The dangers of fab matrices in online play
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| An invitation to disaster. |
I played a 3-way FFA custom game recently (I know, a rarity) and it highlighted perfectly the dangers of fab matrices in online play. Fab matrices are elaborate laid out patterns of power generators and mass fabricators that maximize adjacency bonuses. Of course, they’re also extremely volatile, and a single mass fabricator exploding can take out the entire chain. They’re good in single player, but are definitely not recommended for multiplayer. Unlike the AI, human opponents are intelligent, and they will definitely be gunning for those highly explosive resource chains.
This match was on Sentry Point. I was in the southern starting position. My opponent to the northwest quickly eclipsed me in terms of score because he was building highly efficient fab arrays. My opponent to the northeast also did something similar a bit later in the game, but not to the same degree. I sparred for awhile with the opponent to the northwest, the third player largely ignored. He beat me to tech 2, but then made the mistake of stopping there, getting mobile missile launchers which proved largely ineffective. Meanwhile, I stopped at tech 2 only long enough to get a few tech 2 engineers, then went straight to tech 3.
I ran into a problem. He was getting tech 2 gunships, which were chewing up my front line defenses. I didn’t really have any anti-air to speak of, but I did have a few siege assault bots. So I pushed through on a suicide attack against the formation of buildings I saw on my radar that I knew had to be a fab matrix. All but one died before getting there. The one that did get there, however, proved successful in its mission. It killed a single mass fabricator, which set off a chain reaction that decimated most of his resource base. He quit immediately thereafter. He had lost, and he realized it. With his economy crippled and more siege assault bots inevitably on the way, he was doomed.
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| Disaster strikes. |
He paid the price for quick early economic development by being crippled later on. After I knocked off my first opponent I turned on the other opponent, and again, took out a large fab matrix. This assault wasn’t so critical though. I already had many siege assault bots with more on the way, and even had he not left himself vulnerable by using a fab matrix, I would have won. The first opponent, though, may well have won had he just not been so vulnerable. So the lesson to take away from this is to never link up more than a resource structures to each other in online play. It’s just not worth it. Note that by linking I mean links that generate adjacency bonuses. Constructing a lot of power generators in a row isn’t a good idea because up to four can be hit at a time by a single bombing run, but only those four will die; they won’t chain-react and destroy the rest of the power generators. But put some mass fabricators into the chain as well and you’re playing with nitroglycerin.
Download the replay of this match (v3223).
May 9th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
This is why I build my powergens and fabs like a retarded person would. I would rather have safety then some bonuses(significant as they might be).
May 9th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I didn’t watch the replay but while this can be bad These matrices can be useful at the beginning without hurting you at the end. I tend to built a fab matrix (not quite as big as the one in your picture but generally enough energy to run 8 or 9 mass fabs) early on and then continue expanding my resources as quickly as possible. when i reach tech two I build a tech 2 power gen or 2 and start upgrading my mex’s once this is done (and i’m teching up to lvl 3) I don’t really have to worry too much about this fab matrix. At tech 3 comes a fusion gen and a couple tech 3 mass fabs and at that point I’ve got enough mass to start constructing my tech 3 armies. If you keep this matrix away from any other valuable resources and if you protect it early while it can help you then it will provide valuable resources to help you tech up or build your armies quickly.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Jdude1 if a decent opponent scouts it, it will be blown up before you can blink.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
He beat me to tech 2, but then made the mistake of stopping there, getting mobile missile launchers which proved largely ineffective. Meanwhile, I stopped at tech 2 only long enough to get a few tech 2 engineers, then went straight to tech 3.
Thanks for reminding me why I can’t wait for the patch and the delay of T3 so T2 gets used more. ;)
May 9th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I agree with Wuped here, it’s pretty cheap to just build an air factory and a bomber or two if it’s worth it - and an opponent having a fab matrix makes it worth it. Against really good players, you’re going to have to put a lot of air defense on that fab matrix, making it more trouble than it’s worth.
May 9th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
I always try to spread them out, no more than two mass fabs with six power gens around them every time. Multiple smaller farms aren’t as much of a juicy target than a big matrix. It’s more micro that way to set things up but at least you know they won’t need one shot kill your economy.
May 9th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Strange, while watching the replay the message “player was defeated” appeared before the explosion of the fab-matrix. The commander exploded very shortly after the destruction of the matrix.
Had the opponent anticipated his soon ecological demise, or had the other opponent hit him with some sneaky artillery?
May 9th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I agree that Fab Matrices are dangerous in small maps like Winter Duel, Theta or Sentry. But on larger maps, they are, I think, fairly essential to getting that economy rolling. So, if you’re playing ranked, probably forgo the Fab matrix. If you’re playing a custom game on a 40×40 map… go with the fab matrix.
May 9th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Alarion: Upon watching it again, it looks like he quit as soon as he saw the siege assault bots coming, which was before his fab matrices were destroyed.
May 9th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Actually Cyde I think that the main advantage the NW player got was the early raid which killed two of your engs.
He never really seemed to take off in resources, I think perhaps a lack of Mex upgrades was the problem? Certainly the farm helped (although the adjacency for T1 farms isn’t that big is it - just 25% for full adjacency?), but I suspect it was just compensating for some mismanagement / failure to exponentially expand.
May 9th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Yes, that was a daring early raid. I wasn’t expecting it at all, as you can see I went all engineers at the beginning. You typically don’t see very early rushes in FFA.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I just came up with this idea. What if you built dummy fab farms with walls or just power gens to get the oppent to waste some bombers :)
May 10th, 2007 at 2:03 am
dunno like you do it.. but i tend to send airscouts before ANY attacks…
to chcek where is the less AA tower guarded area…