Hive Awakening - what's a relay socket?

[ahab]

Hi,

I'm playing HA and quite like it. The circuit/sockets equipment interface is cool. Now I know what forks, splinters and links are good for. But what the heck is a relay socket? It occupies one socket while providing another one. Maybe I just didn't find out how to use it. Help, please.

[Slash]

If I remember correctly, some components require more than one socket, you use a relay to join them and then install the big component?

Yeah, the help file is a bit sparse on it.. some examples are needed!

[ahab]

Sockets are joined by using a "socket link". So that "relay socket" thing must still be something different.

[Slash]

Perhaps linking circuits?

Now I sound like I´m guessing somebody come and save me

EDIT: This may be useful http://hive.strandwall.de/gallery.php

[Anvilfolk]

I must be missing something.

What's the point of just relaying something? You get heavier and slower, and as far as I know, there's no gain.

[Slash]

You get more sockets for the same circuit?

[Z]

I think it is a level 1 version of fork (level 2) and splitter (level 3), and it is (almost) useless. (Maybe you could use one if you have only one fork and want to use something which needs three sockets on the same circuit.) Not everything needs to be useful. (IIRC tritium cores are useless too, combinations of smaller cores are better.)

[ahab]

I think it is a level 1 version of fork (level 2) and splitter (level 3), and it is (almost) useless.

It that were true it would be useless indeed.

(Maybe you could use one if you have only one fork and want to use something which needs three sockets on the same circuit.)

That doesn't work because the relay thing gives you only one socket. If you have equipment that needs 2 or 3 sockets just link them with socket links. I asked the author about it but haven't received a reply yet.

Well anyway I finished the game just a few hours ago without using a relay socket. So obviously it's not necessary but nevertheless I'd like to know what it's good for.

The game has much potential but needs more detail, more features and better balancing. The start can be very hard while later on the game gets too easy with more sockets and equipment. I think it would be cool if the game took some inspiration from good old Paradroid (C64, Amiga) like hacking into enemy robots and taking them over.

[ahab]

I've received an answer from the author. It actually is very easy. The "socket relay" does exactly what the name says. It relays one socket from a circuit to another socket in the next circuit. What is that good for? Well, you don't need a "socket splitter" anymore (which is very rare) to use a 3-plug-equipment. A "socket relay" plus a "socket fork" is enough.

[Z]

That's what I meant. Still, this usefulness is very limited because you probably will find several forks before you find your first 3-plug equipment, and will be able to use fork + fork instead of fork + relay, which is better.

[ahab]

Sorry for my misunderstanding. I didn't realize the fact that only sockets in the same circuit can be linked.