 T1 Mass Extractors | |
    | |
| Build costs |  -360 -36 60 |
|---|---|
| Consumption Production | -2 2 |
| Build rate |
10/s |
| Max health |  800 |
 T2 Mass Extractors | |
    | |
| Build costs | -5400 -900 900 |
|---|---|
| Consumption Production | -9 6 |
| Build rate |
15/s |
| Max health | 3000 |
| Intel (radius) | Vision: 20 |
 T3 Mass Extractors | |
    | |
| Build costs | -10800 -1800 1350 |
|---|---|
| Consumption Production | -36 12 |
| Max health | 4000 |
| Intel (radius) | Vision: 20 |
| T3 Mass Extractors | |
| |
| Build costs | -31625 -4600 2875 |
|---|---|
| Consumption Production | -54 18 |
| Max health | 8400 |
| Intel (radius) | Vision: 20 |
Mass extractors create mass resource income, used for building every unit and structure in the game. Extractors are built only on mass deposits around the map, limiting the supply of the resource.
Importance[]
In the original Supreme Commander, mass extractors are important at the beginning, but later in the match players can manage their economy with mass fabricators too.
In Forged Alliance, mass extractors gain much more importance because mass fabricators were made much less effective. This effectively makes map control more important because turtling in a small base with fabricator economy is not possible. Also, tech 3 mass extractors were made much more efficient, productive and durable, to stress their importance.
Production stats[]
Mass extractors can be built by engineers and command units. They can be upgraded to produce more mass. Mass extractor production can also be boosted by placing mass storages around them for an adjacency bonus. Bear in mind that extractors cost 200 mass each, making them somewhat expensive themselves, but an extractor surrounded 4 mass storages does produce an extra 50% mass.
Initially, T1 engineers and un-upgraded ACUs can only build T1 extractors, but the extractors can upgrade themselves to higher tech levels without need for advanced construction units. Higher tier engineers can build higher tier extractors directly without having to upgrade them, which is useful at T3 because the price for an upgrade and the price for a direct build is identical, but when direct building the wreck is left behind and provides construction progress, reducing build time. It should be noted it is just as expensive to upgrade an extractor, than to directly build one of a higher tier level. This means that it may be more efficient to directly build a higher tier mass extractor. However, the lower tier still provides mass while it is upgrading, so this may depend on the speed of construction. The extra investment may pay off in some circumstances.
| HP | Costs* | Consumption | Production | Prod.(sur) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech 1 | 1200
|
360
|
36
|
60
|
-2/s
|
+2/s
|
+3/s
|
| Tech 2 | 2160
|
5400
|
900
|
900
|
-9/s
|
+6/s
|
+9/s
|
| Tech 3 SC | 4000
|
10800
|
1800
|
1350
|
-36/s
|
+12/s
|
+18/s
|
| Tech 3 FA | 8400
|
31625
|
4600
|
2875
|
-54/s
|
+18/s
|
+27/s
|
Costs* = Remember that surrounding an extractor costs 800 mass
Prod.(sur) = Production when surrounded by 4 mass storages
Build order[]
As a general rule, the most economically efficient way of setting up mass extractors over the course of the game starts by building as many T1 as possible, according to the map control the player has gained and the power available. While extractors are essentially free to build in terms of mass at 36 mass units, less than the price of even a single tank, they do have a non-negligible 360 energy cost. Over the time of construction this is about -20 energy per sec of construction. Therefore every expanding engineer needs to have about half a power generator supporting it, depending on the downtime due to how far it is between the relevant mass deposits it is constructing on.
Once the T1 deposits are routed to and secured, the most multitasking-heavy part of the match is settled. Then mass is saved up for the first T2, and then it continues by upgrading them all to T2. The stages of the match when this happen depend on security factors like rush distance, map expansions, prioritised strategy, and incoming enemies. A rush strategy might delay T2 extractors, or a greedy strategy might get T2 sooner. It is rare to need more mass on a small 5x5 map, whereas on a 10km map it may be more consistent to simply upgrade - and also easier to defend the compact core of highly effective extractors, rather than covering wide areas of the map.
However once reaching the point of large-scale T2, then the optimal road is to surround the T2 mass extractors with 4 mass storages. Adjacent storages have a similar cost/benefit outcome to the T2 upgrade, with 4x storages at 200 mass each costing a total of 800 mass. This makes them the natural next step once all extractors have been upgraded to T2, allowing the player to obtain more resources in the time before going for the costly T3 upgrade. When constructing storages, to queue them up hold shift and then click-and-drag the build location over the extractor twice to form a cross, or alternatively use the template tab (and set a hotkey). This will make it easier to build the storages more quickly and sooner.
