flying supply crawler stays aloft

[bvanevery]

In my mod I got rid of the Copter chassis, except for Locusts of Chiron which it is now based on.  I changed the Unity Scout Chopper to a Unity Air Supply using a Needlejet chassis, a supply pod, and deep radar.  All I wanted to do was make a flying unit that can't attack.  I also tried it as a Transport, but the movement is capped at 6 and I don't want that.  I figured the supply pod would be a nice bonus if someone decided they wanted to cash it in to rush a Secret Project along in a pinch, and forego the advantage of having an unassailable plane covering ground units early in the game.

Details Unity Air Supply

Unity Air Supply

In my current test game I made an alliance with the Hive.  They happened to start next to the USS Unity crash site.  They got a Unity Air Supply.  I'm quite surprised to find that they're actually collecting nutrients with it.  Does it remain aloft, not using fuel, when set to (O) Convoy mode?  Or is the Hive moving it back and forth every turn, just collecting nutrients for 1 turn while out?  Or is it about to crash and burn, and I just got very lucky taking this screenshot?  I doubt the latter, as, I expect the Hive probably obtained this unit many turns ago and it's still alive.

Details Unity Air Supply next turn

Unity Air Supply next turn

The next turn, the Air Supply is still convoying, and it hasn't returned to base.  This looks like the same screenshot, but note that the Scout Patrol is further along in production.  Well when I eventually end up with one of these things, I'll see if it stays aloft for me!

[Geo]

AFAIK, units obtained through a Unity pod are mosttimes not linked with a base (support free). Would be quite a coincidence if the Unity pods on the Unity weckage had been popped, linked to the closest base, and the AI been smart enough to utilize it.

An even more of unheard thing would be the AI popped the 'chopper pod, received the air crawler unlinked to the closest base, AND subsequently 'rebased' the air supply.

[bvanevery]

Hm you're right I really did hit a rarity jackpot here!  The Unity Mining Drill, my beefed up version of the mining laser, is showing a support cost in those screenshots.  The Hive settled its 1st city right on top of the crash site for some reason.  It also either managed to get its 2nd colony pod killed, or else wandered it around aimlessly and didn't settle until after I made the Pact.

Details aloft

aloft

I got tired of that particular test game.  I activated the Scenario Editor and finally verified that that plane has been aloft the whole game!  Remains to be seen if I can do it as a human player.

[bvanevery]

Details Skynet is smart

Skynet is smart

The Usurpers have a Unity Air Supply this game.  I don't know where they got it from, but they could have just popped a pod somewhere.  Maybe it popped in range of a base?  I don't know what base it's homed from, as I don't have infiltration yet.  It is staying aloft and just sucking down whatever resources it is.  I have one of these as well, but I'm still busy exploring with it.  When I'm done doing that, I'll try convoying some resources with it.

Sometime later, I tried to keep mine aloft.  Sometime after that, I realized I didn't actually have the unit anymore.  It must have crashed and burned.  So I think this is an exploit only the AI gets to do!