DWEEBS's guide

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Dweebs' Guide on choosing layouts v1.0
Preamble
To have a new base one has to research MCVs (mobile construction vehicle). Once researched it is absolutely crucial to carefully choose the spot where u land the MCV because the coordinate where you put the MCV, determines the layout of the new base. Often new players don't realize this and go for random placement and end up having bad layouts which is the major reason behind wide disparity in performance of newbies vs veterans. Good choice of layouts improves the production dramatically. In new economy the layout (relative positions of tiberium and crystal fields) of your new bases play a crucial role in determining future performance as a player. Here are a few FAQs about layouts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I get a particular layout?
Ans - Each spot in the map has a unique layout which remains the same until a player founds a MCV on that coordinate. The layout can be checked by looking at the base/camp/outpost at that coordinate. If there is nothing at the spot only way to know the layout is for camp/OP to appear there.
Is the layout still there when one kills the forgotten base?
Ans - If you want the layout of a particular base you can kill the base and found your MCV on the ruin and get that layout. Note that the layout still remains the same at that coordinate even after the ruin expires. It remains the same until someone founds a base on the spot.
What about getting layouts from camps/outposts?
Ans - It works more or less the same way as above. Layout is associated with the coordinate. Even if one kills the camp/OP the layout remains same. You can check/confirm this by waiting for a new camp/OPs to pop up.
Pro tip -- If u had spotted a layout sometime ago and there is no forgotten base/camp/outpost on that spot when u are ready to land new MCV, it's a good idea to wait for a camp/OP to pop up at the spot to confirm the layout still exists.
Can I get the same layout as another player's base?
Ans - No. A Big Big no. There are many prevalent urban legends in the gaming community that this is possible to do by killing a base n number times, etc etc. None of them are true.
How to look for good layouts?
One can do this manually of course by clicking all camps/OPs/bases in range and spectating other people's attacks, but this is ineffective. Most people use third party scripts. There are 2 popular ones -
One u can find as part of CnC TA Script collection in Chrome store - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...fo-dialog. 41 CP mod - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KRS-L/...od.user.js . One has to use this manually everytime one moves to a new spot and mark somehow manually any good layouts he/she spots.
https://c.ac.nz/ - This is a multi-utility tool and does a nice job scanning layouts in the vicinity and uploading to a external website. So u don't need to do a lot manually.
What to look for when choosing a layout?
Ans - A lot depends on the strategy you are following and what you need at the moment.
General considerations - In general keep in mind that U are looking layouts where u can utilize the crystal and tiberium fields with minimal number of silos. The more fields a particular silo touches the better. e.g. A layout with a silo touching 6 tiberium fields is a very very nice layout resource wise.
What to expect? - A 6-touch silo layout is extremely rare and one seldom finds them. However, 5-touch silos or layouts with multiple 4 touch silos are more common to find and can be considered good layouts.
Pure vs mixed -- A Pure 1x4-touch, 1x5-touch tiberium layouts with good pure crystal 1x5+1x4 layout is better than a 2x4 and 2x5 mixed layout (with same number of crystal and tiberium). The reason being upgrade logic for pure silos is much simpler than mixed silos. In case of pure silos, you upgrade the tib first and then the crystal with increased tib production. Mixed silos are rather tricky to manage.
i.e.
is better than
Classical servers vs FAB servers -- On classical servers a healthy crystal income from your layouts is important and thus choosing layouts with both good crystal and tiberium output is a good idea.
On the other hand on FAB servers, good tiberium output layouts (ignoring crystal fields layout) are sought after because crystal income u get from defending against forgotten. Having a good tib income is important to increase the level of the base as you get 30% more crystal per base level increase after the +4 cap on crystal income from Forgotten bases was introduced. And in order to defend well one needs some defense towers which need tiberium for upgrades. So its a feedback loop, u need good tiberium production to have a good defense and high base level, which in turn gets u more crystal by allowing u to go deeper into forgotten territory.
A good main -- A good main offense base is of course of supreme importance. So what to look for when choosing a main layout? Three things are important (1) A good power layout -- Free space to have at least 2-3 full 8-touch power rings (accumulator surrounded by 8 powerplants) OR at the very least few 7-touch power rings. (2) A decent tiberium prodcution -- 1x6t + 2x4t silos is great but very rare. Other good options are layouts with - 2x5t+2x4t, 2x5t + 2x3t silos OR at the very least -- 4x4t, 1x5t + 1x4t, 3x4t silos. (Note -- All the silos are pure tuberium). (3) A good defensive layout - Often given very little importance but a good defense layout for your main can help u do very well on FAB. Also very important for PvP'ers in classical servers. What u look for is a layout where buildings can remain in high density and the defense can cover all the buildings, while important buildings can sit deep in the layout.
Example of a good main --

Note -- Offense repair buildings have to be put at the back during times of war.
Ideal support base -- Typically experienced players in play with 1-2 offense bases. Other bases serve as support bases. Considerations for an ideal support base differs on a classical server as compared to a FAB. On a classical server you cannot ignore crystal production. So might have to forgo better tiberium layouts in favor of one with worse tiberium but much better crystal one. For example suppose you have 2 choices -
A. B.

On a classic world I would choose option A instead of B, because of the much better crystal layout. I would forgo the better tiberium of option B.

However, if it were FAB world I would choose option B. The better tiberium will help the base level grow faster and crystal income will come from defense.


(Note - Highly recommend reading this guide too - http://forum.alliances.commandandconquer...?tid=30694)

This is a work in progress and feedback/criticism from veteran players is very welcome.

Thanks for reading
Ulu

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In game nick - Ulugulan
SiC/Diplo guy for DWEEBS - Dastardly Warring Ecstacy Engulfing Bedlamic Society