Improve Your Macro: A Guide to Resource-Gathering & Economy
Oct 14, 2016 1:12:12 GMT
Jean-Luc Picard, Quintus Fabius, and 1 more like this
Post by Desophaeus on Oct 14, 2016 1:12:12 GMT
Firstmost, this guide applies mainly to the conquests you play in EW4 rather than the campaigns. Most campaigns are 15 turns or less, but conquests can last well into 50 or even 100 turns for you (it varies, of course). So for conquests, one of the biggest help to your progress is your ability to spam units, guess what that does depends on? Your macro!
What's the "Macro"?
I'm borrowing a game term from StarCraft players because it's an useful concept in strategy games one way or other, but in StarCraft it's practically foremost in its importance among the players. On forums or channels, when StarCraft players discuss the ability of a player in the game, it's naturally inevitable that the conversation will lead to the topic of "Macro-ing". This topic constantly gets hyped and overhyped, but it's still important nonetheless. In the highly competitive RTS play (or even in causal play), macro is the vital benchmark in measuring how well a player can play the game.
What's NOT the "Macro"?
This isn't the same as managing your unit positions, or attack tactics. Micromanagement is a very old topic on this forum even though it's rarely called as that. When people are talking about the efficiency of a tactic, or path to take on a map, or which unit has a better attack (including generals)... all of that, it's the micro. The macro is more about the efficiency of gathering resources or spending by producing new units. The macro is also about how you spend resources on improving your resources gathering.
The Guide to EW4 Macro
To start off... EW4 is somewhat unusual with its upgrade pricing. Normally, most games have a system of increasing costs for the next level which often is just one consistent increasing increment (like each upgrade gives you a +5 for every level, but it cost more and more as you goes up through the levels). For EW4...it depends on what kind of a faculty you're upgrading.
Most faculties has a flat increasing rate for every level, it will give you a # for every level. All upgrades for each type of faculty is also following a flat rate, you pay the same cost for every level.
One particular oddity: cities. Upgrade costs remains flat no matter what level the faculty is at, but the increments grows bigger as you go up through the levels. This holds true for cities, but none of the other facilities follows this behavior (other than the flat costs).
Another thing to look for is how much of an increase an upgrade will give you. Not all types of faculties gives a worthwhile return to investments poured into them.
(will continue editing)
What's the "Macro"?
I'm borrowing a game term from StarCraft players because it's an useful concept in strategy games one way or other, but in StarCraft it's practically foremost in its importance among the players. On forums or channels, when StarCraft players discuss the ability of a player in the game, it's naturally inevitable that the conversation will lead to the topic of "Macro-ing". This topic constantly gets hyped and overhyped, but it's still important nonetheless. In the highly competitive RTS play (or even in causal play), macro is the vital benchmark in measuring how well a player can play the game.
What's NOT the "Macro"?
This isn't the same as managing your unit positions, or attack tactics. Micromanagement is a very old topic on this forum even though it's rarely called as that. When people are talking about the efficiency of a tactic, or path to take on a map, or which unit has a better attack (including generals)... all of that, it's the micro. The macro is more about the efficiency of gathering resources or spending by producing new units. The macro is also about how you spend resources on improving your resources gathering.
The Guide to EW4 Macro
To start off... EW4 is somewhat unusual with its upgrade pricing. Normally, most games have a system of increasing costs for the next level which often is just one consistent increasing increment (like each upgrade gives you a +5 for every level, but it cost more and more as you goes up through the levels). For EW4...it depends on what kind of a faculty you're upgrading.
Most faculties has a flat increasing rate for every level, it will give you a # for every level. All upgrades for each type of faculty is also following a flat rate, you pay the same cost for every level.
One particular oddity: cities. Upgrade costs remains flat no matter what level the faculty is at, but the increments grows bigger as you go up through the levels. This holds true for cities, but none of the other facilities follows this behavior (other than the flat costs).
Another thing to look for is how much of an increase an upgrade will give you. Not all types of faculties gives a worthwhile return to investments poured into them.
(will continue editing)
