Recycling extractors
Eucomolhamas
Join Date: 2013-03-10 Member: 183841Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2013-03-10 Member: 183841Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Howdy folks! So, straight to the question: Do you recycle extractors under attack if no marine is gonna get there in time, and why do you?
This must be troubling some commanders since some people say recycle, some say don't. I personally think that if the extractor is built and has power it's better not to recycle it, but that of course is how I like to do it.
My view on the matter is:
1) If you don't recycle, the extractor will keep getting you resources until it is destroyed (obviously), and keeping it is more beneficial than getting the small amount of res from recycling. This is good since some aliens want to play it safe and can take a long time in biting it.
2) Keeping the extractor will also slow the aliens down a little, keeping them from munching something else.
3) Chances are that even though it would seem nobody's coming, someone might pop in to save the extractor just in time.
What do you think about it? Discuss!
This must be troubling some commanders since some people say recycle, some say don't. I personally think that if the extractor is built and has power it's better not to recycle it, but that of course is how I like to do it.
My view on the matter is:
1) If you don't recycle, the extractor will keep getting you resources until it is destroyed (obviously), and keeping it is more beneficial than getting the small amount of res from recycling. This is good since some aliens want to play it safe and can take a long time in biting it.
2) Keeping the extractor will also slow the aliens down a little, keeping them from munching something else.
3) Chances are that even though it would seem nobody's coming, someone might pop in to save the extractor just in time.
What do you think about it? Discuss!
Comments
Man, I can't even hear the recycle sound so I end up chewing until it disappears in front of me.
I think this comes down to the decision of two different mind sets A.) Militaristic or B.) Economist.
A.) If you are more concerned about the conflict tactics then your reasoning would lead you to leave the extractor. This is because you know it is being hit by "x"amount of skulks, allowing you to know their location and estimated time commitment (which you can communication to your team).
B.) If you are more concerned about the res flow and overall economy of your commanding then your reasoning could lead you to recycle the extractor depending on the number of extractors you hold and the current total tres. Recycling an extractor results in receiving +8 tres (if I remember right, I could be wrong). That results in a net loss of only 2 tres (after building the new extractor) which is not detrimental.
I think recycling an extractor is completely situational and either decision can be the smarter choice. And I don't think your #3 is 100% accurate. As commander you know the location of all your marines and you can determine whether or not an extractor can be saved.
I even chew 5 minutes more to make sure it's gone
3500 hp 500 armor. 4500 effective health.
Bite: 75 dmg, 2.2 attacks/sec. 165 dps. 27.27s to destroy with one skulk.
27s gives you 5 ticks, 5 res. (if 1res per 5 seconds). So you'd have to recycle at a structure health yielding 5 or more res. works out to 66% health or more at the time of completed recycling. Recycling takes about 2 seconds so you'd have to recycle well before 66% health. (if res rate is slower then lower % health is acceptable)
At most you can save is 1-2 res from recycling early. Even if you lost res letting it die i would still allow it, considering the time it takes to destroy one and what you can accomplish in that time.
If it's one skulk, it will be of more value pumping out as much res as it can while taking up the skulks time for half a minute or so, it will probably end up giving about the same res as it would have given back if it had been recycled, with that added bonus of time wasting.
If it's two skulks, same thing applies, except you get slightly less res pumped out of it, but at the same time, if you HAD sold it, it would have sold at lower hp anyway so you'd have got a smaller return regardless.
If it's three or more skulks, it PROBABLY won't even sell and instead get destroyed, I'd prefer to get 1-2 res (depending on when the res ticks occur) out of it than sell it for 0 (which happens when it gets to about 10% hp left) or having it destroyed.
Most importantly it wastes skulks time, recycling is basically saying, ok skulk, you win this round, go kill another one.
EDIT: I should add that if WHILE recycling an extractor, it still pumped res, this MAY be a different story (maybe). But it doesn't, so...
What if the power is taken out in a room that your team isn't going to recapture.
What if your team extended too far and just built that extractor only to get wiped (say early game, before phase gates), if you can get the recycle off as your last marine is dying or similar before the skulk pack tears it down, it's more than worth it, it can get you another extractor up where you weren't dropping because of lack of res.
There are definitely situations to recycle, but I wouldn't ever recycle if it's low (or a pack is already on it and it's going down very fast), or if it's relatively close to a marine responding, or just a single skulk is bothering it.
Here's a question. Is it economically worthwhile to nanoshield the extractor? Obviously if that means marines with welders rescue it in time, it's probably worth it. But let's assume it won't be rescued.
If you know 100% that the marine can shoot the skulk off the RT, then yeah sure- nano the RT. In most cases though, it won't be anything except annoying for the skulk.
As a Comm, I think "Yay, my Marines are 1 second away from killing that little M.F.'er!". Stopping Aliens, from achieving small goals, keeps them from comfortably expanding, imo.
Ok, yeah, I forgot to add that, if the extractor is unpowered OR unbuilt, go ahead and recycle. But I can't think of any other situations right now where recycling is profitable.
If you do need the res urgently, you've probably failed to maintain an adequate reserve to use in urgent circumstances.
(and I probably wasn't the first either!)
Add it to my tab
And you do it to me all the time : /