Building with welder VS normal building

DooMBrIIngeRDooMBrIIngeR Australia Join Date: 2014-02-03 Member: 193762Members
I've heard that a welder decreases building time, and that there is no difference (except for fixing destroyed power), clearly conflicting information. There may be a difference, but I can't see much when I tested it, for all I know building with a welder might be a few seconds faster. Does anyone have any definitive knowledge on this?
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  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    It's the same amount of time iirc. Welder just allows you to move freely without slowdown while building.
  • DooMBrIIngeRDooMBrIIngeR Australia Join Date: 2014-02-03 Member: 193762Members
    joshhh wrote: »
    It's the same amount of time iirc. Welder just allows you to move freely without slowdown while building.

    Thanks for clearing that up, I was suspecting this was the case. I'll avoid building things with a welder from now on.

  • PsiWarpPsiWarp Gifted Gorge Richmond, B.C., Canada Join Date: 2010-08-28 Member: 73810Members
    Welder has more range than Build Tool, so you don't need to be in-your-face close with the structure.

    Its torch is quieter and doesn't make the building glow like a lamp, plus also repairs the building & your armor if damaged while welding.
  • DooMBrIIngeRDooMBrIIngeR Australia Join Date: 2014-02-03 Member: 193762Members
    PsiWarp wrote: »
    Welder has more range than Build Tool, so you don't need to be in-your-face close with the structure.

    Its torch is quieter and doesn't make the building glow like a lamp, plus also repairs the building & your armor if damaged while welding.

    So if the structure isn't damaged, or you're not setting up a sneaky phase (or something along those lines) you're better off using the build tool because it's slightly faster switching to your rifle.

  • firepowerfirepower Join Date: 2011-02-01 Member: 79839Members
    edited February 2014
    from NS2 wiki
    "It builds ghost structures, unbuilt power nodes, and destroyed power nodes faster than the build tool"

    this was also stated when it was introduced.

    definitely worth it for repairing damage power nodes and repairing structures and armour, not sure how much faster than build too for blue prints, maybe 10% to 15%
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    firepower wrote: »
    from NS2 wiki
    "It builds ghost structures, unbuilt power nodes, and destroyed power nodes faster than the build tool"

    this was also stated when it was introduced.

    definitely worth it for repairing damage power nodes and repairing structures and armour, not sure how much faster than build too for blue prints, maybe 10% to 15%

    Because the wiki is a perfectly reliable source.

    ---

    It does, however, build broken power nodes notably faster.
  • AiorosAioros Join Date: 2003-03-24 Member: 14850Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
    using the welder also give the building more health even so its unfinished.
  • firepowerfirepower Join Date: 2011-02-01 Member: 79839Members
    edited February 2014
    Because the wiki is a perfectly reliable source.

    ---

    It does, however, build broken power nodes notably faster.

    I remember it was stated when introduced and confirmed with the wiki.
    It may have been changed in later build for balance, only unknown worlds or lua code can tell us for sure.

    your sarcasm is cheap, where your proof wiki is wrong, if so correct it.


  • ZinkeyZinkey Join Date: 2013-06-25 Member: 185694Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    100% certain its significantly faster on welding broken power nodes. Not sure if it has any effect on building, would have to check the lua.
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    It is wrong.

    Compared to the build tool:
    Welders give the building more hp faster during the build process (reaches max hp before fully built)
    Welders build power nodes faster, but no other structures.
    Welders do not slow down marine movement while building.
    Welders allow you to hold m1, finish building, and chase down a skulk and weld it to death in one fluid, unbroken, glorious motion.

    I don't know about weapon switch timing, but I recommend always building with the welder if you have one.
  • Ghosthree3Ghosthree3 Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    Building with a welder is probably the way to go, the only downside I can think of is that MAYBE it's slower to switch weapon, if it is...well that could mean your death I dunno. Otherwise it's superior, RIP. old welder than got the building to max hp in 1/4 the build time and built 20% quicker or something though.
  • d0ped0gd0ped0g Join Date: 2003-05-25 Member: 16679Members
    For some reason I just assumed that weapon switch was faster with a welder out as opposed to building regularly. I have absolutely no basis for that assumption though.

