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    The current pre-release of the client ("pioneer" in the version) is only compatible to itself. So you can only play with other testers. Please be aware!

    Another Novax conversation

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Balance Discussion
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    • N Offline
      Nomander Balance Team @Printer
      last edited by

      @Printer said in Another Novax conversation:

      And that's why I really think they need a counter. Best of which, in my opinion is a:

      normally "disabled" player toggle
      on the smd to target the sats.

      This is such a powerful counter it's basically removing sats from the game. Every suggestion for the laser sat has been to remove it, that's why I recommend coming up with an actual rework so that Novax isn't a 36k mass artillery piece. Balance team agrees on that direction afaik, so it isn't unrealistic to rework it.
      My favorite idea so far is making it have a powerful stun beam for buildings/T4s + less powerful AoE stun for T3/air when the main beam finishes. It would complement fatty, UEF T3 gunship spam, UEF lategame air fights (like how air T4s can help force air fights), Percies, navy, and maybe even UEF artillery since it can stun buildpower or shields idk.

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      • E Offline
        ERROR_4O4
        last edited by ERROR_4O4

        Keep sat as it is and just allow one per player as upper boundary. (And maybe reduce HP of central a bit OR reduce sat movement speed)
        Would solve the problems with it.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -2
        • J Offline
          JaggedAppliance Balance Team
          last edited by

          Novax is really annoying for people because it's an apm and attention tax. The guy with the novax doesn't have to do much to make it do damage but the other guy has to shield a lot of stuff or they ignore it and just rebuild after which is also potentially a lot of actions. Also it is really nice to have when you are trying to kill shields in an arty war and it's highly microable in that scenario. It is very expensive but not enough that you won't see it. It gives a lot of intel as well just as a bonus. The attention tax would matter a lot more at lower and average levels and it's still annoying to deal with at higher levels.

          https://www.youtube.com/c/jaggedappliance

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • C Offline
            Caliber
            last edited by Caliber

            Another reasonable suggestion imo would be to reduce the travel speed, giving players a longer grace period to react, and also a turret speed reduction, currently the turrect speed is i think above 300 which is crazy fast, reducing turret speed would increase the time it takes to change targets wich is one of the annoying aspects of the novax, being instantly able to switch targets as they become available such as downed shields and engineers ect.

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            • S Offline
              Set
              last edited by

              None of this matters because nothing's going to change and nobody's going to do anything about it so what's the point of talking about it. Time for me to stop reading the forums and just play the game for what it is. Have fun y'all!!

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              • R Offline
                relentless
                last edited by

                I feel like with the amount of time you've put into this thread you could have created a mod that makes the Novax different to demonstrate your thoughts. I once modified the Novax satellite to consume power similar to a t3 artillery but I wasn't sure how to stop the beam weapon when you ran out of power. Seemed like it would be a good way to stop people stacking them easily.

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                • P Offline
                  Printer @relentless
                  last edited by Printer

                  @Nomander said in Another Novax conversation:

                  @Printer said in Another Novax conversation:

                  And that's why .... ....a normally "disabled" player toggle, on the smd to target the sats.

                  This is such a powerful counter it's basically removing sats from the game. Every suggestion for the laser sat has been to remove it, that's why I recommend coming up with an actual rework so that Novax isn't a 36k mass artillery piece. Balance team agrees on that direction afaik, so it isn't unrealistic to rework it.

                  But a powerful counter is a simple one. Simple isn't bad. Having a simple APM counter, to a simple APM unit; is elegant.
                  I also didnt mean an SMD-shootdown would = the sat dead and Novax center useless.
                  My suggestion hinged also on making the SAT re-build-able at the Novax center. Also, since an SMD missle costs 3.6k mass (and the launcher is 7.5k mass) so, the SAT might need to get a lower mass cost to compensate.

                  Besides, the player doesn't have to shoot it down. Just has the choice to or not.

                  @relentless said in Another Novax conversation:

                  I feel like with the amount of time you've put into this thread you could have created a mod that makes the Novax different to demonstrate your thoughts. I once modified the Novax satellite to consume power similar to a t3 artillery but I wasn't sure how to stop the beam weapon when you ran out of power. Seemed like it would be a good way to stop people stacking them easily.

