Mercy Change - Not ready yet

Maybe it would be better to have a visual that is more like a bunch of janus firebombs burning on the ground spread around the area of effect. Also, maybe it would be better to have a bunch of individual projectiles that do damage over time like the janus does instead of having just 1 cloud, so that it would be more effective against large structures/T4's. An alternative idea would be to have it have a longer period of damage with a higher total damage to add a greater element of area denial and structure damage (the damage radius could be reduced to balance this).

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Nerfing it into oblivion like the Jester is one thing I'd simply approve. Not because it's balanced, but simply cuz I hate the unit enough to remove it from the game. However the question here is why Aeon needs 2 single-target units anyway since the Gunships are the strongest anyway already.

@SpikeyNoob This is the kind of dread-inducing stuff I referred to when we talked a few days ago.

@spikeynoob If the current effect is just a placeholder and will be tweaked later on, such that the mercy fire spreads across the floor to create a blue cloud, i could imagine that it would look pretty good. Then I wouldn't be against such a change.

To the shield bug. I think this applies to mobile shields when they are moving a bit forword so that the "center of the damage" get's under the shield. So the damage is also applied inside the shield.

I have no real insight into the code, but perhaps the simplest solution for the bug would be to have many small AoE sources clustering around like the Janus fire has, instead of heaving one big source with a large radius.

@indexlibrorum said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Nerfing it into oblivion like the Jester is one thing I'd simply approve. Not because it's balanced, but simply cuz I hate the unit enough to remove it from the game. However the question here is why Aeon needs 2 single-target units anyway since the Gunships are the strongest anyway already.

@SpikeyNoob This is the kind of dread-inducing stuff I referred to when we talked a few days ago.

My man, simply because you hate a unit it won't result in 10 suggestions to nerf it til the point noone uses it anymore. The ability to distinguish between personal preference and a logical change due to balance reasons is smth you have to have.

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

T1 bombers are still insanely effective against stuff like that. Ofc you can argue that flak will oneshot them - same for mercies though. Besides that you can produce t1 bombers much faster than mercies.

Sure but you need just one hit with a mercy. If you use them all at ones and your opponent don't see them, the flaks might be behind the experimental.

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Why should it be impossible to fly into your opponent's base? Flying around the map edge with one mercy is way saver than doing it with 5+ Gunships. And since most players build the PGs somewhat close together one mercy is able to kill 15+ PGs in one shot - same with random engies being around while e.g. supporting a navy or air HQ.
Especially in teamgames when rushing t2 air because <1700 ranked games tend to underbuild intis anyway, so there's nothing really to stop 1-2 mercies completely raping your base.

very limited fuel and far too little life to reliably get a mercy into the enemy base. Don't think you will see it except for some rare cases.

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

That's why Aeon has e.g. Gunships to simply snipe the AA. Or one swiftie to distract them. Or even a torp bomber due to target priority. Also the mercy does have more hp and iirc it even survives one flak volley. Not to mention Cybran t1 is fucked anyway due to the mobile t1 AA and currently is the faction where you stay on t1 the longers.

Yeah, with a bit more live like now I guess, it would be fine.

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Those are things which have to be fixed of course, however it's not really a reason against changing the mercies, if that's what you intented. If you simply wanted to mention it,

It just means that someone has to solve the problem if we want to change the mercy in such a way.

@strife said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Halve or third the damage a ACU gets from the Mercy

Gross

Imagine a new-ish player investing big resources into a mercy snipe, getting the connections, and then the enemy player walks off with less than fatal damage

And he ends up losing the game because he invested in a failed attack

All because the first player didn't know there was a special rule for how mercies damage ACUs

aeon can’t snipe t2 mexes

Make like 4 gunships dude

UEF is the faction that has 0 viable single entity snipe tools.

can’t kill t4 better than a bomber

Why was it necessary to have a tool better than a bomber? Aeon gunship is also extremely strong at sniping aa to then focus t4s.

