Internal Playtest – Preparing Build for Release – 3/14

These videos are disjointed. Here they are in order.

http://www.twitch.tv/metabolical/b/511023309
http://www.twitch.tv/metabolical/b/511028455
http://www.twitch.tv/metabolical/b/511029249

• The player list and system list stick down if desired.
• As everyone knows, right now the game is very much focused around building lots of turrets and walls until Advanced is built. This how the devs play, so they know this is the current state of the game. This means it’s what the devs want, of we’ll get some balance changes soon.
• And… that’s about it. Just testing for bugs to make sure it’s ready for a release.

Really? I've seen a load of threads saying how bad the turret situation is and they still aren't balanced?

There's a tournament this weekend. I'm kinda wondering if the devs didn't balance things because they didn't want to throw off players with new changes right before a tournament.

Remember, balance isn't Uber's main focus. They're more concerned with making a functional game, then focusing on the balance.

Also. We're beta testing. We're the guys who are testing the balance changes. When changes are made, they're often every easily too far in one direction simply to see how it alters the game, so they can then be pulled back to better levels. It's how game balancing works. We're the ones who get to test it.

That being said... I'd really like some changes to turrets real soon. Basic units are pretty worthless right now. I'd rather have 10 fabricators defending my base to build turrets than have 100 ants to defend my base.

This is seriously so stupid and cheap method how to defend against T1 raids and needs to be addressed. It cannot be that a single turret can hold of insane amount of bots or that you can defend all of your base against T1 raids without having any yourself and just by spamming them!

We already have an op commander ubercannon that can deal with T1 raids to the base, why have op turrets? Turrets should be balanced more about to defend a choke point or your expansion, not being spammed around your base with no sense.

The range on them is quite ok, the rate of fire is quite fast, could be maybe slightly slower and definatelly the price needs to be increased. They are way too cheap.

Single turret laser can probably stay as it is, cheap and enefficient and easily overrun, but normal turret and t2 turret needs metail cost increased.

We're gamma testing actually!

I agree. Laser turrets need a nerf and/or a price increase.

Missile defense towers seem to be good.

Laser towers are just way OP.

Maybe even give walls a nerf. If a laser defense tower is completely surrounded by walls, Basic units simply cannot destroy that tower in a way that is any way remotely cost effective.

I think a real slow rate of fire basic artillery unit is needed.

*cough*thud/hammer*cough*


*cough*T1ArtilleryBot*cough*


That smasher is begging to be added to the game. Its looks are clearly designed to evoke images of the thud. Just add it already!

The solution is to bring laser turrets back to their previous cost. It's way too cheap now. Building one doesn't hurt your eco in the long run if you build one immediately after your first factory.

The solution isn't to nerf them or anything. Just adjust their cost.

And quadrupple the cost of walls and reduce their HP by at least 1000. The defense towers are fine.

I'd prefer walls be dirt cheap, but have far lower HP; people won't use them if they're more expensive. I'd definitely agree they have way too much health right now, but I think as a funneling device/way to slow a rush, they are very useful.

Also, what everyone else said. Single laser turrets are close to balanced-ish, but double and triple are still crazy OP for their metal cost.

Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again. The DPS/Metal ratio of Single lasers needs to be better than that of Double and Tripple lasers. Their DPS will go down gradually as each one is destroyed, but the DPS of a more powerful laser tower will stay at the same rate right until the doxen blow it to heck.

Your sentences contradict so I'm not sure what your position is, but as well as laser towers having their cost restored something does need to be done about walls. Frankly I'd prefer they didn't exist, but that seems unlikely to occur. Even ignoring their OP nature, it's tedious having to micro things like pelters so as not to shoot that line of blips that's quite obviously a damn wall.

When I said that the defense towers were fine I was meaning with respect to their actual stats after being built. The only problem with the towers themselves is the cost. The rest of the problem is in the uber cheap walls which you can increase their HP with to ludicrous degrees.

That looks promising.

I really need to dig through the PA files more...

It's found in \media\pa\units\land\bot_artillery
There's also a T1 artillery tank which looks nearly the same as the sheller found in tank_heavy_artillery (as opposed to tank_heavy_mortar).

Yeah. Was just looking at that.

Looks promising.

A unit like that would also take care of T1 point defenses being OP.

actually it looks like more of a "lets make a t1 and t2 version of everything" situation to me.

Based on what? Our speculation? That's quite the reach.

The game balance and unit roster is far from done. Let's wait until the game is finished before we start complaining.

Those were both in one of the very early builds as usable units, then removed. The bot was quite OP at the time, if I recall. Back then, the sniper was just a single barrel artillery bot also, so they completely overlapped in role, which is why it was removed I think (so maybe it might come back? Having artillery at Basic in bots and Advanced in vehicles is a nice differentiation). The other artillery tank was likewise a close copy, and almost looked identical to the current sheller.

Edit: Just looked at the history, it was only present for 3 builds before being removed in build 49286.