PTE Allows Us to Go Factory First!

The PTE build allows us to go factory first.

The Commander now produces 30 metal per second and 3,000 energy per second.

WOOHOO!!!

I've wanted this for so long. I hope it stays.

Thanks Uber!

Uber, you make me happy. <3

So long as it's a tactical-economic choice and not a necessity for the 'best starting build' then I'm happy

I'm glad about this change, but I tested it some days ago, and I think it's now too much. Like there's no option. You HAVE to go factory first, because that's the most efficient starting right now. I think they could lower it to 25/ 2500, I think that'd be better.

"Now instead of eco first being the only viable strategy, FACTORY first is the only viable strategy!!"
Yayyyy...?

All they did is increase the Commander's economy production, allowing it to build a factory first. This kicks off the action off faster and allows for more diversity in the opening build.

It means the action starts off faster. And we don't sit waiting for the first 4/5 buildings to build.

If a commander fabs at 30 metal per second using 1500 energy per second wouldn't it make sense to go energy storage first as you'd be floating energy until you get your first fabber and factory going. You'd bank 30000 energy just in the time it took to build the factory.

Possibly. We'll see. Either way, it's a step in the right direction.

I'm gonna have to test out various opening builds.

Not really...

Since air takes up extra energy it'd be insane to use that first, using bots first would be downright suicidal and using naval first would be situational.
Vehicle first is still going to be completely dominant.

Sure it starts the action early, but it's going to be the same opening action every time until bots are changed.

EDIT: Changed "unless bots are balanced" to "until".

Yes yay. It "could" be more diverse where it is plausible to get some mild marginal advantage from eco first or just do factory first for early raiding, but the numbers are too narrow.

However, the comparison to "eco definitely first" against "factory definitely first" is no contest. Who wants to mandate eco building when it always leads up to a factory. It is like skipping 3 structures building to actually start the game. Anyone would rather the game actually start up faster. It is a solution to a former problem, albeit not a perfect solution.

The air being a bad start due to eco is a former situation and a current situation, it is the cons of air first, and air does have perks.

Who is assuming the game is releasing 1.0 with broken bots anyway? "Since Uber is definitely releasing the game with bots being underpowered, I guess we gotta revert the eco change, vehicle first is just too OP" ...derp?

Okay, yeah. That was worded... unbelievably badly.

They did it the wrong way IMHO. Increasing commander storage makes eco first still viable.

That's a pretty good point actually.

It is a balance of each, as well as what the factories consume.

I mean, what if bots first was viable because of the cost of the bot factory, how much eco the bot factory drains, how cheap the units area, and how the vehicle factory is more costly in all those areas. Then vehicle first was only viable with some eco like metal, and air first was viable with just 2 pgens but no metal?

Would get complicated to newbies, nothing they can't learn. Would still allow variety in opening. This also assumes bots are balance to be good if used first and decent in context anyway, that vehicles are strong if used second but have disadvantages as well as advantages, that air is strong first and that sounds likely, and that they cooperate swimmingly like infantry is supposed to support vehicles except for some unique-role units like raiding infantry.

In that way, the best way, is to make the commander produce enough metal/energy to soundly produce a bot factory and the bot factory be cheaper and use less resources than vehicle factory, the vehicle factory cost more and use more eco and units more expensive but be the powerhouse they are at the cost of speed as they are (tanks are easy to raid early but hard to attack directly against the tanks), the air factory cost the same metal as the bot factory but uses too much power requiring 2 pgens and the units costing in between bot and vehicle in metal,

Sounds good to me!

I like the change a lot, it indeed cuts out the small amount of time that is always spent the same, mex pwr mex or what have you.

An added improvement would be that the player that loses everything but manages to evac his commander to a different planet has a better chance of starting over.

This was put in as a test to see how it feels for game start, for all the obvious reasons. Feedback on how it feels is very appropriate. I just posted a new PTE build, btw.

Everyone playing the RCBM loves it so it should work out fine for you guys too! ;p

Mike

Not sure why anyone would want it to be a necessity to build several eco buildings before a factory is viable, this is a great change IMO.

As detailed above, vehicle first does seem to be pretty mandatory, I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet to try out any funkier openings but vehicle first definitely seems the obvious choice.

All still a WIP though, so I'll wait and see what happens.