Evolution of units steals your bonuses

[coodav]

So I have some units that were built from an excellent capital. Note this:

There are four mods from the capital:

Energy Efficient Assembly Line (-30% upkeep)
Heavy Duty Armor (+1 armor / unit level)
Weapon Linking (+15% accuracy)
Well Built (+2 armor)

But when the unit evolves, a BUNCH is lost:

It looses Well Built and Heavy Duty Armor. This unit should be a respectable 7/4 instead of 2/4. This unit is actually WORSE than the unevolved version. It went from 6/4 to 2/4 which completely defeats the purpose of evolution. Why on EARTH does this stupid mechanic exist?

Thank god the unit is pretty crazy otherwise, because this is a major upset to the unit's overall power. Bad mechanic, should not be this way. So either buy the final version ONLY, or don't buy psifish. You lose half of the unit's durability for zero reason.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Hey Coodav, thanks for reaching out. This should have been fixed a while ago, can you provide us your save so we can look into why it's still not keeping the upgrades correctly.

 

[coodav]

For sure! How do you want me to get it to you? I have the saves ready to go. Do you want to hit me with a private conversation? I'll send it ASAP.

And yes, the game reads "up to date," so this should be your most current version.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

How do you want me to get it to you? I have the saves ready to go. Do you want to hit me with a private conversation?

You can attach Planetfall save files directly to a post, that way everything stays organised to the report/thread.

 

[coodav]

Alright, let me boot it up to get the exact moment...

 

[Triumph Jordi]

If you can get us one from before the evolution and one after the unit has evolved, that'd be the most helpful.

 

[coodav]

Ok, here is the best point I found. Main hero army, looks like this:

Just hit that standard (white arrow), though the same thing happens in combat too. Not a single psi-fish in my armies tab made it to the final stage without losing the bonus. But check out what happens to the two psi-fish I put arrows over:

Hunter loses the bonuses when it turns into a Siren, as above, but the Spawn doesn't:

I also noticed that this unit was created as a Chrysalis, and I got it all the way up the hard way. Not sure if it matters, but I believe I made the others as Hunters. But either way, the unit has "Evolved Vitality 2," which gives an extra whopping 10 health. If this got to Siren, that would be a nice 15 HP bonus, which is a huge deal for this unit. Nice little built-in bonus that I didn't know happened. Nice touch.

Hopefully this works... save applied. Tell me if you need more.

Edit:

Note that this may have something to do with "Heavy Duty Armor." That gives one armor per level of the unit. Spawn and Hunters are both Tier 2 units, and the Siren is Tier 3 elite. Moving to Tier 3 may have created some sort of error. Or maybe it is the "elite" thing? Either way, I'm not sure why it didn't happen when the unit first changed from a Crysalis, but maybe?

 

[coodav]

Also, I know you guys have limits, but if you could comment on a few of the other threads, that would be swell. There are a number of things which could use... attention.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Okay so 'Well Built' disappearing is easy to explain, that bonus applies only to Non-Elite units. When the Hunter evolves into a Siren it becomes a Elite unit, and hence losses the +2 Armour. The disappearance is a lot more complicated, it currently disappears when the unit changes Tier. So Chrysalis to Spawn and Hunter to Siren are evolutions going from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and Tier 2 to Tier 3, which causes an issue. I'm going to have somebody look into that one as it will require code support to fix.

 

[coodav]

Okay so 'Well Built' disappearing is easy to explain, that bonus applies only to Non-Elite units. When the Hunter evolves into a Siren it becomes a Elite unit, and hence losses the +2 Armour. The disappearance is a lot more complicated, it currently disappears when the unit changes Tier. So Chrysalis to Spawn and Hunter to Siren are evolutions going from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and Tier 2 to Tier 3, which causes an issue. I'm going to have somebody look into that one as it will require code support to fix.

That is unfortunate, and would also be a downgrade, based on the circumstances. And remember, it is "Well Built," based on the Capitol. In the Capitol, you have both well-built upgrades, both for skirmisher AND elite:

So as you see, it has Military Engineering Guild AND Advanced Military Engineering Guild. So that shouldn't happen, so long as it remembers how it was built. Perhaps tag it with all of the upgrades, even if it can't currently use them? That would be the smart move, as if you have to be this careful (which you shouldn't), then know that it was considered already.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

And remember, it is "Well Built," based on the Capitol. In the Capitol, you have both well-built upgrades, both for skirmisher AND elite

I really should talk to somebody about using the same name for 'different' things, while they appear in the front end to be the same effect they aren't setup the same way in the back end.

So that shouldn't happen, so long as it remembers how it was built. Perhaps tag it with all of the upgrades, even if it can't currently use them?

The tools aren't capable of something like that due to how requisites work, we'd need to update the tools to allow for something like that. Even then I'm not sure if it's the best approach, I'll bring it up for discussion.

 

[coodav]

Well, I think that the obvious answer then is just to let it keep well built, if it started it's life there. Could you just spawn a unit with all of the existing upgrades of the unit? Isn't that what you already do? I noticed that the unit got a fresh set of movement points when it evolved. Didn't it just spawn a new unit in the code behind this? Why is it able to differentiate?

Or perhaps lose the elite classification for psi-fish. I know that there are Tier 3 boats which are not "elite," for instance. I could see some pretty spectacular mod combos if you didn't, but maybe you could work it from the other end? Stop the classification as elite, unless there is something more important about it?