Unit(s) You Rarely Bother With in OpenRA (RA-MP)

Title said that

Discussion about the game and its default mods.
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Prince Blueblood
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Unit(s) You Rarely Bother With in OpenRA (RA-MP)

Post by Prince Blueblood »

Salut Comrades!

So, while now I'm fully aware that the factions is fully balanced and every units have their uses, I do notice that some units are very rarely encountered in Multiplayer games. Yeah. perhaps they could be useful in the hands of skilled players or when their usage is unexpected in and on the act itself. But still, you very rarely bother with them...

Lemme start first:

For Both Sides :
* Supply truck, while they're definitely useful when your allies are broke and need some help for his economy, they're pretty much useless otherwise. Sometimes, I wonder what if we can use typical RTS resource sharing method by direct credit transfer instead? While arguments about the enemy should be able to intercept the money in their journey are good, you should remember that most of the time (if build over ally con yard is on), more often than not, you will notice about your allies building near your MCV, ESPECIALLY at the expansion sites (and you are often do that as well), making the transfer is a bit odd since your war factory is very near with his refinery, so why not just direct transfer?
* Minelayer : Theoritically useful, but their 3 mines expanded quickly before you must re-fill them. Unless the map was littered with chokepoint they're practically useless because your enemy just need to bombard the ground with arty / sent riflemen to their doom

As Allies :
* Sandbags : Oh wow, tanks crush them silly, while they're cheap, I have never seen them of use, except in the trolling / joking game where they're actually used to draw something...
* Radar Jammer : Whats their use if your enemy actually TURN OFF THEIR RADAR ALL OF THE TIME? :lol:

As Soviets :
* Barbed wire : Oh lol, even rocket soldiers destroy them silly.
* MAD Tank : Demo truck done their job faster, and much more absolutely devastating if done right, you can argue about no killing infantry and less prone to (not so) accidental explosion inside your base, but still, they didn't insta-destroying some buildings (but demo truck definitely is), add the fact that they cost the same with demo truck, who will think the MAD is worth it after the infantry bug are fixed? :P
Aand... honourable mention :
* Hijacker : I think only a handful of players use them (Myself included of course), but the fact that they need APC to be able to effectively stealing harvesters, the fact that unlike GLA hijackers, they are both weak and cannot cloak themselves, the Soviet hijackers are useless as mean of ambush (unless you count moving them with APC and capturing mammoth tanks from behind is good, but the trick didn't work for the second time)
OpenRA Nicks :
- Everything with "Blueblood" inside
- Yuelang (when I speak Chinese, literally)

My Ping might be Red... blame distance and my shitty connection due to which country I lived in...

Scott_NZ
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Post by Scott_NZ »

Radar jammers also jam missiles, which can make them pretty useful.
MAD tanks are also compatible with the iron curtain and the chronosphere, unlike demo trucks, making them very effective at killing bases.

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Prince Blueblood
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Post by Prince Blueblood »

Scott_NZ wrote: Radar jammers also jam missiles, which can make them pretty useful.
MAD tanks are also compatible with the iron curtain and the chronosphere, unlike demo trucks, making them very effective at killing bases.
but still, with current trend over massive arrays of artilleries (when playing vs other allies), or Mammoth spam (soviets), the radar jammer is more or less hampered in this regard.

Thanks for the info on MAD thanks ;) Next time I'll try to sent 3 iron curtained mad tanks and get a look from my enemy :P
OpenRA Nicks :
- Everything with "Blueblood" inside
- Yuelang (when I speak Chinese, literally)

My Ping might be Red... blame distance and my shitty connection due to which country I lived in...

klaas
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Post by klaas »

A supply truck is different from a direct transfer because it takes time to build, and during that time you can't build something else with your warfactory.

It would be interesting if supply trucks gave extra money, like they cost 500 to build, but give 600 credits, so you have an extra inefficient way to make money...

I'm not against giving the possibility of direct money transfer in the game though, could be another way to increase teamplay.

AoAGeneral
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Post by AoAGeneral »

Im against the money transfers in the old style way. Such as Starcraft and etc.

This could create potential feeding gameplays. Start of the game. Ally builds ores and ore trucks and just feeds money to the ally. While the ally also has just a few ores themself and power playing through.

