It's kindof complex you see. I wasn't advocating that rushing crawlers is the best way, rather that it is a method that is possible and useful in certain circumstances.
Whether to rush depends on a number of factors.
- Your Industry rating (crawler upgrading costs/mineral changes depending on industry)
- Your skill at managing resources (how well you can compound the effect of having extra crawlers, and how well you're able know when to rush buy)
- Whether stockpile is allowed (rush buying tends to increase the amount of stockpile energy you get)
- Amount of free terraforming you can place crawlers on (effects how much the resources compond)
- ETA for the special project you're building. (Longer you have crawlers the more the effect of the crawlers compound up)
- The number of special abilities you can add (changes the cost of crawler upgrading)
- The armor level you can add (changes the cost of crawler upgrading)
I don't actually have proper figures for anything other than +3, but I spent a few days thinking about it for other industry ratings after talking to Minute Mirage. The following are my estimations.
Assuming you're really good at managing resources and rush buying, plus stockpile energy is allowed and you have spare forest to harvest and you can only add +2 armor and trance. If you intend to build up for about 5 years I would rush buy at industry rating of 0.
With -1 industry and same conditions as above 8 years before you start saving up. With -2 industry I think crawler upgrading is where you should spend most of your money for SP building.
Ofcourse when you're borderline and getting close to the time you can think of crawler upgrading you don't suddenly stop rush building, you still rush when the cost is obviously cheap. Rather you reduce the amount you rush and tend to save up more and more money as you get closer to the time you will need money to upgrade the crawlers.
The above stated some of the more optimal variables for a rush building strategy.
Above average player, with no stockpile energy, +3 armor and trance and no spare forests/mines to harvest. The industry rating of maybe +2 +3 or above would be required so that 5 years to the build you start thinking of saving up some money for upgrading.
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When I was last in the ACDG playing as the Hive I was paying for minerals at a rate of 2.3 ECs/mineral. However due to smart resource management and the stockpile energy bug I was actually getting an estimated minerals for 1.7 ECs/mineral (compounded for a 4 turn ETA to build). Something like 1.8 ECs/mineral when actually used numbers directly from the game and only checked the effects for 2 turns.
You calculate the stockpile by taking the percentage of the production that you rushed and then multiplying it against the amount of stockpile that you got, then you add in the number of turns you sped up the crawler multipled by the number of minerals that you crawled.
To take into account the time factor you take the overall percentage increase for stockpile and minerals for the past 2 years and do compond interest on the industry growth generated by your rush in proportion to your total factional production. You compound the average mineral/stockpile growth of your faction against the portion of achieved growth due to your rushes. Once you gotten the number of minerals that you have effectively achieved by the time of your SP build you can then find the mineral to EC rate.
It takes a while to calculate and I was originally working off a real turn to generate the inital figures. I wouldn't know how to figure out the cost figures for -1 or -2 industry without actually planning out a couple of turns for a real Cult or Spartan game. I have a feeling crawler upgrading would be far cheaper in that situation.
I think for the hive infantry crawlers only ever go down to 2 EC/mineral with clean trance plasma armor, until fusion reactors. Rover crawlers or needlejet crawlers are cheaper for the actual upgrade, but the problem is they're offset by requiring more minerals and hence have a slower build time, so they gather less resources, and reduce the amount of stockpile. Consequently rover crawlers for upgrading is about the same as infantry crawlers assuming stockpile allowed and available forests/mines to put crawlers on.
Once you get can make an trance/plasma armor/clean crawler (about 2 EC/mineral) and an average player is running the turn. With +3 industry the cost of rushing would probably be 2 EC/mineral (assuming about 4 turns to estimated build time). So basically comparable with crawler upgrading because when you have researched up to clean I think SPs start only taking 3-4 turns at most to build.
Hrmm so long winded I am...
Whether to rush depends on a number of factors.
- Your Industry rating (crawler upgrading costs/mineral changes depending on industry)
- Your skill at managing resources (how well you can compound the effect of having extra crawlers, and how well you're able know when to rush buy)
- Whether stockpile is allowed (rush buying tends to increase the amount of stockpile energy you get)
- Amount of free terraforming you can place crawlers on (effects how much the resources compond)
- ETA for the special project you're building. (Longer you have crawlers the more the effect of the crawlers compound up)
- The number of special abilities you can add (changes the cost of crawler upgrading)
- The armor level you can add (changes the cost of crawler upgrading)
I don't actually have proper figures for anything other than +3, but I spent a few days thinking about it for other industry ratings after talking to Minute Mirage. The following are my estimations.
Assuming you're really good at managing resources and rush buying, plus stockpile energy is allowed and you have spare forest to harvest and you can only add +2 armor and trance. If you intend to build up for about 5 years I would rush buy at industry rating of 0.
With -1 industry and same conditions as above 8 years before you start saving up. With -2 industry I think crawler upgrading is where you should spend most of your money for SP building.
Ofcourse when you're borderline and getting close to the time you can think of crawler upgrading you don't suddenly stop rush building, you still rush when the cost is obviously cheap. Rather you reduce the amount you rush and tend to save up more and more money as you get closer to the time you will need money to upgrade the crawlers.
The above stated some of the more optimal variables for a rush building strategy.
Above average player, with no stockpile energy, +3 armor and trance and no spare forests/mines to harvest. The industry rating of maybe +2 +3 or above would be required so that 5 years to the build you start thinking of saving up some money for upgrading.
___________________________
When I was last in the ACDG playing as the Hive I was paying for minerals at a rate of 2.3 ECs/mineral. However due to smart resource management and the stockpile energy bug I was actually getting an estimated minerals for 1.7 ECs/mineral (compounded for a 4 turn ETA to build). Something like 1.8 ECs/mineral when actually used numbers directly from the game and only checked the effects for 2 turns.
You calculate the stockpile by taking the percentage of the production that you rushed and then multiplying it against the amount of stockpile that you got, then you add in the number of turns you sped up the crawler multipled by the number of minerals that you crawled.
To take into account the time factor you take the overall percentage increase for stockpile and minerals for the past 2 years and do compond interest on the industry growth generated by your rush in proportion to your total factional production. You compound the average mineral/stockpile growth of your faction against the portion of achieved growth due to your rushes. Once you gotten the number of minerals that you have effectively achieved by the time of your SP build you can then find the mineral to EC rate.
It takes a while to calculate and I was originally working off a real turn to generate the inital figures. I wouldn't know how to figure out the cost figures for -1 or -2 industry without actually planning out a couple of turns for a real Cult or Spartan game. I have a feeling crawler upgrading would be far cheaper in that situation.
I think for the hive infantry crawlers only ever go down to 2 EC/mineral with clean trance plasma armor, until fusion reactors. Rover crawlers or needlejet crawlers are cheaper for the actual upgrade, but the problem is they're offset by requiring more minerals and hence have a slower build time, so they gather less resources, and reduce the amount of stockpile. Consequently rover crawlers for upgrading is about the same as infantry crawlers assuming stockpile allowed and available forests/mines to put crawlers on.
Once you get can make an trance/plasma armor/clean crawler (about 2 EC/mineral) and an average player is running the turn. With +3 industry the cost of rushing would probably be 2 EC/mineral (assuming about 4 turns to estimated build time). So basically comparable with crawler upgrading because when you have researched up to clean I think SPs start only taking 3-4 turns at most to build.
Hrmm so long winded I am...
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