3. CLAIM part too inefficient

CLAIM part too inefficient


  • I think the CLAIM part needs a slight boost. At the moment, sustaining a reservation on a room costs (optimally spoken):

    [CLAIM,MOVE] : 700 energy / 500 ticks ∑ 4200 energy/3000 ticks

    That leaves you with a net amount of at least -1200 e/3kt if you wanted to claim a room with a single source. If you consider reduced effectiveness caused by travel times and costs for harvesters/transporters/protectors (at least 1200e/3kt) + suboptimal harvesting, this easily pushes your loss for 1 source rooms to 3000 e/3kt even making 2 source rooms inefficient.

    That attacking an enemy controllers needs 5 CLAIM parts for 1 tick is even more ridiculous if you keep in mind, that one creep with a single WORK part can reset the counter back to maximum.

    I think the part needs some rework to either lower the price or increase the lifetime (or even both). For attacking, you could at least disable resetting the counter as long as the controller is actively being downgraded.


  • Your calculation is flawed in several ways: 

    1) CLAIM + MOVE is 650 energy, not 700.

    2) A single source gives 3000 energy per 300 (!) ticks, not per 3000.

     

    So, if you keep your 3000 ticks as a calculation base, sustaining a reservation costs 3900 energy / 3k ticks, extending it (by using a second CLAIM) would cost 7500 energy per 3k ticks. A single source generates up to 30000 energy in the same time. So with a single source, you can (ofc theoretically, under perfect conditions) extend 4 controllers or sustain 7.

    Attacking is fine as well imho - just block access to the controller with some other creeps, or kill the targets workers before they can reach the controller. 

     


  • Haha, thank you Amadox! It was *very* late yesterday when I wrote this. I knew I must have overlooked something, because I could not believe my own results - but I trusted in people like you pointing it straight out 😄

    Even though the efficiency of the room is no argument anymore, I still support my general opinion, that I find the part a tad too weak.


  • I do agree from the perspective of a new player: 650 energy or even 1250 energy to properly reserve a room is quite a lot. It's hard enough as it is to expand and grow without being eaten by the bigger fish, no need to put in artificial barriers like this imho...

    👆

  • Considering the previous alternative was to siphon energy into the controller directly to reserve this current method is a lot easier. To keep things consistent I think a creep interacting with the controller is needed as well so the method is sound.

    We can argue about the costs/benefits though. Considering 2500 extra energy (1500extra*(500ClaimLife/300EnergyRegenLife)) is available over the lifetime of the claim (get rid of some of this due to inefficiency). Even if you double or triple the cost of the creep you'll then be using that creep half or a third as often once you hit the reservation cap so the cost is roughly the same.

    I'm satisfied with the current rate personally.

    I think you could definitely state that CLAIM,CLAIM,MOVE,MOVE is required to make this unit worth while (you don't want gaps in coverage). So are we worried that a 1300 cost is to large of a gap for this unit to be accessible? Should lower level rooms be able to make this unit?


  • realistically you're looking at [CLAIM,CLAIM,MOVE,MOVE] or you will be stuck at 1 / 5000 reservation points and every time your reservation creep gets replaced the energy source will drop back down to 1500 losing you precious energy.

    So yes, it is costly to reserve a room. You are effectively spending between 2600 to 3900 ( 2 or 3 reservation creeps) per 1500 ticks to hold your reservation. Assuming you are spending 100 ticks just traveling to the controller, you still earn 800 reservation per creep, giving you effectively 2400 / 5000 reservation in the first 1500 ticks.

    As for profit, you have just spend 3900 on claims. Assume you spend another 2100 for miners and haulers, and you are looking at around 9000 net profit per 1500 ticks. This increases further after the first two cycles because it is not necessary to continue to dump 3 reservation creeps in every 1500 to maintain your reservation at max level (5000/5000). so that drops off to 2600 and 2100 giving you over 10,000 in profit from a single source.

    I would say 10,000 is preferable to the 7500 you could get not bothering with the claim, but it does take a bit more work to set up. It is well worth doing for any two source rooms you have nearby.