Two suggestions to instantly improve game balance
by iLikeToSnipe21Original Post
I've been playing enough of Rivals to get my riflemen to level 12 without spending hardly anything on the game. There are two major issues I've noticed that can be easily fixed with changes that greatly increase balance, competitiveness, and fun.
First of all, there needs to be a map preview and then deck selection. It's common knowledge that some maps favor certain types of decks (i.e. tech vs rush). However, there are also maps that heavily favor certain units as well. On a few maps, the Juggernaut and arty are kings. On others with open space, units with Raider are king. It is not fun to get a map that sucks for your units. It's even worse when you then get matched on that map against a player lucky enough to have a deck built for it. This is especially obvious during events with just one or two maps. If you don't play to the map's strength with certain units you're not going to win all the matches in the event.
That's the key problem with how matches are currently setup, luck is a major factor in determining victory. My suggestion is to show players the map before the match starts, they then have 5-10 seconds to choose one of their three decks to play with. Problem solved. No more wishing for "the right map" to be selected.
The other issue is significantly worse in its impact but also has a somewhat simple fix. A six card deck is not large enough given all the units that are available. To illustrate why this is a problem let's look at the Orca Bomber and how a GDI player might counter it. First, let's start with all the GDI anti-air units:
- Missile Squad
- Rhino
- Pitbull
- Slingshot
- Talon
- Hammerhead
- Wolverine
- Zone Troopers
- Sandstorm
Let's figure out what units can actually do something against an Orca Bomber. We can immediately exclude all the infantry from that list, they just can't stand up to a bomber. The Rhino can be taken off for not doing nearly enough DPS. That leaves us with five units to choose from, which seems decent, but let's list them out with some more details. I'm going to put next to each unit how many you need to STOP a bomber. Not eventually kill it, not damage it, but how to stop it from completing a full bombing run and getting away. This is also assuming the same level for your units and the bomber.
- Pitbull (3-4)
- Slingshot (2-3)
- Talon (2-3)
- Hammerhead (1-2)
- Sandstorm
"Well that makes sense, 3 Pitbulls are about the same cost as a bomber!" Not really. That's three units to maybe kill one unit of equal cost. Not only that, you WILL lose some of those Pitbulls while the Orca Bomber might get away. I'm not talking about some newbie player who doesn't know how to use a bomber, I'm talking about somebody in Masters or Tib who knows what they're doing. At the end of the day, it just isn't economical to throw away 2-3 units just to kill one unit of near equal value. Not only have you lost your units, but the enemy has caused collateral damage against your other units. While it's true that not everybody runs Orca Bombers, you're going to get trashed in Masters or above when you do run into somebody with one. Unless you run with at least a Hammerhead or Sandstorm in your deck.
And that's the major, gaping, glaring flaw right now in game balance. There are several units in the game that can only be economically countered by a select few units. If you happen to run into an equally skilled player with one of those units and you've got no specific counter you might as well just close the game and start up another match. We've just looked at ONE unit in the game, and we already have to dedicate one of our deck slots to one of two units if we want to ever be able to counter it. Do you honestly think that the Orca Bomber is the only unit in the game you can expect to go up against that requires specific counters?
This is why we need more than six unit slots in a deck. Make it six normal slots and a seventh "support unit" slot (e.g. units like the Hammerhead), but this needs to be done. Without it you will have a large selection of units never being used at higher levels. Adding a seventh slot will increase deck variety, add depth to the game, make unique units more viable, and actually make the game more competitive and easier to balance.
There are multiple solutions to these two problems. It's not too important which one is used, what's most important is that a solution is actually put in place. I'll still play this casually when I'm sitting in the bathroom, but that's all this game is to me until the serious issues are fixed. I've got no reason to buy diamonds for events when I am forced into using certain units just to have a chance in each match.
