Solutions not Whinning...

[chispa6081]

You know the past posts I've read have primarily been a lot of whinning. So instead of adding to the compliants, I figure let's try to brainstorm solutions so that hey maybe one of the Sega people might adopt and add to the game.

Spikes:
So it seems that spikes have become a popular weapon choice as the dmg per shot is extraordinary high (as it should be as a melee weapon requires the guts to be up close and personal). However, in conjunction with a fast HOUND, the results have proven "cheap" or "lame" as these rushers emerge.

Granted, I myself tried out the tactic and despite the "cheapness" of it, the tactic is indeed sound. Taking 4 spikes with 4 machine guns on a fast HOUND can easily bring victory in 5 minutes (or less) depending on good piloting skills and "rushing" the enemy HQ. Especially on 1 vs 1 battles.

And thus, we have now a group of people who claim that these spikes should be "nerfed". Which isn't really a good solution since it deprives people of a melee weapon.

Instead my solution is to raise the ammo costs for spikes and/or reduce the magazine size for spikes. Since spikes do so much damage per hit, it only takes a few hits to take down enemy HOUNDS and a few more to knock out a HQ. So if you reduce the magazine size you reduce the dependency of spikes to take out HOUNDS/HQs. Additionally, if you raise the price to replenish spikes to say 100x (or even 1000x) then it becomes cost ineffective to deploy spikes over and over again. Granted there's no reason that a steel spike (or bar) would ever cost as much as a HE mortar round, but then we don't see a million HOUNDS using HE rounds compared to spikes. Simple supply vs demand.


Balancing factions:
Another major complaint stems from how Morkoj has way more players than the rest of Tarakina or Sal Kar. And given the 2-0 winning streak who wouldn't want to join the Winning team? After all they've got both the numbers and (possibly) the experienced commanders (or cheap tactics perfected).

So let's make the supply/demand more noticable. If you look, there's a price index that flucuates between factions and it effects prices (for both buying/selling/repairs) but instead of having a flucation of around .1, let's make it even more dramatic. Say up to a .5 difference which translate into half off for the side that has less folks and a 150% more for the side that has a whole lot of folks. That should really swing folks to balancing the factions. Especially if the difference starts cutting into profits.

Now, if the price index is based off of how many people are currently on, then all that does is cause people to shift gaming into non-prime hours. Instead, I say it should be based off how many are affliated with a particular faction. Makes it a bit more static.


Capture Points:
While it's ok that fighting against the computer gives some points and fighting against a person gives more. There should be a greater incentive to fight against people. Right now it's something like 20 capture points per CPU battle and maybe 80~100 per PvP battles. Increasing that to 200 or adding a larger monetary bonus might swing folks to fight PvP more often.

Better yet, have parts that can only be obtained through winning PvP battles. Special parts that are better than the store variety. Chaulk it to scavanging parts from the battlefield to random modifications (that only occur when fighting PvP) to existing parts which could be sold/traded couldn't be bought from the store.

Well that's all I have for now. Maybe I can think of a few more tomorrow.[/b]

[Drew McDuffy]

Very nice suggestions.

[Silber One]

I agree with all of them. While it's easy to take 1 Pile Scout, when the entire team is Pile Scouts and they all swarm your HQ, even if you got 5, the last one would just play ring around the rosey with your HQ.

There should either be an Equip Max or a Squad Max, such as either only 4 Piles per Hound or only 3 HOUNDS per Squad can have Piles (Adjusted for size, which means 1 and 2 HOUND Team matches, Piles are off limits) preferrably both.

It's just too good a weapon and will lead to sameness which just ends up killing the game.

[dondon]

PILE can still keep it as now, i think just reset the hit point of the HQ or the destory ability of the pile to HQ

[MitigatedFever]

VERY nice suggestions Pile, thanks for posting this up. I hope that SEGA gives them a serious look and the consideration they deserve!!!

