Don't understand the stats

[iycgtptyarvg]

I am playing this game on the kongregate web-site and am at the last planet. Although I can win fairly easily, I don't understand the stats

The stats are:
Energy
Collection
Depletion
Deficit

I (so far) have simply played by placing collectors and then a couple of blasters. Then I slowly migrate towards those blue fountains (where the water comes out) and place a blaster next to them to stop the water from coming out. In the mean time I generally place about 5 red diamonds or so to speed things up.

Could someone please explain what energy does? I always have 0/20. After I build a couple of those green diamonds I get 0/40, then 0/60 etc.

PS
I checked the in-game help, the wiki page, and this forum but didn't find what I needed.
Sorry, I guess I'm a dummy

[J]

Energy: How many energy you have stored (deficit must be 0)
Collecion: How many energy you get every second (try set it so high as possible)
Depletion: How many energy you use every second (try hold this so high as possible under collection)
Deficit: If an turret or building needs energy, but it's can't get it, you see it in this bar. (try hold it 0)

[iycgtptyarvg]

Ok, now I understand collection and depletion (although it would have been easier to have 1 bar instead of 2)

What do you mean by 'if an turret or building needs energy'?
Are you talking about the gray balls (to build turrets/collectors) and the red balls (the ammo)?

I just played another planet and saw that I constantly have a high deficit. I am still able to continue building stuff and supplying ammo to my turrets. So, what is the down-side of a large deficit?

[Kamron3]

Deficit is how many packets that are needed for buildings while they are trying to do their thing every second.

The down-side of a large deficit is some of your turrets do not receive the energy they need and they shut down.

_k

[archn]

The way it works is that "Energy" is how many "balls" can you store in your headquarters.  It has a max of 20.  As you build storage pods (green things), you increase the amount of room you have in your headquarters to store those balls.  You start with a full headquarters, meaning 20/20.  As you use the balls, that first number goes down.  It will go down all the way until it reaches 0.  At which point you will have no balls in storage.

So what does this mean to you, since you can still build with no backup energy?  Well, it means that you can't supply balls (like building, for example) as fast.  Because you simply don't have the balls in your headquarters to deliver them.  You have to make them.

This is where "Collection" comes into play.  Collection says how many balls can I create at my headquarters.  The more reactors or collectors (Providing that they create more green coverage), the more balls you can create every second.  If you are not building anything, then everything from your collection will go to storage, which will make the "Energy" rise from 0/20, up and up, until you reach 20/20 (Or higher, depending if you have those green diamonds for storage pods).

Next is "Depletion".  This answers the question "How many balls are being requested of me?  How many do I need to make to keep everyone happy?"  The way that "Energy" rises is when "Collection" is greater than "Depletion".  If it is not greater, then "Energy" bar will go down, towards 0/20.

Finally is "Deficit".  This means that Depletion was greater than Collection, and that Energy has already reached 0/20, so instead of having negative numbers, it stays at 0/20 and the Deficit bar goes up instead.  So if your deficit is really high, and then all your reactors finish building and your depletion goes way down and your collection goes way up, then the deficit bar will shrink, until it reaches 0.  Once it reaches 0, your energy will then be used for the 0/20 bar, until you reach the max of 20/20.

When he says that turrets or buildings need energy he means that a turret fires the red balls, and wants to be full capacity, so it requests more red balls.  Requesting red balls means needing energy.  And for buildings, when a building is not completed, then it requests the gray balls.

[Kamron3]

Ball = packet as defined by Virgil.

_k

[Karsten75]

You may find this thread useful.

Also do a full search (click on the little lmagnifying glass for the search screen or select advance search from the search box) for "starvation" (the old term for deficit) or deficit for other discussions on the subject.

THe long and the short of it is that the green objects increase your capacity to store energy. But storing more than 40 or so is only useful in special cases. Energy is generated by collectors and reactors and are used to build objects or to power weapons. If you do not have energy (a deficit) then everything slows down to the pace where Odin City can send out as much as it has and no more.

Imagine trying to build two objects if you have only enough energy production for one. THen it will take two times as long to complete either.  THis makes it interesting if you are building energy sources (collectors, reactors) since if you build as many as you have nergy for and no more, you will generally manage to build more in the same time than if you build more than you have energy for. As the ones you build come on-line, they will add to your energy sources and help you to speed up building additional towers and weapons.

HTH.

[iycgtptyarvg]

Ok, I now fully understand. Thank you very much!

It would have been useful if the web-site would have explained things better.
This is all it states as documentation:

Description (Game published on 2009-12-22)

Defend your base from the Creeper and fight your way to safety! Creeper World Introduces a whole new kind of enemy that flows across the terrain. Fight back with your blasters, mortars, drone attacks and more. Strategy/Defense games will never be the same!
Updates

[UPDATE 1]
-Doubled the maximum output capacity of Odin City from 16 to 32. War mongers rejoice!
-Fixed some grammar errors.
-Locked the city during the tutorial.
Instructions

Push the advancing Creeper back and activate all Rift totems to transport Odin city to safety. Use the mouse to select a structure at the bottom left and place it on the map.
Build collectors to provide energy and towers to fight the Creeper.
Make sure all structures are connected to the city.