@ovenman said in why scathis fire and then stop and again fire and stop:

I personally think it looks dumb for the canon to spin so fast. If they shot cluster projectiles instead, like how their bomber shoots 6 bombs, then it would look way less stupid and not like a modded unit. This change would even keep it's shot per volley the same. Also, it would split early unlike the aoen rapid fire.

This is my biggest (only?) gripe. I don't actually mind the functional change but it does look... well, yes, dumb would be one word for it. I would rather change the way it fires so the ROF is the same over time but it fires at a constant rate instead of charging up. Keep the range, accuracy, aoe, etc., everything else the same. Just... don't make it so... dumb? Goofy? I was going to type "unrealistic" when I first asked, but it's a sci-fi game so... outlandish? I thought the way it fired before was cool and classic and satisfying, regardless of range/accuracy/aoe. I just liked watching it. Now... it looks like a circus ride, not a weapon.

@IceDreamer said in Fire beetle balance suggestion:

There is no balanced state for Firebeetles to be designed around the old snipe role. It simple isn't possible, there is no combination of stats which will make them neither OP nor UP.

You are essentially saying there is no balanced state for a one-use weapon... we really can't go there without talking about mercies.

So why do mercies work or not work when firebeetles are just "broken pls delete." ?

I figured I would leave my previous post up in case it helps anyone in the future, but I did figure out how to adjust my memory speeds in the BIOS. Restarted, hosted a game, ran cpu test, hitting 166 now.

So... I can play 2-hour Seton's matches now, right?

Thanks, all!

@Khada_Jhin I think looking at how a unit is used in an individual game might be more meaningful than saying "This player is trash; therefore, no game they play will ever be used as an example."

I feel similar about Novax than I do about t3 arty:

• It's annoying to shield everything
• If my opponent spent that much mass, I should probably have something to counter it

...except Novax costs half as much as t3 arty. IMO that's the annoying/potentially OP part.

If it were the same cost it would just be an accurate T3 arty that looks different/shoots from space instead of the ground. But it costs half as much. So it's... an early, less powerful t3 arty with pinpoint accuracy?

While we're here (hopefully this is a one-post answer as I don't want to hijack) why does it sometimes take so long for newly upgraded factories to make their first unit? Like, I just got T3 air, I need that engie...

This clip exists but it's from a Gyle cast and he has so many videos that I haven't been able to find it.

It was on a Seton's and an ACU walked up to OC and finish off a GC and Gyle said, "have you ever seen a commander with bigger... or hairier... or scalier balls than that?"

On a side note, I'd love for someone to make a compilation of the best Gyle moments. I've often thought about doing it myself but I'm too busy. Surely there must be an enterprising film production student out there...

IIRC camera pan is the only command that cannot be remapped.

But please look and prove me wrong, I'd hate to lose a player to misinformation.

If indeed I am correct, my advice would be to use zooming out and in to move the camera around. It will always zoom in wherever the mouse is. I think in the long run you will find it more versatile (you can move to the opposite side of any map with one zoom out and one zoom in), as well as having more hotkeys closer together (ie. using WASD for other things). It takes some getting used to but if you watch the pros POV casts you will see they never pan, only zooming in and out.

As a side note, there is a mod that lets you set camera positions with shift+tab and move between then with tab. Useful for saving the enemy base as a camera position and quickly going there when you have scouts overhead. There are other helpful shortcuts like comma to zoom to your acu, etc.

Are you using any mods?

Are you comfortable posting your dxdiag as well?
https://mtgo-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000972706-Creating-a-DxDiag-File

Indeed, requiring t2 air and a t2 transport makes it a much more costly option compared to the benefits (edit for clarity: this is GOOD. Otherwise the benefits FAR outweigh the costs).

If we enable this, there will be a new meta of going t1 and rushing your ACU to strategic locations... and also rushing inties to snipe opponents trying to do that. Games will end quickly with little strategy beyond "I got mid mexes first."

My understanding is that if there is not a "good enough" match you will not get matched (like if a 0 and a 2000 are in the pool).

I am not saying I agree with this, just sharing that that's the way it is.

IMO I'd rather play a "bad" match than play lobby sim for 30 minutes, but I am just one vote. Maybe there should be a "force match" timer, like if you are unmatched for two cycles, you are guaranteed to match on the third (provided there is at least one other player). Or more flexibility on what's a "good" match every missed cycle.

