Upgrading mexes without assistance

[Flynn]

I have already asked this question before (the thread seems to have been archived), but I didn't feel like I got a satisfactory answer. I personally find upgrading mexes without assistance very good, on large maps with mass spots far apart. If I didn't do it this way I would end up not ecoing at all, for lack of micro. Additionally, ecoing mexes to t2 without assisting them causes far less drain on economy. I don't give a crap which one is mathematically more efficient, upgrading two at a time without assistance is way better, or even one at a time if you don't have enough res. Even Zlo does it most of the time, but I know he does a few unusual things (building power when he needs it, not using repeat build). Upgrading mexes unassisted is intuitive though for those maps where they are relatively isolated but not in danger from enemy action.

[ZLO_RD]

you need to upgraide mexes with assist and without economy stall, just wach some setons pro, or Blackheart's replay of teamgame on turtle map

economy stall usually means that you basicly overbuild build capacity
you may build it now to use it later and that it ok, esp on setons back, but in regular game you may try to use less engyes, and you also can go for t3 mex instead of storages cause you have no engies to make storages

People always say you have to assist mex upgraide, but if you already have -400 mass stall you may not want to build 100 engyes to assist mex so it upgraides faster, but you can just pause other stuff to reduce stall and mex will upgriade faster, and you not waste mass for build capacity, however on ecoheavy games you can use your ton of engyes later for assisting stuff, and pausing stuff is also very micro-intencive

but yeah i can start several mexes going to t2 cause i underbuild buildcapacity, or get reclaim when not expected, and i just have no engyes in right place

[ZLO_RD]

Oh, btw i know what to add to my post

if you want to be efficient, you should be focused on making one task after another, if you can manage to not make to many things at the same time you can be very good at ecoing,
If you have two things half finished it can be analysed as a mistake, cause you could finish one thing 1rst and start getting value from it, and then do other thing, and addictional value of 1rst thing, while second thing is in construction will give you small advantage, in every stuff you do

TA4Life does that with his 1rst engyneer almost every game, he just assist acu to make pgens/mexes faster so he gets small bonuses for that, however other players just send engyes for expand are not doing it wrong, wrong would start other thing with engy on your base while thing that acu makes is not finished (not the case of t1 extractors if they are to far away from acu)

Phantom mod is even much better example if you want to see player ecoing...

in regular games i try to stuck many engyes in one place and i make some facs some pgens, and amount of engyes ofc limited by pathfinding issues and bomber run possibility, but i knew that idea of efficiency by making one thing after enother long time ago, and that is why i like to make some facs and some power with same engyes, not sure if it is very good, and sometime i suffer from bombers, but it at least gives me feeling that i am efficient

so basicly you can build your eco and stuff that way so you upgraide mex one by one, with assist or not, (but not many mexes without assist), but keep your eco/build power balanced and you will be in great shape.
OFC youre limited by engyneer movement, so mexes that are hard to reach can upgraide themself...

but you can see players like Yama_Dharma just balance eco well and have really good results
also i personally send extra engyes on reclaim instead of assisting mex, and start more mex upgraides at the same time

i think every good player assist his mex time to time, some profere assist t2, some prefer assist when they get t3...

[SomeoneAUS]

Remember the economy in supcom suffers from inflation in a big way. You need to keep your eco in front of your opponent that is the key to winning.

1 T2 mex taking 30 seconds and repeat 6 times is better than 6 T2 mex taking 3mins. Why? Because you are earning the extra mass after 30 seconds and it keeps going up.

[Vee]

If you have enough mass then upgrading two mexes at the same time is not really bad, but when you are mass stalling it is bad. If you have build capacity in the area it is more efficient to assist one upgrade than to do 2 unassisted upgrades because as soon as the first mex is finished you start getting mass from it.

For example if you have 2 mexes that you want to upgrade, if you upgrade both at the same time without assist they are finished after 90 seconds. If you build them assisted with some engies then one is finished after 45 seconds, and then the other is finished after 90 seconds. This means that you got +4 extra mass income for 45 seconds = 180 mass bonus.

Also on reclaim maps it is often better to send engineers to reclaim than to let them assist mexes, and then you have to upgrade multiple at the same time.