Resource Collector
	Name = Resource Collector Speed = 325 m/s Cost = 650 RU Time = 60 s Drain = 10.83 RU/s In almost every Homeworld game you play, you will always have to worry about Resource Collectors. Collectors are the tireless workhorses saddled with the thankless task of running around the map gathering RUs to fuel the construction of mighty fleets. What many new players don't realize is that collectors have their own set of tactics that are essential to learn. Abilities: Resource Collectors harvest RUs from asteroids, dust clouds, and nebulae. Generally collectors will go for the closest resource item, but they can be ordered to harvest specific chunks. When a collector scrounges up a full load (650 RUs) it will immediately head back toward the nearest Resource Controller, Carrier, or Mothership to dock. Collectors can be forced to attack enemy units, using the CTRL+SHIFT click, but their attack is so laughably weak it's not worth it. Much more useful is the ability to kamikaze a collector, which inflicts buttloads of damage on the target. Tactics: Always, always, always set collectors to Aggresive tactics! When set on Normal or Evasive, collectors will run back to the nearest docking point the instant they start taking fire. This makes it very easy for 10 enemy Scouts to pin down your entire resource gathering operation. When set to Aggresive your collectors will keep working no matter what, which is what you want. Get in the habit of hitting F4 whenever selecting a newly-built collector. Generally it's a good idea to build at least three collectors at the beginning of the game; on large maps build a few more later on when the money starts rolling in. Collectors are not a fire-and-forget unit. It is not enough to simply hit the H key and send them on their merry way. Actively directing your resource collecting will greatly improve your income. Large, densely-packed resource pockets can yield the most money with the least movement and are therefore most desirable. Avoid the tiny gravel-sized asteroids and go for the nebulae, dust clouds, and big rocks. Here are the distinct types asteroids and dust clouds as listed in the MissionMan documentation: Types of Asteroids 0 -- 0 RUs per rock 1 -- 25 RUs per rock 2 -- 40 RUs per rock 3 -- 100 RUs per rock 4 -- 400 RUs per rock Types of Dust Clouds 0 -- 0 RUs per cloud 1 -- 108 RUs per cloud 2 -- 250 RUs per cloud 3 -- 700 RUs per cloud As you can see, even the small dust clouds make a pretty good haul. Nebulae are tough to quantify since the game generates them pseudo-randomly, but they seem to be as good if not better pickings than dust clouds. Still, don't let this stop you from harvesting asteroids if they're right in front of your face. Collectors are fairly tough and can take a good amount of abuse. This is good since they will probably be your opponent's favorite target. Winning the income war is a good way to win the game. On large maps send out groups of fast-moving strike craft to hassle your opponent's collectors but keep an eye on the sensor manager for incoming threats. On small, centralized maps, resource collection usually turns into a chaotic orgy in the middle of the map where both sides are simultaneously trying to kill enemy collectors while protecting their own collectors. Expect to lose at least one or two collectors in a melee like this, just make sure you keep most of them alive. Finally, a word about kamikaze. Sending your collectors to kamikaze is a two-edged sword: It does a lot of damage to the target, but you lose a collector. Don't even think about using collectors as offensive units (it takes something like 28 to kill a Mothership), but do consider them as an act of desperation. If a collector is getting whomped by frigates and can't be saved, send it crashing into the nearest enemy frigate. The frigate will end up very close to death and easy to finish off.

