From one beginner to another, here are tips I've discovered concerning the placement of buildings.
Power Core: (Note, this suggestion is based on many, but not all, strategies) Your first power core should be built in Tech Lvl 1 (recommended) or the beginning of Tech Lvl 2. It's first task will be to power the animal pen and/or troop center, which both require the power core to operate efficiently. The power core costs 200 carbon, is more expensive than most other Tech Lvl 1 buildings, and carbon is not yet being collected rapidly; bear that in mind when planning your building construction. Make sure your power core circle doesn't include buildings (i.e. shelters) which don't need power or landscape (i.e. forests you aren't currently clearing or large bodies of water) where buildings can't immediately be built.
Building Space: You don't want buildings spread all over creation. It's hard to defend them that way and it may take more walls/towers (e.g. more resources) to encircle your camp, should you wish to do that. Spreading buildings out also requires you to build more power cores which, at the beginning of the game, can be expensive. On the other hand, buildings spaced too closely to each other make it difficult to move units quickly and efficiently between the buildings. I recommend building shelters in one or more mass groups, out of the way, with no space between them (some people use shelters as a wall on one side of their camp). Shelters don't require a power core and don't actively do anything after they are built. All other buildings should be built at least one shelter's width apart for easy troop movement.
Building Placement: When units are created, they usually appear at the bottom corner/edge of buildings. Tall buildings, like power cores and Jedi/Sith temples, will block the view of units created by buildings placed directly above the tall building on the computer screen. Usually the computer will show you a dim outline of where the units are behind the tall building but that's not easy to see when you are wizzing around the screen trying to do 3 things at once. The solution is to stagger your buildings so that you can easily see units when they are created. What can you place above all the power cores that you create, then? Reserve that space for buildings that don't produce units but need power, such as the animal pen or research center.
Utility Buildings: Unit's don't come out of buildings such as the war center, research center, and space port, so why not group them together without space between them? Doesn't that conserve space? Yes, but 1) building clusters are easier for the enemy to destroy, 2) it becomes hard to distinquish between each building (the colors and shapes blend together), and 3) your units won't be able to fire between the buildings to protect them from attacks on the other side. Put at least enough space between the buildings to allow troops movement and make them quickly recognizable by you. See suggestion above for best place to put utility buildings.
Hope this has been helpful,
SirKai
Good advice.
On power cores, I will add: all buildings that require power should be powered at the time they are built, or as soon after as possible. You will find yourself severely hampered if you don't power your buildings.
Normally, my first 2 buildings are the animal pen and the food processing plant. I try to place the food plant near food, if there is any, and the animal pen relatively close to that. Hopefully those will not be too far from the nearest carbon source, and you can place a carbon plant near them as well. Then if you put a power plant amongst those 3, it can power all 3 of them. There should still be space around them, which you can use to add a troop center, and then later on, the war college and/or spaceport, or something else.
Also, try to build your shelters outside the area of the power core's power radius. Shelters don't need power, and you'll be wasting the space that could otherwise be used, forcing yourself to make more power cores. A civilization should be able, if the cores are placed correctly, to power its entire base, all buildings, with no more than 3 power cores, assuming you only have one copy of each building except prefab shelters. If you build more, or if you make forward bases and stuff, of course you will need more.
Also, remember to leave some space (about the area of the war college, or slightly more) within the radius of each power core, hopefully near the center (adjacent to the core itself). You can place your shield generator here, and since you have clustered all your important buildings around the power core, you will then be able to shield them with a powered generator in one fell swoop... and if you have used 3 cores and clumped your buidings within those areas (of course allowing space for unit movement as SirKai has already said), you only need 3 shield generators to protect your most valuable investments.
At any rate, that's how I do it. Your milage may vary.
WOW i'm impressed
To any and all rokkies out there heed this advicce and you will go far
"Tall buildings, like power cores and Jedi/Sith temples, will block the view of units created by buildings placed directly above the tall building on the computer screen. Usually the computer will show you a dim outline of where the units are behind the tall building but that's not easy to see when you are wizzing around the screen trying to do 3 things at once. The solution is to stagger your buildings so that you can easily see units when they are created"
- another solution that I use for this is to change the rally point by first clicking on a building (troop center, command center etc) and then right clicking on the area that I want my people to be sent to. This works really well if you are in a tight situation and getting annoyed because you can't see them.
