The not-so-official Hints and Tips topic

[Mefi]

You can control that stress to you grid by press "stop resupply" on some less important things.

[mykael]

On a lot of scenarios I find that if I just build 2 or 3 beams, they'll fully discharge on the first wave of spores, then the network will fall into deficit and they'll not be recharged by the time the second wave arrives....game over

If I build 6 or 7 however, the network doesn't go into deficit and they are ready to fire again before the next wave arrives.  Total energy usage seems to be lower...

I'm wondering if the cost of firing a beam is independent of the number of beams that come out of it.  So if 1 tower takes 5 seconds to kill 1 spore it'll loose 100% of the energy needed to kill it, but if 5 towers each shoot 5 spores, each will only loose 20% of the energy needed to kill a single spore as they are only firing for 1 second.

This is with 1.09.

[pawel345]

I believe it's because if the network has to resupply 20 energy to 3 units then there is a lot of network strain since the the energy network operates on demand per frame. If there is more units that request less energy each and also they ask for different amounts, that energy demand will be met more easily.

Since when there are many beams hitting one spore they will not activate in the same frames, instead first beam 1 requests 1 energy then beam 2  then beam 3 then beam 1 again. Such a demand is more easily met than a spike in demand when beam 1 suddenly requests 4 or 5 energy.

[eduran]

I made a small map to test varying numbers of spores vs different beam setups (attached in case someone wants to play around with it). Result:
It takes ~12.5 energy to shoot down a single spore, independent of both the number of beams used and the number of spores sent at the same time.

[Nephthys]

One beam should be able to kill 2 spores with a full ammo reserve.

While that is true, don't you also need to take into account the size of your network? If you're playing on a large map with a 2 Spore Tower, and you're using 3 CNs spread out quite a bit, you'll need to build more than one Beam to protect everything, right? I guess what I'm trying to say is a single beam for 2 spores will work on a smaller map, but not necessarily on a larger one. Someone straighten me out if I've got that wrong.  :) 

[Clean0nion]

While your little ship is flying round a planet, hit a certain key combo to mark it as completed.
I think, at least. And apparently I should be more reluctant to reveal said key combo.

[Cavemaniac]

One beam should be able to kill 2 spores with a full ammo reserve.

While that is true, don't you also need to take into account the size of your network? If you're playing on a large map with a 2 Spore Tower, and you're using 3 CNs spread out quite a bit, you'll need to build more than one Beam to protect everything, right? I guess what I'm trying to say is a single beam for 2 spores will work on a smaller map, but not necessarily on a larger one. Someone straighten me out if I've got that wrong.  :) 

No, you're on to it.

With regard to resupplying the Beam ammo, CleanOnion covered that well.

However:

As a rule, I put my Beams in pairs - mostly for the faster knock-down power of having twin beams, but also for the double ammo capacity.

If you just have one standard beam (i.e. non PZ) taking on a/two incoming spores, the chances are good that, if it was targeting the front of your lines, it'll land/detonate before a single Beam can destroy it.

[JonneeG]

now, something non beam related.  

If you set one sprayer set to 'always on' with another sprayer beside  set to 'enable AC collection' you can store massive amounts of AC for a future assult
(works with 1 collecting sprayer and bombers too)

picture

map
https://www.dropbox.com/s/khf9orij0g0bspq/Sprayers.cw3
(more than 1 sprayer used for greater effect)
(needs ~7 mins to be able to fully charge the bombers)