What is a good starting build?

Guys with the commander increased resources I'm wondering: what are your favorite starting builds? I would like know your opinions u go for how many and what factories? do you build an energy storage? Straight for attack units or fabbers?

I konw things change weather you are trying to rush or go for more eco. But i was curious about what do you think is a good start.

bot fac
veh fac
mex
pgen
pgen
air fac

Every new balance update leaves me struggling to find a new opening build for a little longer each time. This time around, I still don't have a good one. I think that just shows that balance it getting to a point where we have a lot more options than we used to.

When I'm feeling conservative though I usually start with a vehicle factory and then an air factory. Sometimes two vehicle factories.

2 factory, 1 mex, 1 pgen is pretty standard - rest up to you!

What i've been doing is 1 power storage, a vehicle factory (6 fabbbers,2aa, 2 rippers, infinite fabbers), 1 air factory (spam fighters), 3 pgens. At this point my metal is coming from my fabbers.

I change mine up about every game, but I usually go bot(producing fabbers for all time), vehicle(producing infinite rippers), then whatever metal is immediatly near my commander.

I see a lot of people going bot first. Why? Are their fabbers any better? Cause their lack of AA is a problem also rippers can shred bots on the ground.

People are going bot first because it's a noob trap. The fabbers are equal, vehicle is the only fac worth building.

Thanks i was wondering if they had changed it this time, cause bots really need a buff.
Also stuart what is your favorite start build?

Factory mex mex mex pgen t2.

This actually is, sadly enough, possible in this build.

Its not a noob trap...

I agree, a noob would probably make non stop fabricators anyway and botfabricators are better then vehicle afaik.

Nope, the are almost identical. The only differences comes down to which factory you want, and the radius of the unit.

Why are they better? A lot of people said that vehicle fabbers and bot fabbers are different, but I cannot spot any differences between the two. Check this out:

I tought they where smaller and therefor more able to dodge bombs, this might be a mistake but its what i've been told.

Heya, I have a tutorial video out in a couple hours explaining a great build for this patch from BurntCustard.

On the other hand, they are smaller so they clump up more. They are more susceptible to bombing runs. The difference in size is negligible. It comes down to is what is the best choice the majority of the time, vehicles or bots?

Mot was referring to the fabbers in early game. He makes a valid point, but would you rather be able to dodge the bombs, or destroy the bombers? I think it's an easy choice.

I've been experimenting with including a bot factory in the opening build. It has some uses.

Firstly, it costs less to run, so assuming you run all your factories on infinite it allows you to afford a 3rd factory earlier than if you start vehicles.

Secondly, bots might be week but they're also very fast, now they fail at scouting due to the short vision radius, however as you can combine them with an air factory that isn't an issue. So- air scout + dox are a good way to snipe your opponents expanding fabbers (especially on a larger map).

Third, on maps *with trees* combat fabbers are epic for early reclaim. +60 metal income for 1 energy! You can put all that extra metal into more tanks.

Thing is, bot factory first is only really a bad idea when your either on a very small planet, or you start very close to someone.

someone gets it!

you missed out the additional fact that you can get a 2nd factory up in a few seconds after the first so saying that bots have no aa is irrelevant.