Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

by aBsOlUt986
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Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

[ Edited ]
EA C&C Team

Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

 

We decided to make some quick tweaks to promote some of the early game diversity we lost when making the Warfactory buffs. Most of those changes are left in place but we’ve reduced the effectiveness of the Rhino & Buggy to make Barracks openings more viable.

 

GDI Changes

 

Dr. Liang

- Repair Drone full heal time increased to 30 seconds (was 20)

 

Sniper Team

-Damage vs Infantry increased to 120 (was 100)

 

Rhino

-Attack Duration increased to 0.75 seconds (was 0.6)

-This reduces the Rhino’s rate of fire and lowers it’s DPS.

 

Riflemen

- Damage vs Vehicles reduced to 15 (was 30)



Nod Changes

 

Buggy

-Attack Duration increased to 0.7 seconds (was 0.56)

-This reduces the Buggy’s rate of fire and lowers it’s DPS.

 

Attack Bike

-Attack Duration reduced to 4.25 (was 5.0)

-Damage reduced to 240 (was 300)

-These combine for a small reduction in Attack Bike DPS.

 

Militiants

- Damage vs Vehicles reduced to 15 (was 30)



Map Update Notes

 

We’ve been investigating map balance & bugs across the game and have made some initial quick fixes. We’ll be continuing our work on maps with an eye on making some larger changes in the future.

 

Map Spawn Points

-Some maps have had their unit spawn points moved to create better gameplay.

 

Harvester Automation

-We examined Harvester automation and found that in some cases it was causing harvesters to move into dangerous situations (and in some cases it was outright broken). Harvesters look at the Tiberium fields as being part of a friendly group, a shared group or an enemy group. They will automatically mine friendly & shared groups. We’ve removed some fields from shared groups where it was getting Harvesters into trouble.

-When a Harvester runs out of valid Tiberium it will stop moving. You can manually send it into peril if you desire.

 

Map Pools

-Sectors 1, 2 and 3 now share the same pool of maps. This will increase early progression map variety.

-In Sectors 4+, players now have access to all 5 maps in each set. This will increase the variety of maps players experience across the game.

-You’ll now play on maps with 3 Missile Platforms more frequently than maps with 2 Missile Platforms. We think the 2-platform maps add nice texture to the game, but they were showing up too frequently and matches on them tend to run longer.

Message 1 of 9 (1,486 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★★★ Novice

Game is rigged to bigger players and there is no fun in that. If you don't buy something or get enough coins you'll never compete.

Message 2 of 9 (1,331 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★★ Newbie
typica EA. Pony up or you can't win. #NotMyCnC
Message 3 of 9 (1,313 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★★★ Novice

This game should really work on match ups too. Quit putting super users against novice users. This really makes the game no fun when you have no chance to win the game. It's not about skill but about how much you spend.

Message 4 of 9 (1,267 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★★★ Novice

No response from EA on this....figures.....

Message 5 of 9 (1,266 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★ Guide
Alright, time for my thoughts on balance and where things are at with this patch...

Not going to address the patch changes much but I feel they've been good, especially the sniper change which has made them feel worthwhile to build.

So lets start with the biggest issue in the meta right now, Basilisks force an air response from GDI and often that doesn't work because bikes and missile troopers can protect them while Oxanna's boost allows them to flee with ease. Basilisks absolutely need to be counter-able by non-air units for GDI to have much diversity in the meta.

While we're adjacent to the subject, Oxanna's boost really needs to not increase speed, the damage increase is fine and able to be dealt with, the speed increase makes it nearly impossible to deal with, counters appear rapidly and chase down anything, anything you can counter zooms away faster than you could ever respond.

As far as other commanders are concerned, Seth's flame trooper ability needs to cost less, Kane's obelisk needs to be reworked since it doesn't do anything when you're behind and yet can be surprisingly oppressive at lower levels when you're ahead, I have no good suggestions on how to fix it though. On the GDI side of things I'm actually fairly happy with where everyone is at, all of them see play and have their own unique uses, though it does still bother me that Oxanna and Jackson feel like they have nearly the same power.