It could however, create other awkward builds that can spring up if done right aswell however. It all depends on the mechanics.

klaas
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Post by klaas »

AoAGeneral wrote: This could create potential feeding gameplays. Start of the game. Ally builds ores and ore trucks and just feeds money to the ally. While the ally also has just a few ores themself and power playing through.

It could however, create other awkward builds that can spring up if done right aswell however. It all depends on the mechanics.
I agree, it could change game mechanics, although I don't think a feeding type of strategy would be too easy to pull off, or much better than other coordinated attacks by teamplayers working together well.

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Prince Blueblood
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Post by Prince Blueblood »

alright, back to the point then, anyone seeing MAD Tank, Radar Jammer, Minelayer, or Hijacker today?
OpenRA Nicks :
- Everything with "Blueblood" inside
- Yuelang (when I speak Chinese, literally)

My Ping might be Red... blame distance and my shitty connection due to which country I lived in...

Matt
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Post by Matt »

The SHOK trouper seems useless at the moment. https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/issues/4589

zoidyberg
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Post by zoidyberg »

I LOVE the shock trooper. Whenever you click on him, he says "need a jump?" and I find that endearing. :)

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Prince Blueblood
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Post by Prince Blueblood »

and while most of "the usual guys" very rarely build shock troopers, for somewhat reasons they are popular with Newbies (who make it far so they can get soviet tech lab), so while they're underperforming, they aren't rare sights...
OpenRA Nicks :
- Everything with "Blueblood" inside
- Yuelang (when I speak Chinese, literally)

My Ping might be Red... blame distance and my shitty connection due to which country I lived in...

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Murto the Ray
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Post by Murto the Ray »

Another couple of units i hardly see are the chrono tank and mobile gap generator; while i know there are uses in these units i find that they require a lot of setting up and therefore go unused.

Chrono Tank:
This unit has the very cool and science fictiony function of being able to teleport to positions around it; i feel as if there is a use for this but it is just terrible vs infantry and it's chronoshift does not recharge fast enough to jump around mammoth tanks so im not really sure how this can be utilized. It should really be able to hit aircraft.

Mobile Gap Generator:
Ive only seen this unit used once in multiplayer and it ultimately led to my destruction. It was used to move a selection of units (mainly arty and infantry) around the map and right to my bases doorstep to ultimately destroy me. Aircraft couldnt come near it as when the saw within the shroud a volley of rockets would come out. Yet i hardly see this unit used.

MineLayer:
I saw this used the other day, not very well however. I think it isnt used because people simply dont know how to; i didnt know how to for my first 6 months of playing RA until i figured it out myself.

zoidyberg
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Post by zoidyberg »

Given the length of most OpenRA games (less than 30 minutes), it seems like all of the above units just take too long to produce. You're better off cranking out other units.

Even if it took two seconds to build a mine layer, you can't afford to spend the time required to mine a field.... To effectively use mobile gap generators, you'd need to have unit formations. Chrono tanks? I've seen them used in the past. I prefer building arties. They're way too effective!

blah blah blah... :z

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Prince Blueblood
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Post by Prince Blueblood »

Chrono tanks is mostly visible in long-drawn "Bombardment Islands" map, due to them able to easily cross the strait dividing the teams

and yeah, minelayers is pretty rare
OpenRA Nicks :
- Everything with "Blueblood" inside
- Yuelang (when I speak Chinese, literally)

My Ping might be Red... blame distance and my shitty connection due to which country I lived in...

zinc
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Post by zinc »

Scott_NZ wrote: Radar jammers also jam missiles, which can make them pretty useful.
MAD tanks are also compatible with the iron curtain and the chronosphere, unlike demo trucks, making them very effective at killing bases.
Yes, but to me that is a cheap tactic and iron curtain at least shouldn't be available for them.

zinc
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Post by zinc »

Prince Blueblood wrote: alright, back to the point then, anyone seeing MAD Tank, Radar Jammer, Minelayer, or Hijacker today?
I saw someone using the radar jammer recently on "bombardment islands" to defend against navy ships. (The medium size)

It actually looked like it worked very well.

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