Openra: Replace the refinery with the "ERCC" refinery in the standard game

[Yara-smurf]

Issue Summary

As it has become the standard in RAGL and proven its value, it might be a good idea to replace it everywhere for better balancing.

What is ERCC?
ERCC provides more exits for harvesters (north exit) which makes harvesting from all sides more balanced. Furthermore, the outline of the refinery got changed to square to alleviate map-inconveniences.

TODO:
More detailed guide by widow about ERCC.

[Punsho]

It this has a footprint
=+x
+=+
x==

while the current one has this
_X_
xxx
X==
\===

it looks like

while the OG looks like

[Punsho]

ERCC currently suffers from #18232

[pchote]

Please also include screenshots that show how the harvester clips through solid walls and the roof for a fair comparison.

[Punsho]

It works most of the time, but if you do these exact paths it clips

One of the problems is that the harvester art is bigger than once cell

that also causes problems with the current ref


but these don't exist with ERCC

[netnazgul]

pchote: it would be much better if it used a new design that was not a space-warping bodge of the original refinery
pchote: get rid of the overhang completely
pchote: it is never going to be accepted as a replacement for the original refinery, but if you want to be added as a distinct thing that could be optionally enabled then it needs to make sense as its own thing

[pchote]

One thing that I find the most offensive about this extended trainwreck of a discussion is that it basically boils down to a few competitive players, who already have access to ERCC via map-mods, insisting that everybody else is playing the game wrong and should have the option to use the classic refineries taken away from them. This is not cool, IMO.

[dragunoff]

I can get behind what @pchote is saying. I think this already has a nice place in map-mods. And if ruleset-only mods are ever implemented then the ERCC (and other balance mods and tests) could be easily applied to any map.

And even if the ERCC gets accepted to the core game then it should be optional and not the default.

[netnazgul]

The mutator thing should be mentioned here if it is raised as an issue somewhere.

[abcdefg30]

The mutator thing should be mentioned here if it is raised as an issue somewhere.

13629 / #14325 / #9422

[Punsho]

One thing that I find the most offensive about this extended trainwreck of a discussion is that it basically boils down to a few competitive players, who already have access to ERCC via map-mods, insisting that everybody else is playing the game wrong and should have the option to use the classic refineries taken away from them. This is not cool, IMO.

I understand that but it's missleading. Fact is that majority of above avarage skilled players prefer playing with ERCC refineries. OpenRA supposted to improve gameplay of the originals, so players that who actually understand openra's gameplay are forced to play on a mod map doesn't give it a good look

I'm not saying that ERCC has to be implemented in its current form, after all it was merelly an experiment to see if refineries could be fixed. I'm just saying that it's a very relevant issue that needs a solution

[Punsho]

Additionally the person responsible for ERCC is not interested in refining it further, so it falls on the shoulders of someone else

[Mailaender]

This could also be solved using PlaceBuildingVariants and inverted artwork.

[Punsho]

ERCC currently suffers from #18232

I tested it and that problem doe snot (really) exist with ERCC @Punsho . The only thing I observed is that you have to click a bit "below" the husk which is probably due to the logical layout/overlay structure. But you can certainly recover husks from the ERCC refinery.

There's more than one place where a harvester can die, i had a game where 2 harvesters were dead on a refinery. I was able to revive one by the method you just mentioned, but the other was completelly unclickable. This is how this bug was discovered

[MlemandPurrs]

This could be in the form of an tickbox at lobby, probably it would be default off.

[matjaeck]

This could be in the form of an tickbox at lobby, probably it would be default off.

That's doesn't scale well. A dropdown to choose mutators from would be better.