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Author Topic:   Retiring old units

CstmmagEK posted 06-24-99 04:17 PM ET
When you retire old units, from the workshop screen, every unit of that type disbands, correct? I've got a few VERY obsolete units (ie scout patrols, recon rovers)that I've retired(or so I thought)yet I keep seeing them listed.
Series II posted 06-24-99 05:01 PM ET
Retiring units from the build menu/list does NOT disband those old units. Unless you disband them individually or upgrade them you have them for the whole game. It is not uncommon toward the end of my games for me to have most of my units be retired.
Earwicker posted 06-24-99 05:11 PM ET
There's the difference between "obsoleted" units and "retired" units. If you click on RETIRE from the workshop menu, a warning will pop up to the effect of "your three impact rovers will be disbanded". In other words, do that only after you've upgraded all those impact rovers to chaos rovers. On the other hand, there's "obsoleting" the design, in which case Impact Rover just won't appear as an option anymore.
If you play with autodesign on, it keeps bringing some designs back from the dead (or is it just that the basics can't be made obsolete). I always used to do autodesign, but it became a pain to keep deleting Drop Amphibious Fusion Marines and other such silly designs.
Plato90s posted 06-25-99 09:54 AM ET
Auto-design will automatically generate updated units to what you've already designed in addition to the standard types. So if you've designed a impact skimship, you'll also get Missle skimship, Chaos skimship, and even a Singularity Laser Skimship. To stop the Auto-design from doing this, you have to retire every design of a particular type [say, skimship] and then it'll stop designing updates.
Provost Harrison posted 06-25-99 10:10 AM ET
I don't like auto-design, everything gets clogged up too easily!
Earwicker posted 06-25-99 10:29 AM ET
Plato --
I should _retire_ all the designs or _obsolete_ them? I was of the understanding that to retire meant all existing units of that type would be disbanded. That would be an extreme method of pruning design options (especially if I still wanted to keep some of those chaos skimships running around).
Autodesign is fine when starting out, as it is a good reminder of your capabilities. After playing for a couple of months now, I know the unit types and abilities I want and roughly when they're available. I don't have to face major tech advances with dread ("oh no, fusion's coming up, get ready to waste time in the workshop deleting a bunch of units I don't want to build").
VictorK posted 06-25-99 01:27 PM ET
Regarding retiring units, there is a cheat/bug in the game. Normally if you switch production in a base, you'll lose 50% of the stocked minerals after the first 10. But if you retire a unit that is under production, it changes momentarily to stockpile energy, and you can then switch production without penalty. So whenever you aren't sure what to build next in a base, you can design an expensive unit that you'll never use, set your base to build that unit, and apply this trick when you have accumulated enough minerals to complete the facility/unit you want.
Series II posted 06-25-99 02:57 PM ET
V, thanks for the info. That has happened to me twice and I never realized what happened to that unit I was building and how my city was suddenly stockpiling energy.
My unit was retired when I got a new tech.
Plato90s posted 06-25-99 03:15 PM ET
Let me clarify.
There's an auto-prune option which automatically obsoletes old unit designs. But for some odd reason it won't retire obsolete designs which has no units remaining. So if you had a missle skimship design, but no units, and chaos gun comes along, the missle skimship will be obsolete and a chaos skimship will be designed.
Say you retire that Chaos skimship design, but that missle skimship is still in the obsolete [but not retired] category, you will also get a fusion skimship when you get Fusion laser.
Now, if you actually have units of an old design, upgrade or trash them.
Gungho posted 06-27-99 09:03 AM ET
Early on in the game I use the auto design for units but later on in the game as the techs keep rolling in, it becomes a real pain. So later on I turn the auto design off and design units as I need them. This helps to sort out the mess in our unit design screen.
eNo posted 06-27-99 04:32 PM ET
The "basic" units (Scout Potrol, Former) cannot be retired. I've only been able to make them obsolete.
