Nerf Novax radar

There was a problem when novax used to be either to weak or too strong, so people would either make 0 or spam as much of them as they can

giving it omni and radar seems like a nice decision to me cause it makes single novax more usefull, but making more novaxes (or at least putting them in same place) will not give additional intel benefits. Would be nice to invent some similar idea that would make single novax usefull but prevent people from spamming as many novaxes as they can

@zlo Novax already has an omni and radar. For like last 7+ years you've been playing FAF

@sainserow balance despots will ban you for life for speaking against UEF favoritism!

novax need rework or a nerf.

@zlo they are spamming every game novaxs! i stoped playing this game bc of spamming nowax, at list it is often in my games.

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I like the current implementation whereby 1 novax can be strong (not always though - generally it's good on larger maps with lots of spread out mexes), while lots of novaxes are significantly weaker. Ultimately such an approach helps increase variety in games due to encouraging a mix of units instead of just spamming a single unit.

While it is still possible to spam novax, that doesn't mean it was the best decision - while there are some niche scenarios where multiple novaxes are better than novax+T3 arti, in most cases T3 arti is better (i.e. if you're trying to break a heavily defended location, or want to cause widespread damage to a poorly shielded base).

Since it's a satellite, it also seems aligned with the idea of the unit that it provides good vision and radar.

As to whether it's overpowered because it makes t3 spy planes redundant, the intel is just a nice bonus to the unit and is almost never worth building for it (Aeon's Eye of Rihanne provides far better intel for a much smaller cost yet seems to be rarely built). I also dont find the numbers given for the mass savings from a novax convincing - if you're building a large wave of spy planes you're often scouting most of the map with them in one wave. To use a novax to try and scout most of the map is a huge waste of resources. Where I find its scouting useful is if I'm already targeting vulnerable enemy targets (e.g. unshielded mexes and pgens), and there's a section my spy planes haven't managed to reach for a while where I'm worried the enemy could have a nasty surprise (nuke, t3 arti, etc.).

The main issues I have with Novax are more around how even if scouted early it's difficult to cost efficiently counter on certain maps (but this is more of a map variance point - on some maps it can be defended against for a fraction of the cost, i.e. it's sometimes a weak unit sometimes a strong unit, depending on the map and situation, which I don't see as a bad thing), and how it seems to easily counter fatboys (might be a skill issue on my part, but with the fatboys slow speed, low health, and high cost it feels like a novax can force the fatboy to stay on defence)

@sainserow said in Nerf Novax radar:

Having Novax usually removes the necessity to make T3 scouts at all, since Novax can see almost an entire base to choose targets on it's own.

Cant the same be said about the Aeon Eye of Rhianne?

@firv 1. Does it matter? The only purpose of Eye of Rhianne is intel. With Novax it’s a powerful addition.
2. No. Eye of Rhianne doesn’t have an Omni sensor.

@sainserow said in Nerf Novax radar:

@firv 1. Does it matter? The only purpose of Eye of Rhianne is intel. With Novax it’s a powerful addition.
2. No. Eye of Rhianne doesn’t have an Omni sensor.

Eye can see under water though. So I thought it had omni aswel?

And i just commented on, when you have an eye, do you need to make scouts? Eye is only 3k mass so thats 15 scouts? seems pretty cheap

@firv No, it's just vision with much lesser radius, no omni, no radar.

As mentioned earlier, the only purpose of Eye of Rhyanne is intel, it should be good at this role to be ever built. It's just not comparable. The real cost isn't 3k though, you need 2 t3 pgwens to power it on, which is another 7k mass so 10k mass total.

@snoog said in Nerf Novax radar:

You mentioned something I never thought about in regards to a way to nerf the Novax.

Inertia.

What if we gave it massive inertia, more than any other unit in the game so that it couldn't just turn on a dime and retarget so fast? That's part of why it can be borderline OP, its ability to retarget fast enough to snipe shields being built or other volatiles in quick succession.

It is a satellite after all, it would make sense for it to have such inertia.

I thought more like if it had very high minimum speed and couldn't slow down or stop moving at all, only change direction (because even with high inertia you can still settle on top of a target to wait for sniping, it just takes longer to slow down), also upon reaching the edge of the map, it gets teleported to opposite side of the map, as if it went around the planet.

idk if it is possible code wise though or how you are supposed to control it with move orders if it isn't moving to a position but direction.