Jun 5th 2019, 4:07:15
Rico's Converting/Switching
Definition
"Switching" or "Conversion" refers to changing your country structure into something else along with the tech needed to support it. Usually when we talk about switching, it's either indy -> casher/farmer or indy -> techer -> casher/farmer or simply techer -> casher/farmer or indy -> techer.
The Need for Switching
"Switching" is needed because you may have used a startup strat which gave you a lead in either land, rank, or tech level, and now you want to switch to your desired (hopefully more effective) strategy to use for the rest of your game.
When to switch?
Usually the determining factors for switching are acres owned, tech level, market prices, and timing. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages:
Note: For all switches, you MUST get your tech up before converting your buildings into your desired types.
For Indy:
1. Late Switch
Advantage: have top ranks all the time (less likely to be grabbed); production always at full speed
Disadvantage: inefficient since the more acres you have, the higher the cost per building, hence rebuilding can be costly
This method is mostly used by indy starters since you will maintain some good land and rank while you're at it. To determine when to start switching, you will look at the prices of tech on the market if you plan to buy the tech instead of producing them yourself with labs (which will be discussed later). A good target price of when to switch would be when tech falls below $3000.
2. Early Switch
Advantage: efficient (less acres to take down and rebuild)
Disadvantage: hard to keep up with ranks; sometimes hard to climb up from bottom up
This method is preferred by more experienced players since it does take some skills to climb ranks while avoiding from getting grabbed. Start switching at 2K acres.
Getting your Tech up
As I said before, prior to taking down your buildings and reconstructing them into the types you want, you MUST get your tech up. Fail to do so is a serious mistake.
There are two ways to get tech, either buy them or produce them.
Buying the tech: Sit tight with over 80% defense and sell units (for indy) to buy tech. You should stop or reduce your daily landgrab to save the money for tech rather than on construction.
Producing the tech: You'll go through another stage of switching which involves converting all your buildings into Research Labs and directly do your research on the appropriate tech categories. Less efficient since it requires an extra stage of converting your buildings. Again maintain heavy defense during these times.
The Process of Switching
This section describes the process of switching. If you are using an indy start and playing it till midgame, then this is how you go about switching:
1. Start producing pure turrets. This gives you the maximum defense as well as maximum sales income from the market.
2. Use the money from your sales on tech. Always get your tech up before switching. Get your critical tech areas up first. (ie. if you're switching to a farmer then get Agri tech up first etc) Spend all your turns each day building CS.
3. Once you get your tech up (around 150%-160% for bus/rez, 180%-190% for Agri, etc), make your switch and start taking down your Industrial Complexes and rebuild them into your corresponding types of buildings.
4. Start catching up on land since you fell behind in acreage while switching.
I recommend not to attack others during your switches since you should be concentrating on switching. But then again if you can handle both landgrabbing and switching at the same time then it is recommended.
Additional Tricks
At some point in the game you may want to switch your government since you may have used a commie indy start for the first week, and we know that indy is one of the worst strats in terms of production compared to other strats. The problem is that you will lose a lot of NW in the switch. The best way you can minimize the loss in NW is to pick a government that you don’t have to do a switch with (eg. Theo indy -> Theo techer) or switching from Monarchy to a different gov't type (eg. Monarchy indy -> Anything) since switching from Monarchy will not cost you anything besides a slower start. But most of us don't do that. So here is a walkthrough on how to switch governments and lose the least NW.
First off do not make your switch at the end of your turns. When you make a government switch your readiness drops to 50% so you need turns to get it up. The day you plan on making your switch make sure you have a lot of money saved up.
First thing you have to do is make a Planned Strike with everything. Troops, Tanks, and Jets. When your military is out on a PS you cannot lose them when you make the switch. Now sell your tech and turrets on the public market. Stuff on the public market you can’t lose in a switch.
You are now ready to make your switch. After Switching, your readiness will drop to 50%. Start reconstructing on your empty land and make sure that your readiness gets back to 100% before the end of the day.