Also - it like they were saying stagger your buildings kinda far, but not to far so that your units don't all get crammed up and try and go through all at the same time, they get stuck and it causes major problems.
wait do powercores do other things besides build units quicker, and cause researches such as war center researches to complete quicker?
do power cores help create villagers quicker?
also, do the experts here prefer building 30+ sentry posts instead of bothan spy net?
ummm the command center has a power genertor so no the power core does no affect speed
and i prefer bothen spynet but on the other hand it is very expansive so the choice is up to you
Sentry posts - useful, especially depending on what your colour is in the game - it's possible to go right into someones base with a worker and build a sentry post in the trees which can let you see a good deal of what's happening in their base.
I rarely build sentry posts, if I do it's usually 2-3 around my base so I can see people coming.
The Bothan SpyNet - I have to say I really hate it - the cost differs depending on the amount of workers your enemies have, but generally when your opponent has the SpyNet you are going to have a hard job winning, it should only be used to help clean up, when you are looking for the last few troops and workers that are hiding in the corners.
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yeah but those senetary posts can be destoryed
but the bothen spynet is permant
Sentry posts don't cost 20000 Nova in a 3 player game ;)
"and your command center DOES need a powercore to produce villager quicker, drake do you own the game? ?" -- Kudar
I'm at work so don't have the manual with me, but I'm 99.9% sure that Drake is right. I seem to specifically remember reading that the command center doesn't need a powercore. I remember that because I also remember thinking that it did. You'll notice that when a game first starts with your CC and workers that the "power" lights for the CC are green, not flashing red, indicating that it already has power.
I don't remember ever seeing any difference in the speed you create villagers with or without a powercore.
Drake is right... you do not need to power the Command Center (nor, if I recall properly, the Fortress).
You can tell if something needs power by clicking on the building and looking for that little green circle thingy right above the middle window along the bottom "information" area of the screen. If the cricle is there, it's power. The CC always has a green circle... it's always automatically powered.
PS: Woohoo! 150th post!
note to self - stop making assumptions :o
I can't believe I just assumed it did :( that means I can now rethink the positioning of my first powercore from now on :)
whoops
hides in corner
Originally posted by Kudar
note to self - stop making assumptions :o
I can't believe I just assumed it did :( that means I can now rethink the positioning of my first powercore from now on :)
whoops
hides in corner
Indeed... you can put your power core a bit away from your town. You need it to power your food plant, but that means that if you put farms around your food plant, you are "obstructing" good powered area, wasting power core space. Instead, if you move the food plant and power core just far enough from the CC, you will have a little space around the CC that is "unpowered." That's where I place all my farms. The workers can deposit food in the CC instead of the food plant, and the space occupied by the farms won't be "wasted" on power core space.
Of course, the random arrangement of map space does not always make this 100% possible, but I do it as often as I can.
May the Force be with you.
Originally posted by Kudar
note to self - stop making assumptions :o
I can't believe I just assumed it did :( that means I can now rethink the positioning of my first powercore from now on :)
whoops
hides in corner
Phew, you got me in a panic when I read that!
I have a question about this- Do towers need to be in the radius of power to work to their maximum ability? I am sure I could read the manual and find out, but I am at work and I also want to feel included in the conversation. I always read these things, but never post. :edeaths: :x-wing:
Nope. Towers (AA or regular) do not need to be powered. Neither do Fortresses nor command centers. All other buildings do.
here's another helpful hint about towers that I love doing
if you put a trooper inside your turrets you they will fire two lasers instead of just one. kinda kewl. i can't remember if they say that in the manual.
i think that's when they reach there maximum ability after all the upgrades ( no power cores just a trooper stuck inside and if you put workers in there to protect)
Originally posted by Chessack
Nope. Towers (AA or regular) do not need to be powered. Neither do Fortresses nor command centers. All other buildings do.
I'm sure fortresses need power. Dont they?
nope :) which means you can put them where ya like :D
Originally posted by duder
I'm sure fortresses need power. Dont they?
I generally have little time for walls, and the upgrades are a waste of resources IMO.
I play 1 vs X RM games against the computer. I have found that walls only take time and cost money. A healthy collection of 3 Laser Turrests, 3 AA Turrets, and a few units (to kill the long-distance shooters pinking at the towers) is enough to provide adequate defense for any particular route the computer wishes to take. Since the computer only has 1 - 2 attack routes per civ, I usually don't have to set up more than 3 of these defense nets to adaquately protect my base, even against 2 or 3 civs. To beef up defense, you can always place a trooper into each tower, a sheild generator behind each defense net, and (of course) use all of the research center upgrades to improve the turrets.
