Does 2 minutes of research time matter?

Two minutes is roughly enough for lvl2 turrets, and the commander can guarantee that those are used properly.

But you're right that it feels like a waste every time you rush absorbent-ugl (-turbine) and your team doesn't want to play along. Then you're stuck with absorbent and no tank research.

That's why I almost always go for turrets on medium-sized or smaller maps with <10 man teams.

P.S. Thank you for making a thread in Gameplay that isn't a veiled suggestion thread.

 

Rushing UGL apcs, making sure you're always spot on researching the items after each other..
Research finishes, ok we can go out and kill them all with our very quick apc research!

Team takes at least 5 minutes to build a vehicle.
It's a jeep.

 

This is why there should be restrict vehicles/weapons/engines/armors option for commander

 

It really depends on your team. If you had 2 commanders with good teams up against eachother, getting your key research as little as 30 seconds earlier could be the difference between winning and losing the game. However, in a lot of pub matches, it can take up to 5 minutes for your team to start using the vehicles you actually want them to, unless it's artillery, in which case they build 10 within 5 seconds of the research being complete.

Either way, you should really try to make a point of getting the radar up asap, and keeping on top of your research progress. I mean, research is free now, so there's no real excuse to ever get delayed with it as long as you get a radar up early and protect it.

 

And if you can't protect your radar, then starting heavies or turrets are excellent investments!

You just need a radar to start research, not finish it.

Often, you can get a new radar up before the long research finishes, so there's no down time!

 

You can leverage an early advantage in research by building forward VFs , or on occasion even recycle forward spawns.

But for the most part, no, 1-2 minutes makes no difference unless you really plan something to catch the other team off guard.

In pubs people are generally motivated to engage as much as possible as quickly as possible in most cases. So if they see a VF they will use it. Otherwise I don't expect them to spawn back at main base to get a tank just because I suggest it.

In games with actual squads I find it is useful to specify one person in each squad to be responsible for ensuring that their squad always has vehicle support. You can usually pick out one person from each squad who is happy to do this & 1 vehicle to 4 people usually works well early game if you can get the drivers to stay near the infantry.

 

Why would you ever..

 

No.

Spam walls if you realize that you did something wrong and you require 2 mins to fix it.

 

Pretty much this. It used to be that I would frantically try to get research done as quickly as possible before realizing that people didn't take advantage of quick research. Then I quit playing video games.

 

because sometimes it is a loosing battle & it would be better to have those 3 or so people in medium tanks, rather than wasting tickets failing. Admittedly it's rarely necessary or useful, but sometimes it is.

 

Late reply, but interesting question sooo...

I think on chokepoint maps research speed is not as important. In some respects holding off a VF while resources grow will help you later in the game. Pushing UGL APC's without armor just wastes resources. More important is having the right mix of Engies. Grens and riflemen. If you have a team full of engies you lose the control point.

Having your team keep spawning in center (cross roads) instead of coming back and pushing a weak vehicle is not good. On large open maps the opposite is true. Dust storm - vehicles and research are critical. Most maps demand a slightly different tactic.

Had a game a couple nights ago that while I was building in middle, (as com) on cross roads, NF opponent dropped four rax's and upgraded turrets in our main. Had a good 10 minutes of fighting before we could recover main and build a radar. We walled ourselves in, and told the team to turtle letting ONE heavy in at a time, and push as grens and engies. Kill and recycle to make up for losing center. Since it was a choke point map we holed up - killed a lot of their vehicles keeping them starved and had enough for four heavies at one time, Pushed after a long period, and won.

In fact, I focus on research. I don't let it lag more than the time it takes to chose the next selection. WHY wouldn't you give yourself every benefit to win? Letting it lag for minutes can cause you to lose, but it is not a sure loss if your team can defend well.

 

Fucking this.

[sub]Also a good reason to get turrets.[/sub]

See comment above.

I know it makes hobbes cry, but I'll always drop a radar before a vf.

