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Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF

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  • B Offline
    Blodir @Zeldafanboy
    last edited by Blodir 2 Jun 2023, 18:25 6 Feb 2023, 18:21

    @zeldafanboy said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

    @blodir

    Moving your ASF in a big blob will always be optimal even if their speed was low, this will just make the unit feel worse to use

    Moving any army in a big blob will always be optimal (at least if you ignore unit ranges or collisions). Movement speed is a big thing in forcing players to split their armies since they can't protect every vulnerable location at the same time.

    Technically you can still force splits with several aggressive units in different locations on the map, but there's a combination of multiple variables that makes it very easy to respond with air regardless of positioning:

    • any air usage that is not a snipe taking a relatively large amount of time to do enough damage to justify its cost
    • asf killing anything that flies extremely fast
    • asf movement speed
    • there are usually not that many vulnerable targets on the map

    Roughly the first three amount to the following equation for the payoff time of an aggressive play (eg gunships killing mexes)

    payoff = value/sec * (asf distance * asf movement speed + hp / asf dps) - cost
    

    If there's no more than 1 opportunity for positive payoff at the map at any given time, then there are no opportunities for multitasking.

    Z 1 Reply Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 19:37 Reply Quote 1
    • B Offline
      Blodir @Deribus
      last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 18:30

      @deribus said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

      @Blodir Please edit your opening post to abide by the Balance Thread Guidelines

      This is really offtopic, but I have to say that enforcing rules like that is a good way to make sure nobody ever makes threads or says anything regardless of how high value it might be simply because of the added mental overhead of constructing a satisfactory thread format.

      B F 2 Replies Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 18:36 Reply Quote 5
      • B Offline
        Blodir @Blodir
        last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 18:36

        This post is deleted!
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • J Offline
          Jip
          last edited by Jip 2 Jun 2023, 18:43 6 Feb 2023, 18:42

          Another 'natural' approach to prevent a single large blob is by making it unwieldy by making the formation larger:

          • https://github.com/FAForever/fa/pull/3892

          At the moment we have u (footprint of 2), but if you turn it to c (footprint of 3) a large cloud of ASFs become very unwieldy. Players that split them up would be in an advantage

          0d45a4f9-34bc-4f01-be6d-2050ac60f828-image.png

          A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned

          B A 2 Replies Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 18:45 Reply Quote 0
          • F Offline
            FtXCommando @Blodir
            last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 18:43

            @blodir said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

            @deribus said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

            @Blodir Please edit your opening post to abide by the Balance Thread Guidelines

            This is really offtopic, but I have to say that enforcing rules like that is a good way to make sure nobody ever makes threads or says anything regardless of how high value it might be simply because of the added mental overhead of constructing a satisfactory thread format.

            You basically had all the stuff you would have had in the OP (why do it, some gauge of a change regardless of how theoretical, intended result) in your responses in the thread here.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B Offline
              Blodir @Jip
              last edited by Blodir 2 Jun 2023, 18:45 6 Feb 2023, 18:45

              @jip said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

              Another 'natural' approach to prevent a single large blob is by making it unwieldy by making the formation larger:

              • https://github.com/FAForever/fa/pull/3892

              At the moment we have u (footprint of 2), but if you turn it to c (footprint of 3) a large cloud of ASFs become very unwieldy. Players that split them up would be in an advantage

              I think most likely expanding the flock area would only reduce the impact of micro rather than discourage blobbing (people would "stop move micro" instead of old fashioned (skillful) micro)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • T Offline
                TheWeakie
                last edited by TheWeakie 2 Jun 2023, 19:29 6 Feb 2023, 19:23

                Some side effects of something like chsnging asf dmg/hp and sam dmg like suggested:

                • restorers are now way better vs air
                • janus spam will be dominant for longer
                • cruisers will be a lot stronger vs air
                • way harder to snipe a protected air t4 aftet you lost air
                • strat rushes are even stronger than right now

                Im not saying these are necessarily bad changes, but try to keep in mind the side effects of changing a single unit where a lot of other units are balanced around.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 5
                • E Offline
                  Exselsior
                  last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 19:28

                  Yeah I was about to say something to that effect, restorers and czar in particular might need small aa dps nerf here. It makes t2 air a bit more dominant but maybe that's not a bad thing, lots of people don't realize how strong it is now maybe it would highlight that more and allow a bit longer of a t2 air stage. Cruisers being stronger vs asf is probably fine, but not sure. I think nerfing speed as well is too much though, it's too much of a buff to bombers and drops.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • A Offline
                    arma473 @Jip
                    last edited by arma473 2 Jun 2023, 19:32 6 Feb 2023, 19:32

                    @jip I would probably just make 4 ASF blobs, put them on separate hotkeys (e.g.: control groups 5, 6, 7, 8 ) and then do the "Starcraft" thing of pressing hotkeys then click then pressing hotkey then click then press hotkey then click then press hotkey then click, so that all 4 blobs move to the same place. Because 4 smaller blobs would have a smaller footprint than 1 big blob.

                    That just feels like it would be a pain to micro but I'd feel bad any time I was lazy and got out-microed by my opponent

                    At least in the current system, you only have to micro one group of fighters

                    Even if I have to click 5 times per second or something, I only have to do that with one group. I don't want to do that with 4 groups at a time.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • Z Offline
                      Zeldafanboy @Blodir
                      last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 19:37

                      @blodir said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                      Moving any army in a big blob will always be optimal (at least if you ignore unit ranges or collisions)

                      Why would you ignore unit ranges or collisions for land units?

