Only issue is that despite the 72000 E storage needed I have seen replays where it still fires with far less E storage, might be a bug

Another way to show how broken spearheads are is dps per mass spent

spearhead is 0.6 dps per mass
harbinger which is the best dps per mass (direct fire) unit in the game is 0.38 almost half the spearhead
percy for reference is 0.26
uef t1 bombers are 0.77 highest in the game
T3 mobile arty is 0.09

@hotcheeseinrear

The only thing that is extreme is the current balance of the spearhead, with 240 dps compared to demolisher 75dps, thats 3.2x higher, then remember the spearhead is half the cost so really thats 2 spearheads for one demolisher so 6.4 times the dps, aswell the arty needs to unpack before firing.

Spear heads are one of the top units in the game right now for damage per mass with only (if i remeber) the t1 bomber and t1 pd beating it.

then the fact that it can fire whilst moving, why? its primary role its to break turtle bases that dont move.

Also its very high projectile velocity actually allows it to hit slow moving units quite well, especially large slow moving exps the spearheard is exeptionally strong at killing exp like fattys and megas, for a fraction of the cost. consider that it take less than 10 spearheads "4000" mass to kill a moving fatty at "28000" mass.

Comparing other units it takes 18 percy to kill a GC at "23040" mass and 27500 mass for the GC

all for a unit that is designed to overwhelm tmd.

obviously these examples are highly situational but you can see just how low cost and high damage the spearhead is.

The fact that a spearhead is currently half the cost of an arty and does x3 damage can also fire when moving is just insane, the spearhead should be x3 the cost of the demolisher or damage lowered by a significant amount

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFdTA9Hm3betS6IujEi6Gx7_2rLGQPe4/view?usp=sharing

@knownsniper how?

In a mod that I made i increased the backup distance for the maga to match the main cannon range (64) from 15

i did this so that the player has a visual cue (red ring) as to how far the player can click knowing that the mega will not turn around (click within red ring if you want unit to reverse)

in my opinion this is far better than its current setting, where the player has to kinda guess were the limit is and risks it turning around unintentionaly

I cannot fathom why anyone would petition for the unit to be awkward to use

My 5 cents

Absolver - yes its really good at what it does but is role is very niche - ironically its best used against its own faction, due to harbingers having shields, usefull against seraphim with t3 mobile shields, limited against uef and absolutely pointless against cybran, making absolver emp would make the unit more versatile against all factions and units, but if not done reservedly could easily become op, I always thought that shield breaker would suit cybran better as they dont use mobile shields.

Czar - best used against asf as mentioned above, but rubbish as air to ground despite having big laser, a small speed buff would make it better to use in both situations but something that big moving quickly could look strange, so hp buff would be prefered as it takes only 25 or less asf to kill it

Spearhead is annoying as hell, most of the annoying units in faf belong to UEF, lower hp would be nice, also consider to prevent fire when moving.

Novax - obviously

Othuum - speed buff would be nice to counter short range, another point for seraphim would be to match mobile shield speed with othuums, come to think of it all of the t2 shields move at different speeds to the main fighting units wich has always bugged me.

Stealth - is brutally effective but rather than changing stealth costs consider making t1 scouts cheaper, not the build time just mass and energy, navy stealth is far more jarring as distances are much greater

I have no thoughts about the mercy its very rarely used, however I have seen it used to devestating effect but I have also seen it acheive absolutely nothing so meh.

same with the paragon very rarely seen maybe 1-100 games and ive also seen people with para get stomped, so if you can get away with making one without being punshed then you probably deserve to win at that point anyway.

Didnt the soul ripper already have a dps buff not to long ago, I feel its fine as is.

It is infinitely better to keep the bomber alive, one bomb is 11000 damage, crash damage is 8000.

to purposefully kill the bomber after spending Energy = 1920000, Mass = 48000, and do only 8000 damage is so wastful.

Using the beetle as an example of a death weapon unit, the beetle does 1100 damage for 190 mass

thats 5.8 Damage per mass if you round it

scaling that up to the chicken storm at 240,000 max damage thats 41,379 mass cost for the storm alone

Chicken is 26.5k mass

So when i say the storm is free damage thats what I mean

If you added the mass value of the storm at current balance the chicken would cost 67,879 mass

If that doesnt work for you try this instead.

create mod folder like this

your mod name
--mod info.lua
--units
--projectiles

place "UEB2305" unit bp and script into units folder
place "TIFMissileNuke01" projectile bp and script into projectiles folder

modify unit UEB2305 like this = ProjectileId = "/mods/yourmodname/projectiles/TIFMissileNuke01/TIFMissileNuke01_proj.bp",
modify projectile as you wish.

100% works

you may have to adjust mesh if you dont include those files aswell

@hotcheeseinrear before the update to the storm that changed the target priority of the storm it was fairly balanced, due to the fact that the storm was a neutral entity and didn't favour one army over the other.

This serves as a strong buff depending on the situation, however the build costs were not changed to reflect the chicken storms new effectiveness.

But rather than build costs as the costs of the chicken are fair what's should have happened imo is that when they changed the storm it effectively became x2 more powerful against your opponent by not prioritising freindly units, so the storm should have also had a -50% dps reduction.

You need to edit the projectile bp

Another idea that turned out better than I expected is the energy tether, Its purpose was to make novax spam less viable.

@zartan I'm shure it has been very easy do defend against in the last 2000 games of astro you have played.

@maudlin27 you should check out the mod novax manual fire 2.0

I think it addressess the issue you mention in that it takes more apm do defend against than to use, in making the unit manual fire only you cant que up orders and have to spend time to micro the satellite and make shure its actually attacking things.

thats why its my favourite mod for the novax, because it doesnt really nerf the unit but makes it harder to get the most out of it.

How about this for a compromise, I made a mod that buffs the storm as the chicken gets veterancy

@jip Imo that would certainly be an improvement

Because as a mechanic the storm sucks, its only real effect on the game is slow you down, ok a storm now exists and we just have to wait 30 seconds before we can move on with the game. or to reward brain rot suicide tactics.