The final step is to upgrade them to T3. Upgrading a T2 extractor to T3 without first surrounding it with storage it is not a wise choice, and failing to surround a T3 extractor is a mistake that will waste potential income.
When to upgrade[]
The sooner extractors are upgraded, the more potential production can be gained. To go up to T2 faster, consider pausing factory spam once the deposits around the map are secure and you have a unit production lead on your opponent. You should use reclaim to add mass. 60 power/sec is needed, or three power generators. Even though an extractor can upgrade itself, it is recommended to assist the mass extractor as much as possible to keep the transition time short so that it will start producing resources sooner, and resources invested in a partial upgrade are a waste until the upgrade completes. It takes about 3 minutes after the upgrade completes to pay back the investment, on top of the 90s construction time. So it is safe to upgrade an extractor if you won't need the resources for other purposes in the next 5 minutes.
There are several myths regarding upgrades. Upgrades do not normally stop mass extraction. A bug in the game might prevent you from completely pausing a mass extractor's upgrade. While production is paused, resources may still be consumed. It is for the above reasons that it is optimal to upgrade one at a time, while assisting it, and under no condition should you run out of mass during this process. It is acceptable to pause the mass extractor upgrade to maintain the army.
Regardless of the process of commanding the upgrade, it is better to spend resources rather than waste them. If the rate of mass surplus is extremely high or storages are full, starting some extractor upgrades are a good way to make use up lots of the mass. Using resources in this way will maintain an efficient economy. The rate required for an extractor to self-upgrade is 10 mass/sec for T2, and about 25 mass/sec for T3. It is assumed that in this case the energy has been taken care of. However, constructing more build power (ie production buildings and engineers to spend the surplus) is generally the way to resolve the mass surplus and balance the economic situation in the long run.
Payoff times[]
The following table shows how long you have to wait to start making profits from an extractor. It also includes extractors surrounded by mass storages, and takes into account the production gain, rather than absolute production. Only mass costs are considered. Applies only to Forged Alliance. Table is ordered by repay time by default.
| Build from | Build to | Cost | Production gain | Time to repay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Tech 1 | 36
|
+2/s
|
18s
|
| Tech 3 | Tech 3 Surrounded | 800
|
+9/s
|
1:30s
|
| Tech 1 | Tech 2 | 900
|
+4/s
|
3:45s
|
| Tech 2 surrounded | Tech 3 surrounded | 4600
|
+18/s
|
4:16s
|
| Tech 2 | Tech 2 surrounded | 800
|
+3/s
|
4:27s
|
| Tech 2 | Tech 3 | 4600
|
+16/s
|
4:48s
|
| Direct upgrade | ||||
| Tech 2 | Tech 3 surrounded | 5200
|
+21/s
|
4:08s
|
Obviously, the faster an extractor repays for itself, the better, proving the first paragraph of this section.
This table shows that for maximum production and time efficiency a T2 extractor should be upgraded to T3 immediately after it is surrounded, rather than surrounding another T2. However this also comes with the 4k mass cost of the T3 upgrade. So in reality the available resources, unconsidered build time overheads, and other risks make this an unwise choice.
Tips[]
- Use T1 attack bombers to deny enemy engineers from expanding to new mass deposits and destroying existing extractors. Tanks and other raiding land units can similarly help, but are usually much slower to traverse the map.
- Defend your areas with walls and point defence to force the enemy to bring T1 arty to take the location.
- Use the radar of T1 land scouts to see if the enemy has claimed a deposit. Use T1 air scouts to find which directions and routes their engineers are currently taking, and deploy the bombers/LABs/tanks appropriately.
- Use engineers to assist and upgrade extractors faster. This also lets them build storages after the T2 upgrade is complete.
- Be aggressive with T1 deposits, but don't forget to upgrade the core extractors to T2 as the game progresses or eventually a mass stall will start to occur. Use reclaim to maintain, upgrade, and rebuild advanced extractors.
Factional differences[]
There are three extractors for every faction: tech 1, tech 2 and tech 3 extractors. They are identical across the factions except for design.
Except for the graphics, there are strictly no factional differences whatsoever in the faction's mass extractors, in either Vanilla SupCom or Forged Alliance. Each has identical cost, mass income production, and health.
Trivia[]
- Aesthetically, the structure extracts the raw metallic mass from the ground by a pumping or drilling action, and refines it into usable material for other construction units ready to be stored.
- Another adjacency bonus provides power consumption reduction by placing power generators around the extractor, but the benefits of this are minimal, and the process is not recommended.
Gallery[]