	Resource Controller
	Name = Resource Controller Speed = 300 m/s Cost = 680 RU Time = 65 s Drain = 10.46 RU/s The Controller is the Big Brother of the collector. While unable to do any of the collecting itself, it does act as a mobile docking station for your collectors and any strike craft you have in the area. Having a few of these bad boys will greatly increase your rate of income. Having one or two of these in almost any map is a Good Thing. Abilities: The primary and most important use of a controller is as a secondary docking station for your collectors. When collectors are done harvesting a load, they locate the nearest docking platform to dock with. If you are without a controller, the collector has to go all the way back to your MS to empty its load, which more often than not is quite a ways away. The controllers move just slightly slower than the collectors so they're able to keep up with your mining operations pretty effectively. Also in a pinch, you can use the controller to repair your strike craft, either 4 fighters or 1 corvette at a time. Pretty handy when that poor little bomber group runs out of gas a thousand miles from your nearest support frigate. Tactics: First off, unless you're building collectors and controllers at a 1:1 ratio, never set a controller to guard a collector, as it dramaticly decreases your mining efficiency. (And you shouldn't be building in that ratio anyways! Wasteful!) Sure, the collector being guarded will always have a controller to dock with, but other collectors will always have to chase down the moving controller. Usually it's a good idea to do a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio of controllers:collectors. On most maps, place a controller in the center of each resource patch that you mine, unless you have an excessive amount of collectors in the area. Also keep a close watch on your controllers, as they are a primary target of enemy resource raids. Why? Well even though controllers are much harder to kill than collectors, if you take out the controller, all the full collectors have to walk back to the enemy's MS to dock, slowing down his collection process and allowing your strike craft to hammer them all the way home to mommy. But what if you find your controller under attack? Well, if you don't have any support frigates nearby and your fleet is on its way, you might consider jumping it out of the way. The maximum jump cost is 500 RU, which is more than made up if your controller survives the enemy assault. Then again, when the map is strapped for cash, you might just give it up or scuttle it during an enemy strafing run to take as many down with you as you can and spend the 500 RUs on something more useful, like another 7 defenders. :)

	Gravwell Generator
	Name = Gravwell Speed = 325 m/s Cost = 800 RU Time = 60 s Drain = 13.33 RU/s The Gravwell earns itself a spot right next to the Cloak Generator as the the coolest-sounding useless unit in the game. The concept itself seemed one of the most promising: a unit that would disable all strike craft within its sphere of influence, be mobile, and interrupt any incoming or outgoing hyperjumps. Sadly, the gravwell is less powerful in practice than it is on paper. First let's look at what it has the potential to do. Abilities: The Gravwell exerts its influence in a sphere slightly larger than a Field Frigate. Within this sphere, any strike craft lose control of direction of movement. It's important to note, however, that although they cannot control their direction of movement, they will still fight the field by thrusting forward. Eventually, any ship within a Gravwell will escape. The more manuverable the unit, the faster it will escape the field. Defenders and scouts are notorious for escaping the well. Salvage corvettes are the only strike unit immune to the effects of the well. The ability to cancel jump fields is also interesting. Any ships jumping into or out of the well are caught in mid jump, rendering them immobile until the Well deactivates or is destroyed. Destroyers, Cruisers, and any other capship are no longer under control of the user and their turrets do not fire during jump. Tactics: We here in 414 have been playing Homeworld since it was commercially released, and to this day, none of us have run into a situation where the Gravwell was A.) Useful or B.) Used effectively. All I can do is give you a few recommendations that will hopefully let it live a bit longer, because make no mistake, the instant your opponent realizes you have a Gravwell, expect it to die, and die very quickly. One possible move is to place your gravwells around your Mothership and have many Salvage corvettes on hand. Now when your opponent jumps to your mothership, activate your wells and prepare your salvagers. When the enemy becomes ensnared in your wells, move your corvettes into position. Now Deactiveate the well and salvage his fleet. Another possibility is to move a gravwell along with 2 Cloak Generators and a few support frigates. Move the whole cloaked wad backed up by two missle destroyers and you can easily wipe out a massive strike craft fleet before the enemy know what happened. The drawback to all of these is the preparation time and research required to pull them off. If you have this much time in any game one of three things have happened: A.) You're playing computer opponents, B.) You've already squashed your opponent to the point where he has no hope of victory, or C.) You're about to die because he played smart and you went for Gravwells. :) Take our review with a grain of salt however. Most games 414 plays are played 1v1 or fast large 2v2 games where we want to defeat our enemy as quickly as possible. In these situations, the Gravwell has no place. However, if you like to play those massive Super Capital Ship games on Scattered or Hyperspace Arena, you may find them more useful than we did. And if you happen to hit on a strategy you feel works, feel free to let us know: [414]Quaker or [414]Squirrel