 T1 Factories
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Build rate Storage Intel (radius) Vision: 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 T2 Factories
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Build rate Storage Intel (radius) Vision: 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 T3 Factories
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Build rate Storage Intel (radius) Vision: 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 T3 Quantum Gateways | |
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| Build costs |  -30000 -3000 3000 |
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| Build rate |
120/s |
| Max health |  10000 |
| Intel (radius) | Vision: 20 |
A factory is a unit capable of building mobile units.
Each faction has three types of normal factories, land, air and naval. Quantum gateways also function like factories. There are also several other experimental factories.
Normal factories[]
Land, air and naval factories are constructed by engineers, ACUs or SCUs. They always start out as Tech 1 factories, and are capable of building all Tech 1 mobile units of their type (land, air or naval). They can also upgrade to Tech 2.
Once upgraded to Tech 2 a factory can build all Tech 1 or Tech 2 mobile units of their type, or an upgrade to Tech 3. Similarly, Tech 3 factories can build Tech 1, 2 and 3 units of their type. Factories cannot build experimental units.
Upgrading a factory changes its physical appearance. It usually becomes bigger, acquires more health, and an extra build arm.
Higher Tech factories build units faster than lower Tech factories, and they use resources at a correspondingly higher rate. Tech 2 factories build twice as fast as Tech 1 factories, and Tech 3 factories, three times as fast.
Variation between domains[]
Land factories cost the least overall. Air factories cost the most power. Naval factories cost more mass but the a similar amount of power as land.
Constructable units[]
Almost every mobile unit come from a factory. Unit can be built by the corresponding factory type (Land factory builds land units) with the factory being at the required tech level or higher. (For example, a tech 2 land factory can build tech 2 land units as well as the lower tech 1 land units. But a tech 2 factory cannot produce tech land 3 units, nor any type of other unit.) sACUs are built at the Quantum Gateway factory. The only exceptions are ACUs and the UEF T1 Engineering Drones (ACU upgrade) which are spawned automatically, and experimental units which are built in the field.
For a full list of units, see the complete unit list.
Strategy and build order[]
Usually a land factory is built at the start of a multiplayer match, as it is the cheapest in terms of overall resources. This factory is typically used to build engineers to capture mass deposits, although rarely a direct fire unit such as a light assault bot or T1 mobile anti-air gun might be first. Factories may build a few more for reclaim and then switch into tanks, artillery and other land spam as required. It takes 30 seconds for the ACU to construct one, or a T1 engineer twice the time due having half the build rate.
In some less common cases an air factory may be used for a T1 attack bomber or T1 light air transport instead. Air units are always useful because they are fast, and the ACU starts on land. However, rarely if ever is it wise to get a naval factory, as naval units are not as threatening until later when they can bombard the shoreline. Naval units are also much more expensive, at up to 5x the cost, and slower. Therefore air first can at times make sense strategically for flexibility even if it is more expensive than land, while naval does not make it worth it.
Quantum gateways[]
Quantum gateways, though not called factories, function similarly. They consume resources to construct SCUs which construct at Tech 3. They don't have any upgrades, and they can't construct any other units, but otherwise all commands that work with factories also work with quantum gateways. A lot of time and resources are required to build SCU's, however it is usually worth it in the long run if you can get your economy rolling and the Quantum Gateway assisted by T3 engineers and mass producing SCU's.
Build speeds[]
All factories have a build rate when producing units. In absolute terms it is their tech level multiplied by 20: Tech 1, 20; Tech 2, 40; or Tech 3, 60. Quantum Gateways double that again at 120/sec. To get the actual in-game time (unassisted) required to build a unit, as with any other construction project, divide the unit's build-time value by the factory's build rate.
In relative terms, their build rate is four times faster than an engineer of the corresponding tech level. This means it takes no more than 4 engineers (of the corresponding tech) to double a factory's build rate. Because of this ratio, it is much more time and resource efficient to assist a factory at T2, T3, and quantum gateway level, rather than building more T2+ factories. By contrast it is slightly more resource and time efficient to build a multitude of T1 factories, rather than assisting them with T1 engineers (the mass cost is similar, at 208 mass for the four engineers against 210-300 mass for the factory. The cost difference is particularly in terms of energy which nearly doubles for the factory, so build Power generators as appropriate).
To calculate resource drain while constructing units, one method is to divide the resource costs by the in-game time to get the resource drain produced. For example, a MA12 Striker built by a T1 land factory will cost 56 mass. This is spent over a build-time value of 280 at a build rate of 20. This works out to 14s of construction. Dividing 56 by 14 leads to 4 mass/sec. Alternatively in one step, divide cost by build-time value and multiply by build rate (this may make it easier to calculate when assisting the factory). For a Percival's energy drain, 14000/4800 = 2.9 energy per buildrate, or 175 unassisted and 14.6 per assisting T1 engineer.
Note that whilst it is most cost effective to assist factories with T1 engineers, their weak hp make them a prime target for bomber strafing runs, and having too many can create large amounts of congestion around a factory, resulting in a delay for the finished unit to enter the field, and in extreme cases actually increase the delay before another unit may be built. In addition, the more engineers assisting a factory, in real terms the less efficient each engineer becomes due to the time delay of the exiting unit. This can be reduced by having a line of parallel factories (by having some engineers patrolling between the factories), or simply by building more factories, and is also mitigated at air factories due to the extremely small takeoff time of constructed aircraft.
While it is tempting to assist a Quantum Gateway with the same sACUs it produces, those sACUs are often better purposed at the front line, where they can use their health and weaponry advantage. Even light artillery is enough to deter regular engineers, but is a moot threat to sACUs.
