28. Depreciation and SupCom

Depreciation is a Financial Accounting term used to describe the estimated useful life of something in terms of resources (money in real life).  There are three methods, factories use the “units of production” method rather than either of the other two.  The idea is that we can only expect the factory to produce so many of a unit before it is lost, and anything after that is an altruistic bonus from our opponent(s).  Since we will never know how many unit will actually be produced from a factory before the game ends or the factory dies; we have to establish rational goals instead.  As an example, every nine seige bots produced justifies constructing one new factory and upgrading it to tech 3.

Here is an example why…

Each seige bot costs about 1/9 of a T3 factory (including upgrades); therefore each factory must produce at least 9 seige bots for the total cost of those 9 bots to be 1/2 fixed and 1/2 variable costs.  If we can expect to need 50 seige bots to overrun and destroy our opponents, then we will obviously need more than 1 factory to produce them.  We also know that building 50 factories is a waste of both time and resources.  The fastest way to produce them is to have factories numbering (SQRT of 50 = 7), but that may not be economically beneficial.  In this situation, 5 factories would be economically superior to 7 factories (without sacrificing too much time).

If we could expect to need 500 seige bots, then we would want to have at most (500/9 = 55) factories and at least (SQRT 500 = 22) factories.  With 22 factories we would produce at the fastest rate with the lowest total cost (fixed + variable).

Factories needed = seige bots / 9   … or…  SQRT( total seige bots )  [whichever number is lower]

To make this scenario more realistic, we will add one more layer of complexity (and we’ll assume that those 500 siege bots will be used over the entire game instead of all in one attack).  All T1 Factories have a build rate of 10, T2 of 20, and T3 of 30 (double in FA).  All engineers follow a similar progression of T1=5, t2=10, and T3=15 (we’ll ignore support commanders because they’re not supposed to be used primarilly for construction) (same build rates for FA).

Six T1 engineers will effectively count for an additional factory.  However, six T1 engineers cost 6/98 as much as a new factory and 6/58 as much time.  Putting more tech 1 engineers around the same factory increases production linearly.

The only limitation to having an infinite number of engineers assisting the same factory is the time it takes for the unit to leave the factory.  Through experience, up to 16 engineers may assist a land factory without significantly blocking the path of the unit leaving (minimizing downtime).  Air units fly, so this limitation is effectively non-existant (use as many engineers to assist an air factory as possible).

The cost of engineers is insignificant compaired to a T3 factory, so we’ll ignore it.  The relationship of time to build engineers’ at different tech levels is:

T1 = 150 T2 = 440 and T3 = 980   (for Vanilla, the spread is even more dramatic for FA)

Assuming we’re still building seige bots and not spamming lower tech level units (a valid strategy)…  the maximum number of factories would have a simultaneous build rate of 1650 and the least we could accept has a build rate of 660.  Using 16 T1 engineers gives us a combined build rate of 120 (80 + 30 from the factory).  We need a minimum of 6 factories with this set up.  If we use T3 engineers, 16 gives a combined build rate of 270 (240 + 30 from the factory).  We need a minimum of 3 factories with that set up.  The maximums are affected by the fact we’re using engineers instead of upgraded factories.  Tech 1 engineers assisting a factory require it to construct 11 seige bots to depreciate fixed costs.  Tech 3 engineers require 24 seige bots to depreciate fixed costs.  While the (fixed + variable) cost of each siege bot increases by +22% and +166% (respectively); the production speed of each one produced increases by +300% and +800% (respectively).  We could use up to 45 factories with T1 engineers or we could use up to 20 factories with T3 engineers.

The least amount of time and resources will still use (SQRT 500=22) factories, but with Tech 1 engineers assisting it will take 1/4 the original time.  With Tech 3 engineers, we would not produce enough seige bots to fully depreciate our fixed cost, and so we want to use the lower number of 20; which will take about 1/9 the time to complete production.

27. Fixed Costs and Variable Costs also apply to Supreme Commander

The cost of your siege bot factory is a fixed cost, the cost of producing siege bots is a variable cost. The total cost of your siege bot is the price of your siege bot in addition to the price of your siege bot factory divided by the number of siege bots produced. Therefore, the more siege bots you build, the less each siege bot costs.

siege bot cost = siege bot price + (price of factory / total siege bots produced)

For example: the price of a t3 land factory is equal to the price of nine siege bots; therefore, if you build nine siege bots, each siege bot’s cost is in fact twice it’s listed price. If you build eighteen siege bots, then the cost of each siege bot will be 25% lower than if you had only built nine.

