Price/quality ratio of relays

[UpperKEES]

A question about the price/quality ratio of relays:

A collector will cost you 10 units of energy to build and will extend your network with max 5 blocks.
A relays will cost you 20 units and will extend your network with max 11 blocks.

So a relay is a little cheaper when it comes to bridging distances you would think.
BUT, you always need at least 2 of them to reach the maximum distance, so per relay the gain is minimal.
Besides this a collector collects energy and when the one closest to the Creeper gets destroyed, you always have the second one for the same amount of money.

Because of this I only use relays when I can't use a collector (hopping islands for instance), and not for speed runs.
Is this reasoning correct or am I missing something?

Wouldn't it be nice when a relay could take some damage before it gets destroyed to give it some more advantage over the collector?


Edit: typo.

[Karsten75]

One small benefit of a relay is that since you can span longer distances, packets will travel faster in a relay link than a collector link. If I have a big battle, then towards the end I set up a link of relays to the front line.

[Siccles]

some things i would like to add:

-the farther the distance of the building you want to build, and the less packetspeed you have, the longer will the travel of the packets to the building take. A relay only takes a single delay from the distance the packets have to travel, two collectors take double the delay.

-still i don`t ever use relays if I dont have to (even if the distance is very far and Ive got no packetspeed), because there is a far more efficient way of bridging big distances fast: using blasters as a buffer between the collectors, who together have almost the same range as a relay, but only take half the time to set up (assuming you already have a blaster standing around).

[UpperKEES]

Thanks for your replies!

@ Karsten:
Do you mean the packet speed between two relays is higher than the packet speed between two collectors? I thought this speed was always 2 (without speed drivers) all over the network. Or do you mean a straight line is always shorter than a zig-zagged line? I use straight lines for my collector network anyways (as collectors placed in a different pattern don't substantially collect more energy).

@ Siccles:
- What do you exactly mean with 'delay'? Do you mean the delay when building the structure(s), or is there a delay when energy packets pass a node?
- Very true about the blasters. You only shouldn't have the need to reuse them somewhere else later.... ;)

[Siccles]

I mean the delay of the packets traveling the distance to the building which is built, imagine it like this:

lets say the speed of your packets is 100/s and you are building a relay (20 packets, 1 every second) or 2 collectors (20 packets too, but the 2nd one only starts when the 1st is done).

Lets say the distance to the building isn`t high like 300:

Speed for relay: 20packets x  1  + 300/100   = 23 seconds till the relay is done

Speed for 2 collectors: (10packets x 1 +300/100) x2 =26 seconds till both collectors are done.



But if we increase the distance to the buildings built (1000 in this case):

Speed for relay: 20packets x  1  + 1000/100   = 30 seconds till the relay is done

Speed for 2 collectors: (10packets x 1 +1000/100) x2 =40 seconds till both collectors are done.


As you can see, a single building will be built faster the longer the effective distance (distance/speed) than multiple buildings of the same cost in a row (since the distance adds up).


To your question to karsten: the speed between relays isnot higher than between anything else, so don`t use them to supply your front if it doesn`t give you a big time advantage.



edit: reusing the blasters isn`t a problem. Just build a second collector beside the blaster, then you can take it away and still have the distance advantage.

[UpperKEES]

I mean the delay of the packets traveling the distance to the building which is built [...] a single building will be built faster the longer the effective distance (distance/speed) than multiple buildings of the same cost in a row (since the distance adds up).

Yeah, that's what I figured. Thanks for your example, it shows well how much the delay can be.
BTW: I just found a topic & reply from Virgil about delays here.

reusing the blasters isn`t a problem. Just build a second collector beside the blaster, then you can take it away and still have the distance advantage.

Even if [collector] - [blaster] - [collector] is a straight diagonal line? I can imagine the distance to the adjacent field would be just too far.

[Siccles]

in most cases --- yes it would be too far. So either build 2 collectors to connect them (i usually don`t do this one) or place the blaster half a building-width from the maximum range ( but im not sure if half a width is enough for diagonal connecting, never tested it).