Common sub 1k rated takes:
How are dudes with these opinions going to result in gauging the best faction? Faction popularity is a mixture of perceived strength, sample history in preference, actual strength, aesthetic value, and so on.
Never heard any of them tell that Cybran has the best destro, everybody told that Aeon had the best destro. Pretending, that people are stupid and dont learn, based on your own inventions is very low and does not add anything to the discussion.
If people pick random faction or faction randomly, then it does not change which faction is more used in statistics. It only makes differences in game numbers smaller.
There can be multiple reasons to pick a faction, as already said, but for my knowledge by far biggest is the faction strenght, glad to see that you now suddenly recognise that the actual strenght of the faction is also considered in lower rated group, when picking a faction. Meaning that it can carry even more in direction of best faction.
I hear it all the time in the training channel, so cool the ego bud
Also had to explain it several times on Twitch when me and Farm talk about balance
Low rated players pick what is best based on their competency and perceived play. This is not the game taken to its limit. Literally every intro guide to FAF out there explains to new players to avoid Aeon because their tanks require a bit more effort to manage in game. Meanwhile, Aeon is the strongest faction in general utility in last patch’s meta. They’re still probably the strongest until chrono and gc get adjusted.
I can say it insanely easily. A drone requires as much mass as a t1 transport with the e cost of an int while keeping your ACU idle (typically during the start of the game) and instantly dying to any stray int which in turn results in a rebuild making you pay double the cost of a transport and the e cost of a transport.
There is 1 situation for a drone to be good. A mapper making a horrible map with mexes on plateaus or crevices that are too tiny to drop unless you click on a precise spot. But those maps get actively pruned by matchmaker standards and I don’t think anyone disagrees with that being a good thing.
There is zero reason to make the first drone other than it being funny, but even if you want to talk about being too lazy to drop 2 loose mexes as it being a viable tool, the 2nd drone serves zero function in aiding that purpose.
If somebody int rushed you when you made drone, it’s quite literally a lose condition.
drone flies fast and clicks rocks, especially on mapgen. Also it's so cheap you can get it in 10 sec reasonably early. If your transport gets intie rushed and you lose the payload it's bad too
I am not your bud, I think I have already told that before. If you have psychological problems, seek help, or do soething with your life, or whatever works for you. Dont get me into this.
Not motivated to check out how many people have communicated on training channel, and how many out of them have said, that Cybran destros are the strongest. I dont think there is a need for that.
So the Aeon is the strongest 
Transport gameplay has:
A drone carries zero of those while essentially carrying the full cost of a transport.
A drone is also not fast, it is much slower than a transport which is what it will always be compared to.
It takes 40 seconds for an unassisted ACU to make a drone, for it to be 10 seconds you need to add 6 engies idling in base assisting your ACU. That’s ridiculous and you would have been better off dropping those 6 engies to do something productive instead.
This thread has served its purpose and has gone off topic. If you have feedback on the balance patch that went live yesterday, you may do so here.
UEF Drone upgrade was not in this balance patch. If you wish to discuss it, we just had a thread made about it, or make your own.