Makers - a couple of questions

[Cavemaniac]

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere - trawling through the forums didn't turn up exactly what I was looking for so I started this new topic. Not sure if it belongs in tech support/report bugs/suggestions...



Makers.

Is there any such thing as 2x or 4x vacuum or charge mode?

Or do they only have one speed and the 1x, 2x and 4x are only for the 'Produce' mode? 

Also, have you noticed that Makers continue to Charge even when disarmed? Is this intentional?

The don't keep vacuuming when disarmed.

I often shut down units to save power, and, similarly, Makers when Ore is in short supply. If I've got some Makers charging, I have to go into those units and either deselect the Charge mode, or select either Vacuum or Produce, and then disarm. This is a bit fiddlier than just selecting all my Charging Makers, and hitting the 'A' key to disarm (i.e. shut them off).

And speaking of hitting keys, can we please have some keyboard controls for secondary functions i.e. v to vacuum etc.

[Grauniad]

Is there any such thing as 2x or 4x vacuum or charge mode?

No.

Or do they only have one speed and the 1x, 2x and 4x are only for the 'Produce' mode?  

Yes.

Also, have you noticed that Makers continue to Charge even when disarmed? Is this intentional?

Yes, and apparently you can thank UpperKEES for that. The analogy is that all weapons acquire ammo  while disarmed.

[Cavemaniac]

Thanks Grauniad.

Short and concise.

The analogy is that all weapons acquire ammo  while disarmed

Bingo.

I should be deactivating, not disarming Charging Makers that I want shut down.

Simple really now that I think about it...

[UpperKEES]

This reminds me to update the CW2 Unit Data Overview. I'll do this next weekend when I have some more time on my hands.

Just for now:

Or do they only have one speed and the 1x, 2x and 4x are only for the 'Produce' mode?

Maybe nice to know that the fire rate upgrade increases the emittance of Anti-Creeper like this:

Fire Rate 0: 30 frames between AC emission
Fire Rate 1: 25
Fire Rate 2: 20
Fire Rate 3: 15

Also, have you noticed that Makers continue to Charge even when disarmed? Is this intentional?

Yes, and apparently you can thank UpperKEES for that. The analogy is that all weapons acquire ammo  while disarmed.

You're welcome! :)

Of course it's useful to mention that disabling does stop charging, just like deselecting the charge button. The disarm button is still there to be able to use it when multi-selecting a group of weapons of different types.

Edit: oh, you already figured that out yourself. ;)

[thepenguin]

You're welcome! :)

no thanks to kees,  >:(, just much annoyance

[UpperKEES]

Disarming a weapon means it doesn't fire. Blasters, launchers, phantoms coils (and even the good old CW1 mortars) also keep charging when disarmed. If you want it to stop using resources just disable it. Works the same for every type of weapons, so makes perfectly sense. :)

By the way: how often do you want your makers to stop charging? I have never desired to do so.

[Kithros]

Disarming a weapon means it doesn't fire. Blasters, launchers, phantoms coils (and even the good old CW1 mortars) also keep charging when disarmed. If you want it to stop using resources just disable it. Works the same for every type of weapons, so makes perfectly sense. :)

By the way: how often do you want your makers to stop charging? I have never desired to do so.

It can make sense if you want to make sure a different maker gets the ore (at a different part of the map) - or in very obscure situations if the maker can't be saved and you want to save the ore for later - but conventionally it's not very useful.

[Cavemaniac]

Maybe nice to know that the fire rate upgrade increases the emittance of Anti-Creeper like this:

Fire Rate 0: 30 frames between AC emission
Fire Rate 1: 25
Fire Rate 2: 20
Fire Rate 3: 15

Ah! That's very interesting/useful to know.

Thanks.

By the way: how often do you want your makers to stop charging? I have never desired to do so.

Maybe it's just the way I play!

But I've noticed that if ore is is short supply, some of the Makers 'starve' and can't produce.

I often use the 'burst all' feature and by using dedicated Makers for Charging (and bursting) I can keep track of which ones are charged/ing.

Obviously, if you're relying on a misfiring Maker at the front with Charging Makers further back hogging all the resources, it makes sense to stop Charging for the duration.

By using 'q' instead of 'a', I'll get the results I need. In fact I've started doing this with Launchers in mass attacks, letting them use up their energy reserves in the first few salvoes (in essence treating them as additional energy storage) then disarming them so the energy goes to Blasters and other more important units instead of having 50+ part charged Launchers.

Actually, I've often wondered about what determines which Maker gets priority ore - it seems that it's the first built, but not always...

And speaking of ore - how come it is transmitted to the Makers without 'ammunition packets' being delivered? As long as the Maker is in range of a beacon - regardless of weather it can be reached by a 'lit up' path or micro rift - it receives ore to charge or dispense. Don't get me wrong, I'm not campaigning for more (computer speed/resource sucking) packets on screen, it just seems weird that you don't need a viable path. And the 'invisible' ore packets are not subject to predation by rogue creeper. I mention the last because I just played a map (Chamber of Fields by Colin - soon to be approved I hope) where it was vital to site the Ship/units/Micro Rifts correctly as it was possible to lose up to half of your ammo/build packets to a !@@#$%^& bouncing ball of creeper!