    I'd be interested to know which is actually faster (if any). Good players constantly take advantage of the delay in which marines can shoot again while building. It'd be nice to know how I should be building just in case there is a tiny difference I can use to better protect myself.
  • MaxAmusMaxAmus UK Join Date: 2003-12-26 Member: 24779Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    Hmm I thought that building with a the welder was always slightly faster than if you where using the build tool. Unless am just slow and think its faster :P
  • GoldenGolden Join Date: 2004-09-01 Member: 31169Members, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, WC 2013 - Silver, NS2 Community Developer
    Both build at the same rate. In most cases, you should be using the welder to build. It has more range, allowing you to stand in a slightly better position, and doesn't slow down your movement. This is important - you can begin to move/dodge while the enemy is coming in at more or less full speed instead of being stuck in molasses.
  • xen32xen32 Join Date: 2012-10-18 Member: 162676Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited February 2014
    Roobubba wrote: »
    It is wrong.

    Compared to the build tool:
    Welders give the building more hp faster during the build process (reaches max hp before fully built)

    This information is very outdated, it was before b250. Now building with welder reaches 100% construction at the same time it reaches 100% hp.
    Another thing, in tutorial they say "Welder builds faster".
    Conclusion: testing needed.

    Upd: I can't say that I was measuring very accurately, but I got results were I win 0.5-2 seconds when building with welder, where 0.5 split was Proto, 2 seconds was the arms lab. Now, as I wasn't very accurate, sometimes I was getting the same time, sometimes faster for welder, but never faster for builder tool.
    Conclusion: someone with LUA knowledge should check it out. As my results tell me nothing useful.
    notice turorial text
    2014-02-03_00001.jpg


    Also, another welder advantage - much less noise while building = excellent choice for ninjas.
  • craZyfxcraZyfx Austria Join Date: 2014-01-20 Member: 193350Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    You can also weld your teammates before / after / while building without changing weapons ;)
  • cooliticcoolitic Right behind you Join Date: 2013-04-02 Member: 184609Members
    They have same build time for most buildings, however, welders will increase the health of the structures faster while building so it would be less likely to be destroyed if attacked. Also welders are faster with power nodes.
  • xen32xen32 Join Date: 2012-10-18 Member: 162676Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    coolitic wrote: »
    They have same build time for most buildings, however, welders will increase the health of the structures faster while building so it would be less likely to be destroyed if attacked.
    Why everyone still has this in mind? It changed since balance update last summer.

    I'd say if anyone mentions this, you can assume they either didn't use welder to build structures for more than half a year or can't see what's right before their eyes.
  • 2cough2cough Rocky Mountain High Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183952Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    PsiWarp wrote: »
    Welder has more range than Build Tool, so you don't need to be in-your-face close with the structure.

    A note on this, I and a sneaky comm dropped an observatory in a certain corner of a certain room on a certain map. In this corner, the welder can not actually hit the obs to build it because it's kind of in a wall, however you can use your "use key" to build it there. Pretty sure skulks can not bite this either, but probably can get hit by bile and stomp.

    *whistle* :-\"

    Anyways, that said the "use key" can be used slightly differently in some situations based on your physical orientation than can the welder. But yeah, like it's been said here, I always go w/ a welder usually for the purpose of repairing pwr faster and glorious welder kills.
  • Infinity_XInfinity_X USA Join Date: 2013-12-17 Member: 190195Members
    I can corroborate @xen32's information that the welder does not "overheal" a building while it is being built. That was changed several builds ago.

    Basically, compared to the "use" build tool, the welder:

    *repairs broken power nodes faster (not sure about fresh/blueprint nodes)
    *repairs your own armor when fixing power nodes (not for any blueprints)
    *able to weld allies if more than one person is trying to build (at the cost of build speed)
    *does not incur a movement speed penalty while building
    *has slightly more range
    *is quieter

    I don't think the weapon switch time is worth mentioning. The assault rife "unsheathe" animation must complete whether you're switching to it from the "use" tool or the welder.



  • amoralamoral Join Date: 2013-01-03 Member: 177250Members
    someone actually told me welder was slower on build, didn't believe him, but regardless, the pros outweigh the cons even if true. the only thing to look out for is when powerbuilding, you might be better off with the build tool because the welder might prioritize welding a teammate.
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    firepower wrote: »
    Because the wiki is a perfectly reliable source.

