Isn't GPS insane?

[Szunti]

I always thought it's unfair (and boring) to see everything. And it is not just that, but all units fire at max range. This makes rocket soldiers mini AA guns and artillery unstoppable. Before GPS you can snipe helis and make arties blind, but they don't need vision anymore.

Everything gets simplified. Things that give constant full vision doesn't belong to an RTS game in my opinion.

[Murto the Ray]

Nah, its pretty weak in my experience. In a normal game you will be getting it at a stage in the game where most fronts are stalemated and seeing what your enemy is doing is almost useless since you wont be launching many attacks on each other due to the lack of eco and how an engagement at such a late stage usually decides the game.

I hardly notice a difference between playing vs a player who has it and playing vs a player who doesn't.

[FiveAces]

GPS is really strong, yes...
And that's how it should be imo. Teching up against good players is risky, and Allied tech centers have about as much armor as a toolshed.
That's an important part of the risk vs. reward dynamic that makes RTS my favourite videogame genre -
snipe the tech center with 2 yaks and it's lights out.
Or better yet - try finding and denying it as soon as the timer pops up.

[Szunti]

If you say it's not a problem I think I just have to get better.
I'm not sure about the yaks though. Two yaks cost more than the tech center and an AA gun. I can't really imagine that they succeed and getting out alive.

Putting pressure on the opponent with a building in the middle of your base? Shouldn't it be (only) the nuke?

[Szunti]

Still hate it, I think it's much worse than fighting against a nuke.

[Doomsday]

Yes, GPS effect is really strong. To me it feels like allied expertise in late game and soviets are more geared towards early to midgame. Instead of GPS, soviet player has paradrops, spyplane and parabombs for Ukraine. They all come online faster than GPS but are less powerful abilities. A lot of the soviet unique units are early game specialists: attack dog, grenadier, apc, flame soldier.

[Chimpo]

I'd say GPS is a bit of a ridiculous advantage to have in a strategy game. I'd say a suitable compromise would be to make it like spy plane or have it cyclical (like a spy satellite)

[Doomsday]

I think SoScared's Experimental V2.0 balance build has a suitable compromise: 2 minute cooldown for Soviet Spy Plane instead of 3 minute it is currently.

[JuiceBox]

My favourite games have been trying to deny my enemy GPS it forces an engagement which I think is a good thing. I can't remember who I was playing but he had a 2 minute head start on the GPS and I threw everything I had at it to deny the launch! My last arty shell blew the tech center literally a frame after it launched. Devastating but Fun times. I agree with FiveAces here it should yield high rewards considering it can be denied so easily. The only thing that I would say is I agree that artillery combined with GPS can shell an area out of sight that is realistic but Tanya getting GPS coordinants to fire her desert eagles blind and hit her target is some talent

[Szunti]

agree with FiveAces here it should yield high rewards considering it can be denied so easily

So easily denied. In other words you threw everything at it and even failed. Considering how strong base defences are, you probably wasted more than $1500.

I threw everything I had at it to deny the launch! My last arty shell blew the tech center literally a frame after it launched.

[Fortnight]

I think GPS fits into the Allies vs Soviet balance nicely. Allies have less options early game and need something like this. Soviet isn't exactly gimped late game with Mammoth Tanks and Iron Curtain either.

To further consider is that the Allied Tech Center requires double amount of power and has 400 HP instead of Soviet's 600 HP. Soviet can also turn off Radar Dome to save a bunch of power during the late game without losing anything except radar, Allies have to keep it online or lose the GPS connection. (I would like to see some change to this though, to give Soviet another reason to keep the Dome online. Today's screen resolutions and the option to zoom out using CTRL+Mouse Wheel kind of diminishes the need for the radar.)

Tanya getting GPS coordinants to fire her desert eagles blind and hit her target is some talent

Haha!

[AMHOL]

I think GPS fits into the Allies vs Soviet balance nicely. Allies have less options early game and need something like this. Soviet isn't exactly gimped late game with Mammoth Tanks and Iron Curtain either.

Mammoth tanks are useless, Allies already have an equivalent superpower to the iron curtain, the chronosphere, arguably not as effective, but both can be used effectively or ineffectively.

To further consider is that the Allied Tech Center requires double amount of power and has 400 HP instead of Soviet's 600 HP. Soviet can also turn off Radar Dome to save a bunch of power during the late game without losing anything except radar, Allies have to keep it online or lose the GPS connection. (I would like to see some change to this though, to give Soviet another reason to keep the Dome online. Today's screen resolutions and the option to zoom out using CTRL+Mouse Wheel kind of diminishes the need for the radar.)

That's not true, the radar minimap is really useful for navigating around the map quickly, you also get radar events alerting you to attacks, so there already is reason to keep the radar powered up, granted, less than allies, but then again, soviets don't have decent scouting units that require one-click micro and are easy to retain like rangers and hinds...

Also, negative zoom is only available in spectator view, so that's not true either.

[lucassss]

Russians (not all soviets) still have tesla troopers

[zinc]

Soviet should have tech by that stage and so artillery isn't going to create a big balance issue. You can hit them with flak trucks every 2 minutes. Also with the range change it's now more feasible to counter artillery with V2 even without iron curtain.

GPS is part of the original game, and I think the open ra interpretation of it is fine. It can help in a few different ways but I wouldn't say crazily overpowered or anything.

[AoAGeneral1]

GPS isn't what the main problem. Its the weak armor of the soviet units and the base pushing mechanic that makes the GPS extremely strong. I suggest leave the GPS alone for now and test the nerfs of the base push and buffing soviet armor.