on their own

[EnderC]

That's a pretty poor reason for not implementing a feature. If it could be put in, then it could be conditional such that they would only repair if you have the power. Just like engineers seem to ignore reclaiming when Attack-Moving when you don't need the resources.

[ColonelSheppard]

there is absolutely no situation where i would want my engys to repair anything without me saying it, this is the most anoying thing about hives btw

[Hawkei]

I suspect the Mantis and Harb blueprints could be modified.

BTW: Have you tried the assist ground command?

[Mr-Smith]

lol that would be so worst....
its already annoying when some engis start to repair my acu and wasting mass for nothing.

only thing i would want to repair would mabye be an vet 5 experimental. i would prefere that even assisting enges never repair anything. except you give them a clear repair command.

[errorblankfield]

there is absolutely no situation where i would want my engys to repair anything without me saying it, this is the most anoying thing about hives btw

Really, there is not a single case where you'd want your engineers to automatically heal a unit/building so you don't have to mirco?

Glossing over the fact my main purpose is for mantis use...

Anyway, I already said it would be a 'if you have mass thing', the exact boundaries would be up to debate. Where it be 'you must have mass in storage' or 'you must be overflowing in mass' or somewhere in-between, this doesn't change THAT much. This just lets nicks and scratches get healed up passively.

There is no case where not healing a building is going to negativity impact you more than it overall helps. The only really bad causes would be if you parked a hurt ACU or EXP next to a group of idle engineer (please explain when/why this happens), but you can magically turn off building for all idle engineers with two clicks (literally) or otherwise move the engineers to properly become useful. They aren't going off to 'go their own they' they are staying put and healing anything/anyone nearby'.

Now let's at least think of the benefits for a second. If you have an early engineer escorted by a scout + [unit] and they all get nicked, once the engineer stops building, he'll heal is escorts. The mass cost is marginal for the full hp guards. Next time he sits next to an engineer, he'll also get back to full hp. (OR your the awesome cybran and this happens automatically). And that's just on the mirco-mirco scale.

Now then, what is the bad part again? When is having a hurt building with idle engineers hanging round more beneficial than having them spend a bit healing. Again, I'd like to remind you the odds of engineers hanging idle around hurt structures where them healing them would negatively impact you is extremely slim and easily avoidable.

More to the point, why did you just gloss over the mantis part?

I suspect the Mantis and Harb blueprints could be modified.

BTW: Have you tried the assist ground command?

Working on the blueprint thing. It's my first attempt a project so progress is slow.

Forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of 'assist ground'. From what I've read, it's basically like the auto-repair state for the hive. No one mentions how to do it, but I'll assume press assist -> click ground.

I'll run a test...

Edit: This works fairly well. Many thanks for telling me about the feature. The only problem I have it that the mantis don't do it efficiently. First off, they only heal anything in front of them due to that 'must face target to repair' code in their prints. So only ranks behind heal. Then anyone not healing moves around in a weird way. They clump up and deal with threats sorta near the assist point but that's like a mile in all directions. Thanks again.

[Hawkei]

I suspect the Mantis and Harb blueprints could be modified.

BTW: Have you tried the assist ground command?

Working on the blueprint thing. It's my first attempt a project so progress is slow.

Forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of 'assist ground'. From what I've read, it's basically like the auto-repair state for the hive. No one mentions how to do it, but I'll assume press assist -> click ground.

I'll run a test...

Edit: This works fairly well. Many thanks for telling me about the feature. The only problem I have it that the mantis don't do it efficiently. First off, they only heal anything in front of them due to that 'must face target to repair' code in their prints. So only ranks behind heal. Then anyone not healing moves around in a weird way. They clump up and deal with threats sorta near the assist point but that's like a mile in all directions. Thanks again.

You're welcome. I've never tried this command with build capable combat units. So I wasn't sure how it would effect their combat behaviour, or fomation. I know that Mantis have a small build radius, so I suspect they would all break formation and move to the damaged unit. This could lead to pathing issues. In small squads, it would probably be useful. Especially with raiding parties, which do not have the benefit of a steady stream of reinforcements.

The ground assist command can be used with engineers next to factories. Because, as units roll off the factory an assisting engineer would have downtime. But a ground assist engineer will immediately assist another unit (say another factory beside it). In this way, ground assist engineers can cycle between factories and your build power is more effectively utilised. (Very handy for pumping land units from T2 or T3 factories).

I understand Col Sheppards comments. If you have damaged structures, they are still 100% effective. So repairing them means sinking resources into them, which you don't have to. However, if we are talking about combat units, which will be thrown back into combat. It does make sense to repair them. If that repair will make the difference between it surviving or not. Which is only important if having that unit alive is tactically significant, or if that unit has veterancy (in which case, you don't really need to repair it do you ).

Say for instnce you had a Mantis on 20% HP. You could repair it, throw it straight back into combat, or you could reclaim it. If you repair it, then you have spent 40 mass, which means less mass to build more mantis at the factory. Of you throw it into combat, it may do some damage. But most likely it will become a battlefield wreck, and mass for the taking.

However, if you reclaim it instead you get an 80% return on the original mass cost.That is 40 mass. By proactively reclaiming damaged units instead of being a wreck on a battlefield, you can reclaim it in your home base. The only time repairing would be viable here would be if you had too much eco, and not enough build power to use it, and you desperately need all the units you can get. Eg. Using Air staging facilities, between ASF battles on Seatons Clutch.

[laPPen]

Do some of you guys remember older fa versions when repairing a commander costed an incredible amount of energy. When you had engys assist a com in order to buil shields faster all shields went down because of powerstall.
Priceless.
One thing that still annoys me in gameplay is that assisting another engeneer unit / com that buolds something makes the assisting units repair the builder (if damaged) before they assist the project.
Priorities should be changed in that case imo.

[errorblankfield]

...However, if you reclaim it instead you get an 80% return on the original mass cost.That is 40 mass. By proactively reclaiming damaged units instead of being a wreck on a battlefield, you can reclaim it in your home base. The only time repairing would be viable here would be if you had too much eco, and not enough build power to use it, and you desperately need all the units you can get. Eg. Using Air staging facilities, between ASF battles on Seatons Clutch.

I hear you, and understand the notion. Perhaps it's a personal thing, but I really dislike having units die if I can help it -yes even when I'm the one that reclaims + rebuilds them. I'd much rather just heal him while I build a second one.

Sure it's not always the best idea, but it's something I like to do (and appreciate now having a reasonable way to heal).

While just recycling units has it's merits, healing them on the field preserves vet and time (travel). So there are some advantages and there the ones I like to leverage.

For buildings, the same general principle remains in my mind. Sure, the building at 70% works the same, but should it be attacked again, its more likely to fall (or just fall X seconds sooner). I'd rather spend the 30% mass to keep it alive.

If I didn't care for the building to be alive, I'd be reclaiming it!

Anywho, thanks for the words again. I imagine I'll be using the ground assist a lot in the future and perhaps one day new meta will be developed as a result. (Or not, we'll see.)