    ---

    It does, however, build broken power nodes notably faster.

    I remember it was stated when introduced and confirmed with the wiki.
    It may have been changed in later build for balance, only unknown worlds or lua code can tell us for sure.

    your sarcasm is cheap, where your proof wiki is wrong, if so correct it.


    I won't start editing any wikies, especially this one. I'd never be done.
  • GameOverGameOver Germany Join Date: 2003-10-15 Member: 21700Members, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow
    xen32 wrote: »
    Roobubba wrote: »
    It is wrong.

    Compared to the build tool:
    Welders give the building more hp faster during the build process (reaches max hp before fully built)

    This information is very outdated, it was before b250. Now building with welder reaches 100% construction at the same time it reaches 100% hp.
    Another thing, in tutorial they say "Welder builds faster".
    Conclusion: testing needed.

    Upd: I can't say that I was measuring very accurately, but I got results were I win 0.5-2 seconds when building with welder, where 0.5 split was Proto, 2 seconds was the arms lab. Now, as I wasn't very accurate, sometimes I was getting the same time, sometimes faster for welder, but never faster for builder tool.
    Conclusion: someone with LUA knowledge should check it out. As my results tell me nothing useful.
    notice turorial text
    2014-02-03_00001.jpg

    Also, another welder advantage - much less noise while building = excellent choice for ninjas.

    short test of mine revealed:
    A blueprint RT is built 2 seconds faster with welder: Building Tool 15 seconds; Welder 13 seconds
    Other buildings(tested on obs and robotfactory) are built 1 second faster with welder, e.g. Observatory: around 17 seconds with building tool; around 16 seconds with welder.
    I am sure it is applicable on other buildings, too.

    The conclusion: You build (slightly) faster with welder and the tutorial is correct. ;)
  • elodeaelodea Editlodea Join Date: 2009-06-20 Member: 67877Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I was waiting for someone to eventually post the right answer but it seems ns2 is too unintuitive and convoluted for that to happen rofl

    Basically this -
    If you are building an armoury
    It doesn't matter
    If you are building an arms lab
    use a welder
    If you are building a powernode blueprint
    Do not use welder, it is slower
    If you are building a destroyed powernode
    Do not even bother if you don't have a welder. Welder is twice the speed from something like 30 seconds base to 15.
    If you are building an IP
    Use welder
    If you are building a robotics
    It doesn't matter
    If you are bulding an RT
    It doesn't matter
  • KhyronKhyron Join Date: 2012-02-02 Member: 143308Members
    edited February 2014
    Elodea is your reasoning exclusively based on build time? If not then what?

    Otherwise Infinity_X's point about welders increasing base HP quicker is a decent enough reason to use the welder most times.

    Edit: whatever the case, the takeaway message is this game needs more consistency.
  • ScatterScatter Join Date: 2012-09-02 Member: 157341Members, Squad Five Blue
    I don't use a welder to build primarily because I like just jumping away from the building and having my rifle appear instead of having to press a button to switch to it from welder.
  • elodeaelodea Editlodea Join Date: 2009-06-20 Member: 67877Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited February 2014
    For reference,

    The point is there is no one underlying *intuitive* reason to the real in-game observations. The realised build times are just what they are. In a perfect world, structures (excepting powernodes and sentries) are intended to be built at the same speed regardless of welder or not. See below for rates. Also, welders do not have a hp rate bonus as previously suggested

    The only observed cases of welders building faster should be
    1) sentries
    2) destroyed powernodes

    Because blueprint powernodes are treated basically as a different kind of special entity for a structure that normally has no blueprint cycle, they do not benefit from the welder bonus rate and thus behave differently. In other words, a long standing oversight

    kWelderPowerRepairRate = 220
    kBuilderPowerRepairRate = 110
    kWelderSentryRepairRate = 150
    kPlayerWeldRate = 30
    kStructureWeldRate = 90
  • xen32xen32 Join Date: 2012-10-18 Member: 162676Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    I think this video should fit this thread just fine:
  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    If what @elodea says it's true, the devs should clearly clear up the un-intuitivness about welders in the next patch...

    (Powernode blueprint is slower? Why? Why?)
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