The true cost of your siege bots will always be higher than the listed price.

The more siege bots you build, the less they all cost, including the ones that have already been built.  Production capacity is very important, but keep total costs and variable costs in mind; the more factories you build, the more each siege bot costs. Review Psalm 30 to read more about production capacity.

26. A win is a win no matter the means used to achieve that win.

No tactic is “noob”, no tactic is “cheap”, no cost is too high so long it results in final victory.

25. Being well tuned means having perfect timing.

Like an engine that runs at peak performance, success in any endeavor requires precise timing.  Moving, building, and idling all require forethought to contribute to a favorable outcome.

Coordinating forces to move upon your opponent’s base from a variety of angles is only effective when they arrive with a planned, coordinated effect.  Either all of the forces arrive simultaneously to overwhelm the defending forces -or- they arrive from opposite sides with delay, so as to have concentrated defenders on one side when the other wave arrives unopposed on the opposite side.

Constructing military assets early in a game may allow for immediate assault, but it sacrifices economic development that could have been constructed instead.  That additional income lost per tick could have been used to construct further economic development.  If engineeering potential is built in tandem with economic capacity, then growth of the entire system is exponential and infinite.  However, if military assets are never created then a large military force will wipe out all of the economic benefits of exponential growth.  Not only must a player balance how much economy is spent on creating army, but a player must balance when to start building army and when to focus on building army.  This all depends on map size and the aggresiveness of the opponent(s).  An opponent that walks their army across a large map gives you a time advantage while an opponent that airlifts his forces across oceans takes away such advantages.

Having your forces standing still is generally considered a sin.  However, there are times when it is favorable to wait for other events to conclude before committing your forces to action.  Having enough air transports to airlift at least 50% of your army rather than 20% is a perfect example.  Allowing two opponents to destroy each others’ armies before putting your army into action is another great example.  Waiting for economic buildings to complete before starting new engineering projects is further proof that standing idle is not always truely idle.

A typical fuel engine needs to coordinate intake, compression, explosion, and exhaust between multiple cylinders to run at peak efficiency.  A commander in battle needs to coordinate construction, expansion, production, and aggression to operate at peak efficiency.  While the biggest and best units may be the most powerful, if they can not be produced in massive quantities, then weaker units could be more effective from a production point of view.  The commander that wins may have the worst kill ratio, but he still wins.

24. Idle forces become expensive forces over time.

Avoid calculating a unit’s cost based only on it’s (mass + energy) price.  Instead calculate a unit’s cost based on what it costs you in future production through terms of “lost production capacity” vs “short term benefit”.

For example:

The price of seven and a half T2 Tanks is equal to the price of a single T2 power generator. The output of a single T2 power generator is equivalent to an additional T2 Power generator every two minutes. Two T2 Power Generator’s output is equivalent to an additional T2 Power Generator every minute. Three T2 Generator’s output is equivalent to an additional T2 Power Generator in forty seconds. Four T2 Power Generator’s output is equivalent to sixteen T2 Tanks a minute.

The price of seven and a half T2 tanks costs four T2 Power generators in just three minutes and forty seconds. Therefore, in three minutes and forty seconds your seven and a half T2 Tanks will cost you sixteen tanks a minute in lost production. The future price of each tank will be three and three quarter’s seconds of output. By expanding your economy you are lowering the future cost of each unit you build. It is important to note that seven and a half T2 tanks don’t build additional tanks or replace loses.

If you build military force, they must be used immediately before time depreciates their value.

23. Defence in depth defeats concentrated attacks at minimal risk.

Defense in depth expands killing potential by prolonging ranged exposure while at the same time reducing the threat potential of concentrated attacks and their splash affects upon your defences. 

1. The longer the opportunity your guns have to fire at a target, the greater the damage they will deal.

2. Dispersed defences take much longer to kill since the enemy must move between point defences, and in fact a lone point defence will often be ignored by an enemy player. The travel time between the defences will increase the weapons exposure time.

3. If all of your defences are concentrated they are very vulnerable to overwhelming concentrated attacks. However, a horde of t1 bombers will accomplish little if your defences are dispersed.