elldur
commented
5 years ago For "Windows of time to punish macro should be longer" I think a nerf to hw1 scouts would help. Rn its so safe for hw1 just to spam scouts while they get higher tech. On an unrelated note I think hw2 scouts should deal more damage too which would give hiig more of a reason to get scouts.
Hull defence on carriers I think is fine but the mothership/flagship are really strong so that could be nerfed a bit.
I think eco is easy rn because its too easy to defend. For hw1 their collectors are so tanky and they have no modules which means the soonest you can attack is with corvettes as hw2 but that is countered easily enough by frigate rushing as hw1. I dont think the solution is to make mobs harder to get though, in order to effectively attack with strike you need to move in with a carrier, and you can only do that if you build a mob, a second carrier or are on a small map. However I completely disagree with changing the research tree or removing tech, if there is a vanilla way to do it then the vanilla way should be taken imo. If needed increasing mob research cost has roughly the same effect but doesnt change tech trees.
Novaras
Index
Frigates should be less dominant
It's really no secret to anybody who has played any version of HW:RM that frigates are the core tech that other techs base their value off of. The intended balance of certain units is off due to frigate power, such as the frig-DD-BC triangle:
Destroyers only really fill their role here in team games - in a 1v1 the DD-frigate balance is probably only okay for a hgn vs hgn matchup. HW1 destroyers tend to have a small niche here too due to HW1's linear tech tree and their synergy with support frigates. The vgr destroyer is wildly outclassed here, and its my strong belief that a successful DD play from vay is due to the surprise factor or opponent incompetence/inexperience.
Overall I'd say corvettes are in a really nice place against frigates. Lasers and pulsars are both excellent answers to ion/hmf clouds and can trade against torps and assaults in a roughly even matchup. I would say that pulsar and heavy vettes can struggle to put down a frigate cloud before the cloud has killed several carriers, but I'm not stoked about upping corvette damage.
Bombers were recently sneak buffed against frigates due to frigate scuttle being less devastating. However, bombers could probably stand to have a little more accuracy against frigates.
The proposed nerfs to HMF and ion build times are probably enough for now, so I think we're covering this well.
Windows of time to punish macro should be longer
It's overall very safe to play for at least three ru patches on most maps. These days even fallen lords is considered a macro-heavy map even with close starting positions. This is (in my mind) because of several factors:
TTK against strike should be more reliable
Of the issues here, this one is the one I'm a bit unenthused to deal with. The solution here is to scrap ballistic weapons and go back to using rng weapons. With more reliable TTK, certain strike units could have their damage agaisnt collectors upped again. It's a huge crapshoot using assaults to defend against heavy vettes targeting your colls for example: occasionally your assaults will decimate the vettes, occasionally they'll miss nearly every shot. As such the power of strike against utility has had to be kept down or run the risk of every game being dice roll strike rushes.
Reducing uncontrollable variance like this in the game is overall a Good Thing™
More maps with balanced game design need to be available
Looking through our stock of available maps, I'm basically seeing Shield (+ evolution) and Sarum Badlands as being balanced playstyle maps. Armed for Burial is very interesting and I think also clips into this category due to the exploitable position of the third patch.
What I mean here by balanced is that cheese, all-ins, aggression, backstabs and macro play are all possible with correct execution.
I think the core issue on most maps is the lack of punish for macro play, or the maps being comically tiny to try and hamstring those issues.
Many maps are also afraid to make use of radiation clouds which I feel could act well as a terrain obstacle which is obviously something absent from the homeworld series as a whole.