SirKai
I like walls as well as towers. I like feeling like my civilization is "enclosed" and protected, at least from ground-based assaults. Perhaps they are not necessary, but I still like 'em. :)
I like walls too...they are not a total waste of resources - if u are attacked it buys you time. I feel more secure and generally enclose my entire base with walls and turrets. I save money on walls by using forests, rocks as parts of my wall. You just have to watch that your workers don't mine there way through it
Walls are moste useful against the computer. I tend to let the computer attack me one time to see what route he's going to use. Then I place walls in a V shape with the bottom of the V having a gate or just open, kind of like a funnel. Put turrets behind the walls and as those ground troops try and run through the funnel, they are wiped out very easily. It is never necessary to upgrade walls against the computer. Only if you leave no opening will it actually start attacking the walls. It's handy to have some mechs nearby later in the game once the computer gets the technology to make artillery and cannons. Then it'll start trying to take down the turrets. Just pop some mechs out, kill off the artillery, and go back to base. Just takes 5-10 mechs at the most for this purpose. I usually play 1 vs 3 games against the computer and this strategy insures that I don't to expend a large amount of resources making a huge defense army.
Of course against human players its another story. Human players just build air transports and by pass them. I've seen the computer build air and sea transports but never have I actually seen them used.
I have seen the computer use sea transports once or twice, but not often.
You are right that humans will by-pass your defenses, if you have them, but I wonder... if you don't build any ground defenses at all, wouldn't a human realize that you were vulnerable on the ground and take advantage of that? I sure would.
I have noticed that the computer, at least on Medium, will try alternate routes. Not all the time, but this has happened a few times now. If you let the game go on long enough, the computer will eventually realize that its first attack route did not work, and it will try another direction. In my last game (as the Gungans), I had the Trade Federation, controlled by computer, attack me from 3 different directions, over the course of the game. Never from behind, but from the east (by land), then the southeast (by sea, including a loaded transport), then the northeast (by land). It doesn't happen a lot, but this is the 3rd or 4th game it has happened to me in.
Originally posted by Chessack
You are right that humans will by-pass your defenses, if you have them, but I wonder... if you don't build any ground defenses at all, wouldn't a human realize that you were vulnerable on the ground and take advantage of that? I sure would.
To me, it's a resource trade off. If you build guarded walls then you spend ore building the walls, and turrets along the walls, along with turrets close to your base for when the opponent flies those transports in and drops off the troops. If you don't build the walls, then you can get away with building a better defense close to your base that should eat up any invasion quicker.
By building walls, you're expending Ore that could be better spent building turrets, in exchange, you force your opponent to build air transports that cost, what, 25 carbon, 35 food? They are very cheap to build and only cause a minor inconvenience to the opponent.
I always view each game in the terms of resources. "He who controls the spice, controls the Universe." If you can use fewer resources on defense than your opponent uses on offense, most times you're going to come out the victor.
1) Use your scout in Tech 1 to locate the bad guy(s). Determine their most likely route(s).
2) For each likely route, find a funnel: a location where the route is narrowed by landscape (trees, water, etc.). If one of the routes is wide open, use prefab shelters to create your funnel.
3) In Tech 2, for each funnel, build 2 towers and defend with 5-10 troopers backed by a 1-2 medical droids.
4) In Tech 3, add another medical droid or 2, 5-10 AA troopers, 5 anti-troop mechs, and 5 destroyer mechs (This not only defends the route but is the start of a grand army).
5) In Tech 4, increase all defenses as necessary.
All this assumes that you are beating the opponent to Tech levels. You may need to build AA troops earlier if the opponent is advancing faster.
This plan seems to work for me and is relatively inexpensive. The medical droids keep the troopers alive and I use workers to repair injured mechs between attacks.
SirKai
Originally posted by falconeer999
To me, it's a resource trade off. If you build guarded walls then you spend ore building the walls, and turrets along the walls, along with turrets close to your base for when the opponent flies those transports in and drops off the troops. If you don't build the walls, then you can get away with building a better defense close to your base that should eat up any invasion quicker.
By building walls, you're expending Ore that could be better spent building turrets, in exchange, you force your opponent to build air transports that cost, what, 25 carbon, 35 food? They are very cheap to build and only cause a minor inconvenience to the opponent.
Perhaps you build much larger bases than I do. By the time I'm done with the game, usually my base is literally wall-to-wall buildings (with some maneuvering space, space for farms, etc, of course). There is no place "closer to my base" but "far away from my outer walls" where the bad guys can get to. Oh, sure, the exact center of the base is relatively tower-free, but I usually have tons of troops scatterred around near gates and stuff, and it only takes a few seconds for them to turn around and head into the middle of town to take out any assaults that might occur. Plus, I usually keep AA mobiles and AA troops in the middle of town, so any air transports that somehow manage to get through my outer defenses are probably meat.
Of course, a really concerted air attack will probably harm me, but in that case, towers are useless anyway, since he could just bring tons of bombers.
May the Force be with you.