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Reduce buildtime of hives#7062

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lL1l1 merged 2 commits intoFAForever:developfrom
lL1l1:balance/engi-station-buildtime
Mar 29, 2026
Merged

Reduce buildtime of hives#7062
lL1l1 merged 2 commits intoFAForever:developfrom
lL1l1:balance/engi-station-buildtime

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@lL1l1 lL1l1 commented Mar 14, 2026

Description of the proposed changes

Implements the following suggestion from discord:

After the BP nerf, higher level Hives are worse than T3 Engis in Bt/BP, so their role as emergency buildpower is now practically nonexistent. I suggest buffing the buildtime to bring them back into this role, as currently they cannot compete with engineers.

Adjust Hives and Kennels #4644 - Hive Changes:
Buildtime per level: 1171 (unchanged)
Buildpower per level: +25 -> +20, +17, +13
Bt/Bp: 47 -> 59, 69, 90

T3 Engis:
Buildtime: 1560
Buildpower: 32.5
Bt/Bp: 48

Kennels:
Kennels are worth comparing to as they are quite powerful when self-upgrading.
Buildtime per level: 1000, 2000
Buildpower per level: +20 self and +25 drone, +25 drone
Bt/Bp: 40, 80

That 80 is quite high but since the building itself nearly doubles its buildpower the buildtime can be estimated to be lower. One such estimate would take the building's buildpower and take out its contribution during an unassisted upgrade from the total buildtime: 2000 * 25/45 = 1111 which gives a Bt/Bp of 44.
Another estimate would be to average it out between the lvl 1 and lvl 2 upgrades to 60 bt/bp.
If the drone is immediately used for more lvl 1 kennels instead of building the level 2 upgrade, the level 2 upgrade has essentially 0 buildtime opportunity cost.

Suggested change for Hives:
Buildtime per level: 1171 -> 880, 1000, 1120
Buildpower per level: +20, +17, +13 (unchanged)
Bt/Bp: 59, 69, 90 -> 44, 59, 86
Total Bt/Bp per level: 44, 51, 60

Goals of changes:

  • Level 1 hives are fast to build as they are low density, HP, and range. This lets them get spammed quickly near a build site like a T4.
  • Level 3 hives are made to match kennel's average bt/bp since hives are a bit better bp and I think the 60 bt/bp is an overestimate.
  • Level 2 hives naturally end up in the middle, since I didn't think of a plan for them.

Testing done on the proposed changes

I am not sure what there is to test in a sandbox, it is a simple number change but with complex effects dependent on map type/game state/build order type.

Checklist

- [ ] Changes are annotated, including comments where useful

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • Balance Adjustments
    • Hive T2 Engineering Station variants now build faster across all levels (Level 1: 880s, Level 2: 1000s, Level 3: 1120s).
    • Changelog documentation updated to reflect changes.

@lL1l1 lL1l1 added the area: balance idea related to suggestions for unit balance label Mar 14, 2026
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coderabbitai Bot commented Mar 14, 2026

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info
⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: ca9c2759-5061-4ac7-b6a7-a00d14a48582

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 9868135 and 57f566a.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)
  • changelog/snippets/balance.7062.md
  • units/XRB0104/XRB0104_unit.bp
  • units/XRB0204/XRB0204_unit.bp
  • units/XRB0304/XRB0304_unit.bp

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Reduces build times for three Hive T2 Engineering Station unit variants (XRB0104, XRB0204, XRB0304) to improve buildpower economics at lower levels, with build times adjusted from 1171 to 880, 1000, and 1120 respectively. Includes a changelog entry documenting these balance adjustments.

Changes

Cohort / File(s) Summary
Hive T2 Engineering Station Build Time Adjustments
units/XRB0104/XRB0104_unit.bp, units/XRB0204/XRB0204_unit.bp, units/XRB0304/XRB0304_unit.bp
Reduced Economy.BuildTime values for Level 1 (1171→880), Level 2 (1171→1000), and Level 3 (1171→1120) variants to improve buildpower ROI at lower tech levels.
Balance Changelog
changelog/snippets/balance.7062.md
New changelog entry documenting the build time reductions for issue #7062 and their intended impact on unit viability.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

Suggested reviewers

  • Rhaelya

Poem

🐰 Three hives now build faster, swift and lean,
Lower levels stronger—quicker to convene,
Balance tweaked with care, our buildpower's blessed,
Engineering stations pass the ROI test! ⚙️

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3
✅ Passed checks (3 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Title check ✅ Passed The title 'Reduce buildtime of hives' directly summarizes the main change in the changeset, which modifies build times for three hive unit variants.
Description check ✅ Passed The description includes comprehensive detail on proposed changes, testing context, and checklist completion with changelog documentation confirmed, meeting template requirements.
Docstring Coverage ✅ Passed No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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  • Post copyable unit tests in a comment
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@lL1l1 lL1l1 requested a review from Rhaelya March 14, 2026 06:22
@lL1l1 lL1l1 marked this pull request as ready for review March 14, 2026 06:22
@lL1l1 lL1l1 requested a review from Basilisk3 March 14, 2026 06:22
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Technically functional, and the changelog snippet looks good. From a balance perspective, this is a welcome addition.

@lL1l1 lL1l1 merged commit 96615f0 into FAForever:develop Mar 29, 2026
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@github-project-automation github-project-automation Bot moved this from To Discuss to Done in 2025 - Balance Iteration I Mar 29, 2026
@coderabbitai coderabbitai Bot mentioned this pull request Mar 31, 2026
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