Thats not the case i was talking about. I know you can call for reinforcements for meta units. The problem im adressing is: you have 4-5 factories in point A (far end of the map, where you spawn in the beginning). You expand some more, you build some more factories at point B in the middle of the map. Lets say all of your factories are idle. Your meta unit is somewhere at the middle of the map. You order some reinforcements and guess what, there is a fair chance that reinforcements will begin building at point A, instead of point B (that is closer to meta unit and frontline). So your units loose time for traveling to your meta units.

What i am suggesting is directly assigning factories to a meta unit. For example i assign factories from point B to reinforce meta unit whenever that meta unit requests reinforcements OR directly producing units that automaticly are assigned for meta unit (order units in repeat queue and when units pop out of factory they go to the same command group as your meta unit). Factories at point A, for example can be left alone to work in standart mode or be assigned to a different meta unit that is closer to them or form a new army etc.  

Repeat queue that you pointed out, doesnt actually solve the problem i listed, cause you have to set a rally point for those units, you have to constantly control what units are built and it get a little bit complicated when you actually want to divide some of built units to be assigned to a meta group and other to be sent elsewhere (cause they stay at a "blob" of units at the rally point). There is also a problem with getting the right balanced comp of units to you meta unit. For example if you want a comp of 10 maulers 5 drone hives in your meta unit, but 2 maulers and 3 drone hives been shot down, but your factories provide more types of units on repeat queue, you would be required to manually seek and add to you meta units those 2 maulers and 3 drone hives. But when you actually have control of your meta unit and see what units are there currently present and what units should be assigned to it, you can easily order some needed units from the reinforcements tab.  

Less micro, less pointless manipulations, more effectiveness. 

You respond to a comment on how modding capabilities were discussed, or in the case of Ashes, not discussed, by saying a veteran Sins modder that pioneered ability design has a faulty memory about how easy it is to mod, and my reply is nonsense?

There were guides to gameplay modifications before Sins even released.  There were discussions on modding capabilities almost a year in advance.  Total conversions were being worked on when it was still an alpha.  Veteran modders from Homeworld and Empire at War were on that shit before it even got off the ground, note the complete and utter lack of any such things for Ashes.  No one shows up to a party that isn't even announced, modding has had the briefest of mentions to founders, and dick else beyond map editing.

I have to disagree here.

I have never modded a game before Sins, and between the Modding documentation and the huge modding community, it was extremely easy to learn, and was by far the biggest feature that drew me to Sins and kept me here since Entrenchment. 

Maps are feature me and my friends never bothered with in any RTS.

When did you start modding Sins? Was it 6 months after release or after thousands of people had already figured out how to do things?

One of my personal pet peeves is that many people who call themselves "modders" are not really modders. They're just looking for more custom game setup options.

I've been modding games since the 90s and back then, it involved hex editing and decompiling code.  If you wanted a map editor, you'd write a VB app that read in the binary code and figure out how to display it.  

Now, people won't even make scenarios for a game unless there's a friendly GUI tool to do it for them.  The scenarios in Ashes I wrote with a text editor. I had a couple samples to work from and went from there.

Like I said I didnt come into Sins until ENT, but the forge tools was all I needed to make my 1st mod

First I downloaded the tool pack and read and tested the tutorials

Then I made my 1st mod using nothing but the tools released.

It wasnt until I started to model that I needed lots of advice as I have never done it before and your tutorial pdfs while helpful, were lacking.

Typically, that is all people need for scenario building, but I dont think that is what modders want. They want to change stats, sounds, music, graphics etc. If they need a UI to do it, they don't deserve it. EDIT: except for maybe something like Particle Forge

Re Modding:

There are TWO areas I find Ashes lacking in the modding area right now.

#1 no particle editor

#2 No built in way to convert fbx files to oxfiles.  

Both ARE coming.  But the lack of this wouldn't keep a dedicated modder from figuring it out. It just makes it harder.

Since all our games are using Nitrous from here on out, we'll release these tools as they mature so it's not a long-term issue.

Re Modding: 

Using the nitrous engine, is it technically feasible to mod the AI? Especially for future games using the nitrous?

Exacly.

Personaly i dont need call me a modder because its the way i live in games long time.

By now most of you people that play online in public servers must of at least once encountered a modder.

Modding refers to the act of modifying hardware, software, or virtually anything else, to perform a function not originally conceived or intended by the designer.

What is a MOD:

Mod, short for modification is a term generally applied to a customised (or altered) computer game made by the general public.

