@thewheelie
Wheelie! Thanks for your feedback! I really appreciate it. I'm glad I'm getting your attention! I've been running some tests, with the help of Spikey, and hopefully will be able to get you better results later on. For the moment, everything is still pretty experimental, so more tests are still required.
Anywho:
In theory yes, but in practice it's impossible. It's not like you see game enders or t3 arties ever build in one. You can't perfectly balance a unit for both teamgames and 1v1.
You are correct, here. It is extremely rare to see Game Enders in 1v1's but we're talking about the Billy Nuke here, which, I feel is a little out of place. In both 1v1's and team games.
No it doesn't. t2 shields are literally irrelevant vs a billy. It kills them including the army under it.
I double-checked this to make sure I wasn't lying just before I mentioned it, and they do in fact hold up to a Billy. We're talking about diminishing returns but - they can stop most of the damage. One or two T2 mobile shields will not work, but when you have about 3 or 4, that's when they start working well. Any more than that will ensure no damage will bleedthrough and will ensure they survive, too. You can see this in action in this short 3-minute replay: https://replay.faforever.com/17680151
The Billy will be more effective against UEF mobile shields as they have less SHP, but compared to Seraphim T3 mobile shields; Well... yeah... their 10K SHP makes the Billy practically useless against them.
People agreeing with you doesn't mean its true.
It's true for us. I mean, this is an opinion that goes both ways - "true" is really dependent on point-of-view. My side thinks the Billy Nuke has a problem, and that is why I'm here with their support. Yes, we're only a handful of players, but we are not the only ones that think this. I'm here offering my own solution to what we believe is a problem that plagues this upgrade.
Even if it's not worth it most of the time, is that bad? It's a faction specific lategame upgrade. Probably most similar to cybran going cloak/lazer, which is also rarely used. But even though they are rare upgrades i've seen enough times when they shine. I've seen billy acu's and cloak lazer acu's getting 100k mass killed.
This is part of the issue. Yes, it is a 'lategame upgrade', but, It's not effective in neither the early nor the late game! Its cost makes it unable to obtain early game - which isn't the problem - but its own stats make it almost punishing to use unless its against anything unshielded or uncovered by TMD.
The main use for billy is killing big t3 armies, not trying to wipe out a base.
Spikey has created a mod to help us visualize the changes and with their permission, I will share it later, however... I completely agree with you here.
Perhaps one of its uses is to destroy large T3 armies, however, it doesn't even do this effectively. Mobile shields just absorb too much of the damage. If it is a "late-game upgrade" as you say, it should be able to deal with "big t3 armies" with more certainty, but its damage and damage area is too small. It could miss entirely, or if it barely misses, it will 'tickle them' - wasting 3,000 mass. And if you get a direct hit, well, you better hope mobile shields or Loyalists weren't there.
I'm not trying to make the Billy 'Base killing', either. I'm just trying to increase it's effectiveness just a little to make its investment less of a burden if the projectile gets destroyed or doesn't hit.
I'm not saying it isn't or can't be effective, as anything can be effective if used properly... obviously. I'm just saying it is very difficult to use due to its available opportunities. These opportunities are very slim and hard to come by, and even when they offer themselves, the Billy Nuke doesn't tend to be very effective. This is why it is so rare to see.
And even then you can easily assist the billy by sniping some tmd's with air
Yes; You could also assist the Billy with a Cruiser, a Spearhead, heck, even a Mavor or a Scathis.
My point here is that if we factor in anything else in, well of course it would help.
Here, I am just comparing the Billy to its direct counter which is TMD and shields. Factoring anything else into the equation just skews the results.
On a second note, that means you need to divert more mass to destroy a target which is adding more value to the TMD and removing it from the Billy. This, again, is my point exactly. The Billy is too much of high risk to be worth it.
Thank you, again for your feedback, sir!
I hope to hear more from you.
~Stryker