Reclaim

[gogbe]

Why is reclaim so important? I don't under stand why everyone goes for the reclaim at the middle of the map every game.

[E8400-CV]

Because it's free resources. Early on you can invest that into things that pay off really fast (T1 mex >> T2 mex). If you don't go, the other team will get it all.

[Reaper Zwei]

Why is reclaim so important? I don't under stand why everyone goes for the reclaim at the middle of the map every game.

Reclaim is mass you can use immediately as compared to the mass you get from mass extractors. Take for example Setons Clutch. There's a ton of mass in the middle, who knows how much, possibly 10,000 mass (I'm sure someone knows a more exact number but I think that's a good rough estimate). Certainly you will get more than that from your mex's through the course of the game but that's over the entire game and not right this minute. That's why reclaim is important, your getting a bunch of mass in one big lump sum instead of a steady income, not to mention the more mass you have the more you can make, so the more mass you can get your hands on the better. Also mass that you overflow gets distributed to your team mates in team games.

[Nombringer]

Also keep in mind the concept of mass inflation.

The reclaim is worth more if you get it sooner.

[E8400-CV]

Then you should also keep in mind opportunity costs. The time you spend walking to the reclaim could be spend building Pgens and mexes, offsetting some of the "lost" reclaim.

[Aulex]

Then you should also keep in mind opportunity costs. The time you spend walking to the reclaim could be spend building Pgens and mexes, offsetting some of the "lost" reclaim.

you also have to realize 99% of the time you're going to have an idle engie or you're going to be stalling at some point, so getting that reclaim is never a waste of time. Honestly transporting engies to your opponents base and reclaiming their engies would be cost effective.

[Plasma_Wolf]

In every game, reclaiming stuff is useful. The only time when it isn't, is when you're already gaining mass. This usually only happens if you have a Paragon. Even if, while reclaiming, you're having your storage completely filled up, it can be a bad idea to stop reclaiming. The longer a mass field exists, the more opportunities your opponent will have to take it away from you. Having the reclaim for yourself is not the top priority, the top priority is to deny your enemy the mass. This is the case for maps like Fields of Isis, Ian's Cross and Seton's Clutch. When the enemy has just lost an experimental close to your base, then you can probably wait for the best moment to reclaim, because if an experimental dies there, an engineer won't even get close (but be careful for the UEF hover drones).

That being said, the mass you get from reclaiming is a finite resource, unlike the mass extractors you build everywhere. Building half a dozen factories to pump out units at an incredible rate is an option, but these new units have to guarantee you a victory. If you still lose fist next battle, then you're most likely only providing your opponent with mass (the battle with your opponent is more likely to happen near his base or his ACU when you have the advantage in numbers) and as soon as your initial mass field is empty, then your factories won't be able to produce anymore.

What happens most of the time, is that the reclaimed mass is used to upgrade mass extractors. Then you're quickly turning your finite field into an increased constant rate of mass income. When this is done, you can build the additional factories. This does mean that your big army of units will come later, but if you can keep up for so long, then it'll really pay off.

The most that the travel for mass is going to cost you is the build time of the engineer that you're sending ahead. Given the fact that the reclaim can usually feed more than one T1 factory and a mex upgrade, this cost is negligible.

Also: if you send your ACU ahead for a mass field somewhere in the middle, then you can continue reclaiming even if a raiding party or an enemy ACU appears. This will not happen with an engineer (Then the time aspect is going to be really costly).

[ZLO_RD]

i do not really understand question.... when engineer reclaims it brings 48 mass per second, equivatent of having 24 t1 extractors, but without building them

I don't under stand why everyone goes for the reclaim at the middle of the map every game.

it sounds like seton's cluch map =\
and they go for reclaim as fast as they can to give mass to allie, so they can make more naval/air faster

[SC-Account]

They go for the reclaim cause they are greedy bastards, that's why! Exploiting natural resources no matter how much the damage to the environment is.

[gogbe]

thanks everyone that really helped!