Sell buildings - is it fair?

[Reactor]

I'm curious about what do you think, when one of your buildings is in a very bad shape (Airstrike, under attack, Death Hand impact), is it fair to quickly sell it?  ??? What is your opinion?

[Reactor]

Uh-oh, that's okay...but I mean if a building of yours is under attack, or it will be captured...so you can't save it. I want to know if it's fair to quickly sell the building, just before it gets destroyed or captured by the enemy? What are the "ethics" of this?

[Timenn]

There are no ethics is games. But I've seen it done in more games then just Dune 2000, and nobody complained about it. So if it is your question if you make enemies when you do that, I would say no.

[ophiruslevus]

There is no ethic in it, but i'd say there's a tactic here.

I prsonally wont sell any building during the game unless its more than 2 player game and i know i'll lose and i wanna watch the game. so i leave a radar and 2 wind traps.

the reason i wont sell during the game is simple, destroying a building takes time, and the time my opponent spends on destroying the building will be used by me in attacking it too or build fast.

by the way, i've fought a player who had 3 bases, and whenever i approched a base with full force and he knew i'm gonna win this battle he sold all base and it was much easyer for me.

[Reactor]

That's why I exactly asked you 'bout the sell-thingy. It makes Airstrikes and Death Hands absolutely pointless, since the player would just sell the threatened building quickly, and Airstrike & Death Hand will do only minimal damage on the surronding buildings. It's only useful, when the player plays attention somewhere else, and cannot react on time.

So no prob then, I'll just keep selling the threatened buildings of mine :)

[Reactor]

Well, you probably haven't witnessed, but if you follow Death Hand's path, the missile stops for a half second just above the place where it will be shredded into several clusters. So a quick player will always have a little time to quickly sell the building just before the impact.

As for Airstrikes, Hi-Tech facilities, Windtraps, Barracks, and such buildings cannot bear a complete airstrike, when the center of the airstrike is directly one of those buildings. So you can't save it, no matter how quickly you switch to the "repair" button.

If the opponent quickly sells the targeted building, he will lose it alright, but he'll obtain some Light infantry, and the half of the price. Apart from Palaces, Construction yards, and Sietches, none other building can bear a direct Airstrike run, or Death Hand.

Quickly selling the building before an Engineer enters, it is also the case mentioned above. The loss of Construction yard may be also a big handicap, but only at the beginning of the battle. Once you're ready to produce MCVs, you can simply replace your Construction yard.

I don't mention Saboteurs. You cannot avoid them, when they're cloaking.

[Reactor]

Right. The Engineer-case is as evident as can be. Players, who don't explore at the start - of course - lives in danger for this tactic. This intelligence also regards to players, who has only Troopers, Thumpers, Engineers, or other useless units. If you have a Harvester, it doesn't count "weak",since Harvester can run down hostile infantry.

When your base is under attack by Troopers (for example: you destroyed the attacker giant Light infantry hordes with your Light infantrymen, but also millions of Troopers follows them, and they overpower your remaining Light infantry units), selling buildings can be your savior, since Light infatrymen can easily deal with Troopers.

The third case is also an Engineer-type attack. You have no money, or no Barracks, and an Engineer (or Saboteur, let's just say that the Saboteur cannot cloak at that time), and the only way is to quickly acquire a Light infantryman is selling one of the surronding buildings (such as Windtrap), and the Light infantryman will obliterate the approaching Engineer,'fore it's too late. So that is just fair.

About the weak structures: It's a VERY dumb idea to place several Rocket turrets beside them, especially when you're low on cash, and building space. One Windtrap powert 2 Rocket turrets. So if you build 4 Windtraps in a row, you may also need at least 5 or 6 Rocket turrets for creating satisfactory defense. 2 Rocket turrets are crap. 4 Rocket turrets are medium. 6 is a correct number...and these Rocket turrets defends only the surrondings of your Windtraps! See how they can drain your power? It's much wiser idea to build only 2 of them, and replace the remaining 4 with Missile tanks, which can move, less sensitive to Troopers, and can be repaired for a smaller amount of Solaris.

In fact, if a such weak building is exactly at the center of the Airstrike, it simply cannot be saved, no matter how quickly you start to repair it. Trust me,I lost several Windtraps, Barracks, even Refineries by that way. However! If you have some Missile tanks around, or Rocket turrets, you can decrease the strength of the Airstrike, and save your building. But I doubt you have Rocket turrets or Missile tanks, when the very first Airstrike comes (especially if you don't know, one of you enemies is an Atreides, therefore you don't expect an Airstrike coming).

So if there is no chance, no hope for the survival of the building, I sell it. I got the half of its price back, some Light infantrymen, which I can use against Fremen and Saboteurs, and the opponent won't receive any points. It's nice to know now that doing this isn't unfair for the opponent (since he can do this as well).

[MrFlibble]

I think that only cheating, by using either in-game bugs or special programs, can be counted 'unfair'. If the sell option is in the game, you may use it to your advantage at any time.

P.S. Your light infantry will most certainly die in a missile attack, and, if timed badly, in an airstrike too, so the opponent will acquire some points anyway.

[Reactor]

That is correct...if you time badly the building sell, the enemy shall obtain some points by killing your Light infantry.

Unlike Red Alert, the stucture cannot be damaged or destroyed, when it's "raising up" or down from the ground, so it will somewhat protects Light infantrymen, while they're marching out of the closed buildings.

However, it's quite a bad thing that destroying a building and killing one Light infantry is equal in Practice and online games.