A mod can range from a total conversion with new gameplay, look and feel through to minor alterations which could include new models, weapons, maps etc. There are plenty of types and tons of styles, a mod can be anything the creators want it to be.

Purpose :

The purpose of a mod is to change the game and add an extra dimension of replay ability and excitement.

Mods have even being known to outshine the original game, and playing such a mod may become even more common than playing the unmodded original.

They increase the lifecycle and sales of games, benefiting both the players and the publishers who both get more bang for their buck!

I have wast about 5 months to understand all Ashes game, just for scenarios was 2 months and to understand every scrip funtion was 1 month + 2 months for assets and organize all has i like thinking in future modding team ,with units design by us so when we can make units ( we already can ) every balance can be made exacly like the ashes team do.

You can make a unit and build , but for you make them work in the game with the right balance thinking in both factions, you must know the game so you can make your assets to that particule unit or build, and that belive me makes you wast lot time so you really must like it .

I have several Scenarios to Escalation that i will have to work them again when comes out with WorkSteam with + 3k lines Brad knows that can be possible , and you guys will have really lucky and im glad with scenario editor .

So you can imagine that be a modder its not always fun.

You want make units you have to make them think in the game and players style and thats not always easy or no one will use your units.

But when you see your work really be use and players enjoy its really a pleasure to any modder like im see players use my mod themes ( already have more 4 diferent themes 2 for main base game + 2 thinked for escaltion ) ..

I decided over with Webpage and use only this one. Click

Just a note, buy escalation because its a awsome upgrade to main base game.

And we are the best community around so nothing to loose

This dev diary inspires great confidence. They agree that their first objective was in fact to build the tech of the game (which, to be perfectly honest, was pretty apparent) and left relatively little energy to build the actual gameplay. That is fair, but it does make Ashes a relatively weak RTS entry as of right now.

Having big plans to make Ashes the greatest RTS game ever, now that the tech is there and they can focus on the gameplay itself, seems very reasonable. I also like how they wanted to build a massive, incredibly detailed and ambitious strategy game, but could not reconcile that with wanting to make an approachable strategy game. Splitting it into two is one way possibly to do this, but it seems to me this actually makes the whole endeavor even more difficult and larger in scale and complexity to make it happen.

The most important thing they need to do is make the gameplay strategically interesting. Instead of just assembling the largest possible army and smashing them together, there needs to be strategic decisionmaking. There are endless numbers of possible ways to do this, but they all involve imposing limitations and creating options.

For example, one thing which I believe they should do is limit air power by firmly attaching aircraft to airbase structures, but make the aircraft very fast and very powerful. Seizing territory for the purpose of constructing an airbase, for air staging there, will allow players to project power quickly around the airbase using planes. Naturally this can be counteracted using anti-air, including air superiority from your own airbases. This creates an interesting dimension of gameplay in the skies which requires taking and holding ground, as well as choosing when and where is an opportune moment to risk exposing your planes for a bombing mission on a suitably important target.

Artillery and reconnaissance also need a great deal of development. Bases, garrisons, sieges, and assaults also need a lot of work in order to be more of a decision than just to drive into close quarters with everything you've got.

Ashes has the unique potential to be such a large scale that, for the first time, players can be put into the position of giving complex orders to large groups of units. And the player's high-level orders can be executed by a fairly capable subservient AI. Such as directing a large army to lay siege to a target base, causing the player's army to perform a very different series of actions than if the player orders the army to remain at standoff, or orders an immediate direct assault.

AI is on a per game basis.  In Ashes, you can build your own AI personalities by modifying the AI XML.

Oh lovely I had seen that we could alter the personalities so thank you for opening that up. Is it also possible to mod the AI itself?  E.g. Topware Interactive, the developers behind Earth 2150, released a tool called Earthc that allowed modders to write scripts for unit AI. I guess what I'm really asking is whether modders will be able to write code for the unit, tactical and strategic AI in Ashes.

Yes we can do that.

We can create a unit from scratch and change everything to our own taste.

In the AI we can change everything and make it as we want.

Really? Excuse my incredulity, I haven't figured out how to do that yet. How?

I dont know, to me it feels like Ashes does not lack sophisticated content yet, the game has all the things it needs to become great lieing in front of it, the problem lies for the most part in the pathfinding of armies. I am not kidding - if you want to add really high-end content, the game needs to get the basics right first. I dont think anybody would care about True line of sight in CoH if the squads would need roughly 15 seconds to start moving to the new position when you give them an order.