Best way to replace damaged firewalls

1

So what is the best way to prioritize replacing damaged firewalls? I want this to be a discussion thread of different approaches each person took to doing this.

1 Like
2

My algos (Daedalus & Ares) all just remove all firewalls that are below half of their maximum stability, up to a total of 8 cores’ (twice the 4 cores/turn rate because you get half the cores back) worth of firewalls. This seems to work fine, but there are probably smarter ways to do it. Sometimes I’ll remove something and the algo won’t place it back for a while because it’s low on the priority list.

3

With that strategy if you remove 8 firewalls with half health you only get 2 cores back. The refund scales with percentage of stability left. At half health you get 1/4 of the original cost back.

4

Along the same idea of @kkroep, I have found that typically not replacing you positions is a good idea if possible. The only time I do it is if a position has not been attacked in quite a while. The more important one I think is removing when a unit is crucial to defense, like pathfinding. While a single filter with low health is not important, if it messes up expected movement then it becomes very important. Typically this matters more with filters. So generally I find it a bad idea to remove destructors and definitely encryptors, but filters (depending on location) it can be very important to keep them fresh.

5

I think that replacing units for straight defense is important as well. I have seen it a lot in my algos where my opponents are slowly chipping away at my defenses. It takes many rounds, but over time with EMP chip, you can destroy their defenses completely. Currenlty, I have an unsophisticated method of attacking (send as many EMPs as possible if I can send at least 2). I do badly for a while, but if they don’t replace anything, I can tear their defenses apart in 20 or 30 rounds. While I may have lost at that point, I feel that this is a downside to not replacing firewalls. If I replace firewalls, it usually protects inner firewalls, so I don’t actually have to spend too much.