The aim of this suggestion is to streamline empires and make it more fun. -Buildings should autobuild at the rate that people currently E build -Each additional person near the building increases this rate as if they were also E building -Engineers count for 2 people, 3 with repair upgrade. -CV counts as 2 people -Buildings repair themselves at the rate that they would be built with considerations to who is around them. There is NO intentional building of any kind, with the exception of turrets and walls which can be sped up. Some justifications: -The slower build times are because now the building has one extra person defending the building with a gun instead of just staring at it. Thus it will take longer to assault the building which is being constructed. -This also benefits teams that stick together. It also stops people having to sit and build a refinery far away from any combat, which is possibly the most boring part of empires. -Possible addition to the suggestion: Unrelated but really as a corollary to not forcing people to sit beside refineries so they build faster, refineries could either have a fixed 3x buildrate, or could provide resources from the moment they are placed, they would simply be weak and vulnerable until they have slowly developed to full strength. -The reason the commander represents 2 people is because otherwise commanders will still sometimes be tempted to jump out of the CV to build stuff at base, which is rather silly. This should remove the need for base bitches too, especially when you want to ring a base with turrets. -Possible extension of the suggestion: Commander placed walls could have an option to autobuild. Epic walled bases as seen in the original oooooooold empires trailer could be possible -Possible extension: Icons appear on the hud showing the player what they are in range of to increase the build rate of and inside each incon the current build speed, this will especially improve the rate at which new players pick up this mechanic. Other significant improvements to game play from this suggestion are that it increases the "defend this point" nature of placing a structure in contested territory, and utterly removes the terrible game play facet of "I'm placing this structure here, right where you can see it, and have enough engineers that you can't take it out no matter what you attack it with" It might be worth considering reducing the price of barracks back down to 200 with this suggestion. This suggestion somewhat nerfs ninja barracks because of the slow build and slow repair, and will also cause barracks to be destroyed more often before they are built. I also always felt 200 was better because it allowed a poor team to buy themselves a barracks (if they lose their last one) quicker, though arguably doing so only delays the inevitable and drags the game on. kudos to those who mentioned this already elsewhere.
No. Don't like it. Build up stuff with the engi tool is one important part of Empires. This should never be done automatically. And I always try to help my commander to build up main base. And when I'm commander I'm also glad to have a helping hand. When you think of ninja rushes, it can be the most important part of the game to have some turrets at main base or not. I also like to build up refineries far away from any combat. It's a nice variety to the fight on the chokepoints and at long sight this can be essential for the win.
I thought it was universally agreed that staring at a structure waiting for a bar to get to the top was bad. This suggestion makes it easier to establish turrets around the base, because you don't need someone to return to base to build them. Also, although each turret builds slower on it's own, all of the turrets build themselves at the same time, so you can get a mass of turrets up around an area without having to attend to each one. If you need them faster then the suggested system lets you drive your CV near the turrets to simulate where the commander would jump out in the current system, except in the suggested system the there never needs to be an occasion where the team doesn't have a commander because he is literally staring at a turret for 5 - 6 seconds.
There already was a suggestion about autobuild. And from there I can't remember that most of the people agreed that waiting for the bar is bad. And that commander is placing some turrets to defend main base is part of the game. Why should this be done more easy? At good teams commander will have some helpers. On bad teams he must do everything by himself and can't help at the main battles.
Quite honestly, I would rather be elsewhere killing things instead of basebitching for some nerd in a monster truck. I'm pretty sure the majority of people who play empires could agree with this statement, which is why unbuilt buildings are so common. Just because you may get some perverse satisfaction out of watching a GUI element accompanied by some rather poor graphical and sound effects doesn't mean everybody else does.
I think it's not quite well thought out enough. I was saying the other day on irc to have res-nodes have a cap flag which spawns a refinery instead of having it placed (which i'm told is exactly what Chris had in his king map), and think maybe something like that might work a little better - if you had a rally flag next to each placed building that you had to sit on for however long it'd usually take to build (regular engy build or +20% or so), and once capped it remains built until destroyed in the regular way. That would mean no one had to really stare at a wall to build something...although we'd still need to have repair in there somewhere (of course). I don't really like autobuild...it means the commander doesn't really need his team anymore - he could place a whole bunch of stuff near a forward (hiding) infantryman and it wouldn't matter about anyone having to build it, what's more, the commander doesn't have to take into consideration if any of his troops will be in the area to make it at all. Even further than that is the fact that he'd be able to place a whole base and have it all built at an e-build pace, rather than just one at a time. Needs more consideration...and remember "automation" means no one has to do anything, which can't be helpful. Suggestion may lead to less team reliance, not more...and commanders not having to rely on infantry is something that should not be, at all.
well, the automation when there arn't any players around is as fast as an E build. that's like, 60 seconds to a minute and a half to build a barracks? really slow. even one player beside the building will half that, and an engineer with repair upgrade will manage that in a quater of the time. a small squad with some engineers might do it at 6x or 8x speed, so having players around is really necessary. Any building that is left to build on its own is really going to need to be in friendly territory or it would be very easy to destroy. I guess the title "buildings autobuild" is misleading, as most of the building will probably be assisted by players nearby.
Repairing has never pissed me off. I dutifully do my repairing job when I'm an engineer I build stuff and I don't find it boring because I usually only 2-3 things for my commander, and I understand that it's got my best interests in mind. Autobuild is solving a problem that doesn't exist, if you don't wanna build, play Rifleman Gren or Scout. If the autobuild is as slow as E-Building there's no real point anyway, it doesn't even change the game because engineers will still build shit.
It means the game isn't broken by engineers not building shit, which is a remarkably common occurrence.
Auto building for the commander might be worth looking into, but thats about as far as it should go for self building buildings. If you want to get more teamwork, if you have a squad of people, they will have the auto ebuild if there is an engineer that has repair upgrade building the building. more guns faceing away from the building and more people working in squads. what can be better
I would go with the above suggestion WITHOUT the autobuild when noone is near. If players are within proximity of a building, yeah, let it autobuild slowly, but not when noone is around.
Last time I suggested this it got locked by some dev because 'building is neccesary for teamwork' or some bollocks.
I like it, but I would change it so It uses the formula [Build Rate]=[# of Inf]x[E-Build Rate] Engies can still use their calculator to build things faster Otherwise, its a good suggestion. This is one of the most frustrating things about commanding newb teams: they just don't build things. This would greatly reduce that frustration.
You've suggested it repeatedly? :p (The entire forum has suggested it repeatedly. >< It might be amusing to see how opinions have changed.)