I’d rather have janus for x purpose

Aeon doesn’t have janus so I don’t get it. Want to trade stinger for specter and then we can compare janus to mercy?

@arma473 said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@strife said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Halve or third the damage a ACU gets from the Mercy

Gross

Imagine a new-ish player investing big resources into a mercy snipe, getting the connections, and then the enemy player walks off with less than fatal damage

And he ends up losing the game because he invested in a failed attack

All because the first player didn't know there was a special rule for how mercies damage ACUs

I mean tbf it's the same with some other mechanics. E.g. the Overcharge dealing less dmg against ACU and buildings, so that would happen one time and never again. Adding a short explanation in description is a possibility as well

@strife said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

T1 bombers are still insanely effective against stuff like that. Ofc you can argue that flak will oneshot them - same for mercies though. Besides that you can produce t1 bombers much faster than mercies.

Sure but you need just one hit with a mercy. If you use them all at ones and your opponent don't see them, the flaks might be behind the experimental.

Not at home atm but I'm gonna check the build rate / dmg / mass-costs etc. and edit the message.

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Why should it be impossible to fly into your opponent's base? Flying around the map edge with one mercy is way saver than doing it with 5+ Gunships. And since most players build the PGs somewhat close together one mercy is able to kill 15+ PGs in one shot - same with random engies being around while e.g. supporting a navy or air HQ.
Especially in teamgames when rushing t2 air because <1700 ranked games tend to underbuild intis anyway, so there's nothing really to stop 1-2 mercies completely raping your base.

very limited fuel and far too little life to reliably get a mercy into the enemy base. Don't think you will see it except for some rare cases.

The fuel is enough for most maps. I mean ofc you won't be able to fly from one corner of a 20x20 map to the other one, but it's definitely possible on most maps

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Those are things which have to be fixed of course, however it's not really a reason against changing the mercies, if that's what you intented. If you simply wanted to mention it,

It just means that someone has to solve the problem if we want to change the mercy in such a way.

Yeah I don't disagree with that take, but the priority is in just checking the stats for now as Spikey mentioned

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@arma473 said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@strife said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Halve or third the damage a ACU gets from the Mercy

Gross

Imagine a new-ish player investing big resources into a mercy snipe, getting the connections, and then the enemy player walks off with less than fatal damage

And he ends up losing the game because he invested in a failed attack

All because the first player didn't know there was a special rule for how mercies damage ACUs

I mean tbf it's the same with some other mechanics. E.g. the Overcharge dealing less dmg against ACU and buildings, so that would happen one time and never again. Adding a short explanation in description is a possibility as well

Terrible logic. You minimize exceptions in good game design.

@ftxcommando said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@arma473 said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@strife said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

Halve or third the damage a ACU gets from the Mercy

Gross

Imagine a new-ish player investing big resources into a mercy snipe, getting the connections, and then the enemy player walks off with less than fatal damage

And he ends up losing the game because he invested in a failed attack

All because the first player didn't know there was a special rule for how mercies damage ACUs

I mean tbf it's the same with some other mechanics. E.g. the Overcharge dealing less dmg against ACU and buildings, so that would happen one time and never again. Adding a short explanation in description is a possibility as well

Terrible logic. You minimize exceptions in good game design.

It doesn't really matter as long as they're easy to remember. E.g. the opposite of StarCraft where it takes a good amount of time to learn the counterunits to specific stuff.
Assuming the mercies do reduced dmg to the ACU is an exception to the mechanic, but it's not something you only remember after trying that for 10 games in a row. Worst case put it into the loading-screen such as the OC-stuff.

It does matter. Each exception is increasing complexity and onboarding cost for new users. You need to seriously look at whether an exception carries justifiable merits for the game’s health to warrant being included. Such an exception for mercy does not. It’s just there to enable lazy game design/balance.

It’s not “ah ok mercy just randomly does 33% the damage against ACUs” it’s “ah ok, time to check if every other unit in the game lies to me”

Like revert beetle to what it was and make it do 25% damage to ACUs.

