The Problems With The UEF - Part 5 (The Bulwark)

@ftxcommando

I really don't understand why you decided to focus on the bulwark. The whole problem with UEF navy centers on the general failures of cooper and valiant to perform their roles at any decent level. The shieldboat and cruiser for UEF are both totally solid support units.

Just focusing on the shield mainly. The torp thing is a suggestion.
I just want to see if the Shield could be modified, that's all.

The Cooper is strong for its purpose but weak against everything else. It lacks the HP and range to be useful.
The Valiant is... standard. It's not great, to be honest, but it does have some perks over other Destroyers. Though yes, I would like to see it improved, but unfortunately, that can't really be done as it would make the unit fall out of the place. If it's good at countering subs, the Cooper has no purpose. etc.

I'm all ears to any suggestions but for now, this is mainly about the Bulwark.

Some good shit about cooper btw, you need to make 5 coopers (4500 mass) to beat a Cybran torp/stealth ACU. Aeon or Cybran would need to make 2 of their destroyer, which is coincidentally exactly 4500 mass just as well!

Another thing is that you need 5 coopers to take counter an Atlantis completely.
5 if they're all Shift-G'd together in the same position or 6 if they are spread out. Not too spread out or the Atlantis can pick them off one by one.

They're strong.

However if a single one of those coopers dies, the Cybran ACU can kill 4 coopers meaning you need to keep each 1750 hp unit alive which could be swarmed by frigates, ambushed by 3 torps, or sniped by a few salem shots. Also don't forget to put another 4500 mass into your destroyers so you can actually do what the exodus and salem can do with their main gun against frigates while doing damage to the torp ACU.'

This is forced by 2200 mass into 2 ACU upgrades.

Yeah, that unit is out of place - just like the Aeon Shard (T1 AA boat)!

~ Stryker

I really support this change, the way Forged Alliance did shields was often a bit janky imo, in that all shields had to be a perfect sphere and to create shallow domes the game moved the center of the radius far below ground so only the top 1/3rd of the shield was sticking out and blocking units. Making the Bulwark shield projection radius actually centered on the boat itself means that there's no weird slope that big ships can stick out of. I actually thought this wasn't technically easy for whatever reason but nope GPG just made a weird shield shape.

@zeldafanboy

I really support this change, the way Forged Alliance did shields was often a bit janky imo, in that all shields had to be a perfect sphere and to create shallow domes the game moved the center of the radius far below ground so only the top 1/3rd of the shield was sticking out and blocking units. Making the Bulwark shield projection radius actually centered on the boat itself means that there's no weird slope that big ships can stick out of. I actually thought this wasn't technically easy for whatever reason but nope GPG just made a weird shield shape.

Yeah, it was quite weird and it doesn't make sense now-a-days.

I was teaching the game to a friend of mine and he instantly complained about this.
I found it quite funny as it reminded me of how I first saw shield boats back when FA launched. Long ago but I still vaguely remember how weird that the shield was so awkward.

~ Stryker

Add jamming to the valiant

@comradestryker

Yep, the Fatboy also has an iceberg shield shape that’s 80% underground but it’s not as much of an issue because it’s a flat and low unit and the shield is mostly for personal use and not other units

Dude the shield boat is so insanely good. It makes hitting cruisers a pain. Now you also want it to have torpedo defense of a T2 destroyer? Bruh

I feel like these posts you are making are literally going into “buff UEF buff UEF buff UEF” territory where you just grab any unit in the UEF and find a reason to buff it. I wish Seraphim had a shield boat or a cruiser with amazing missiles

@javi

Dude the shield boat is so insanely good. It makes hitting cruisers a pain.

It is, which is why I'm suggesting a small nerf.

Now you also want it to have torpedo defense of a T2 destroyer? Bruh

The 2nd half was more of a suggestion but, yeah, If you played the game, you'd know how crappy the Valiant's Torp and Torp defense is. This is just a minor suggestion to not leave the unit defenseless when a unit gets underneath it.

I feel like these posts you are making are literally going into “buff UEF buff UEF buff UEF” territory where you just grab any unit in the UEF and find a reason to buff it.

The series is literally called "The Problems With The UEF" - It would be quite awkward if any other faction's unit was on here...

I wish Seraphim had a shield boat

It does have a shield option - It's called the T3 Mobile Shield, though why would it need it? Its destroyer literally submerges. I wish UEF units were able to submerge. While we're at it, let's give the UEF battleship the ability to build and fire nukes, too.

or a cruiser with amazing missiles

The Seraphim cruiser - again, if you played the game - deals way more damage than UEF cruiser missiles. And the cruiser fires missiles non-stop.

Sera Cruiser is arguably the best as it has, if not the best AA, definitely better than the UEF Cruiser's AA, its AoE is devastating to clumped units.

It's a better cruiser overall. What more could you want?

Thanks for the feedback, though.

~ Stryker.

UEF cruiser shoots more missiles in a shorter time span. Which is better to break in through TMD. Which makes it better than Sera.

Also you should think in the terms of four factions because you can’t change or tweak a faction without considering how that would impact its play with the other three factions.

And T3 mobile shield doesn’t matter that much since going for T3 land is very expensive in 1v1.

Also I know UEF has shit torpedo defense. I also know they have the copper for that. I don’t have a torpedo boat or a shield boat, just destroyer and cruiser.

@Javi

Perhaps I am focusing more on one faction... But I'm trying my best to keep things balanced overall - though I am not perfect... Hence the disclaimer I place before every post.

That being said, it seems that you have a lot to say, so I look forward to reading your posts on improving other factions.

~ Stryker

Strongly against adding torpedo or torpedo defence to the shield boat. It's already a useful unit and should be weak to subs to give players the option of sneaking a sub inside the shield to easily kill it. Removing that worsens gameplay rather than improving it.

However the shield radius changes sound more interesting/beneficial. While I've not done testing to check the broad principle of having the displayed shield range align more closely with what the shield can actually protect sounds like a good one and makes the game more intuitive/user-friendly without damaging the complexity of the game.

I definetly agree with the idea of making game visuals more intuitive, as long as it doesn't affect balance.
Just out of my head I see 2 possible effects your way of changing the shield bubble could have.

1. Overspill: if I remember correctly how overspill works, and understand your idea correctly, the resulting shield would be smaller, therefore also reducing the area other shieldbats would take overspill damage in. This might be an issue due to the stranght of shieldboats.
2. Interactions with air. From how I understand your idea, you move the centr of the shield upwards while reducing the shield radius. This might move the top of the shield higher (or lower the the reduction in the sheld radius is sufficiently large), which can change the interactions of shieldboats with air, making it easier/more difficicult to move an airunit inside the shield bubble to snipe the shieldboat.

Therefore such a change might need some testing and adjustments.