Faction Diversity, Not Faction Equality

[Treble]

A lot of people seem to be complaining that one faction is stronger than the other. Or that their favorite faction is too weak in situation A or has no counter to situation B.

While I agree that every faction needs a counter to every unit so that no single tactic is overly effective. Is it so wrong that maybe Seraphim is weaker than UEF at raiding? Is it so bad that only Cybran has mobile stealth and T1 gunships and only Aeon can hover at T1?

Why cant all factions be different? I love faction diversity. If faction A is slightly, and I mean slightly, disadvantaged on map 1, so be it. Feel good about winning with a disadvantage, or learn to play to that faction's strengths in order to win the next game.

By the way, I'm all for the healthy discussion of balancing that is this forum. I just think its alright for some factions to be weaker on some maps or at some tactics if they are stronger on other maps or with other tactics.

[Gowerly]

Diversity is fine.
However, if not being able to raid puts you at a significant disadvantage on some maps (which it does moreso on the maps where you have fewer mass extractors around your spawn), then it's unbalancing on the game. If you only needed a different strategy, then great! However, they need to be balanced strategies.

I'm also into both faction and unit diversity (we shouldn't give all units AA and torpedoes and direct fire cannons, etc), it just needs to all work together.

[uberge3k]

Agreed gowerly.

IMO, game balance should never be sacrificed on the altar of faction diversity.

Nothing is more frustrating when your enemy has a nontrivial advantage over you in game, just because they "won" the random map selection and happened to have the correct faction for it.

[AdmiralZeech]

It's beyond the scope of FAF, but I think truly balanced faction diversity comes when the differences between factions are based on player differences, instead of gameplay differences like:
"Oh, faction X is strong in sea but Y is strong in air"
"Faction X is great at rushing but Y has a powerful lategame"
"Faction X has good gunships but Y has strong shields"
etc.

Sure, its harder to make sure that your gameplay can cater to multiple playstyles / player skill sets, but you know you've reached it when everyone has their own opinion of which faction is strongest, and they all happen to be right. (or wrong

Playstyles:
- Mathematical
- Micro
- Risk taking
- Methodical
- Fast reactions
- Able to massively multitask
etc.
- Creativity
- Able to precisely follow preset plans
etc

Sure, top players will have all of these, but I doubt everyone will have equal amounts of each. So if you can make factions able to cater to several playstyles each, and each faction depends on different playstyles by different amounts, then you have the beginnings of a game with both variety and balance. Easier said than done of course.