Why is Aeon #1 disliked, #2 inaccessible and #3 most unfun units, but #4 most fun units

Personally, it's mainly because I don't like the Aeon unit selection sounds.

@auricocorico said in Why is Aeon #1 disliked, #2 inaccessible and #3 most unfun units, but #4 most fun units:

People usually whine about

• gun range being OP (also false)

Assuming I'm not Aeon myself (where I could get my own double gun ACU), how do I efficiently frustrate an Aeon double gun ACU?

Spamming T2 PD is expensive and they can walk somewhere else.

Using T2 air units requires me to to get air superiority and upgrade to T2 air and make air attack units and if he has flak I have to snipe it. If he sees it coming he can make multiple flak for a lot less price than the cost to set up the air snipe.

T3 land units can be strong against a double gun ACU, but getting T3 land is super expensive at early stages in the game.

Can I beat it with T1 land? Can I beat it with T2 land? How?

You get an hp upgrade (t2, nano) and walk into it or make a t2 pd and protect it.

My 2 cents as I main Aeon:

Why is Aeon disliked to play and play against.
Aurora.
More unit babysitting (from both players).
Different gameplay style.
Specific knowledge required.
Unsatisfying air units.
Mercy.
Every Aeon unit feels like it counters 1 thing whilst being countered by 3 things.
Wobbly missiles which can sometimes miss stationary targets.
Chrono.
Obsidians never die.
Volcano is the best and worst TMD.
Paragon. Useless (usually) or OP but never neither.

Why is Aeon unfriendly or inaccessible to new players?
The only faction that feels like a different game from the rest.

Which Aeon units highlight the "unfun" aspects of Aeon?
Aurora.
Mercy.
CZAR.

Which Aeon units highlight the "fun" aspects of Aeon?
Obsidian.
Mercy.
CZAR.

Aeon. The only faction where my enjoyment is inversely proportional to my opponents enjoyment.

Imo Aeon is generally disliked because of aurora, double gun, mercy, very cheap shield(in terms of e drain), chrono, early t3 stage when range gun and omni upgrade with shield or chrono can kill bricks or percies without any casualties, CZAR . Also if you are aeon all these aspects are pretty fun

Gun range is barely bigger, you almost never feel the difference. If you find yourself in a situation where your ennemy is shooting you and you're not, you literaly just need one step in his direction to get in range. Might feel annoying, but it's really not OP or umbeatable.

Just play exactly as you would against any other gun ACU really.

@auricocorico
Looks at aeon frigate

Par for the course on the meaningless range difference

@auricocorico said in Why is Aeon #1 disliked, #2 inaccessible and #3 most unfun units, but #4 most fun units:

Gun range is barely bigger, you almost never feel the difference. If you find yourself in a situation where your ennemy is shooting you and you're not, you literaly just need one step in his direction to get in range. Might feel annoying, but it's really not OP or umbeatable.

Just play exactly as you would against any other gun ACU really.

Most players as aeon with double gun know you can just walk acu backwards and you never worry about getting shot… the only way to counter double gun is to t2 pd up.

It is absolutely false that you treat a double gun Aeon acu like any other.

Idk, i can't find a single replay where i manage to do that. I don't watch many other aeon mains, but this situation seems to never happen, or maybe i'm just too bad at aeon ahah.
Have you seen that happen in a game recently ? Give me a replay ^^

I don't get the Aurora hate, aren't gatling/rocket bots the same kiting playstyle but on T2?

@auricocorico few people let themselves be kited to death, everyone even at my level seems aware of Aeon gun range

Now, the fact it has a significant impact does not mean Aeon is imba, but it seems like it could be a genuine unfun part of Aeon

There's nothing wrong with Aurora: they're (almost) a T1 sniper.

But Aeon needs a T1 tank: something with enough HP that it can survive 1-on-1 vs any other T1 tank much of the time in close quarters. Perhaps a new unit with the speed of the Aurora but the range of other tanks, with similar DPS but 20% more cost and 30% more HP.

Given a new tank, one could even try balancing the Aurora more like other snipers: lower DPS but a little more speed. (Currently DPS must approx. match other tanks for balance to work with smaller numbers, but then Aurora get too powerful in large groups due to range, except vs bombers...)

If the unit count really can't be increased, there is another option, though many would consider it heresy: turn the Flare into a T1 sniper/LAB hybrid and the Aurora into standard medium (or less-standard heavy) tank.

@cyborg16 said in Why is Aeon #1 disliked, #2 inaccessible and #3 most unfun units, but #4 most fun units:

turn the Flare into a T1 sniper/LAB hybrid and the Aurora into standard medium (or less-standard heavy) tank.

Awesome, just call it a "Light Sniper Bot"

@auricocorico said in Why is Aeon #1 disliked, #2 inaccessible and #3 most unfun units, but #4 most fun units:

Also most of the time in other factions, the "special units" is rare and can be forgotten about. For example the selen is a special scout/lab, so you don't play lab rush the same way for sera as other faction. But if you forget about it and make a tank instead, it's no big deal.

This solution does a lot to address this "odd duck" situation identified by @auricocorico

@cptant said in Why is Aeon #1 disliked, #2 inaccessible and #3 most unfun units, but #4 most fun units:

I don't get the Aurora hate, aren't gatling/rocket bots the same kiting playstyle but on T2?

Hoplite and Mongoose are faster and also come with stealth/shield intended support. I'd say they are definitely more forgiving than aurora, especially since you can swap into a heavy tank if you find it takes too much babysitting to keep your ranged bots efficient.

Also, lab is already a proto-tank early on for Aeon. You can reliably kill any tank with 2 of them and with enough babysitting can even trade even. Obviously as armies scale it gets significantly worse.

@ftxcommando is right. I didn't realize until recently how far ahead of the other factions the flare was. It's higher HP and DPS aren't enough to make it a great part of Frontline platoon composition, but it has like what, 20 hp less than an Aurora? With more DPS. It might actually be better at rushing an ACU if it's just flares. Both take two shots anyway.

I am going to create a survey to get some good data on this kind of thing. Why people prefer this or that faction, etc (leave suggestions in inbox)

But what sort of changes are viable? I doubt it would get to the point of adding whole new units, and there is a limit to what can be done that preserves the spirit of the Aeon. So I assume smaller stat tweaks to existing units is the name of the game. So, what are our sliders to adjust?