[James Pwned]

this is the most sound and reasonable response to the balance issues i've read so far. good going and i agree with what you are saying. i've played morskoj and right before the second war ended with only tarakia's capital left i decided to join them. to me its not really about winning or loseing, i just wanted a good squad that i can have fun playing with and i seem to have found one.

the squad i'm in has members that have played both sal kar and morskoj so they have a good balance of parts for their mechs. maybe it really just took a good variety of parts and experience to help balance out the issue as well. for people that are sticking to morskoj it seems that they will have less parts for a less adaptable hound but there is also the problem of people jumping on the winning boat. last war tarakia didn't do bad in the beginning, maybe we can get a good roll going and stop out morskoj. i think now that they have won both wars they will be a major target.

[Exarkun]

Spikes:
And thus, we have now a group of people who claim that these spikes should be "nerfed". Which isn't really a good solution since it deprives people of a melee weapon.

I think you misunderstand "groups of people" calling for SPIKE nerfing, myself I only want to see spike's nerfed versus buildings. Spike dmg versus hounds should remain the same.



Balancing factions:

I like your price index idea, especially if you apply it to weapons, meaning if everyone is using spiks or piles then the price of ammo for these and the cost of the pile itselfs starts to soar, so eventually deploying spikes starts to costs more than the cash reward.



Capture Points:

I like your idea here, but increasing the CP number in anyway could lead to shorter wars, look how quick these last ones were. I think they need to give CP based on HUMAN PLAYERS PLAYING. 10 CP for each human player playing and 2-5 for every AI unit. In other words a 6 on 6 HUMAN Match composed of all humans earns 120 CPs while a 2 man on 2 AI yields 30 cps.

[ObiWanKyobi]

in regards to the army balance... i belive a nice planet side style weould be nice. the lower your population you get a bonus to damage and experience. so even if your down you can still be competitve. i guess the only problem is that this works well in an MMO environment but i dont know how it would work with squad based combat.

[chispa6081]

PILE can still keep it as now, i think just reset the hit point of the HQ or the destory ability of the pile to HQ

That doesn't quite make sense as the description for one of the piles is [i]"specifically designed to take out HQs".


I think you misunderstand "groups of people" calling for SPIKE nerfing, myself I only want to see spike's nerfed versus buildings. Spike dmg versus hounds should remain the same.

Well, there seemed to be a lot of heated discussion in at least two threads I saw. Changing the spike's dmg to buildings (HQs in particular) might work but that would require more changes. First you would either have to change the damage type for the spikes or have an add value to reflect damage to certain things. The former seems easier since there is already two damage types in the game (KE vs CE) whereas the second might cause structural problems.

Conversely changing the HP of a HQ isn't helpful either since that would either a) render the HQ impervious to damage or b) cause folks to figure out what new weapon to use against HQs.

Lastly remember that there is another weapon dedicated to taking out HQs as well (those bomblets). Any changes to the building (that is the HQ) could then cause changes for those bomblets as well.


There should either be an Equip Max or a Squad Max, such as either only 4 Piles per Hound or only 3 HOUNDS per Squad can have Piles (Adjusted for size, which means 1 and 2 HOUND Team matches, Piles are off limits) preferrably both.

Now that's a good idea. Or better yet, have some sort of limiting "battefield conditions". Similar to other FPS where you limit the kind of weapons allowed. Although, Sega might have a difficult time to implement something like this and their Legal department might face troubles as I'm sure FASA (Battletech creators) or other FPS developers have undoubtebly patented gaming modes in relation to limiting weapons on the battle field.

While the idea is sound, it makes no sense in real war. Why "bring a knife to a gun fight?". Now granted there are cases where war is limited (read no nukes), but limiting weapon choices (while very entertaining) falls out of line with the background of the Neroimus War background.

A good spin-off would be to treat unique battle conditions with more (or less) reward in both terms of reputation, CP, and/or money won. But alas, like my previous post, I don't think that's something Sega can do as it requires a major overhaul of the battle interface.

On a side note, if Sega ever wanted to offer me a job designing Chrome Hounds 2, feel free to contact me. :)