This has probably been stated many times before, but balance by bad UI is a terrible practise. All you are doing is wasting peoples time because they are fighting the game in telling their units what to do. Of course the game shouldn't make decisions for you, but clicking a rock is the most mundane of things.

Having fewer, but bigger rocks has no disadvantage at all.

Repairing ASFs for zero cost is not a good feature at all. It ensures that whoever loses the air battle will have an even harder time coming back, making t3 air even more dominant.

Why introduce it at all? I adds nothing except more clicking.

Yes, having reclaim on the map adds something to the map. But what's the point of having everything divided in those little shitty 5-10 mass rocks? We all now FA doesn't have good area reclaim commands. Manually clicking is always going to be more efficient. Yes I can click on a rock and yes I still do it, but it is just pure torture. Clicking a rock is not the epitome of skill, nor enjoyment, so why are they there? It's not some ultra pro tradeoff of APM vs eco, it's just dumbly clicking the same 50 rocks every time you play a map. Just put them together in bigger rocks. If reclaim is too fast then adjust that or reduce the total reclaim mass.

Seriously, the primary reason this map is such a snoozefest is because it is way too crowded (yes I know that is why people play it), but the map played 4v4 is actually quite nice, the incentive to fight for mass points is suddenly way higher and pushes suddenly have a chance of succeeding.

Now let the hate rain in from both the Dual gap loving folks and those who despise it.

There is this weird mismatch where repairing land units is basically never feasible but repairing air units is....free???

I think the free air unit repair is actually detrimental for the game because it enforces that however wins a single air engagement gets all his units healed, making a comeback even harder and once again making T3 air dominant above all.

I don't like either the defaults or the advanced icon to be honest.

I want an icon mod with:

Must haves:
differentiates between ACU's and SACU's
Prominently displays smd

Nice to haves:
Has some subtle difference between t1,t2 and t3 units
Differentiate between mobile arty and direct assault
Highlight tml and tmd

That's it actually?

Give ACU's a little yellow crown to distinguish them from SACU's.

I don't care what is done, but make SMD's actually recognisable.

I don't get how minor icon improvements are outside any scope

Is there anyone who thinks differentiating ACU's from SACU's is not worthwhile?
Or giving SMD a more prominent icon?

That's honestly already 80% of current frustration gone.

This isn't a balance discussion because the problem isn't balance, it's fundamental game design decisions. I think T3 air is just fundamentally broken in it's implementation. The primary reason is that there is only one unit that counters T3 air, namely the ASF. It all just comes down to building as many ASF as possible. Strat bombers are only countered by T3 air as well, If you don't have T3 air when a strat is out you basically lost the game, there really is no equivalent for land and sea, lower tier units there remain at least somewhat effective. The dominance of T3 air drowns out investment in T2 air because all investment there is undone as soon as T3 hits the air. Yes you can counter T3 air but it all gets funnelled into one solution: Make more ASF yourself. I think it leads to one dimensional play. Sure there will always be some strategy about when and where to engage but it will always be limited.

I saw threads about this in the past, but it is still a pretty major issue. Every time someone disconnects from a game there is a really significant chance that the replay desyncs at that point.

I don't know what data you all need, but here is yet another one: https://replay.faforever.com/15468352

I don't get the Aurora hate, aren't gatling/rocket bots the same kiting playstyle but on T2?

It's somewhat inconvenient when I only want to reclaim a destroyed mex.

@exselsior Yes, I forgot to mention sams are somewhat effective, but can just be bypassed in a strat rush.

If you have air superiority

Which you get by spamming t3 air again.....

This isn't a balance discussion because the problem isn't balance, it's fundamental game design decisions. I think T3 air is just fundamentally broken in it's implementation. The primary reason is that there is only one unit that counters T3 air, namely the ASF. It all just comes down to building as many ASF as possible. Strat bombers are only countered by T3 air as well, If you don't have T3 air when a strat is out you basically lost the game, there really is no equivalent for land and sea, lower tier units there remain at least somewhat effective. The dominance of T3 air drowns out investment in T2 air because all investment there is undone as soon as T3 hits the air. Yes you can counter T3 air but it all gets funnelled into one solution: Make more ASF yourself. I think it leads to one dimensional play. Sure there will always be some strategy about when and where to engage but it will always be limited.

Repairing ASFs for zero cost is not a good feature at all. It ensures that whoever loses the air battle will have an even harder time coming back, making t3 air even more dominant.

@thewheelie

A => B does not equal !B => !A. I did not claim this was proof they were OP, I said this is a weird case to showcase how they are not.

There is this weird mismatch where repairing land units is basically never feasible but repairing air units is....free???

I think the free air unit repair is actually detrimental for the game because it enforces that however wins a single air engagement gets all his units healed, making a comeback even harder and once again making T3 air dominant above all.

Give ACU's a little yellow crown to distinguish them from SACU's.

I don't care what is done, but make SMD's actually recognisable.

@deribus said in Some unit questions:

They have enormous HP for their cost but very little DPS.

The next balance patch is focused on them though so that's subject to change.

I guess having more Hp and the abillity to construct makes them a more appealing option when you have lost air control, right?