                      Moreover, you are ignoring AOE damage. The problem is there isn't a lot of effective AOE damage you can do to ASF blobs. Therefore there is no downside to clumping up ASF in an air fight.

                      put the xbox units in the game pls u_u

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M Offline
                        Mach
                        last edited by Mach 2 Jun 2023, 19:40 6 Feb 2023, 19:38

                        in original supreme commander, SAMs used to rapid fire aa missiles without pausing, like t1 pd shoots, if rate of fire is increased but individual damage reduced, the weapon becomes stronger vs multiple weak enemies rather than fewer stronger ones, such as asf (low individual hp) vs gunships and strats (high individual hp)

                        this would also make units that are just passing through SAM range take less damage in total since it is more damage-over-time than alpha now

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                        • A Offline
                          Anachronism_
                          last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 19:38

                          I don't think SAMs are the problem here. If ASF are too good, then why not just nerf them? A proportional decrease in both HP and damage should do the trick (ie: reduce ASF HP and weapon damage by 20% each). If air blobbing is too good, then why not add more air-to-air and ground-to-air AOE in general? It seems like it would be a particularly good companion change to an ASF nerf too, since it would help against densely grouped air-to-ground units as well.

                          Regarding the concerns:

                          restorers are now way better vs air
                          janus spam will be dominant for longer
                          cruisers will be a lot stronger vs air
                          way harder to snipe a protected air t4 aftet you lost air
                          strat rushes are even stronger than right now address the above:

                          • Restorers currently seem too weak vs air anyway, so that seems like a good change.
                          • Janus spam can reasonably be countered mass-efficiently at the T1/T2 stage.
                          • Cruisers generally seem too weak vs air given their relatively high mass cost anyway.
                          • Air T4's currently seem too easy to snipe with air.
                          • It buffing strat rushes seems unfortunate but acceptable.

                          pfp credit to gieb

                          F 1 Reply Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 19:59 Reply Quote 0
                          • F Offline
                            FtXCommando @Anachronism_
                            last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 19:59

                            @penguin_ said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                            • Restorers currently seem too weak vs air anyway, so that seems like a good change.

                            ???????

                            • Janus spam can reasonably be countered mass-efficiently at the T1/T2 stage.

                            ??!?!?!?!?!?!?!

                            • Cruisers generally seem too weak vs air given their relatively high mass cost anyway.

                            Torps: yes
                            anything else: no

                            • Air T4's currently seem too easy to snipe with air.

                            ???????????????????????

                            M A 2 Replies Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 20:02 Reply Quote 0
                            • M Offline
                              Mach @FtXCommando
                              last edited by Mach 2 Jun 2023, 20:02 6 Feb 2023, 20:02

                              @ftxcommando said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                              Torps: yes
                              anything else: no

                              t3 gunships too, at least when in blobs

                              T 1 Reply Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 20:54 Reply Quote 0
                              • Z Offline
                                Zeldafanboy
                                last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 20:22

                                Cruisers are a T2 unit, it make sense that they are less effective vs T3 air units. The real problem is T3 Aircraft carriers have pretty meh AA

                                put the xbox units in the game pls u_u

                                A 1 Reply Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 20:40 Reply Quote 0
                                • A Offline
                                  arma473 @Zeldafanboy
                                  last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 20:40

                                  @zeldafanboy said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                                  Cruisers are a T2 unit, it make sense that they are less effective vs T3 air units. The real problem is T3 Aircraft carriers have pretty meh AA

                                  Aircraft carriers are so tanky, though, that they are able to do plenty of damage to enemy air for their cost. If they had a lot more DPS, they'd be too good, even if you nerfed their HP, because people can make shield boats or floaty shields (especially in team games with tech sharing).

                                  If aircraft carriers were bad, top players wouldn't make them and send them to the front, but they do.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • A Offline
                                    Anachronism_ @FtXCommando
                                    last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 20:46

                                    @ftxcommando said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                                    @penguin_ said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                                    • Restorers currently seem too weak vs air anyway, so that seems like a good change.

                                    ???????

                                    10f08786-63e9-4708-8e35-49a6a19bf7fa-image.png

                                    • Janus spam can reasonably be countered mass-efficiently at the T1/T2 stage.

                                    ??!?!?!?!?!?!?!

                                    b3d09070-5915-4ae1-a52a-3faa6172e291-image.png

                                    • Cruisers generally seem too weak vs air given their relatively high mass cost anyway.

                                    Torps: yes
                                    anything else: no

                                    52959ce7-9992-46db-aa80-9e55298586d9-image.png

                                    • Air T4's currently seem too easy to snipe with air.

                                    ???????????????????????

                                    71a8471b-c99c-4cb8-8f2c-15f14f63be24-image.png

                                    pfp credit to gieb

                                    R W 2 Replies Last reply 6 Feb 2023, 20:55 Reply Quote 0
                                    • T Offline
                                      TheWeakie
                                      last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 20:53

                                      He got you there ftx

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • T Offline
                                        TheWeakie @Mach
                                        last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 20:54

                                        @mach said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                                        @ftxcommando said in Make SAMs weaker vs gunships and strats, but stronger vs ASF:

                                        Torps: yes
                                        anything else: no

                                        t3 gunships too, at least when in blobs

                                        Its the exact opposite. The bigger the numbers on both sides the weaker the gunships are.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • R Offline
                                          Resistance
                                          last edited by 6 Feb 2023, 20:55

                                          wish i had that metyr replay with 100 restos bullying asfs blobs

                                          queuing with a newbie to show him the beauty of tmm and meeting tagada be like:
                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLcRpdZ0Xb0&ab_channel=Tomoko

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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