Lets discuss Shock Troopers (Red Alert)

[JOo]

this is allready fixed

and so far , what im aware of is ... that you can rank them only 1 level up ... so you cant get a "star" unit ...

and 1 rank isnt much of a difference ... so it won't effect the gameplay in terms of balance

[r34ch]

and 1 rank isnt much of a difference ... so it won't effect the gameplay in terms of balance

I think its a great feature, but I wouldn't say giving various stat multipliers to an entire force of units won't affect gameplay in terms of balance - quite the opposite. Not to mention allied troops will level up faster too.

[raymundo]

I think this is an interesting feature, and for the soviet players simply build dogs and you have won't have to worry about a spy entering your buildings. For allied players iirc, you can actually use a spy to detect other spies. So if it is a 1v1 and you are allied you won't have access to dogs, but in 1v1 spies are much easier to detect anyway. If a soviet player takes 2 minutes to fill the bases up with dogs set on defend it will go a long way in helping protect everyone from spies.

It seems there is a consensus that shocks are too strong as they are; reducing shocks hp seems fair since their increased attack range is a feature the devs wanted to implement into the game.

[abcdefg30]

So, is everyone fine with the first set of changes done in OpenRA/OpenRA#9085?

Hijacker;
-cost increased from $500 to $600
-speed increased to 71
-stealthed when not moving

Shock trooper;
-cost increased from $400 to $500
-health reduced to 80 from 100

Heavy tank
-cost reduced from $1150 to $1050
-health increased from 550 to 575

Yak
-chaingun spread increased from 128 to 298

[raymundo]

So, is everyone fine with the first set of changes done in OpenRA/OpenRA#9085?

Hijacker;
-cost increased from $500 to $600
-speed increased to 71
-stealthed when not moving

Shock trooper;
-cost increased from $400 to $500
-health reduced to 80 from 100

Heavy tank
-cost reduced from $1150 to $1050
-health increased from 550 to 575

Yak
-chaingun spread increased from 128 to 298

I think price increase for shocks is a bit much, maybe 450$ is better? ...my .02

[noobmapmaker]

Was wondering about the spread. Does it spread the same amount of damage across a larger area, or does a larger area get the current damage done?

If the latter is true then the yaks do get a big buff, the spread increase is ~130% (128 to 298)

Example: say, a yak has a potential of doing 1000hp damage tot a 2x2 area. That is 4 squares, which is 250hp per square. If it becomes 4x4 spread. Will it then still be 250 damage/square (= 250*16 = 4000hp)? Or does each square get 1000/16 = ~60hp damage per square?

[raymundo]

Along with those changes consider some things Allies side: Longbow fire rate, and cost of light tanks.

[Graion Dilach]

Was wondering about the spread. Does it spread the same amount of damage across a larger area, or does a larger area get the current damage done?

The latter.

If the latter is true then the yaks do get a big buff, the spread increase is ~130% (128 to 298)

Yes, but that's still small. A spread radius of 128 is 1/8th of a cell - a cell is 1024 unit wide. This means that ca. 1/3 cell around the epicenter will receive full damage alone.

[zinc]

I don't think the health thing will change things when you get overrun by shockies.

I think the hp nerf is needed. 100hp is way too much. Currently they can survive 2 bursts from a hind. With 80hp they can only survive the one.

If they are still OP I would like to see their health reduced further down to 60, which is still higher than most of the infantry in the game. At 80hp they can survive a hit from a pillbox, at 60hp the pillbox kills them in one burst.

OK yeah maybe it will help.

I had no idea they had more health than other troops in the first place. Put it down to 60 imo or whatever is normal for troops.

[r34ch]

If the latter is true then the yaks do get a big buff, the spread increase is ~130% (128 to 298)

This is correct. On the latest release group 5 infantry in a cell and attack the center infantry. Almost no damage is inflicted to the rest of the infantry in that cell. With this change a burst will take out ~3 infantry in a cell and leave the rest on very low health. Infantry in adjacent cells take minor damage.

In MP infantry aren't usually bunched 5 in a cell but a good player will simply use 'scatter' which efficiently counters this change might I add.

Along with those changes consider some things Allies side: Longbow fire rate, and cost of light tanks.

Totally agree, but next PR.

Ideally I would like to submit incremental changes for testing in playtests to get feedback, much like AoAGeneral1 has been doing with the TD changes. I think I just got the timing of this PR off (just before a release)

[noobmapmaker]

ok, cool, thanks! Good change imo

[raymundo]

So nothing is going to change for upcoming release?

[r34ch]

So nothing is going to change for upcoming release?

I just closed the PR following feedback to make changes.

I will change this first PR to balance the two most unbalanced factions; Russia and Germany.

Shockie

• 100hp -> 60hp (now dies from parabombs and a pillbox burst)
• $400 -> $500

Adv Chronosphere

• 2m -> 3m charge time

These will be the only two changes in the first PR. I would like some of the veteran players to give input here as well as have the changes go through playtests before a release.


The second PR I was planning to buff some of the faction specific underused / gimmicky units (phase tank alpha dmg, demo truck speed, fake structures damage) etc

And the final PR would be to buff the general underused units (light tank, longbow, hijacker) etc

[zinc]

And the final PR would be to buff the general underused units (light tank, longbow, hijacker) etc

Light tanks may not be used much but they are already useful. If you build up a few of them and 30 ish troops you can do a game ending rush in the earlier part of the game. For later on maybe they aren't so useful but then allies have the medium tanks at that stage. The advantage of the light tanks is that you don't need a repair pad and also they can counter certain soviet units early game.

[raymundo]

I agree, german chrono should not be 3 min! It's not really all that op as they stand to lose many units at once. Light tanks can still be relevant later game as a "distracting" unit.