Topics created by Zeldafanboy

Something else I've noticed, although it's too complicated to be worth putting into a guide; the weaponry of each faction also is biased towards certain archetypes:

Aeon is αeon: it has the most alpha strike damage of any faction, with the Aurora, Fervor, Obsidian, T2 PD, T2 Gunship, Destroyer, Strat bomber, Tempest, sniper bot (though technically not exclusive) and in the most extreme case, Mercy (literally all alpha damage). All of these units live and die on their strong initial punch in a fight. Except for the strat bomber I suppose.

Cybran wastes the least DPS: it tends to have the most high ROF units (Mantis, Rhino, Cerberus, frig destro and battleship, Brick as well as ML with constant laser), and the most AOE on applicable units (T2 Gunship, T2 and T3 arty, T3 mobile arty, strat bomber, Scathis). Their tactical missiles can also retain some of their damage even after being hit with TMD since they split.

UEF and Seraphim are between the two, although UEF is slightly more alpha strike biased and Seraphim wastes less DPS (lots of high rof and especially beam weapons and 2nd place in AOE)

And of course there are notable exceptions like GC, Blaze, and Restorer for Aeon or Megalith, Fire Beetle and Hoplite for Cybran

@swkoll said in Soul Ripper should have stealth:

Guys, is this the first time the balance forum has successfully produced a balance change?

Yeah this has to be the first time, i've personally seen a Balance Team member be like "We'll consider it" XD

@valki said in Could T1 Interceptors be further differentiated?:

I think it adds very little and makes early air openings even harder to balance and deal with.

Well, sometimes the little things add flavor and depth. For example, does the fact that the Sera air scout has brief vision on death do all that much? No, but it adds to factional diversity and is a cool feature for little effort. And the changes I am proposing would not make early air harder to balance at all. I am not asking to make the interceptors weaker or stronger than one another, they of course should have equal effectiveness. But how can we make them feel different?

The similarity between ASFs has bothered me though, I would like this suggestion if applied to ASFs.

I wouldn't be opposed, I really enjoy the privilege as a Cybran player of having the stealth ASF but the other factions don't really get anything to compensate. (Please don't give UEF ASF Jamming though...)

@thomashiatt said in Could T1 Interceptors be further differentiated?:

The cyclone does have a high alpha and low rate of fire weapon, that's why it's the best interceptor.

@mazornoob said in Could T1 Interceptors be further differentiated?:

UEF and Sera inties are also a bit better at low count intie fights and killing transports.
Cybran and Aeon inties deal 48 damage per volley, so they need 7 volleys (>288 DPS) to kill UEF and Sera inties (295 and 290 HP) and 6 volleys to kill the rest (285 and 280 HP). UEF and Sera inties deal 50 and 51 damage per volley respectively, so they can kill any interceptor in 6 volleys.
This also means that C/A inties need 11 volleys to kill a T1 transport and U/S inties need 10 volleys.

Well it seems that all inteceptors are already not created equal, albeit by a very tiny degree. I don't want to make them so that microing different factions' inties is in any way different, so I wouldn't touch range, speed, accel or turning radius, firing angle, or DPS. Rather, I'd make small changes to their flavor that don't change combat effectiveness.

Stuff like:

UEF interceptors have an extra minute of fuel. (6:00 instead of 5:00)
Cybran interceptors can land on water instead of having to hover and waste fuel (possible in the engine? If not, then alternatively they could have double fuel recharge when landed)
Aeon interceptors have 30 vision radius instead of 28.
Seraphim interceptors give 20 energy storage per interceptor, just like engineers give varying levels of mass storage.

Also, I was unsure when making this thread as to where it belonged-- "Suggestions" vs. "Balance Discussion". I'm not actually advocating for the balance to change, I want interceptors to be equally effective. They are not OP or UP. I was just wondering if it would be possible to make each faction's interceptor more interesting and unique. One might say that any tweak made is so minor that it won't matter, but I think that is a good argument for making the change. It won't hurt anybody.