@javi said in Tips for balancing power in early ladder:

@pearl12 yes but those videos go to until 4-6 factory without stalling E

Truth; I think what I am looking for is not a more extended build order to memorize but more general rules for how to proceed in any given situation.

@FtXCommando — thank you. Unrelated: your saying "stop worrying about cute things" made me think: pgen adjacency at the t1 level is nearly useless, isn't it? Is that on purpose or is that maybe something we should adjust? Like, I think a t1 air factory completely surrounded by t1 pgens doesn't even save 1 t1 pgen worth of energy on the adjacency bonus?

As I said, I have build orders up through the second factory, the problem is everything between the second factory and my first t2 pgen.

In ladder, I have a few build orders down that get my second factory comfortably up-and-running. Between my second factory and my first t2 pgen, however, I seem to always either overbuild or underbuild power, or build the right amount, but too fast or too slow. When I watch replays where I lose, it is almost always power-related (too much power = not enough mass in tanks; too little power = can't build things fast enough).

I know the basic maths like a t1 land factory needs 1 t1 pgen, a t1 air factory needs 3 t2 pgens (building a transport needs 5), 1 engineer building needs 1 t1 pgen, and so on. However, even counting in my head ("okay, I'm going to end up with 5 land factories and two air factories, that's 11 t1 pgens"), it still doesn't work out. I often don't assign the right amount of engies at the right time, then end up stalling while trying to catch up on pgens, then end up with too many pgens.

Any advice on how to get it just right (besides "practice")? Is it really just something the pros have a feel for after their second factory, or is there some way to count or plan it out that I'm missing?

So as I understand it the rank displayed is not the actual rank. For instance if my ACTUAL rank is 1500 but the uncertainty is +-300 then my rank will be DISPLAYED as 1200.

So why not keep decay the same (I think it's -1 a month or something?) but have uncertainty increase much faster? Then peoples' ranks will be DISPLAYED lower which will make them happy. And as I understand it the higher your uncertainty the faster your rank changes, so if people are gone for two years and have high uncertainty and lose their first two games back, their rank would drop. Thus it would only take a few games before the rank adjusts, but in the mean time, a lower rank would be displayed, resolving issues like @Th3-11 s.

@ovenman said in why scathis fire and then stop and again fire and stop:

I personally think it looks dumb for the canon to spin so fast. If they shot cluster projectiles instead, like how their bomber shoots 6 bombs, then it would look way less stupid and not like a modded unit. This change would even keep it's shot per volley the same. Also, it would split early unlike the aoen rapid fire.

This is my biggest (only?) gripe. I don't actually mind the functional change but it does look... well, yes, dumb would be one word for it. I would rather change the way it fires so the ROF is the same over time but it fires at a constant rate instead of charging up. Keep the range, accuracy, aoe, etc., everything else the same. Just... don't make it so... dumb? Goofy? I was going to type "unrealistic" when I first asked, but it's a sci-fi game so... outlandish? I thought the way it fired before was cool and classic and satisfying, regardless of range/accuracy/aoe. I just liked watching it. Now... it looks like a circus ride, not a weapon.

Also possibly helpful in addition to what you are asking: there are various mods that make the icons more visible. I am partial to Subtle Strategic Icons Lite as it doesn't "change everything" and force you to learn a whole new set of icons. It just puts an outline around the important things (ACUs, radars, TML/tac def, nuke/nuke def). Should be standard IMO. MUCH easier to spot the important things... honestly even when they aren't covered by engineers I couldn't always locate them before.

While we're here (hopefully this is a one-post answer as I don't want to hijack) why does it sometimes take so long for newly upgraded factories to make their first unit? Like, I just got T3 air, I need that engie...

Right, theoretically I am a similar rank and thus have similar micro abilities as my opponent, but if I'm UEF and they're Sera, they don't have to use those extra clicks because their exps don't need to be micro'd as much. The fatty almost always requires micro to use properly. Monkeys, Chickens, and GCs rarely do. Or at least, they are much more forgiving.

I just don't think "it's balanced if you micro it" is the argument we should be leaning on. Isn't that just a skill filter?

@Sladow-Noob if you are trying to increase new player retention imagine being new and losing all your games because of the "some time" it takes until all players get their rank. I agree using global score as the starting point, or maybe weighting it a lot at first and then less (even no weight) as TMM rank becomes more confident, would be a good way to reduce frustration (of both old and new folks) by (hopefully inadvertent) smurfing of folks who begin underranked in TMM.

It happened without a GC too. I will fish up replay IDs.