@HoujouSatoko said in Points of Imbalance.:
actually the most surprising notion here to me is that T3 land formations existed in pre 18 balance in teamgames. the usual thing that happened there was getting full T3 mex into exp only because they wouold build so incredibly quickly. (and there are pds + acus everywhere so what do you even want to do with those T3 units?)
for 1v1s this whole thing is a non issue
That was their niche, they were sucker punch rush units.
They were built to exploit early timings, or unexpected mass spikes due to reclaim.
They were not able to compete with T3 in terms of mass efficiency though, and so if you could get past the timings, T3 land formations would become effective counters to them.
And given the mass investment you have to put into significant T3 production, that makes sense. You can't just grab all your engies and push out 15 bricks in a minute or two.
That role is what allowed assault experimentals to exist, but not compete with T3 land. T3 land was better if you had the production to make enough of it.
And I'm speaking in general here. There are counterexamples like the Fatboy, but what I'm saying was true in general.
We traded that system for one where Experimentals take longer to build, but have little to no disadvantage in mass efficiency. That is causing Experimentals to replace the role of the T3 land formation.