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Author Topic:   Converting crawlers to minerals?

MCinBigD posted 05-11-99 11:59 PM ET
Has someone figured the ROI on this yet?
I wanted to mine distant minerals for one particular base. I had three surrounding bases create crawlers but found that I needed to Set a new Home Base for them before they would haul resources to the correct location.
I moved them to the needed base (which was building an important SP) and it asked if I wanted to throw their mineral equivalent against the SP. It seemed like a good deal, since the other three bases were cranking them out every two turns ... so I just threw them against the SP and completed the project in 6 turns.
Sure, they're gone now ... but I really just wanted them for the SP. Would it have been better to use them to haul back minerals?
Thoughts?
MC
"Take the high road; defend the high ground."
Smeagol posted 05-12-99 12:06 AM ET
You did the right thing! Always use crawlers for this purpose-- it is perhaps their most powerful use. Only crawlers will give you all minerals spent when you do this, so it's a great idea to build lots of them in the bases surrounding the base building a project, and complete it in a few turns.
Urban Ranger posted 05-12-99 04:17 AM ET
Sure! This is the only time when you get back the full minerals cost of building units. Normally, disbanding a unit gives you only half the cost back.
There are several exceptions. If you get more hauling minerals, then you should use a convey to do so.
I would also suggest you build conveys on the speeder chasis. Crawlers are just too dang slow.
Earwicker posted 05-12-99 08:35 AM ET
>>>I would also suggest you build conveys on
the speeder chasis. Crawlers are just too
dang slow.
Another advantage of using other configurations for crawlers is a more efficient use of production. If your base is producing 25 minerals, producing a 30-mineral crawler is wasteful -- go with a 50-mineral drop supply crawler (gets there faster, too). Skimship supply is another good option, as are drop rover supply (at 90 minerals, a great option for 30-mineral bases).
Play with it a bit -- try other special abilities to boost the cost. In the end it can be more effective to build fewer high-mineral supply crawlers than many low-mineral crawlers. Especially if you know there's a good SP on the way and you want to "bank up". It's much more flexible than leaving a base in SP mode -- say, banking minerals in the Longevity Vaccine when all you really want to do is build the Supoercollider there -- because in an emergency (e.g., drone riots) you can finish the crawler, build something else, then go back to SP-ready mode.
Plato90s posted 05-12-99 04:36 PM ET
Keep in mind that no matter how expensive the crawler, you can only get 30 minerals from it.
The best upgrade to make is to Fusion Speeder crawler. It'll cost the same 30 credits that an infantry fission crawler costs. Any other enginer or chassis will cost more.
S_Carton_Esq posted 05-12-99 04:50 PM ET
Actually, you do get more than 30 minerals. You get the full mineral value for building the thing at your current social engineering setting. While a speeder supply unit can be helpful for building SPs (although I usually find that by arround the time I have fusion power I also have mag tubes, so the speed of the supply unit is moot), the most usefull upgrade you can make to a supply unit that will be used to bring in resources is to give it armor. A supply crawler spends most of it's time just sitting arround anyway, so it's speed is not really all that important. However, give it armor and AAA special ability (which you do for very little once you get fusion reactors), and you will save yourself inumerable headaches.
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Author	Topic: Converting crawlers to minerals?
MCinBigD	posted 05-11-99 11:59 PM ET Has someone figured the ROI on this yet? I wanted to mine distant minerals for one particular base. I had three surrounding bases create crawlers but found that I needed to Set a new Home Base for them before they would haul resources to the correct location. I moved them to the needed base (which was building an important SP) and it asked if I wanted to throw their mineral equivalent against the SP. It seemed like a good deal, since the other three bases were cranking them out every two turns ... so I just threw them against the SP and completed the project in 6 turns. Sure, they're gone now ... but I really just wanted them for the SP. Would it have been better to use them to haul back minerals? Thoughts? MC "Take the high road; defend the high ground."
Smeagol	posted 05-12-99 12:06 AM ET You did the right thing! Always use crawlers for this purpose-- it is perhaps their most powerful use. Only crawlers will give you all minerals spent when you do this, so it's a great idea to build lots of them in the bases surrounding the base building a project, and complete it in a few turns.
Urban Ranger	posted 05-12-99 04:17 AM ET Sure! This is the only time when you get back the full minerals cost of building units. Normally, disbanding a unit gives you only half the cost back. There are several exceptions. If you get more hauling minerals, then you should use a convey to do so. I would also suggest you build conveys on the speeder chasis. Crawlers are just too dang slow.
Earwicker	posted 05-12-99 08:35 AM ET >>>I would also suggest you build conveys on the speeder chasis. Crawlers are just too dang slow. Another advantage of using other configurations for crawlers is a more efficient use of production. If your base is producing 25 minerals, producing a 30-mineral crawler is wasteful -- go with a 50-mineral drop supply crawler (gets there faster, too). Skimship supply is another good option, as are drop rover supply (at 90 minerals, a great option for 30-mineral bases). Play with it a bit -- try other special abilities to boost the cost. In the end it can be more effective to build fewer high-mineral supply crawlers than many low-mineral crawlers. Especially if you know there's a good SP on the way and you want to "bank up". It's much more flexible than leaving a base in SP mode -- say, banking minerals in the Longevity Vaccine when all you really want to do is build the Supoercollider there -- because in an emergency (e.g., drone riots) you can finish the crawler, build something else, then go back to SP-ready mode.
Plato90s	posted 05-12-99 04:36 PM ET Keep in mind that no matter how expensive the crawler, you can only get 30 minerals from it. The best upgrade to make is to Fusion Speeder crawler. It'll cost the same 30 credits that an infantry fission crawler costs. Any other enginer or chassis will cost more.
S_Carton_Esq	posted 05-12-99 04:50 PM ET Actually, you do get more than 30 minerals. You get the full mineral value for building the thing at your current social engineering setting. While a speeder supply unit can be helpful for building SPs (although I usually find that by arround the time I have fusion power I also have mag tubes, so the speed of the supply unit is moot), the most usefull upgrade you can make to a supply unit that will be used to bring in resources is to give it armor. A supply crawler spends most of it's time just sitting arround anyway, so it's speed is not really all that important. However, give it armor and AAA special ability (which you do for very little once you get fusion reactors), and you will save yourself inumerable headaches.