I see what you mean.

Coms that open a million trees should be shot.

I go out of my way to design research paths that yield the most stuff with the fewest trees opened. NF coms on money only need Biology & Mechanical. Most open maps only require Electrical, Chemistry & Mechanical. etc.

 

I find that when I comm I will have a plan to open few trees but depending on how fast the other commander advances (meds and better weapons etc) I will open other trees just to allow a faster response incase they do something I didnt expect.

Lets say (and this is totally not going to happen), I have only chemistry and mechanical open for mediums. If the enemy comm gets bio ml / mg then it would be longer before I could get regen to counter it. If I was to hold off on mediums and open another tree until they have meds (or I think are likely to have meds) then I can get to a counter faster and save team resources.

Like I said that combination really isnt going to happen but it was good for an example

 

And now you know why no one uses Physics. I agree that it's a good exercise though.

Trickster: "When Fission is fixed, you'll see people start researching Physics."

Everyone That Actually Plays: "lol no"

Avoiding Chemistry is a fun challenge, but it usually causes me to lose. UGL is basically required at this point, so that means Chemistry is required as well. The Empires playerbase has spoken: Anti-building weapons are freakin awesome. Nerfing UGL's building damage and creating a new Physics GL for anti-building work would fix the UGL problem & make Physics popular, literally the two biggest problems in the game. But you'd have to actually play the game to understand that.

I think you are right. I tend to com like a nanny and I think that colored my previous statements.

I try to not let my team do stupid shit. Dipshit infantry just cause their team to play a man down. Dipshit infantry in vehicle cause their team to play a man down and run the team into bankruptcy.

Just tonight, I rode with a player that built a single-plate paper APC as his first vehicle. We lost that match.

That's an interesting point. The time savings is mute, but there's a res savings because you aren't losing as many tanks due to disadvantaged armor/weapons.

Still, I feel like that only happens with Bio and you can get compo to manage it. Compo & Regen have roughly equal HP against bio weapons.

 

LazyBum - everyone is right in their posts, nothing misleading here. Spartacus has his own unique research path and is a more aggressive com than many. He uses upgraded turrets expertly while his team pushes. If you see the COM he is more than likely dropping a group of upgraded turrets behind him from which he will move away and control the area. But that is for only a period of time that he can control the area. It's easy enough to counter that with one Engie and one Gren. It tends to force teams away from rifleman to the stronger gren and requires engineers to support those grens or it's a quick loss. He has done this with those quick losses. But it's also easy enough to beat with a team that works well together and it puts him four minutes behind on research. So we get heavies and nukes sooner and kick his butt

Basically you need to continue to experiment, and find your own unique ways to win. I have different methods on every map and based on the members of the team. When Haschtewas is on my team I cater to him. I know what ScRaT and Kyro like which is different. I personally like similar to ScRaT. Nubs will waste resources so I may hold off on mediums or build turrets for them. I think it was Steve UK who always demanded Regen and 3 Phase until 3Phase turning got screwed. He loved to spin his fast vehicle into groups of players to run them over. I personally hate Regen but other coms love it. I also have different opinion on composite than many.

PS: On that turn around game on CrossRoads. Your guys came in and took down my whole base with one APC. We had two heavies floundering in my base and the drivers commented that they couldn't drive and they mistakenly took out nukes instead of dual HE. Only way we recovered was when I demanded everyone to go as Gren or Engie while I built walls. 3 grens to 1 engie was what I needed. They stayed in the base. Every APC or tank you pushed in was money in our pocket. We rebuilt, pushed out the heavies and caught you with your nuke tanks on your way to kill those grens. I got in a heavy since all research was done. Guns and Whammo gets credit for the final kill - all alone in your base smartly targeting you, while I fought your vets at the base entrance. It could have been a different game. Walls saved us by slowing you down, while we recovered.

I have learned that there are good times to turtle without expecting it to lose you the match.