Ashes II Dev Journal: Unit Production Feedback Updates

One of the recurring pieces of feedback we've received during Steam Nextfest and closed testing has been around unit production. While players understand how to create armies and reinforce existing armies, it has become obvious that we need to continue to improve the visibility into what is being produced, where units are being built, and how production queues are progressing across their production pipelines.

As we continue to work on ways to address this feedback, we've have implemented several new UI and gameplay improvements designed to make unit production easier to understand and manage.

Clear Army Rally Points

When creating a new army, you now manually set a rally point for the new army. Before, it was automatic, but this caused players to miss it. from a production facility, There is a unique visual indicator for the army's initial rally point.

This new visualization not only highlights the location, but also displays a path leading back to the production facility responsible for producing its first unit. This makes it much easier to understand where an army is being assembled and how units are reaching their destination.

Our next challenge is how to show players where army reinforcements are being produced. After the first unit is produced, the Army becomes the rally point for reinforcements, and can moves automatically with the army. The factories in that are closest to the Army produces reinforcements for it, so the challenge is, how to make that clear to the player.

Better Visibility Into Individual Production Buildings

Since players can have production buildings (factories) placed in different location on the map, it is important to be able to quickly show if and when a specific building is active. To help with this, we've added new feedback to production buildings.

First, production buildings now display a visual indicator above the structure showing what unit is currently being produced.

For players looking for more detailed information, selecting a production building now reveals an expanded Production section within the building tooltip. This section provides information such as:

• Current production rate (This production rate is for that production pipeline, for example if you have 4 armories they all provide a bonus to the production rate, even when sitting idle).

• Number of active production facilities actively building units

• Unit currently being produced at that facility

• Production completion percentage (How much of the current unit is complete)

• The army that unit is being produced for

In the example below, the Armory is operating at a 2.5x production rate with two active production facilities. The selected factory is currently producing a Titan M-7, which is 85% complete and assigned to Army 3.

Expanded Production Pipeline Information

The Production Orders panel located on the right side of the HUD provides players with a high-level overview of active production across their regions.

Each production pipeline—such as Armories, Barracks, Motor Pools, Airfields, and other production facility types—displays the number of units currently in its queue.

We've expanded the tooltip information available for a production pipeline. Players can now view detailed production statistics including:

• Active versus total factories within the pipeline

• Current production rate

• Number of units actively being built

• Units currently under construction

• Progress of active units

• Army assignments

• Upcoming units waiting in the queue

For example, hovering over the UEF Armory may show:

• 2 of 4 factories active

• Production rate of 125%

• Two units currently under construction

• Titan M-7 (85%) being built for Army 3

• Orion (22%) being built for Army 4

• Additional queued units and their assigned armies

This additional detail allows players to quickly understand not only what is being built, but also for who those units are being built, and, what production work is coming next.

Enhanced Production Orders Management

The detailed Production Orders screen has also received several improvements. Allowing players a better control over their global production.

At the top of the screen, players can now see a summary of each production pipeline, including:

• Current production rate

• Number of active factories

• Production facility type

In the example shown, players can see:

• Barracks operating at 1.5x production

• Motor Pool operating at 2.0x production with two active factories

• Armory operating at 2.5x production with two active factories

• Airfield operating at 2.0x production

• Prototype Factory operating at 1.0x production

Below this summary is the Production Orders list, with actively produced units displayed at the top.

We've also added new management options that give players greater control over their production priorities:

Pause Orders

Players can now pause an order. Paused orders do not consume production resources and allow other queued orders to move forward in the production pipeline.

Prioritize Orders

Players can mark an order as a priority. Priority orders immediately move to the front of their production pipeline and become the next active production task.

Combined with existing cancellation functionality, these additions provide greater flexibility when reacting to changing battlefield conditions.

Looking Ahead

The team is continuing to review tester feedback and identify new ways to surface important production information to players. Our goal is to make unit production intuitive, transparent, and easy to manage, allowing players to spend less time searching for information and more time focusing on strategic decisions.

Thank you to everyone participating in testing and providing feedback. Your input continues to play a major role in helping us improve the overall gameplay experience.