                  • You can try it out via the BlackOps mod I think, it allows sats to be shot down
                  • Power drain is great idea
                  N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • N Offline
                    Nomander Balance Team @Printer
                    last edited by

                    @Printer said in Another Novax conversation:

                    But a powerful counter is a simple one. Simple isn't bad. Having a simple APM counter, to a simple APM unit; is elegant.
                    I also didnt mean an SMD-shootdown would = the sat dead and Novax center useless.
                    My suggestion hinged also on making the SAT re-build-able at the Novax center. Also, since an SMD missle costs 3.6k mass (and the launcher is 7.5k mass) so, the SAT might need to get a lower mass cost to compensate.

                    Besides, the player doesn't have to shoot it down. Just has the choice to or not.

                    Sat is already rebuildable. This is because it can block nukes (intentional) or get RNG hit by artillery (consequence of the simulation). The problem with SMD shooting down sats is that it begins to compete with nuke in terms of what its defense is, and you might as well have a nuke instead of a sat if you must avoid SMD.
                    Ok so make it super cheap to rebuild: now it blocks nukes easily and drains SMD quickly
                    Ok so make it build slowly but cheap, it's basically an SMD missile: how are you ever going to get 36k mass killed - 3.6k per sat downed with this unit that takes forever to even rebuild. You can't even assist your own arty because every enemy target will have an SMD.

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                    • S Offline
                      snoog
                      last edited by

                      Add one time use T4 anti-sat launchers.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • P Offline
                        Printer @Nomander
                        last edited by Printer

                        @Nomander said in Another Novax conversation:

                        Sat is already rebuildable. This is because it can block nukes (intentional) or get RNG hit by artillery (consequence of the simulation).

                        Wow, I didn't know that. TY-

                        The problem with SMD shooting down sats is that it begins to compete with nuke in terms of what its defense is, and you might as well have a nuke instead of a sat if you must avoid SMD.
                        Ok so make it super cheap to rebuild: now it blocks nukes easily and drains SMD quickly
                        Ok so make it build slowly but cheap, it's basically an SMD missile: how are you ever going to get 36k mass killed - 3.6k per sat downed with this unit that takes forever to even rebuild. You can't even assist your own arty because every enemy target will have an SMD.

                        From my view, your second two scenarios (super cheap vs slowly built); are minor issues- because you can correct them just by adjusting cost.

                        But I think your first point about SMD having (2) jobs in "what the point of its defense is"; makes sense but is multi-purposing an SMD really that bad?

                        And in my proposed scenario;

                        • OBVIOUSLY the player does NOT need build the SMD if they don't want it to shoot down the SAT.
                        • Plus, if an SMD shoot down toggle exists the player does NOT need to use it.

                        My contention is, and I think still stands reasonably in light of your objections, that SATs do not have an effective, appropriate counter- for players when they want it. This is not balanced. This is a hole. This needs fixing.

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                        • C Offline
                          Caliber
                          last edited by

                          Novax Cost = 36000 mass

                          Response to novax = cover everything with shields all mex and power facts everything needs cover.

                          T3 arty Cost UEF = 76000 mass

                          Response to T3 arty = cover important infrastructer with shields but not everything just the big stuff.

                          Novax cost less yet incures a higher cost response.

                          Novax can also be microed and arty cant, 100% acuracy and vision means you can target anything at anytime it becomes available to target.

                          Arty unless constant scout or eye ect you dont even know what your hitting or even if its being effective until the icon fades on target.

                          Not to mention novax unlimited range all for less than half the cost of an arty.

                          Fix = bring the novax in line with the cost of a T3 arty.

                          Yes the arty does more phisical damage but its not just about raw dps its about how effective it can be.

                          T3 arty is for punching through shields and novax can be used pretty much for anything, harassment, killing vulnerable structers and engineers, intel, defense ext.

                          Novax is far more versitile than just BIG GUN.

                          Therefor its cost should reflect its versatility rather than just its dps.

                          I use T3 arty for comparison as the Novax essentialy functions like an arty in which you create a base structer in a safe place and essentialy throw dps across the map like an arty and can only stop it by eliminating the base structure. aswell as it having the same if not more costly response to an arty which is to spam shields.

