I remember T2 bomber snipes were actually quite a popular strategy on the 'Gap of Rohan', the original 'noob gap map', back like 3-4 years ago - mostly used with cybran Corsairs. So I wouldn't say the noob-side of the community never had contact with this concept, it's just that given the fall of Rohan and rise of Dual gap, being a much larger map, the T2 snipe ability and how it's executed probably fell into oblivion.
I'm no pro, but given what has been said up till this point, maybe an immediate solution could be to try and remedy the snipe-potential of T2 fighters/bombers? What would be achieved by this? With a bit of a 'propaganda', players could be educated on the primary strength of fighters / bombers - to be both. By doing this, maybe over time players would realize that T2 is actually a competitive anti-air solution - ofc, outranked by 1:1 T3 air.
Reduce T2 air alpha, increase area
How this could be achieved is maybe by increase T2 anti-land ability, while reducing their snipe strength. One way to do this is by increasing their AOE range, while reducing damage.
Current damage values (for larger targets), assuming static targets:
Janus | Corsair | Notha |
---|---|---|
1200 (1600) | 1200 | 1250 |
Maybe reduce these values to half, around 600-700, but increase their AOE by 30% to 50%. You could add some variety by say keeping the Corsairs a bit more 'snipe' oriented, so their AEO could be made a bit larger, but also damage reduced by less. Mass cost would then have to be adjusted (I'd argue lowered by 20-30%, potentially mass-matching ASF).
Reduce T3 strat aoe range, maybe HP
Reduce Strat AOE range
In similar kind of fashion, another thing that could be done is making T3 strat bombers more of a 'strategic' strike unit, and less 'f everything in this general area' kind of unit, by reducing their AOE by say 20%, but keeping the damage. This way, you would take away their ability to snipe multiple mexes at once, while still having them keep their sniping ability. They would still be a threat, but making them more mass-expensive or implementing the speed hierarchy (maybe not making them slower than inties, but as fast - so a well commandeered strat can still do some nice damage, but can be caught by Inties with proper micro) proposed in my previous message, which would mean they area easier to stop with existing forces players might have on the field, namely inties and T2 fighters. You would somewhat reduce their ACU-snipe capability given it would be easier to dodge with smaller AOE, but I don't think that's a bad thing in and of itself.
By doing this, it would additionally reduce, albeit not cripplingly so, the strength of rushing T3 to get that T3 strat. I'd argue that's 75% of the reason why people rush T3 in the first place - not to have ASF for the sake of air dominance, but to have a way to stop Strat snipes, and the only way to do it effectively is ASF, given other anti-air units can't catch up with them and kill them in reasonable time.
Reduce Strat HP
Another change that could be done to make this more reasonable is to reduce T3 Strat's HP to like half. I know land and air are not the same, but it kinda makes sense for the 'artillery' unit to be less tanks than the 'fighters'. Like to get my point across, compare T3 bombardment units (namely mobile arty) with T3 ground-combat units (titans, percys, bricks, harbs...). They have significantly lower HP than the units that will actually partake in the brawl - because they are assumedly supposed to be used with the premise they are safe to 'go out in the field'. Ofc their range allows them to not stand in the very front lines, but if you are making a push or using them as 'sneaky snipers', it's more than likely they will be in a position where a flank attack will get them killed.