Make units retreat to closest factory instead of command center when no repair f

[Kayiaxo]

I would like some input of this, but what do you think of it ?

Isn't it better to make units go to the nearest factory for retreat instead of going to the command center when you don't have a repair facility yet ?
I think it would be more logical and would also get units faster to the front with less management of units retreating.

[EvilGuru]

I am not sure I like either behaviour. If you do not have a repair facility do not set your units to retreat at medium/heavy damage in the first place

Regards, Freddie.

[Kayiaxo]

In the campaign you don't get the repair facility before a few mission and in order to keep ranked units alive it's better to make them retreat.
Problem is when they retreat they sometimes go through the whole map to go to the command center.

[EvilGuru]

We are currently on a feature freeze for 2.1, but when it is over I will look into it. I doubt it will be that hard to change.

What does everyone else think?

(Well, we are on a feature freeze so much as Lord Krushia has threatened to kill anyone who implements any new features before 2.1 comes out. ...And he is a scary guy.)

Regards, Freddie.

[psychopompos]

since you get mobile repair turret quite early, could you not set it to retreat to nearest repair unit?

be they at base or in the field?

[Kayiaxo]

Mobile units are most of the time on the fight, if you want the unit to retreat it's because it takes damage faster then the mobile repair unit can fix it.
If you say retreat at heavy damage and his health reaches that point it's because the mobile repair turrets weren't quick enough to heal, at that point it's better for the unit to leave the battlefield.
I also think going to the nearest factory or if there is one, repair facility is the most logical option.
If you don't have a repair facility or it got destroyed, you want your tanks to be in the fight as fast as possible, for that you are going to recycle it and remake them if you can't get the repair facility running.

Best bet would be, if you don't have a repair facility, to get mobile repair units on the battlefield and also a few near your closest factory.
That would allow for a quick return of your units, instead of them going to the command center I don't know where far off at your starting point of the map.

[Kayiaxo]

Sorry for double post but I would like to know if this feature is planned to be added in wz or not or if it still has to be discussed.
I think it's a good idea but maybe more input is required as well, so if more people could voice their opinion it will be nice.

[EvilGuru]

Get someone to second your idea (and assuming no one objects) I will see it makes 2.1. The code to make a unit return to a factory already exists (such as when you recycle a unit) so I just need to find where the 'return to HQ' fallback is and make it return to factory.

Regards, Freddie.

[Coincident]

Retreating to headquarters or to the factory has the same problem: the unit has to get back through a very tight line of defenses (or cliffs) that limit your base area.
A well defended base usually has not more than 1 square entrance, where 1 or 2 units max can fit.

If the unit is going back to a factory that is producing more tanks, your retreating unit will collide with the tank that is going to the factory rally point (probably to the middle of the war zone), and will slow it down.
If you're unlucky to have both units meet at the 1 square entrance of your defenses (say hello to Murphy's law), they will probably never get out... which will stop all retreating units to enter the base, and all created units to go to the battlefield.

The headquarters has the advantage of not producing anything that will collide with retreating units...
So personally, I think retreating to the factory is even worse than retreating to the headquarters.

[doom3r]

And, if you make one unit retreat and you have two factories near, you wont be always sure of where it will go. If you make it retreat to the HQ, however, it will surely retreat to the only hq you can have

[Kayiaxo]

What you say holds true but for the also falls apart in the way that by Murphy's law they could just collide with each other on the way to the factory/headquarters with your units as well.
It can't get worse in fact, only better since the units will be closer to the battleground.
To adapt to your situation the retreat could be enhanced a bit and we could choose from menu which could propose to retreat to : 1. headquarters 2. factory n°x

[EvilGuru]

I am very much against adding more GUI clutter. Not having a repair facility is a corner-case as it is.

Regards, Freddie.

[Deathguise]

I am not sure I like either behaviour. If you do not have a repair facility do not set your units to retreat at medium/heavy damage in the first place

Me too, i think i dislike the retreat to nearest factory a tad more purely because i dislike anything that has the potential to clutter
my factories(even if it has only a small chance of cluttering them up).

I am very much against adding more GUI clutter. Not having a repair facility is a corner-case as it is.

I agree, a clean un-cluttered GUI will most likely be more effective and easier for new players to learn.

Also it does not take all that long to acquire repair facilities: in the campaign repair facilities are acquired around mission 7 out of 30+ and in MP they have around 10 prerequisites, bearing in mind the entire research tree contains around 400+ topics.

[Kayiaxo]

I understand each one views and I'm glad they have been expressed.
Looks like it will be more hastle then anything to add this feature so it probably wont see daylight unless a lot of support suddenly comes around.

[Aladdin_Sane]

The game should be flexible; the user should decide.

Retreating to the Command Center was annoying at first, but Repair Facilities came along soon enough, making the game funner and drawing me in.

Coincident has a strong point about what would be actually worse about arbitrary retreat to factory.  But I think that Kayiaxo has a point about an arbitrary retreat point in the first place.

When I first started playing, I thought the idea of movable Delivery Points for Factory/Repair Facility was odd.  Then I saw how powerful that feature was.  Really cool, actually.

Based on what I read here, I think the Original Command Center Retreat Point should be user placeable on the map just as the Delivery Points are.

The Command Center would have the original Retreat Point by it at game start, but the user could pick it up and move it, as with Delivery Points, to any other "legal" square on the map they choose.

The Repair Facilities would then just count as "non-movable" Retreat Points, along with the movable one, for determining automatic retreat point and direction at retreat-time.

How's that?