Endgame balance, fun and interactiveness

Hey,

I was thinking - everyone likes striders, right? It is my endgame fantasy to be able to crush enemies with some giant mech and I think many can relate to that. It's much cooler to fight with Dante than a Bertha. It's much cooler to pop up with Paladin than get nuked. It's much more oh-shit what can I do with it moment with Detriment than with a Zenith. Also another important fact is that because the threat is close to your base there's much more ways that you can react and counter it - that makes the game interactive.

With current price balance there's probably no incentive to ever build Detriment over DRP as for the extra metal that you basically earn between the time that Detriment leaves your base and starts doing anything you get instant value, much harder to counter, from the comfort of your base obliteration to enemies.

I find that disappointing and a bit boring. To fix that I suggest something along these lines:

Increase cost of Bertha by 2000, Nuke silo by 4000, Zenith by 6000 (it's much weaker than DRP), DRP by 12000, Starlight by 10000.

On the second note I think that DRP is a bit overpowered for its price naming the EMP bullet - its stun time could be significantly reduced.

Paladin could use some work, true. What would you change?

pretty sure a lot of people enjoy using giant cannons, bertha. Otherwise I agree with the general statement, but the recurring argument is that they are needed to end the game so it doesnt go on forever.
Detriment is popular in ffa since they dont paint an enormous target on your base as the other 3 superweapons.
I always thought striders should be epicer(bigger), then their stats can be balanced accordingly if that ever happens.

In what way is grizzly sucky?

quote: I always thought striders should be epicer(bigger), then their stats can be balanced accordingly if that ever happens.

In 300k+ metal 10 k metal difference for super weapon won't really delay it much.

Also my main argument is fun to play against instead of fun to play as. Sure it's fun when your nuke hits unexpected opponent's base and destorys everything, but in terms of counterplay it's not looking great for the other side. Nuke is pretty binary example as you just spam antis and scout enemy and be safe. With DRP you can't even do that as there's no defence from it.

I totally agree with your points on reworking Paladin Anarchid, it sucks.

I wouldn't mind swapping its Dgun for something else as well, like overdrive increasing rate of fire by 300% for few seconds.

Maybe replace the emp missiles with napalm missles? or slow or something.
I kinda like the paladin allthough the AI for it sucks big time.
The dante burn time should definetly be nerfed , anything thats not a super assault dies even if you have a bunch of builders repairing...
Detriment is the worst unit in the game tho, worst possible value for sure.

Yea, we all love crushing nubs with giant mechs arent' we?

The thing is we really need ways to end games and ways to tip balance of battle in out favor, this can't be done with any existing strider.
Usually when large cluster game is past 30-40min mark it becomes extremely laggy, so I'd rather die from DRP than from 1 FPS...

What really needs to be done in zk balance wise ASAP
1. Nerf flea - swarms of those little suckers is one of the most annoying things that can happen in a large team battle on wide open map. It also induces lags when hundreds of those are on the move.
We either need to make it completely unattractive to build such enormous hordes that eat almost everything that doesn't spit fire on their way(yea, even riots) or we need hard limit for flea(which aint gonna happen)...
The only real counter on huge map is a swarm of swifts(30+), on smaller maps archer and outlaw are one of few things that work...
LLT, Leveler, even Warriors both die to mass fleas pretty easily(speed+micro). flea is just too damn fast and has too many DPS

2. Buff detri already, ffs. Why do we have to wait for years??? This shit is completely useless for its price tag.

3. Bertha could really use a rework...

Detri needs more than a little buff...

Aquanim

quote: I would much prefer to see changes to Detriment and Funnelweb rather than Paladin and Nuke/Anti.

Would yo be willing to help me with the new shield graphics then? :D

Some threats shouldn't be concealable so maybe detri can get personal shield ?

If detri is to be uncloakable, it should at the very least be able to present itself as a major threat. It should dominate the local battlefield where it is at as well as provide operational support to allied units. Perhaps change the arm cannons from crappy guass to longish range concussion shells mixed with rapid fire guass guns.

AA wise it could be buffed up as well. Instead of crappy pew pew guns, give it rapid fire brrrrt guns that shred air units. Let the guns spool up so over time it fires faster and faster shots. For a 25k unit, it should present itself as the end all be all unit of mass destruction. It's only 5k less than zenith ffs.