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How to maintain energy production while expanding?

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3 years ago
I want to naked expand as soon as possible and assisting factory production. But I also need to prevent e-stalling. I could assign my constructor to build energy sources but it doesn't seem enough. What can help?

Should I build turbines instead of solar panels?
+0 / -0
3 years ago
Look to see if wind is good on the map and elevation - 0.4 min is what I look for when deciding to go wind over solar. As you start getting into 35+ metal/second you might consider a fusion. A wind farm is sometimes good if the map/terrain is very good for wind (0.7+ min), but if not then I would go fusion. I would never build a full blown solar farm. I would build energy near my factory and not really elsewhere, except if a wind farm needed to go on a hill. About 1 con every 800-900 metal in combat units, unless you are losing them (build more) or if you start to have too much build power (stop). It's important to keep the cons working - even if just reclaiming trees xD.
+0 / -0
3 years ago
Energy production is one of those things that adapts to your circumstance. At the beginning, just sticking a solar or two next to each Mex is sufficient to make sure you're on top of things (As an added bonus - having the solars there by the mex lets them contribute to overdrive right away without setting up connections yet. On the downside, it's metal spent by a frontline constructor that might be better spent on a turret or something... It's a balancing act.

The early game ends when the mexes in each base are claimed and defended, and the battle lines are clear. The mid-game is when players begin to ramp up energy, and connect their grids. Only when your grid is connected does building a larger power plant pay off - the return on investment gets better based on how much metal the power plant cost, but you also don't get any energy until it's finished, and it doesn't count toward overdrive unless your power plant and mexes are connected to the same grid. The best next step for more power is to build a geothermal reactor. If there's no geothermal rift on the map in a defendable location (tap F4 to see where geos are), most players will build a fusion in their base to get that early energy spike, allowing them to repair stuff and feed off of reclaim. Don't go immediately for an advanced geothermal (i.e. click the upgrade button on the geothermal), or a singularity reactor - a stealth raider group or airstrike can probably get to it and destroy it early if you're not careful, causing significant collateral damage and wasting all the resources you put into it (4000 isn't cheap!).

A mid-game alternative, if you're struggling to get energy up but don't have the means to invest in a fusion plant right away, is to go to a high point on the map that provides 1.5+ energy minimum for your wind turbine (click the wind turbine and hover it over the area to see how much it'll return), and build a whole bunch of them packed together. You'll have to defend it well, but it'll give you the energy boost you need to keep going.

You can tell you've hit the late game when players are skirmishing with more than one of their factory's demi-strider units (Grizzly, Crab, Lance, etc.), or when players are beginning to build significant clusters of units (think thug/felon balls, recluse swarms, dominatrix balls, etc.). At this point, you're going to want to build a significant jump in energy to keep up through overdrive. A single singularity reactor provides a significant jump in overdrive, but subsequent ones have significantly reduced returns on investment, so unless you've really got the breathing room, that second batch of 4000 metal might be better used elsewhere.



Now, specifically regarding the turbines question: Turbines work best on maps that are at high altitude. However, they're cheaper, and are much easier to place on steep surfaces, so many players use them as tethers to connect an outlying mex to their main energy production center.
+0 / -1
3 years ago
Its a balancing act, which is very map dependent. Unless you're a math genius and figure out exactly how much energy you will need in advance, you need to have some flexible BP so that you can do the balancing. Aka: shift your base BP between factory support and energy building depending of whenever you need more energy or not.

You usually want to produce a little more energy than you do metal. The extra energy is needed to cover the costs of repairs and units that use energy like cloakers and shields. You may need more if you're using a lot of those units.
+0 / -0
simple. for every 5-10 bp that go expanding, you need 5 bp for energy. why? constructors need to walk in between mexes, e-production doesn`t have those breaks.
- Needs adjustment per map tho. but this is the general principle.
- wind is often a good choice, but even if it`s good, you should never fully rely on wind, its super-fragile and if wind-speed is low, you are likely to e-stall. pair wind with some solars or later a fusion/geo.
- DO NOT expand faster than your e-production allows, this usually ends in desaster.
quote:
Unless you're a math genius and figure out exactly how much energy you will need in advance


expierience with maps and the game in general are also a way to get there. I generally play every map against bots until i know how expansion works on that map.
+3 / -0

3 years ago
for the first +10 to +14 energy i always go for solars. i dislike the dynamic of winds and their paper in general, i prefer solars for their robustness over winds and use these solid blocks for additionally purposes like walling lotus etc
+1 / -0

3 years ago
In a team game, each team shall have one player produce Geo at the beginning of the game. In map with large water, go tidal as it is robust with better output,
+1 / -0

3 years ago
DErankAdminmojjj In 1v1 starting with wind can be game-deciding in certain cases as you can spend more metal on units. But in general i agree, solars have a lot of utility and are WAY WAY harder to kill.
+1 / -0

3 years ago
well, there it is. you could argue i do not play 1v1 because the paperness of windmills.
+0 / -0
It can be game-deciding but can also be game-ending if you lose too many of them, which is easy because paper.

I guess it depends on the map and how raid-able your starting location is.

I actually think windmills work better in team games for that reason, the bigger the better. You have a lot of allies to pick up your slack if your windmills get destroyed, so your economy isn't wiped, and raiding is harder. However, that is only true as long as you have plenty of space to space them out decently.

I find huge-ass blocks of tightly packed windmills in team games really, really silly. They take up huge amounts of valuable backline space and a few infiltrating raiders is all it takes to blow them all to hell. Or gunships, or bombers, or silos.

Even in maps which are good for wind, people shouldn't expect that they can just build windmills forever and never graduate to fusions.
+1 / -0