Definition
"Switching" or "Conversion" refers to changing your country structure into something else along with the tech needed to support it. Usually when we talk about switching, it's either indy -> casher/farmer or indy -> techer -> casher/farmer or simply techer -> casher/farmer or indy -> techer.
The Need for Switching
"Switching" is needed because you may have used a startup strat which gave you a lead in either land, rank, or tech level, and now you want to switch to your desired (hopefully more effective) strategy to use for the rest of your game.
When to switch?
Usually the determining factors for switching are acres owned, tech level, market prices, and timing. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages:
Note: For all switches, you MUST get your tech up before converting your buildings into your desired types.
For Indy:
1. Late Switch
Advantage: have top ranks all the time (less likely to be grabbed); production always at full speed
Disadvantage: inefficient since the more acres you have, the higher the cost per building, hence rebuilding can be costly
This method is mostly used by indy starters since you will maintain some good land and rank while you're at it. To determine when to start switching, you will look at the prices of tech on the market if you plan to buy the tech instead of producing them yourself with labs (which will be discussed later). A good target price of when to switch would be when tech falls below $3000.
2. Early Switch
Advantage: efficient (less acres to take down and rebuild)
Disadvantage: hard to keep up with ranks; sometimes hard to climb up from bottom up
This method is preferred by more experienced players since it does take some skills to climb ranks while avoiding from getting grabbed. Start switching at 2K acres.
Getting your Tech up
As I said before, prior to taking down your buildings and reconstructing them into the types you want, you MUST get your tech up. Fail to do so is a serious mistake.
There are two ways to get tech, either buy them or produce them.
Buying the tech: Sit tight with over 80% defense and sell units (for indy) to buy tech. You should stop or reduce your daily landgrab to save the money for tech rather than on construction.
Producing the tech: You'll go through another stage of switching which involves converting all your buildings into Research Labs and directly do your research on the appropriate tech categories. Less efficient since it requires an extra stage of converting your buildings. Again maintain heavy defense during these times.
The Process of Switching
This section describes the process of switching. If you are using an indy start and playing it till midgame, then this is how you go about switching:
1. Start producing pure turrets. This gives you the maximum defense as well as maximum sales income from the market.
2. Use the money from your sales on tech. Always get your tech up before switching. Get your critical tech areas up first. (ie. if you're switching to a farmer then get Agri tech up first etc) Spend all your turns each day building CS.
3. Once you get your tech up (around 150%-160% for bus/rez, 180%-190% for Agri, etc), make your switch and start taking down your Industrial Complexes and rebuild them into your corresponding types of buildings.
4. Start catching up on land since you fell behind in acreage while switching.
I recommend not to attack others during your switches since you should be concentrating on switching. But then again if you can handle both landgrabbing and switching at the same time then it is recommended.
Additional Tricks
At some point in the game you may want to switch your government since you may have used a commie indy start for the first week, and we know that indy is one of the worst strats in terms of production compared to other strats. The problem is that you will lose a lot of NW in the switch. The best way you can minimize the loss in NW is to pick a government that you don’t have to do a switch with (eg. Theo indy -> Theo techer) or switching from Monarchy to a different gov't type (eg. Monarchy indy -> Anything) since switching from Monarchy will not cost you anything besides a slower start. But most of us don't do that. So here is a walkthrough on how to switch governments and lose the least NW.
First off do not make your switch at the end of your turns. When you make a government switch your readiness drops to 50% so you need turns to get it up. The day you plan on making your switch make sure you have a lot of money saved up.
First thing you have to do is make a Planned Strike with everything. Troops, Tanks, and Jets. When your military is out on a PS you cannot lose them when you make the switch. Now sell your tech and turrets on the public market. Stuff on the public market you can’t lose in a switch.
You are now ready to make your switch. After Switching, your readiness will drop to 50%. Start reconstructing on your empty land and make sure that your readiness gets back to 100% before the end of the day.