Shuttle loadout selection works

Findings:
1. Default layout is configured with (2) Interceptors: these should be Shuttles with Tanks as before (at least untill Marines are not available) - especially since this applies also for AI and merc ships which are signifficantly weaker with Interceptor
2. AI does not change the default Interceptor out to tank or seems to research Assault Marines yet
3. Increased manpower effect is not displayed in ship designer when adding tank or Assault Marines (but is applied correctly after the ship is built so only a minor design UI finding
4. The selection option for the two units is clear but would it be possible to display the Shuttle in the background as well? - The shuttles are often the finest art available to a facton and it would be a shame if they are left out from the designer due to the selection option: maybe the tank/Marine icon could be made smaller and pisitioned on the lower right hand side of the Shuttle?

What if the Assault Marines tech would be made as pre-req for the Assault Cruiser?
This way Assault Marines could be made as default for the layout withouth issue and mecs could also have them (making this ship type quite desirable as merc when playing as other factions as it would come with pre-loaded Human Assault Marines)

That sounds a pretty nice improvement.

zolobolo wrote:1. Default layout is configured with (2) Interceptors: these should be Shuttles with Tanks as before (at least untill Marines are not available) - especially since this applies also for AI and merc ships which are signifficantly weaker with Interceptor

The AI builds should use tanks rather than interceptors as of the next patch (r38520).
However, switching AI builds to favor marines when available gets more complicated. The problem here is that human AIs sortof depend on the tanks in their Assault Cruisers for powering ground invasions, and if I change the AI designs to prefer marines, some strange things may start to happen on the strategic AI side because of that...

zolobolo wrote:3. Increased manpower effect is not displayed in ship designer when adding tank or Assault Marines (but is applied correctly after the ship is built so only a minor design UI finding

Should be fixed in r38520.

zolobolo wrote:4. The selection option for the two units is clear but would it be possible to display the Shuttle in the background as well? - The shuttles are often the finest art available to a facton and it would be a shame if they are left out from the designer due to the selection option: maybe the tank/Marine icon could be made smaller and pisitioned on the lower right hand side of the Shuttle?

Yeah, I really wanted to somehow get the assault shuttle art incorporated into the designer part icons (sortof as we did for the "Armor Brigade" part used in troop transports). Unfortunately, the assault shuttle art is too detailed for a composite to look good -- putting it in a corner makes it too small to really see, and putting the tank ontop of it just looks really messy

Couldn't the tank (or marine or marauder) go in the corner instead?

What if tanks, marauders, Assault Marines would only be marked as a non textured icon with the same silhouette over the detailed Assault Shuttle art and sized on to fit the lover right hand side quadrant of the field?

Their color might be blue, green whatever color is best available in the GUI palette

THANK YOU for addressing the pre-loading issue, it is greatly appreciated. If be fine if the AI didn't use Assault Marines, or maybe just had a simple rule of thumb like 'build every third Assault Cruiser with Assault Marines instead'.

-Will