Posted by: Vastrat
« on: July 04, 2020, 02:01:20 PM »Quote from: Droll link=topic=11729. msg138348#msg138348 date=1593825614I think every designed unit should have an "update to latest tech" feature that keeps all capabilities and components but simply makes the unit use the current racial statistics as opposed to what they were in the initial design. This should do two things, the old version should remember which design is an upgrade should auto-obsolete itself (there is literally no reason to build the older version since costs would have remained the same).This, and some feature to replenish a unit to a certain template that replaces lost units at full cost.
The fact that the upgraded version remembers its predecessor design would allow us to have a button on the OOB which, when a formation is selected it checks element-wise which designs have upgrades and creates some sort of GU build task that creates an upgrade. You could either force the entire formation to enter a "retrofit" or do some other funky stuff with the element itself.
You could also extend this so that you can do upgrades on an entire hierarchy, much like how the hierarchy medal award buttons are supposed to work.
IMO as far as cost is concerned, the costs should be equal to or only very slightly less than making a new unit however the training time of a "retrofit" task should be significantly reduced. My rationale is that new vehicle armor plates/gun or new improved infantry weapons aren't going to be cheaper because they are replacing some older version but there's the fact that you aren't training new crew to use the new gear unlike when you training things from scratch. You might however consider changing cost savings to retrofitting different base types though. Maybe retrofitting a vehicle is cheaper than a new one because you reuse the chassis whereas an infantryman is probably getting a whole new armor suit or a new gun regardless.
Agreed this would be a great benefit for those of us who get frustrated with some of the micro.