I'm interested in soliciting high level strategies for cracking keeper lair rooms.
I recently used my 3-day weekend to prepare what seems to be reliable code for cracking and harvesting from keeper lair rooms. My strategy adds 10 creeps per room to my population, and a 2-3 cpu tick average. I'm netting more energy than I spend; plus minerals. So I'm happy.
However, I'm sure there is room for improvement; so I'm curious to hear what other people's strategies are. I'm holding 2 rooms in perpetuity. If I could somehow get the efficiency up, I could probably hold 2 more. (GCL 4: Own 4 rooms, reserve 8 more, plus 2 keeper lairs. Avg 45/60 cpu, 130 population)
Also, I hope this helps someone. It took some trial and error to figure out how to crack these rooms.
2 x Miners : 8 work, 8 move (1000 Energy)
Upon entering room, locate source with lair with largest ticksToSpawn count. Link to lair. Move to node. Harvest and drop. On node empty or lair ticksToSpawn less than 20, move on to next source.
Strengths: Works well as the miners perpetually avoid the keepers and never get attacked.
Weaknesses: RunAway check only backs away 5 spaces in opposite direction of hostile. Occasionally, an invader backs a miner into corner.
2 x RangedGuards : 5 Tough, 10 Ranged, 5 Heal, 20 Move (3800 Energy)
Locate nearest hostile. Approach staying 4 spaces away (backs up in opposite direction if pursued), attacks till dead. Heals self if below max
If no hostiles, then move to lair with lowest ticksToSpawn and wait 5 spaces away.
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Strengths: Heals at a rate nearly equal to damage received if creep can avoid melee attack.
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Weakness: Backup behavior is dumb and creep can get stuck on wall or in swamp. If they engage the invaders without a MeleeGuard, they get stuck in deadlock due to healers.
1 x MeleeGuard : 5 Tough, 10 Attack, 5 Heal, 20 Move (3100 Energy)
Locate nearest hostile with no Attack parts, then engage in melee attacks. This guy exists for the periodic invader swarms and favors healers over ranged units.
He waits near the middle of the room till an invader swarm comes and does not assist with keeper control.
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Strengths: If there are only two healer creeps, he'll overpower them. Even with two ranged invaders, he heals faster than damage received.
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Weaknesses: He can't overpower three healers. They heal faster than he can damage. If the RangedGuards step in and help, it's fine. Otherwise, they get stuck in a deadlock till someone runs their ticksToLive.
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Opportunities: This guy is expensive and spends most of his time standing around. I wish I could find a way to predict incoming invaders and spawn on demand.
4 x Hauler : 10 Carry, 10 Move (1000 Energy)
Locate nearest dropped resource that is in a non hostile zone (determined as having no hostiles in 5 square radius). Pick it up till full or gone. Return to homeRoom storage.
Has basic "run away" logic if hostile enters in 5 square radius. Waits near middle of room if there are no 'safe' resources to pick up.
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Strengths: Rarely ever gets attacked, fairly cheap to spawn
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Weakness: I'm leaving a TON of unclaimed energy on the ground.
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Opportunities: I'm boosting with ZO & KH when available in home room; but availability is sporadic. (O & H is coming from my lairs)
1 x Extractor : 3 Carry, 8 Work, 11 Move (1300 Energy)
Locate mineral/extractor and move towards. If keeper near by, wait 5 squares away. Mines till full, or lair.ticksToSpawn < 10, or creep.ticksToLive < 100. Then goes home to dump in terminal (failover to storage).
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Strengths: Rarely gets attacked. Averages 3 full trips (450 mineral) per life span. No mineral waste and cheaper than buying on market.
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Weakness: Most of lifespan is wasted in transit between rooms.