[.86][Question] Is there ever a situation I *wouldn't* want my units to be upgradeable?

from Elemental Forums

This is a real question...I fear I may be misunderstanding something. Please correct me if that is the case.

The way it seems to work, is that in the unit designer, if you want to make a unit able to upgrade its equipment at a later time, presumably by buying the upgrade while in owned territory, you have to deliberately select "upgradeable" for that slot.  It doesn't appear to increase the cost in any way.

If that is the case, why wouldn't all units be upgradeable by default? Is there a specific reason you wouldn't want to at least have the option for a unit to upgrade?

 

Thanks!

4,096 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Archer/warg rider armor is all that comes to mind

Also some units arn't designed to use platemail, its too heavy.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I thought the way that feature worked is that it flagged the unit so that when, through technology, you gain a better armor/weapon that the design will automatically be updated.

I.e. before tech upgrade you have regular spear trainable units in your capital city. After gaining "robo-spear" technology, you can now automagically train the "robo-spear" version of this unit.

I always use it but I usually just kick butt with champions anyways...

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting JaboJoggins, reply 2
I thought the way that feature worked is that it flagged the unit so that when, through technology, you gain a better armor/weapon that the design will automatically be updated.

 

I've always had to manually upgrade my units.  When parked in your own territory, there's an "upgrade" option in the extended action menu, if one is available.

It's possible I'm doing some thing wrong, or misunderstanding the mechanism of course, but Im not sure I'd want my units to be auto upgraded without my say so, because of the costs involved.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

There are two types of upgrades!

Individual unit upgrades are what you are referring to Bingjack.  Unit X was created 20 turns ago, and now a new robo-spear is available.  Hitting the upgrade button there takes gildar.

The second type of upgrade is not to an individual but rather to the design plan itself.  So making the unit "upgrade" through the design interface means that all future spearmen will have the latest in robo-spear technology when they are created.  The idea is supposed to cut down on time spent in unit creation due to technology upgrades.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah it's not the units that get automatically upgraded it's the design of those units that automatically gets upgraded.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Ahhh. Gotcha.

 

Thanks!

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

But there are still times where you might want to use a special non-upgrade design.  Besides the weight mentioned above, the top-level magic weapons & armor take so much crystal that you might not have enough and will have to train 2nd-best equipment or train nothing at all.  And I think there are some dubious choices in the sequence where the 2nd best weapon might be better in some way than the "best" auto-upgrade one.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top


This is a real question...I fear I may be misunderstanding something. Please correct me if that is the case.

The way it seems to work, is that in the unit designer, if you want to make a unit able to upgrade its equipment at a later time, presumably by buying the upgrade while in owned territory, you have to deliberately select "upgradeable" for that slot.  It doesn't appear to increase the cost in any way.

If that is the case, why wouldn't all units be upgradeable by default? Is there a specific reason you wouldn't want to at least have the option for a unit to upgrade?

 

Thanks!

When you select the "upgradeable" option, you must produce the unit with the best gear currently available. If you have plate, and you want to build a leather unit, you would not select the upgradeable option because it would put plate on them.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, I got it now. I was confusing the notion of "design" upgrades, with the ability to manually purchase upgrades for your troops.

 

Thanks everyone for cluing me in!