Mass is one of the two resources and is required to construct or upgrade units or structures.
Mass can be collected by Mass extractors, Mass fabricators, reclaim of wrecks and natural objects, or from the internal resource systems of ACUs and SCUs. The first two usually constitute the greatest deal of total income.
Mass is typically the most limited resource of the two over Energy. This is because mass producing structures can only be built on Mass deposits, or require a high amount of energy to operate, whereas once built energy producing structures can be built anywhere and cost nothing to operate.
Importance[]
Mass is important for the construction of units to fight the enemy for map control, and also affects the other resources: by being required for constructing power generators for energy; and to construct engineers and factories to increase build rate and economic spending capacity. Army, generators, and builders are the three main types of expenses in the game. For example, at T1 a tank costs about 55 mass, an engineer 50 mass, and a power generator 75 mass. Choosing one of those means less of the other two.
Increasing mass income depends on two main factors. In the long run, mass invested into mass extractor upgrades usually pays off later, allowing the economy to grow over time and also allowing the player to afford the expensive but more effective units. However the greatest typical advantage to be attained from map control is more mass deposits and hence a greater mass income. So to some extent, combat units to defend extractors are still important to the economy. These two expenses (upgrades and more deposits) have to be balanced against each other.
Additionally whoever wins a battle has the benefit of being able to reclaim the wrecks and other nearby natural objects to obtain resources. This is especially important for experimental units, where losing one far away from friendly units can effectively donate mass to the opponent through the wreckage. So it is important to mobilise engineers to best be able to capitalise on the reclaim resources which are gained from winning a fight. The UEF Sparky and air transports are useful in this role.
Resource management[]
In order to avoid a mass stall and reduce mass waste, the following things are important: high income, good reclaim, and some mass storages.