How to improve my scores???

[CreeperNoob]

I am new here and probably have not looked hard enough for what I want to know. That being said, I throw myself upon your generosity and mercy.

Now for my question.

Is there a tactic or formula that helps you beat a level (any level) faster?

I notice that in the very early game (power generation <2) it seems most efficient to have no more than 2 building projects at the same time. Most players seem to get two branches started and build as much power as possible before building any military units. Is there more to say about this?

Also, would someone please explain "flying" and "bridging" in simple terms?

[Sqaz]

I notice that in the very early game (power generation <2) it seems most efficient to have no more than 2 building projects at the same time. Most players seem to get two branches started and build as much power as possible before building any military units. Is there more to say about this?

That's about it, wait as long with your military as possible, except when you have to cap delayed emitters or a choke point to defend. But in general you should wait as long as possible.

You should also be careful with your collector layout, sometimes it's better to just build reactors but never in the early stages of the game.

The most important thing however is never to overbuild, just gather enough energy and nothing more, if you do that you'll get quite close to a very good time.

Also, would someone please explain "flying" and "bridging" in simple terms?

Flying is well, flying your unit around.
Bridging is using a flying unit to cross areas that lay to far from eachother to connect with collectors. You don't have to fly your unit per se, you can just put it down if you've got the place to do so. This helps building collector lines faster, and while doing this you don't need relays.

You can also use a weapon to bridge over crazonium walls, but this requires an insane amount of pausing and if you have something better to do I wouldn't do it.

The last thing is that, space permitting, you can fly your city to connect to the last totem, and possibly saving you lots of time (this works better with a weapon then the city and then a totem this way you can bridge further), this is done in many Chronom maps.

Is there a tactic or formula that helps you beat a level (any level) faster?

A special "tactic" I love to use is paratrooping. This works best with small emitters but can be done in almost every circumstance, you first build some blasters (the amount depends on the emitter and surrounding creeper) and then fly them all to an emitter, they will cap this emitter and you don't have to fight your way to it, saving you time and energy (as you only need enough energy to power one blaster to keep the emitter capped once they landed).

I am new here and probably have not looked hard enough for what I want to know. That being said, I throw myself upon your generosity and mercy.

If you want an overview of these tactics used you should go to the chronom board, there mthw2vc has some nice screenshots of him winning chronom maps who perfectly show how to win a map with a great time.
I also made a tutorial about how to bridge once, that might help too.

[Katra]

Lots of practice.  ;)

Often the key is finding the right place to move OC to. High ground where you can build energy without having to fight creeper immediately is usually best; but there are a few maps where engaging early is advantageous (or even necessary for survival.)

The pause button is your friend. If you need to build or move several units at once pause, then set everything up carefully before resuming. (This is usually especially critical for paratrooping; the ideal is for all your units to land at once.) Sometimes you'll have to reinforce your paratroop units because they will run out of ammo before you can build links to them. And a drone or three will help your paratroop blasters clear the area if the creeper is deep.

[Karsten75]

There are loads of videos out there. Watch some of them - some are better than others - and learn the techniques applied.

[mthw2vc]

Why, yes, there is one special "tactic" I use that is a secret. It can be found here. As for videos, most of mine demonstrate the tactics needed for speedrunning, but I don't have any for a map that demonstrates everything. I will change this now... Hmmm, why not Nice Job 12?
For a few specific videos that show reasonably quick runs of maps, look at these:
2 assumes someone edited Gump by halving emitter delays and locking the city. 1-3 are the ones that can be improved the most, but also the ones that will teach you the most.

[UpperKEES]

- Another important thing is being able to judge how much energy you'll need. This is why a second run will always turn out better.

- Pausing a lot will allow you to fight at multiple fronts simultaneously without losing time.

Hmmm, why not Nice Job 12?

Yeah, why not? It's one of the maps I still need to replay myself, so I may join you.... ;)