Mid Game Eco

[Flynn]

Okay, I'm somewhat at a loss about mid game economy here. On a lot of the bigger maps I seem to fall behind seriously in eco after the 15 minute mark. I can be winning the T1 spam battle but I can tell I am losing the eco war from the score (which is sometimes half my opponent's) and when they inevitably break out with T3 bots I'm not going to bore you guys with replays as examples, I'll just describe how I normally do things towards the mid game. I normally go for T2 pgens as soon as possible and cease my T1 pgen spam. I then upgrade my mexes individually assisting with maybe 6 or 8 engineers. Once all of my extractors are upgraded to T2 only then do I upgrade them to T3 which I believe is the most efficient method. Should I maybe upgrade several T1 mexes at a time without assisting them with engineers? That would seem to make the economy grow exponentially rather than linearly. I just can't see how I am supposed to upgrade the T1 mexes outside of my starting point quickly when I have to move the engineers to them to assist each one.

[ZaphodX]

Once you have a solid t2 power income reclaim all your t1 pg and get a nice mass boost for teching up mex further (Same with t2 pgs after t3 pg goes up).

If the t1 spam phase ends, stop producing all t1 units and reclaim those factories too, pile large amounts of engineers on your teched factories.

Any mex in range of your base you should try to assist with engies to get it upgraded quicker, any ones far out of your base are fine to ug unassisted. Unless you have the mass for it I would ug mex sequentially to increase your mass income as each one gets to t2.

Time upgrades of mex with reclaiming units, you should be utilising all your mass such that mex upgrades are only possible when reclaiming remnants of a battle you have won.

Cap all your t2 mex with storage. The most efficient way is to do this after most of your mex are ug to t2, but don't hesitate to do it after you have several t2 mex up. Using 2 engineers gives a good balance between speed of building the storage and the impact on your economy.

T2 mex must be capped with storage before an upgrade. The T3 mex upgrades are really expensive so I usually try to get a lot of build power on at least my first couple. You have to be prepared to stall your mass for a while, but just try and squeeze the first few out as quickly as possible.

[ColonelSheppard]

i would say just without seeing any replay: you are not reclaiming enough, reclaim the t1 wreckfields and use the mass for upgrading massextractors and factories

[Flynn]

I do reclaim.

[Softly]

You can never reclaim enough.


If theres one thing I have learnt in my time on FA, it is that.

[Flynn]

Reclaiming doesn't give you a predictable mass supply though. You guys speak of reclaiming as though it's something you can base your whole economy around, but the resources are finite. Those engineers that you use for reclaiming could be used for expanding and give you a reliable mass income that doesn't go up and down all the time.

[Softly]

Actually reclaim is something you can balance your eco on totally.....

http://www.mediafire.com/?pc66s5hcjgs68kc

Yes that isn't a typical map, unless you consider places like theta where after 10 mns of t1 spam the place is covered in wrecks.

[ColonelSheppard]

Reclaiming doesn't give you a predictable mass supply though. You guys speak of reclaiming as though it's something you can base your whole economy around, but the resources are finite. Those engineers that you use for reclaiming could be used for expanding and give you a reliable mass income that doesn't go up and down all the time.

ahm lol
if you have reclaim you can balance losing multiple mexes

you are totally (really completely) wrong with this statement
ofc at some point all reclaim is gone but this point is often far away xD

[ZaphodX]

Reclaiming doesn't give you a predictable mass supply though. You guys speak of reclaiming as though it's something you can base your whole economy around, but the resources are finite. Those engineers that you use for reclaiming could be used for expanding and give you a reliable mass income that doesn't go up and down all the time.

SupCom is a dynamic game of constantly changing economies. At any point you should be almost stalling your mass and frantically reclaiming the field with engineers and your comm. If your opponent is playing it safe and not using his economy as strongly as you are then you'll be outproducing him - use that advantage to win more battles and get more reclaim.

If your comm is in a fight and he is winning then he has time to reclaim wreckages while fighting which you know is going to give you a boost in mass - so ug a mex or a factory while you have time to reclaim with your commander.

If your units have just steam-rolled a base then send in some engineers to attack-move over the base and adjust your new eco investments around the boost in mass you are going to get.

It doesn't have to be predictable or reliable - you just have to know you are going to get a boost in mass you need to be using up.

[Eukanuba]

Actually reclaim is something you can balance your eco on totally.....

http://www.mediafire.com/?pc66s5hcjgs68kc

Yes that isn't a typical map, unless you consider places like theta where after 10 mns of t1 spam the place is covered in wrecks.

Wow, I knew there was a lot of reclaim on that map but due to the number of mass points I don't usually bother than much with it (maybe one engineer in six goes on reclaim duty). I think I'll be changing my tactics on there now.

Did you make no mexes to make a point, or is it just that much more efficient to reclaim that it's not worth it?