Orcas are in an odd place right now, against GDI they're really good, one shot pitbulls, evade slower anti-air units, deal with a number of late tier units but aren't too overwhelming. Against nod however they lose to bikes, which they don't one shot and which cost less to replace than pitbulls, this makes them runnable but a bit inconsistent across games. I also worry about them being at epic rarity since even a couple of differences in levels can make them worthless against pitbulls as well and the epic rarity makes it incredibly random whether or not you can actually run Orcas reliably. So what are my suggestions here? Move them to rare, they're enough of a primary component of GDI air strategies to need better access to upgrades which the alliance system could resolve (alternatively let us donate epic units). As far as their inconsistency between GDI and Nod games, I think increasing bike cost to 40 would help a lot, make them something you have to give a bit more thought to than just spamming out a few sets the second you see an air unit, but still allow them to be a decent counter that isn't killed in a single shot.

Jumpjet Troopers need a boost, there is no reason you'd ever run them over GDI's other options, they don't do enough damage, don't survive tiberium as well as other harassment options, and lose dps at the slightest of damage to them. I'm in agreement with several others when I say that they should have squads of 3 so that they don't lose numbers (and thus dps) as quickly. I also think they need a slight damage boost to be able to properly fight vehicles that they should counter as right now its far more effective to use missile troopers over them for anything other than attacking harvesters (and even then if I can get missile troops close enough they're likely to be more effective).

Stealth Tanks - I've said a lot on these, so I'll be brief. Fix the reload problem, guarantee them the first shot in combat as part of their stealth ability. They likely have a great niche role as the nod anti-air unit with a little help.

MRLS - lower MRLS hp, stealth tanks should likely one shot these given that one of the only good uses of stealth is to get close to 2 range units and yet they still lose in a fight, the best counter short of air is infantry which can't kill them fast enough to matter with the exception of zone troopers/cyborgs that come a bit too late given the timing of MRLS, and even with an hp nerf MRLS will still be incredibly powerful for securing positions behind defended lines, this just makes them a touch more vulnerable to use without a firm plan.

Titans need something that makes them worth running over Mammoth Tanks in some circumstance, every other tech lab unit has its own niche but Titans just get completely replaced by the Mammoth Tank the second you unlock it. I don't know what titans need, but they definitely need something.

On the subject of the Mammoth Tank, I think it should lose its anti-air missiles, they don't do a ton of damage to air but they do enough. Mammoth's are already very hard to deal with, losing those missiles makes them ever so slightly less versatile and allows for a better range of both counters and temporary answers until real counters can arrive.

Chem troopers also need some help to be playable since flame troopers are essentially better than them in every way, I agree with the suggestion someone else made of making them immune to the cat missile explosion from their gas and also think they should perhaps get a bit more health than the flame trooper to help make them worth their higher cost.

Artillery needs to work differently, its both too strong and wildly inconsistent because of their countering of most ground units and their awful firing arcs, or more specifically, the fact that they undeploy, turn, and redeploy automatically. So I guess my suggestion is find a good way to increase their consistency and then nerf them so they don't dominate the meta in the same way that basilisks currently do.




Anyway, that's it for this week, it may seem like I'm complaining about a lot but really most of this stuff is underplayed stuff rather than imbalances in the game, which is a great sign, looking forward to the inevitable basilisk nerf and whatever else the next patch brings with it.
Message 6 of 9 (1,252 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★ Novice

I just went on 15 match win streak after getting to lvl 9 because almost everyone is rushing tanks and movement speed boosts or bikes. Easy to counter in my opinion, but I feel like the rushing strategy is just so overplayed at this point. Some people are even not building harvesters and commiting all their chips to rushing and when it fails then the game is basically lost for them. Maybe put some counter measure where rushing is harder to do in the lower levels so less experienced players don't use it as their only way to rank up faster. Eventually they meet players like me and lose because they don't have enough experience with other strategies or rotating after a failed rush. I get paired against the top 20 players often and those games are actually really fun because tactical strategies are used besides rushing. Jade and I have kicked each other's butts plenty of times but I can say for sure I'd lose every time if I tried rushing a good player. Maybe make the harvester immune to damage for the first 30 seconds or something shorter just to keep the  game interesting. Hope this helps.

 

-TheFallen

Message 7 of 9 (1,239 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★★★ Novice

Another issue is the power of the cyborgs....they're next to impossible to beat. No fun if you don't have any.

Message 8 of 9 (1,212 Views)

Re: Balance Update Notes 7/03/2018

★★★ Novice

Actually spending money won't get you much.... I bought 3 $10 bundles. And out.of those 3 bundles I didn't level 1 single unit and a very small portion of the cards i got were actually cards that I use....... Waste.of money big time..... .. The crates are so random and the card pool has gotten much larger...... Youre extremely lucky if u get any of the cards you want/need.......

Very much a skill based game levels only become a factor when you're 2 levels below, 1 level doesn't mean much

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