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Author	Topic: Retiring old units
CstmmagEK	posted 06-24-99 04:17 PM ET When you retire old units, from the workshop screen, every unit of that type disbands, correct? I've got a few VERY obsolete units (ie scout patrols, recon rovers)that I've retired(or so I thought)yet I keep seeing them listed.
Series II	posted 06-24-99 05:01 PM ET Retiring units from the build menu/list does NOT disband those old units. Unless you disband them individually or upgrade them you have them for the whole game. It is not uncommon toward the end of my games for me to have most of my units be retired.
Earwicker	posted 06-24-99 05:11 PM ET There's the difference between "obsoleted" units and "retired" units. If you click on RETIRE from the workshop menu, a warning will pop up to the effect of "your three impact rovers will be disbanded". In other words, do that only after you've upgraded all those impact rovers to chaos rovers. On the other hand, there's "obsoleting" the design, in which case Impact Rover just won't appear as an option anymore. If you play with autodesign on, it keeps bringing some designs back from the dead (or is it just that the basics can't be made obsolete). I always used to do autodesign, but it became a pain to keep deleting Drop Amphibious Fusion Marines and other such silly designs.
Plato90s	posted 06-25-99 09:54 AM ET Auto-design will automatically generate updated units to what you've already designed in addition to the standard types. So if you've designed a impact skimship, you'll also get Missle skimship, Chaos skimship, and even a Singularity Laser Skimship. To stop the Auto-design from doing this, you have to retire every design of a particular type [say, skimship] and then it'll stop designing updates.
Provost Harrison	posted 06-25-99 10:10 AM ET I don't like auto-design, everything gets clogged up too easily!
Earwicker	posted 06-25-99 10:29 AM ET Plato -- I should _retire_ all the designs or _obsolete_ them? I was of the understanding that to retire meant all existing units of that type would be disbanded. That would be an extreme method of pruning design options (especially if I still wanted to keep some of those chaos skimships running around). Autodesign is fine when starting out, as it is a good reminder of your capabilities. After playing for a couple of months now, I know the unit types and abilities I want and roughly when they're available. I don't have to face major tech advances with dread ("oh no, fusion's coming up, get ready to waste time in the workshop deleting a bunch of units I don't want to build").
VictorK	posted 06-25-99 01:27 PM ET Regarding retiring units, there is a cheat/bug in the game. Normally if you switch production in a base, you'll lose 50% of the stocked minerals after the first 10. But if you retire a unit that is under production, it changes momentarily to stockpile energy, and you can then switch production without penalty. So whenever you aren't sure what to build next in a base, you can design an expensive unit that you'll never use, set your base to build that unit, and apply this trick when you have accumulated enough minerals to complete the facility/unit you want.
Series II	posted 06-25-99 02:57 PM ET V, thanks for the info. That has happened to me twice and I never realized what happened to that unit I was building and how my city was suddenly stockpiling energy. My unit was retired when I got a new tech.
Plato90s	posted 06-25-99 03:15 PM ET Let me clarify. There's an auto-prune option which automatically obsoletes old unit designs. But for some odd reason it won't retire obsolete designs which has no units remaining. So if you had a missle skimship design, but no units, and chaos gun comes along, the missle skimship will be obsolete and a chaos skimship will be designed. Say you retire that Chaos skimship design, but that missle skimship is still in the obsolete [but not retired] category, you will also get a fusion skimship when you get Fusion laser. Now, if you actually have units of an old design, upgrade or trash them.
Gungho	posted 06-27-99 09:03 AM ET Early on in the game I use the auto design for units but later on in the game as the techs keep rolling in, it becomes a real pain. So later on I turn the auto design off and design units as I need them. This helps to sort out the mess in our unit design screen.
eNo	posted 06-27-99 04:32 PM ET The "basic" units (Scout Potrol, Former) cannot be retired. I've only been able to make them obsolete.