Make notha do 40% damage to ACUs and buff the aoe so it’s more intuitive to snipe with it. But those damage differences aren’t how things like notha get balanced because it’s unintuitive to randomly introduce armor like that unless it becomes a core game mechanic. It’s only currently in the game to prevent totally toxic unintended interactions against asf or ACU as you mentioned for example. You don’t intuitively think to groundfire czar against asf but you do intuitively think to use the aeon magic snipe missile against the autowin game target.

The only thing I care about here is the visual effect. Leave it alone if possible.

@melanol There will have to be some change to make it clearly an AOE weapon. But I am leaning in the direction of making it look as close to the original as possible.

@ftxcommando said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

It does matter. Each exception is increasing complexity and onboarding cost for new users. You need to seriously look at whether an exception carries justifiable merits for the game’s health to warrant being included. Such an exception for mercy does not. It’s just there to enable lazy game design/balance.

I agree, non-intuitive changes should be made very carefully and only when no other option is available.

@FtXCommando It's not part of the key mechanics of the game though. If it's something you'd see each rounds, then I'd completely argue. Taking StarCraft or AoE as an example where literally every unit you use has special / hidden stats.
However if a game only has like 1-3 of these units which also don't have special stats towards literally every other unit (e.g. let's say a multiplier against any arty or tanks or even faction-specific stuff), then I'd say it's definitely an okay-ish thing to do.
If you're referring to complexity, then why did the loyas get that extra ability in the first place? It also just increased complexity and Loyas get used in way more games than mercies. In addition to that I'm 100% sure there were definitely some noobs selecting multiple loyas and then wondering why they just exploded without shooting/killing anything.

@spikeynoob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

I agree, non-intuitive changes should be made very carefully and only when no other option is available.

Loyas :imfine:

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@spikeynoob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

I agree, non-intuitive changes should be made very carefully and only when no other option is available.

Loyas :imfine:

IMO an added ability is different from straight up adding exceptions in how much damage a weapon does based on the target. I think it works out for the OC cus its a unique weapon, but to add to 1 random other unit is unclear.

@spikeynoob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

cus its a unique weapon

Unlike, say, the mercy.

@indexlibrorum said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@spikeynoob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

cus its a unique weapon

Unlike, say, the mercy.

You are missing the point. Mercy is a missile supposed to deal damage. So you are always expecting it to deal the same amount of damage no matter what it hits.

Loyas death ability is nothing more than an add on to an already decent unit. A bonus if you will so, that's not necessary for unit to perform it's job properly. After all it's still a decent raiding platform even if you take the EMP away from it and just buff it's damage a little bit.

Meanwhile mercy have one task, blow up and deal damage. It dealing different damage to different units is simply bad design prone to frustrating people and having them drop the game due to useless hidden mechanics.

@sladow-noob said in Mercy Change - Not ready yet:

@FtXCommando It's not part of the key mechanics of the game though. If it's something you'd see each rounds, then I'd completely argue. Taking StarCraft or AoE as an example where literally every unit you use has special / hidden stats.
However if a game only has like 1-3 of these units which also don't have special stats towards literally every other unit (e.g. let's say a multiplier against any arty or tanks or even faction-specific stuff), then I'd say it's definitely an okay-ish thing to do.
If you're referring to complexity, then why did the loyas get that extra ability in the first place? It also just increased complexity and Loyas get used in way more games than mercies. In addition to that I'm 100% sure there were definitely some noobs selecting multiple loyas and then wondering why they just exploded without shooting/killing anything.

Those games are already built upon the fact that there are many different multipliers and strengths when facing different units. FAF is not. There is also the fact that most of those mutipliers are rather obvious in games like total war etc.

Meanwhile making mercy, the snipe missile perfected, deal less damage to the most important snipe target in the game is simply abysmal from the design standpoint. A unit that is supposed to be sniping important targets is not working against the most important target...

Also refer to my other post aimed at Prohibitorum.