Deficit playing

[Karsten75]

Long time since we've talked about real gameplay here.

I think people often overestimate the importance of a deficit in mid and end-game positions.

Granted, when you are starting out and your production is 1.2, you don't ant to run a 50-deficit construction spree. Especially not if you also have to fight off creeper.

On the other hand, if you have energy production of 20 or more, 7 blasters and a couple of mortars, you can easily sustain that 50 deficit, since it may simply be that the reserve ammo for your weapons are not at 100%. You may not be impacting construction or firing rate. In those situations is is not, IMHO, a problem running a deficit - you need to be careful though, it can easily balloon out of control, and then it can be an issue.

So deficits at different points in time in the game is a completely different story. Also, a brief dip into deficit territory early on, provided it is just one or two units sometimes ensures optimal packet dispatch without really slowing down overall construction speed.

Thoughts?

[thepenguin]

I think that deficit doesn't really matter if you can sustain your units, or are in a large buildout

deficit is just packets that are requested, but not sent

[Fisherck]

I often found during many custom maps, that I worked with a deficit. Sometimes I wonder if that is the best tactic to use, but it works for me. I rarely use it for chronum maps, probally because most maps are short.

[Sqaz]

I never care about the deficit anymore, instead I just watch my collection rate and see what I'm builing and which weapons are up and with that I know what I can and can't build. But sometimes working in a small deficit is handy when building something, as if you've got enough energy and your buildings were half build in a deficit the other half will compensate that deficit and OC will send two times (or even three times) as much packets.

[Echo51]

I consider running a deficit, as being close to "the edge", the imaginary line thats seperates slow people, from the fast.

If you know how to run a deficit though most of the mission without it getting out of control, your pro

[thepenguin]

If you know how to run a deficit though most of the mission without it getting out of control, your pro

so, (sounds like me as I run a deficit constantly through almosdt all missions)

[SPIFFEN]

There should'nt be an unknown thing that you use more time to finnish an map when you have an Deficit .
You can still finnish most maps with an Deficit , but you should improve your best time if you dont have an Deficit .

Now the city has the option to stop sending stuff , so if you use that enought ,
it should help alot on your Deficit .

Turning something off for some secs might matter more that you think =P

[UpperKEES]

Having a deficit is bad, but not having a deficit is just as bad (because you're not using your energy). Optimal is having zero energy in storage without having a deficit. A slight deficit is not too bad, but 'slight' is relative as Karsten already mentioned.

When I play I use this rule of thumb: my deficit should never be more than 3 times my energy collection. So when I collect just 1 unit of energy per second, I allow myself to play with a deficit of 3, but when I collect 5 I allow a deficit of 15. This way Odin City will catch up within 3 seconds most of the time so my weapons don't starve completely and I use all energy available.

Another advantage is what Sqaz mentions: units that are behind on schedule will catch up when more energy is available again.

Playing with a deficit is only beneficial when you know you'll be able to get out of it soon (otherwise there will be no catching up). When building multiple energy sources (collectors & reactors) it's really bad and I always try to prevent it.

[Karsten75]

I think you hit the nail on the head. Going into deficit in early stages when one is concentrating on energy build-up is a bad idea. Later on when using energy to fire, it's not such a problem, providing the deficit is manageable.  Weapons can fire at full speed even if not fully supplied and sometimes it may even be beneficial to have mortars, for instance, firing slower, since they may be more efficient then.

[Blaze]

I don't know why but whenever I play I always run a perfect deficit.
Just like what Upper said, never more then 3x Collection, if I ever run it that high.
It's always just over 1 and it jumps to 10 back to 0 and again.

Again, I don't know what I'm doing right.

[Aurzel]

it's an interesting topic you've started karsten, personally i'm not speed orientated enough to worry if i go into a deficit or a bit of energy storage sometimes, however i have found on certain special occasions that it can be detrimental to run at a deficit, at least in the following example:
if you have little room to work with and there's spore waves with more than say 3 or 4 spores it's sometimes useful to keep a small amount of energy stored because with enough speed the SAMs can fire 3 or 4 times due to the quick resupply (again this is in only a few cases and when space is limited and therefore your SAMs are near the city) and therefore you only need 1 or 2 SAMs to protect you if your positioning is good as opposed to say 3 or 4, the energy and time you save building those extra SAMs has on occasion allowed me to push ahead against the creeper and secure more room easier than if if had built more SAMs
i know i've gone a little off point here but i'll try to sum up by saying that on rare occasions it can be detrimental to run 'on the edge' but then i'm someone who's deficit and energy storage jump around quite a bit heh

[UpperKEES]

Yeah, a deficit when spores arrive isn't very good, especially when they arrive in dense clusters and 1 or 2 SAMs have to take all of them out. Temporarily deactivating mortars and/or drones at that moment can be useful, just like having some storage. Storage pays off for most maps that last longer than about 4 minutes, because you often don't use all energy when moving weapons (like a group of blasters). When the storage fills up just once it already paid back its own costs (moving 4 blasters for 5 seconds).

[Fisherck]

You can also deactivate the SAMs right after they are done being used and reactivate them when you have energy. Or, depending how many spores there are and your current state, pushing the red button (on odin city) right before the SAMs start shooting and then deactivate all SAMs and push the red button after all the spores were taken down.

[Aurzel]

i never deactivte my SAMs unless its a big emergency because i tend to forget about them, the same goes for building them in the first place ;)

[UpperKEES]

I do and yes, I sometimes forget about them as well. When you hear the siren just disable the build packets and activate the SAMs and most likely you'll still have them charged in time.