Getting an asstank to always use a given weapon

[Red Devil]

i would still retain upgrading the buildings. unsure why consoles/terminals were left out in the first place, unless it was a limitation caused by using different races.

[Ded10c]

It would make upgrading the Xenomater completely unnecessary, and negate the existence of half of the Hadean vehicles.

[Zero Angel]

Well, upgrading the Xeno is still needed for teching purposes (e.g. unlocks D.Blast and some additional buildings). That said the entire Hadean teching order and variant system was designed and *balanced* with the 1.2 limitations in mind. I would be a little bit wary of balance issues that might crop up if modding vehicles is added to the Hadean tech tree. It may not matter for any PVE modes -- but the balance on PVP modes is very delicate and its quite easy to make a change where you think 'this will improve things' -- only to discover upon release that you just caused a massive balance issue to appear in an area that you didnt even think was directly related to the change you made.

[Nielk1]

Leave the terminals out. They were left out for technical reasons and now it defines the race.

[MrTwosheds]

Consoles were left out, because 1.2 would only display Scion or Isdf weapons. It was not possible to configure Hadean weapons that way. It would not negate the existence of vehicles, having 3 types of xares means you can have 3 different weapon configurations available without another walk to the rec/fact. Great! Apart from that you get nothing that was not already possible from the armoury, you would however probably save on scrap from reduced armoury use. This would be balanced out by upgrade cost.

What may be lost by not doing it, is simple access to assault type weapons, Both C/A slots are not upgraded by one power up as they were in 1.2, eg to get the Hadean equivalent of ISDF hornet, a human must pilot the vehicle and select the assault slot before picking up an upgrade, the Hadeans may now have weapons the AI will never get loaded.

[Zax]

I cant see any good reason why the Hadeans should not adopt this aspect of alien technology, while maintaining their traditional regimental structures. Traditionalists would be free to not use them if they wish.

Great idea. Use it in FE2.

What we can do is say they adopted it. What we cannot do is retroactively change their history.

You do have a point with the assault vehicle powerup process. That is a headscratcher.

Retroactively changing how some things work, like using GBD's portals instead of the stock ones (IIRC the FE portals were a messy fudge covered method of doing it). They'd do the same thing but in a way much less likely to AV you

[Mortarion]

I'm against it, the lack of consoles was one of the defining factors that shaped the Hadean design.

The fact that consoles couldn't be used, shaped the Hadean design. I am sure if they had worked in 1.2 the Fe devs would have used them.
I'm not saying the hadean design should change, consoles can only improve it and make a greater variety of strategies simpler to achieve. Having to drop power ups on every unit you wish to alter is time consuming for a commander.
I cant see any good reason why the Hadeans should not adopt this aspect of alien technology, while maintaining their traditional regimental structures. Traditionalists would be free to not use them if they wish.

the weapon crates dropped from the arsenal are mostly like 10 scrap to account for the lack of modding if having pre upgraded ships wasnt enough. adding consols would screw this system up and im sure any experienced hadean player would be opposed to it.

[Red Devil]

the spice of life is variety of choice; easy enough to make a rec variant

[Ded10c]

Make a recvar with the lore excuse that they adapted their technology. Don't make it a permanent change. Retcon works sometimes, like for fixing the plotholes that are gaping all over the place. This is neither the time nor place for retcon.

[General BlackDragon]

I agree, make a rec var that uses consoles.

[Zero Angel]

+1 to above

[MrTwosheds]

I use a similar system with the daleks (unfinished) you get 2 or 3 tanks, that are essentially the same unit, to build from the factory, so that a commander can set up 2 different weapon configurations, to build when required without another visit to the factory. In isdf terms it means you can chose to build a blast/chain/mdm/vir tank or a pulse/laser/splinter/mits tank etc, without disengaging from battle or wasting time and scrap at the armoury. Very useful if you've got thugs with differing preferences.

[Commando]

It's a shame that is really necessary. Would be nice if you could create configs of a base unit, for example a Sabre. If one player likes SP Stabber, Chain, Mortar, and Specials, the commander can setup one config to use that loadout. Then can create additional configs for other thugs or just one config for all other thugs.

[Zax]

Configs might be nice, but in its own way it is a self limiting design. The commander has to pick and choose strategically and can't have it all. If he does wish to have it all, he has to go back to base and be vulnerable for a while changing it, or spend the extra $$ on crates.