I haven't played regularly in so long and I can't figure out the current meta. What's the build order, first air bot or vehicles?
Vehicles first. Still metal, metal, energy, metal, factory. Bots don't have any anti-air, so they aren't a good first factory due to bombing runs. Keep in mind that the meta is going to change when the next PTE comes out and we can go factory first.
Yup, 2 factories first in the PTE seems to work quite well, so you can start with both land and air. Probably air first, for scouting and a chance at taking out early fabbers. Bots aren't really all that useful still, even with dox cost cut in half. Not sure about 3 factories first, but you can go ask gandalf about that I suppose.
I thought the dominant meta is air factory first? If I recall, that was the case in the last king of the planet. I guess air first would be less powerful in large FFAs though.
Air isn't really that good for fabbing because fighters can just swoop in and out kill a lot of your fabbers. I sorta was getting some eco problems
It's not. Air factory first is a very risky start. Exhibit A. It can easily backfire. It's high risk, high reward. But fairly easy to counter with a few Spinners.
Air first and vehicle first can win with the current balance. I wouldn't get too hung up on the current build orders though as the PTE has enough starting eco to support 3 factories so everything is going to be changing quite a lot.
In PTE: Factory first and use the Com to assist right away. Even air factory first works, but in that case the Com needs to help with building energy to sustain the fabbers. Either way: Go for T2 rush. Vanguards / Hornets, choose your poison. Don't bother with T1 - except for some super early bomber runs - it's completely invalidated as soon as the enemy goes T2. Mobile AA is the only viable T1 unit left.
It'll be interesting to see how the meta game evolves with the new changes. I agree, T2 invalidates T1 and first person to T2 has a huge advantage. :-/
Your first factory doens't really matter toomuch, i usually do vehicles. Only thing i see as a problem is that you basicly have to have mostly vehicles to win. Mass bots or mass air is risky.
current meta is either air first or vehicles first. Both equally viable so far. Pte is a bit crazy. Factory first isn't a meta option, it's a necessity lol. first, second, and most probably even third.