Upgrades - when to choose what

[Karsten75]

There are six upgrades in CW. Each has its own stron points and weak points. I thought we mighe benefit from a structured discussion about each.

Upgrade	Good points	Weak points
Produce 10% more energy	This applies to all enery produced. If you select this upgrade, you have more energy, whether it is to use for construction or for supplying ammo packets to your weapons.	It is not selective and in the early stages, the increase of 10% is not much. For instance, if you have two collectors each producing .5 energy, then the increase is .1
Everythiong costs 10% less to build	This reduces construction costs by 10%. So a collector now costs 9 packets instead of 10, Thor costs 144 packets instead of 160. If you are starved for energy to produce things, this is the upgrade for you.	Once you are over your initial construction rush and your inflow of energy is assured, then this upgrade reduces in value.
Build things 20% faster	This (I think) increase the rate by which new construction can request packets from Odin city	Not much use if you are in starvation mode.
Increase Fire range by 20%	Thap pool of deep creeper just out of reach of your mortars? Get this upgrade and see how the creeper pool shrinks!	Can't think of much. I've heard somone say that the blaster may now target multi-level creeper as well, but as far as I can see, the blaster will still fire at the closest creeper and that will usually be spread out to a single layer.
Increase Fire rate by 15%	Weapons can now fire faster, if they have sufficient ammo available, of course.	Weapons may now drain your energy faster and leave less for construction.
Increase move speed by 30%	Ever tried to move a blaster into position and by the time it got there the creeper was too deep? Try this.	If you don't move objects over long distances, then this upgrade will mean little to you.

HTH

[UpperKEES]

I've pointed/linked many people in the past to this useful overview, but I've never responded myself. There is one thing I'd like to add however. I know this topic is quite old, but the info is still up-to-date.

Regarding the weak points of the range upgrade:

Can't think of much. I've heard somone say that the blaster may now target multi-level creeper as well, but as far as I can see, the blaster will still fire at the closest creeper and that will usually be spread out to a single layer.

A blaster can't fire every frame. When this blaster is capping an emitter that fires for instance every 2 seconds, but this same blaster fired a fraction of a second before emitting, it won't be in time with it's next shot, so you may lose some structures when these have been built close by. After applying the range upgrade chances are higher that your blaster will get distracted; I notice this every few maps I play, but it won't keep me from choosing this upgrade, especially when I use mortars and/or SAMs.

[Mare]

Here are my thoughts:

Produce 10% more energy- This is always useful no matter what during game play however, only if you are fighting long battles that require large amounts of energy, in the long run yes its very helpful, in the short run, not really, you would be better off picking the 10 % less upgrade because this upgrade will only help if you need a lot of energy for something. Best Constructing upgrade ever.

Everything costs 10% less to build- This is very useful in the beginning, but just like Kees said, it value will be lowered once you can sustain yourself and not go to Starvation/Deficit mode.

Build things 20% faster- This gives more priority to building rather then priority over ammo, I honestly never choose this as it seems useless unless you need something built fast like a spare reactor to make energy.

Increase Fire range by 20%- Best upgrade. Period. I cannot stress how important range is of a weapon, other then yelling at people to get this upgrade. Its the best Weapon upgrade ever, and the only problem I find annoying with this is just, when a mortar gets the upgrade, it will most likely shoot at an emitter because of how it always auto-targets deepest Creeper. This can be solved by simply putting the mortar out of range of the emitter. Other then that, nothing is wrong with this upgrade that I can find.

Increase Fire rate by 15%- I only choose this for blasters and blasters only, if you have enough energy and speed nodes, then this is the 2nd best weapon upgrade to get due to how much faster it makes weapons attack Creeper.

Increase move speed by 30%- This is, in my opinion the WORST upgrade I have ever chosen. It is not that helpful unless you need a weapon to got to a specific place, fast, however if its a long distance weapons transport, then yes this upgrade will be very helpful.

My Personal Upgrade Ranking:
1-Increase Fire range by 20%
2-Increase Fire rate by 15%
3-Produce 10% more energy
4-Everything costs 10% less to build
5-Build things 20% faster
6-Increase move speed by 30%

These are just my thoughts so they are not always correct, you don't have to believe them if you don't want to.
In all honesty, I don't expect anyone to agree with what I said, however let me point out that depending on what kind of map you play, you choose the upgrade based on how you play that map.

[UpperKEES]

Increase Fire range by 20%- Best upgrade. Period.

For blasters this upgrade is almost useless, because they target the closest creeper anyway. When the creeper is out of reach, just move the blaster(s). For me this is not the best upgrade, because I'd almost always prefer the -10% building costs and the +10% energy over this one (any unit will profit from that).

This topic (actually a forum game) will also list some more advantages and disadvantages of the various upgrades. The result of this (finished) game is exactly the order of my own preference:

1-Everything costs 10% less to build
2-Produce 10% more energy
3-Increase Fire range by 20%
4-Build things 20% faster
5-Increase move speed by 30%
6-Increase Fire rate by 15%

But like you said: it really depends on the type of map you're playing (and the moment you reach the upgrade, like: early game, mid game, or end game).

[Fisherck]

My list is pretty similar. I would (usually) choose upgrades in this order:

1-Everything costs 10% less to build
2-Produce 10% more energy
3-Increase Fire range by 20%
4-Increase fire rate by 15%
5-Build things 20% faster
6-Increase move speed by 30%

This of course, is more for the beginning of a map, and priorities would probally move toward weapon upgrades at the middle through end of a map.

[UpperKEES]

For blasters this upgrade is almost useless, because they target the closest creeper anyway.

Let me nuance this: it is useful when bunny hopping blasters into rather intensive creeper.