Advanced commands[]
Factories in Supreme Commander features advanced queuing options, including pausing to stop production and being set to repeating orders. However, this comes with some caveats:
- Current production cannot be saved when stopping or swapping build projects. The current unit under construction must be finished first.
- When selecting multiple factories and queueing something, this adds it to all selected factories queue.
Factory waypoints[]
Each factory has a waypoint where it drops units when they complete. This can be for any type of factory. Waypoints are locations by default, and set by selecting factory issuing the Move command by right clicking or via the keyboard (default M). There are some other features however:
- Waypoints can also be patrols or attack move (only if the alt key is used to modify the move order, as Alt+M or Alt+Rclick, as factories are not given this command as a button in the UI pane).
- Waypoint can be multiple actions if shift is held. Additional actions are added in sequence to existing waypoints.
- Existing waypoints can also be moved around the map when shift is held. Any idle units waiting there will move to the new location of the waypoint. Any queued waypoint orders can be cancelled with
- Waypoint can go to a transport ferry point (not the same as transport assisting, but similar).
- You cannot make units at the factory waypoint do construction, set a formation, or do other specific things (like build engineers that assist commander). This must be issued after the unit has been reached full construction (although it is not necessary for the unit to roll outside to be issued orders).
Inter-factory Assist[]
Factories can assist another factory, making them subordinate to the main factory. This is done by selecting a slave and right clicking on a master. Range is unlimited. Slave factories constuct units from the master factories queue. Slaves will build the first unit in the master queue, that they can, and remove it from it master queue. When completed the unit will use the master waypoint, but will be assigned the group # of the slave factory.
However, slave factories have a local queue, that uses the slave waypoint. Local queue has higher priority, slaves will only take item from master queue when their local is empty. Adding items to the local queue will not impact current construction, current unit will complete. This allows you to manage only a single main factory queue for each unit domain: land, air, and naval. It also allow you inject units into your queue for immediate construction without messing up the main queue. This is very useful for making special orders or to construct units out of sequence, such as urgent production of anti-air or engineers, without disrupting long term production.
Slaves will only build units they can build. When the master factory queues something, the tasks get put out as follows:
- Master factory starts production on the first item in queue, if it isn't currently producing something.
- After that the items are tasked to the first slave that can make item. Remove from master queue when tasked.
- If master factory on repeat, slaves immediately add any units currently tasked for construction to end of queue, as though completed by the master factory.
- Restart from step 1 with next unit in queue as any factory finishes unit construction.
If a low tech master factory queues a techup, it can then queue next level units. If another factory capable of building those units is assisting, it will build them, even though the master cannot. However, the first item in the queue after techup is always assigned to master, so you must queue more than 1. The master will build first unit in queue that it can, so if master is higher tech, queue high tech first. If the master queues low level first, it will help build those, rather than work on higher tech items.
There are a few cautions:
- Issuing any wholly new assistance command will clear the current queue. However, the target of existing commands can be moved to a different main factory.
- Slaves cannot actually assist more than one other factory, even though they can technically queue up inter-factory assistance. Any additional assists after the first are ignored, even if the first master factory ends its queue. However, factories can chain their assistance together.
- Land, air, and naval factories can assist each other but the only common units are the engineers.
- Making a factory a slave destroys current production and clears local queue unless you hold shift while right clicking the master.
- You cannot cancel an assist order in any way without destroying current production. You can give the slave factory a stop order, which also clears local queue, or you can select the slave and shift-ctrl-right click master to cancel assist, which doesn't clear local queue, but still cancels unit in production.
- Clearing a factories queue will always destroy current production even if almost done (unit or techup). It is usually best to leave the item under contruction in the queue. However if you clear master queue, slaves will complete unit they are constructing.
- Whether factories are assisting or not, selecting multiple factories and queueing something adds it to all selected factories queue in the "local" queue. This constrasts with adding the corresponding number to the main factory's queue and having the units be automatically distributed to the subordinate factories.
- Master factories cannot assist other factories unless all slaves cancel?
Factional differences[]
Factories of all 4 factions cost the same, build at the same speed and are overall equal. Their Hp does differ slightly.
The two only notable differences are the naval factory's build layout: While all other faction's naval factories build on the left, the Seraphim naval factory builds on the right. Also, when creating an engineer from an air factory, the factory is stalled while it lowers the unit to ground level.
As a synergy, note that Aeon are unique in that they can sacrifice old engineers to units or buildings, this is better than the alternative of self destructing and reclaiming them, as you get the resources and can put it to use immediately.
Factories attached to units[]
The experimental units, the Fatboy, the Tempest, the Atlantis, the CZAR and to some degree, the Megalith are able to function as factories, as well as act as powerful fighting units. Except for the Megalith, all of these units must be stationary in order to construct units. During the construction, their weapons are also disabled (the Megalith is again an exception to this rule, along with CZAR, which can use it's beam and AAs while constructing (though it can't move)). The Tempest and the Fatboy must also be surfaced or on land, respectively.
All types of Carriers are also capable of constructing units, including the T3 sea ones for Cybran and Aeon, and the Experimental versions for UEF and Aeon. They generally have a mostly complete catalogue of T3 air units. However, the units these can construct are on their unit page.
Trivia[]
- Originally, during development of Supreme Commander, the quantum gateways were planned to have a secondary function, other than SCU construction, namely the ability to teleport units across the map between them. However, they were deemed overpowered and the ability was removed before release.
- After v3603, Factories no longer store energy. Energy storages are now the only structure with this function.