Are massed Sprayers not viable?

[FishintehPond]

From experience, it seems to take 1 ore mine to power 1 sprayer without any defects, and more than 1 just creates an AC drain that I cannot deal with. Not sure if I'm misusing them, or they consume too much AC to be useful en masse.

[J]

One sprayer requires about 3 ore mines to fully power it. With 10/10 ore efficiency it is indeed one ore mine per sprayer.

[Randomgold]

One sprayer requires about 3 ore mines to fully power it. With 10/10 ore efficiency it is indeed one ore mine per sprayer.

What about the fire rate factor taken into account?  Does the 1:1 with maxed ore efficiency still hold true with maxed fire rate?

As for the OP's question, I guess it really depends on the map.  On some it would be an issue with just one sprayer, but on others you can drown the map in AC with them.  I guess you just have to see what you're given and plan accordingly.

[Asbestos]

[Grayzzur]

They can be very viable on missions where you have access to a strong AC emitter and plenty of space around it to park sprayers in "suck" mode. That's a rather limited case though.

I find them often useful in the early game when I don't have a lot of room or energy and there's an immediate creeper threat. Once built, the ore mines and sprayers don't consume energy, and greatly aid the blasters trying to keep your base clear.

[FishintehPond]

They can be very viable on missions where you have access to a strong AC emitter and plenty of space around it to park sprayers in "suck" mode. That's a rather limited case though.

I find them often useful in the early game when I don't have a lot of room or energy and there's an immediate creeper threat. Once built, the ore mines and sprayers don't consume energy, and greatly aid the blasters trying to keep your base clear.

I don't' see any AC emitters in the Arc Eternal missions, but did Initiating from Abraxis with them, but that had several AC emitters doing most of the AC work. Oh by the way, 6 mines can't sustain 2 sprayers without a forge.

[arandomhalo]

Cool graphic Asbestos.  What are the sizes relative to?

I find sprayers most useful if you're trying to build something (usually a nullifier) right on the edge of where the creeper and front line of blasters are doing battle.  Sometimes you get that boundary that pushes back and forth chaotically and wipes out your nullifier when it's half built.  Spraying that boundary with AC holds the line steady until you finish building whatever it is you're building.

[Grayzzur]

I don't' see any AC emitters in the Arc Eternal missions, but did Initiating from Abraxis with them, but that had several AC emitters doing most of the AC work.

You'll find them in several of the Colonial Space maps, and sometimes on the DMD maps.

[4xC]

I don't' see any AC emitters in the Arc Eternal missions, but did Initiating from Abraxis with them, but that had several AC emitters doing most of the AC work.

You'll find them in several of the Colonial Space maps, and sometimes on the DMD maps.

That's because AC emitters have been "Custom Map Candy" ever since they were introduced in the CW2 editor. They never made it into the plot lore which seems to be the most likely reason why they are absent from the Arc Eternal Sector.

They probably would have been OP anyway.

[FishintehPond]

Took 3 ore mines and L8 forge to support 1 PZed sprayer. Either the AC consumption needs to be decreased or ore production buffed.

[4xC]

Keep in mind that you can't fully rely on Sprayers. AC weapons have always been supporters more than offenders. Just look at CW2, first there were finite ore deposits and you had to be selective with AC application.

Now you have Ore deposit amounts being the key factor to the application to AC. It's a treat to drown areas with AC as you seem to want. This is frankly not practical, so don't expect this to change too drastically.

AC has never been a weapon concept that was meant to be used "en masse". It is strictly a support feature.

[transistor77777]

I usually use AC to cover my turrets on the front line to give them a boost or defend areas that i already secured. Even when i have AC deficit sprayers still fire fast enough for these purposes, but its pretty much useless as an offensive weapon.

[pawel345]

Sprayers are really useful for clearing thin large layers of creeper. When using 1 or 2 PC they can often be overrun as they fire on closest, so they fire underneath themselves at the thinnest creeper being effectively useless. Sprayers don't have that problem. Also stoping creeper on large plains they are far better than PC in that.

[Asbestos]

A full Sprayer can also be used as a makeshift bomber - just fly it over the area you want with AC, and destroy it once it's at the target. The Sprayer will release all of its AC. It even works on the void!

[4xC]

A full Sprayer can also be used as a makeshift bomber - just fly it over the area you want with AC, and destroy it once it's at the target. The Sprayer will release all of its AC. It even works on the void!

You know, that bit about Sprayers releasing AC when destroyed makes me almost want to suggest to Virgil to make an update that allows Sprayers to dispatch all of its AC back to CN's as ore, not just the "excess."

This is not necessarily due to the waste of AC upon destruction as it is due to the limitations of AC economies that are, in any way, influenced by AC collection fields.