Deficit playing

[Aurzel]

unless you're too spread out, but hopefully by then you can leave them on with no problem

[ctuna]

I've wondered about the whole deficit issue for some time. Having heard from some players, I wonder how it was designed to be the most efficient. Virgil?

[Aurzel]

because if you're not running a deficit (or on the line) then they're storing energy, that's energy that could be used building something else/stocking ammo/powering a totem, therefore since it's nearly impossible to run with 0 stored energy and 0 deficit there's a small margin of deficit that people allow themselves, not too big to cause a problem but just enough to ensure that every bit of energy is used up

[Echo51]

Aurzel, as long as you dont have a full energy storage, your not wasting energy yet

[Karsten75]

Aurzel, as long as you dont have a full energy storage, your not wasting energy yet

Unless you are anticipating a sudden drain of energy (eg. fending off incoming spores) stored energy is wasted energy that could have gone into construction. About as wasteful as firing into a pool of creeper without advancing into it or needing to keep it away from your units.

[Echo51]

its not wasted energy still, as you can output all those units in storage, if its needed

[ontheworld]

i simply feel more comfortable when i have some stored energy, allows me to make up for an overbuild

[UpperKEES]

its not wasted energy still, as you can output all those units in storage, if its needed

Aurzel and Karsten are right that stored energy is 'kind of' wasted. When you would have invested it in more energy generating units you would gain this back later on. When you for instance build 2 collectors that each collect 0.125 energy per second (which is about average) these collectors will return their costs of 20 units of energy in about 80 seconds.

i simply feel more comfortable when i have some stored energy, allows me to make up for an overbuild

Why make up for an overbuild anyway? That's planning for something badly planned. ;)

It's much better to keep some space in your storage so you won't ever lose a single unit of energy.

[ontheworld]

i simply feel more comfortable when i have some stored energy, allows me to make up for an overbuild

Why make up for an overbuild anyway? That's planning for something badly planned. ;)

It's much better to keep some space in your storage so you won't ever lose a single unit of energy.

i'm not a good plannner, and i find that if you don't hit the maximum energy, nothing is wasted yet

[UpperKEES]

i'm not a good plannner, and i find that if you don't hit the maximum energy, nothing is wasted yet

In that case keep in mind that when you are collecting and using for instance 6 units of energy per second, you already start losing energy with 14 units in storage.

[SPIFFEN]

When you move an tower and it starts to fire more often , it's nice to have some storage =P
Then you might have time to correct it before you get an huge deficit =)

[UpperKEES]

Building a unit (without +20% build speed) and firing a unit (a blaster or mortar without +15% firing rate) at full speed will always cost you about 1 unit of energy per second, so it's very easy to take that into account. When moving a firing unit you actually need some room in your storage because you save energy while moving it.

[Aurzel]

stored energy isnt wasted but it's a waste because it's not being used
an analogy might be keeping a percentage of some money that you plan to invest behind just in case, that money could have been used to invest in something worthwhile (the only difference being that there's no bad investments in creeper world you'll either get more energy or more firepower)

[UpperKEES]

the only difference being that there's no bad investments in creeper world you'll either get more energy or more firepower

It's still a bad investment if you don't need more energy or fire power. Besides that you can also invest in storage or speed, which can be redundant too.

[Aurzel]

there's no such thing as not needing more energy production it's always good to have more energy unless you have more energy than odin city can produce packets but in that case i think you should be worrying about being able to play not your energy