                          N FtXCommandoF 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • N Offline
                            Nomander Balance Team @Caliber
                            last edited by

                            @Caliber said in Another Novax conversation:

                            Yes the arty does more phisical damage but its not just about raw dps its about how effective it can be.

                            Arty is more effective than novax because it actually kills important things like smd/grids while novax forces out some t2 shields on smd/grids and then slowly kills t3 mex that get rebuilt shortly after. You don't need to shield every single t3 mex since t3 fabs beat novax in terms of economic advantage if the novax is just shooting t3 mex that are getting rebuilt constantly. Outlying random t3 pgens are even more efficient than T3 mex in HP/mass, especially UEF, so you shouldn't mind them getting novaxed either.

                            Frankly one of the biggest reasons to say t3 arty is worse is a bug where shield assist works while stalling so people just cheat the economic damage t3 arty inflicts. Rarely do people actually micro their shields or build enough shields to block T3 arty for free or cheap.

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                            • FtXCommandoF Offline
                              FtXCommando @Caliber
                              last edited by FtXCommando

                              @Caliber said in Another Novax conversation:

                              @FtXCommando My point was not to compare Novax to artillery because they have different functions.

                              @Caliber said in Another Novax conversation:

                              I use T3 arty for comparison as the Novax essentialy functions like an arty

                              Why respond to this guy? Complete unhinged trolling, unfathomable incoherence

                              At least now he can finally explain to me how 3 novax = mavor the same way 3 arty = mavor since one "essentially functions" like the other

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                              • N Offline
                                Nomander Balance Team
                                last edited by

                                Yeah idk I shouldn't have responded. The goal is still to rework novax into a new capability, and I don't think there will ever be a great argument for keeping artillery-role novax.

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                                • C Offline
                                  Caliber
                                  last edited by

                                  @FtXCommando

                                  My earlier argument as poorly writen as it is, was to describe the fact that Arty and novax have different intented uses.

                                  one has large dps and poor accuracy and one is very accurate but has low dps

                                  one is to pick of vulnerable units and one to target protected units ect

                                  although both function relatively the same

                                  also just because quantum physics is unfathomably incoherent to a child doesnt mean its untrue, just hard to understand but you tried and thats what matters most 🙂

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                                  • C Offline
                                    Caliber
                                    last edited by

                                    @Nomander

                                    My argument was to try and explain that I beleive they are both equal in value. but one is significantly cheaper.

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                                    • DeribusD Offline
                                      Deribus Moderator
                                      last edited by

                                      To maybe get this back on track, can anyone provide replays? Ones where either Novax was overpowered or required a huge amount of resources to defend against.

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                                      • D Offline
                                        Defiant
                                        last edited by

                                        I don't like SMD auotmatically attacking SAT because it would drain SMD. Could we make it a fire option?

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                                        • DDDXD Offline
                                          DDDX
                                          last edited by

                                          I see no problem with Novax. Absolutely none whatsoever.
                                          It's a scouting unit. It provides vision. The laser is...meh.
                                          If you are making 4-5 Novaxes to destroy your enemy, that enemy deserves to die. Because they weren't able to finish off an opponent who wasted resources on 4-5 Novax.
                                          I mean...what were YOU doing when the enemy made Novaxes? Were you AFK? Why don't you have at least 3 artilleries pounding away at the enemy by the time he has 5 Novaxes up? I'd much rather defend against 5 Novaxes than 3 arties....

                                          -- this is how you balance a unit. Now, if that was the Artemis satellite from Blackops...though, that thing costs A LOT to make, and it's like a Yolona or Paragon - why'd you allow the enemy to make one? NOW SUFFER!

                                          N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • N Offline
                                            Nuggets FAF Association Board @DDDX
                                            last edited by Nuggets

                                            @DDDX said in Another Novax conversation:

                                            I see no problem with Novax. Absolutely none whatsoever.
                                            It's a scouting unit. It provides vision. The laser is...meh.

                                            This comment tells me you have either not played normal games or your opponent didn't know how to use novax.
                                            Novax has almost 0 impact on a map like dual gap, but has game ending impact on a map like setons (or basically any map with spread out mex / bases).
                                            Yeah if the laser just shoots a shield it has no impact. But thats now how you use it.

                                            DDDXD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1

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