Buoy

From it's inception this unit reminded me of The NOTA Problem. But since then I have tried to use it and it doesn't seem super effective unless massed. Additionally modstats shows that it is not that great. Basically I think this unit should be OP but haven't seen much evidence yet so left it.

I'd love to hear more about The NOTA Problem.

buoy are OP ghosts.

2 or 3 byous pwns lv1 coms

buoy is epic mass of em kill almost everythink

NOTA units have (had?) very samey stats, the long range units all have good HP and DPS too. They benefit greatly from Lancaster's square law because they can all fire at once, can kite and can kill the enemy before they even get in range. Once you get up a big ball of these things, they're unstoppable because the enemy isn't even getting in range to do damage and you stop losing units so it snowballs. XTA had a similiar thing with their 'AA' missile units.

Bouy has good HP, DPS and skirm range. It has exactly that problem where 1 is counterable, but if you keep them alive they snowball as you can do damage without putting them in danger. This is made even worse by the slow damage, which exacerbates the kiting effects and means that all adjacent shots after the first land, negating the poor accuracy. Recluse does the same thing, but it has a lot less HP so it's vulnerable to things like firewalkers and napalm bombers.

>Perhaps making the Buoy immobile-while-firing on land just like it is in water? That would reduce its ability to kite the target.

NO. I hate units that can't move and fire. Soon the game will turn into a stutter-stepping microfest aka SC. Even if we remove stutterstepping, it's still a bad idea for a skirm. Units that can't move and fire are definitely more assaulty than skirmy. Skirm warfare, by its nature, is hit-and-run.

Antelope

Normally I agree, but the Buoy is kind of a special case isn't it? Its slow/damage weapon makes it functional against raiders (much like the Slasher), and any other nerf would likely reduce its efficacy as a naval unit. The Buoy is meant for killing ships while immobile, after all.

Consider that in general, boats are a bit more powerful than land units. The Buoy is meant to kill boats, and is less powerful in water than it is on land. That's always going to be tricky. So give it the same weakness on land that it has in water - immobility while firing

Can we go back the poll where users voted heavily in favor of "more automation, less micro"?;

Units that stop to fire break any chance of relieving micro strain. If you have to manually skirm any unit, you're failing to use one of the things that sets ZK apart from every other RTS out there: incredible automation.

With any other Skirm unit, I hit F for fight command, give a direction in which to attack, and let my units skirm in and out of range. With Slasher, this can't happen. You have to watch each Slasher soooo carefully because they are low HP units with a slow turnrate that can't move and fire. By the sound of this discussion, we're going to do the same thing to the Buoy now.

Seriously: autoskirm is one of the best things to happen to an RTS in a long time. It sets ZK apart from other RTS and is one of its strongest points. Let's be honest: the graphics are mediocre and incomplete, the resources required are incredibly high, the engine and game are still pretty buggy, but the underlying game mechanics and automation are some of the best in the genre. Start messing with that, and you're taking away one of ZK's strongest points.

I play StarCraft (or any other generic RTS) when I want to feel like a squad leader.

I play ZK when I want to feel like a General.

Don't mess that up.

Except Crabes can fire while moving, so there's no stutter-stepping, and they cost more than five times as much as Buoys.