Posted February 09, 2014
I took the time to play a bit more to figure these out, so here goes what I found:
1. Build master mechanics
Build masters dispatch their nano-builders (the bright rectangles) synchronously. All build masters will contribute to each building being built / repaired. That also means that the nano-builders will arrive at their destination based on the distance from buildmaster to the building. It makes sense to at least keep buildmasters grouped in one place otherwise, the building will take as long as it takes for the nano units to reach it from the buildmaster that is farthest away.
Distance from buildmaster to building matters! If you're building, you best place buildmasters close to the construction sites. That way their nano units will reach their destinations (much) sooner.
While repairing, you need to understand that a nano-unit will not be created before there's a need for it. And then it also has to reach the damaged building. Having buildmasters close to buildings being attacked helps immensely with repair speed / possibility for you to fix your buildings fast enough.
Building consumes energy. Lots of it. So does repairing. The game map is not particulary telling in this regard so if you're running low on energy and can't explain it, look around, you're being attacked (howitzers are particulary subtle). While out of energy, your military units won't produce, they won't fight or do much else at all. They'll be sitting ducks!!!
(i'm forgetting a detail here, but the kid's yelling so I can't remember it right now :) )
Brigadier mechanics
Brigadiers act in much the same way as buildmasters meaning that their terraforming bugs already have their path programmed in when they dispatch.
However, since terraforming is much longer process, some additional mechanics is built in:
Having brigadiers near a location will favour that location - more terrain will be terraformed there than further away from brigadiers.
The bugs favour digging before raising. However, they like best to level the terrain - take some material here, add it there. You will see this as dips in surrounding terrain where bugs went to fetch material they needed to raise terrain in your designated areas.
Marking large areas is more efficient overall, but produces usable terrain later, because terraforming "optimizations" don't really favour your wishes for the next energy core location. Marking small patches will yield more terrain sooner. However, it doesn't do much good to just mark a circle for the next energy core as that core will only draw energy from terraformed terrain. Best tactics is to start by marking small patches / micromanage a lot and later in the game when it's not THAT important any more, move to marking larger areas.
As with buildmasters, brigadiers also have to be close to repair terrain damaged by bombing / scourge / earthquakes.
1. Build master mechanics
Build masters dispatch their nano-builders (the bright rectangles) synchronously. All build masters will contribute to each building being built / repaired. That also means that the nano-builders will arrive at their destination based on the distance from buildmaster to the building. It makes sense to at least keep buildmasters grouped in one place otherwise, the building will take as long as it takes for the nano units to reach it from the buildmaster that is farthest away.
Distance from buildmaster to building matters! If you're building, you best place buildmasters close to the construction sites. That way their nano units will reach their destinations (much) sooner.
While repairing, you need to understand that a nano-unit will not be created before there's a need for it. And then it also has to reach the damaged building. Having buildmasters close to buildings being attacked helps immensely with repair speed / possibility for you to fix your buildings fast enough.
Building consumes energy. Lots of it. So does repairing. The game map is not particulary telling in this regard so if you're running low on energy and can't explain it, look around, you're being attacked (howitzers are particulary subtle). While out of energy, your military units won't produce, they won't fight or do much else at all. They'll be sitting ducks!!!
(i'm forgetting a detail here, but the kid's yelling so I can't remember it right now :) )
Brigadier mechanics
Brigadiers act in much the same way as buildmasters meaning that their terraforming bugs already have their path programmed in when they dispatch.
However, since terraforming is much longer process, some additional mechanics is built in:
Having brigadiers near a location will favour that location - more terrain will be terraformed there than further away from brigadiers.
The bugs favour digging before raising. However, they like best to level the terrain - take some material here, add it there. You will see this as dips in surrounding terrain where bugs went to fetch material they needed to raise terrain in your designated areas.
Marking large areas is more efficient overall, but produces usable terrain later, because terraforming "optimizations" don't really favour your wishes for the next energy core location. Marking small patches will yield more terrain sooner. However, it doesn't do much good to just mark a circle for the next energy core as that core will only draw energy from terraformed terrain. Best tactics is to start by marking small patches / micromanage a lot and later in the game when it's not THAT important any more, move to marking larger areas.
As with buildmasters, brigadiers also have to be close to repair terrain damaged by bombing / scourge / earthquakes.
