NastyNate's Building Experiment

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I found the following file for download on Atomi's blog, posted here for your convenience. You may have heard Ford saying something like you should look at how big of a delay there is when clicking to build your tanks/buildings, and likewise for his sensei At0m1. So let's hear about it in NastyNate's words:

Ok, lets see how this goes...

1st of all, I must say its pretty hard to explain myself as clear as id like to. This is because my native language is not English... but I will try my best.

In the last days I have been accused of cheating by some players, and some others have put my gaming speed in doubt saying its impossible to build so fast.

I've told these players that this is possible and not even hard, just by being a fast clicker, using arrow keys and having a good mouse control. I have even told these players that I think its possible to be faster than me, and I'm sure a few active players now are, and lots of players in the past were.


People like Fatty, Atomi, Krez and many others can beat me most games we play, and the main difference is that they have better mouse control and faster fingers than me. I don't even consider myself a pro, and you feel pretty sad for people who accuse you, when you know you are so far from being one of the best. 

So that's why I'm gonna try to explain logically to all these people how and why they lose time, describing the possible ways why they get out built so bad... this of course leading to out production and out tanking also.

I took the time and made several tests with a timer. I calculated 2 different times for each test. One, is the time that I normally take in average doing a determined thing. The second, is the time I would have taken maybe a year ago, when I didn't use arrow keys, and I scrolled and clicked way slower than how I do now. Notice that some people may scroll and click even slower than the speed i used for the 2nd calculation.

All tests done on v3-rashowdown, at a reasonably high speed, with Germany and using the fastest possible build (pbow).

1) The 1st thing u have to do when the game starts is deploy your cy, scroll to power, click on it and scroll back to the map to place it after its rdy.

-time that i took doing this (avg of 3) : 4,2 seconds.

-time that a "slow" player would possibly take (avg of 3) : 5,6 seconds.

Difference in time : 1, 4 seconds 

Possible reasons of this difference:  

  1. Not deploying the cy instantly because you couldn't reach it with your mouse fast.
  2. Slow scrolling from map to bar, and from bar back to map
  3. Hesitations while clicking and placing the power.

 2) After this step,  you have to scroll back to the bar, click on the ore ref., and place it after its rdy.

 -time i took doing this (avg of 3) : 19, 2 seconds.

 -time that a "slow" player would possibly take (avg of 3) : 21, 2 seconds.

Difference in time : 2,0 seconds.

Possible reasons of this difference:  

  1. Slow scrolling from map to bar, and from bar back to map.
  2. Hesitations while clicking and placing the ore ref.
  3. Scrolling from the map to arrows, click the arrows with the mouse and scroll up to click on the ore, instead of using the keyboard's arrow keys and have the mouse waiting to click on the ore while it comes to the screen (the most important). Notice that you can even use the kb's arrow keys while your are placing the previous building so you don't lose time).

3) After this, you have to scroll back to the bar, click on the war, and place it after it's done.

-time i took doing this (avg of 3) : 19, 7 seconds.

-time that a "slow" player would possibly take (avg of 3) : 21, 5 seconds.

Difference in time : 1,8 seconds.

Possible reasons of this difference:

  1. Slow scrolling from map to bar, and from bar back to map.
  2. Hesitations while clicking and placing the war.
  3. Scrolling from the map to arrows, click the arrows with the mouse and scroll up to click on the war, instead of using the keyboard's arrow keys and have the mouse waiting to click on the war while it comes to the screen (the most important). Notice that you can even use the kb's arrow keys while your are placing the previous building so you don't lose time. 

After finishing with the tests on these 3 steps, my conclusions are the following: 

1- USING THE KEYBOARD'S ARROW KEYS AND SCROLLING FAST AT THIS SPEED PUTS YOU NEARLY 2 SECONDS AHEAD EVERY TIME YOU BUILD A NEW BUILDING. 

2- SMALL HESITATIONS DO MATTER IF THEY OCCUR ALMOST EVERY TIME YOU CLICK. 

3-  IF THESE 4 THINGS HAPPEN: 

  1. IF 2 DIFFERENT PLAYERS PLAY AGAINST IN A REASONABLY HIGH SPEED GAME;
  2. IF BOTH PLAYERS USE THE FASTEST POSSIBLE BUILD;
  3. IF ONE OF THEM HAS A GOOD MOUSE CONTROL, SCROLLS FAST, DOESN'T HESITATE AND USES THE KEYBOARD'S ARROW KEYS; 
  4. IF THE OTHER ONE IS NOT ACCURATE WITH THE MOUSE, SCROLLS REASONABLY SLOW, DOESN'T CLICK INSTANTLY AFTER THE PREVIOUS ACTION WAS FINISHED, AND USES THE GAME ARROWS WITH THE MOUSE,

THE FASTER PLAYER WILL DEPLOY HIS 1ST WAR NEARLY 5,5 SECONDS BEFORE THE SLOWER PLAYER.

At the speed these tests were made, you take 18 seconds to build a war factory. So basically, the slower player will start building his 1st war when the faster player is nearly 1/3 of the way done. 

Remember this only happens considering that the slower player is using the fastest possible build. And how often do you see people using this build? Personally I know about 5 players who use this build most of the time. All the rest just waste important time building extra powers or extra barracks. At the speed this tests were made, you take about 3,5 seconds to build and place a small power or a barrack. So if your are using a slower build like "ppbbosw", you will be BADLY OUTBUILT by the end of your 1st war by nearly 12 seconds.

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