Relays vs Collectors, which is fastest?

[UpperKEES]

That's actually a good question; I hadn't noticed that. The gain of the relays lies in the fact that their packets keep going during the additional delays of the collectors. Without speed nodes the difference in finish time would be less.

[Echo51]

Oh lol, dident think that would influence it, so i build some with the spare energy xD

[mthw2vc]

That's actually a good question; I hadn't noticed that. The gain of the relays lies in the fact that their packets keep going during the additional delays of the collectors. Without speed nodes the difference in finish time would be less.

The difference would actually be a lot more without speed nodes, considering that the only reasone relays finish faster is that the time it takes packets to travel overall is roughly double.

[UpperKEES]

That's what I figured when I first thought about it and I'm not sure what made me change my mind, because the delay between sending the last packet and receiving the request for the first packet of the next collector becomes indeed less with the use of speed nodes. I guess I should sleep more.... :P Thanks for correcting me twice in 24 hours mthw2vc! :)

Edit: It would be nice to compare the results of this test without speed nodes, with 4 speed nodes (double speed) and with 8 speed nodes (triple speed).

[L'ythelle]

Edit: It would be nice to compare the results of this test without speed nodes, with 4 speed nodes (double speed) and with 8 speed nodes (triple speed).

Kees: maybe you could test this in your "spare" time.  ;D

Without a Phd in physics, I figured out that collectors are faster closer to OC, relays are faster the further away you get. However, if you are near the totem and only have a short distance to traverse, one last collector is faster than one last relay because it takes fewer packets to build.

The true fastest way to traverse long distances is to use weapons as relays between collectors. I have used this technique to set the top scores on "Tech Time" by TheBuilder, where many unnecessary prebuilt weapons were provided, and the two versions of "Closed Off" by jem, where many more blasters were needed for one section of the map than the others, so I had them left over.

Of course, I realize it is not faster to build weapons just to be used as relays, but at the end of a map they are often no longer needed for their original purpose and can be pressed into service to cover distance faster.

Edit: I realize after reading Kees comment, that I sound snotty in this post. I apologize for that. It was not my intention to offend anyone.

[UpperKEES]

Yeah, I always (ab)use pre-built weapons to pwn a map.

But in this case Echo just wanted to compare collectors and relays over a longer distance. It's nice to see there is a break-even-point somewhere and this is influenced by the numrber of speed nodes built.