support engenieers vs new factory?

[00yiggdrasill00]

on the overall is it better to get a new factory or better to get a bunch of engineers to support as few as possible? the wiki says i need around 4 engineers to double a factories output (if im uping the engineer level as the factory goes up), and while this seems like a bit of an issue the smaller base is easier to shield and defend. the uef and cybran build stations throw that whole maths for a loop as well and they are cheap as chips

[OutsidR]

IMO, either way .. but you still have to balance power and mass .. what good is it if you don't have the resources to build with for the engineers? Try it both ways and come to your own conclusion.

[PhilipJFry]

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

on the overall is it better to get a new factory or better to get a bunch of engineers to support as few as possible?

Engineers[supcom.wikia.com]: t1 engis are by far the best source of build power in 3603 (the patch that steam uses). Making Factories[supcom.wikia.com] is a waste of mass (except for t1 land/airfacs) and only useful so you can actually support it with lots of t1 engis or to avoid pathfinding issues when you have too many t1 engis supporting said factory.

[ajgoody]

http://supcomfaguide.uw.hu/chapter2.html

That guide covers this. The TLDR is that T1 engineers are the most cost effective per build power and should be used to assist factories before building another factory.

Also people often have spare T1 engineers on the map for reclaiming, and T1 factories to build more. Using T3 engineers means using your T3 factory to produce them, delaying the combat units built there.

[Tydo]

Depends. The faster the factory builds the more 'roll off' time becomes an issue. This is really obvious when you try something stupid, like building engineers from a airfactory: they take an iceage to get out - which is only ok if your ground factory is busy and your air factory is idle and you actually need one.

But it also has implications for spamming and the only way to help that is more factories.
For navy you have no choice: more factories AND lots of engineers (or UEF exploit...) or lose the water.

Think of it like this.
SerialBuildTime = "BuildTime" + 'Roll Off' Time.

Lets build 20 units in two diffent setups assuming identical buildpower (100 on one factory or 50 per factory on two).

With one (assisted) factory there is only one factory to roll off from: so we get 20x bt + 20x rot
In essense: 20x sbt.

With two (unassisted) factories there are 2 to roll off from, but each unit take twice as long per factory.
10x bt x 2 + 10x rot = 20x bt + 10x rot
In essense: 20x sbt - 10x rot.
A saving of 10x rot.

That can get you a huge advantage quickly and if you are clever you can see how that scales up with more factories. Like, how many extra units can you produce in 10x rot? Or 20? 30? It matters.

[00yiggdrasill00]

thanks for the info its cleared up the issues im looking at a lot