FA pre-patch changelog.

[Ze_PilOt]

This thread will be updated each time something has change in FA.

The purpose is to test some changes before the test period to increase the efficiency of the process (screening bad changes).

Feel free to give feedback !

[Ze_PilOt]

- Engy Mod is implemented.

[FunkOff]

yay

[pip]

Great!

[Ze_PilOt]

We are between gentleman, so I hope we can discuss some points without derailing the thread over changing the whole game in 3 posts.

In pre-3625 patches, Cybran received some buff :
- Arty are aiming more correctly.
- T2 PD does more damage.
- ACU regen more.

And recently, some tweaks fixed some issues :
- Mantis are now aiming right.
- Cerberus doesn't miss.

The cerberus DPS buff was put because it was aiming badly. It's not anymore.
Now that the mantis aim more correctly, the cybran T1 phase is strong.

What do you think of reverting all the pre-3625 buff ? (so cerberus back to +- 75 DPS).

[ZaphodX]

I'm against it, I think the Cybran changes have all been good.

[FunkOff]

Revert the arty/medusa buff, cut pd buff in half, leave acu buff as is

[bouznak]

Personally I think it's better to reverting to the pre-3625 buff

[Zock]

I think it is fine balanced as it is now, cybran was weak before (dont know much about the pd although, it can be weak, it has always been a weakness from cybran). The medusa can be back changed, but it will make cybran weaker again.

You could remove 1 or 2 (2 may be too hard tho) hp/s for cybran ACU, but give it 1 hp/s additional regen per vet instead.

There are certainly changes i find more important (aeon t1+t2, rhino, just to name two).

[pip]

I think the Cybran (3625) is well balanced. The main thing that needs to be adressed in engy mod regarding Cybran is the fact that the rhino is completely useless compared to the Wagner (along with Jester and Brick veterancy nerf).

As for balancing engy mod, it looks like you discarded altogether the compilation and testing work I already did during the last 2 month based on the imput and testing from Zock, Crazed, Chosen, Voodoo, Rock, Lu Xun, SC Account and a few others in order to improve balance for the engy mod (excluding Zock's experiments we tried in the last Test Mod that were just tests). The only experimental change that I want to continue testing is the t3 bombers rework. I PMed the list to you and my offer for helping you with the balance tweaks to save time, but I didn't get any reply.

I thought you had better things to do for GW than managing the balancing of engy mod yourself, hence I continued working on the Test Mod, removing the most controversial changes. So, my question is simple : was that work a waste of time, and you want to consult everyone again and redo everything yourself or are you interested in the list of changes and the bp that have been prepared already to save some time?

I don't mean I have the perfect changes, but that it will be much faster / easier to test further what has already been discussed and tested than redoing everything from scratch.

Here the last version of the changes:

Code: Select all

Balance changes suggestions for next patch with engy mod in consideration
Fixes:
- Ilshavoh and Rhino target T3 and t2 before t1 now (instead of switching to a mantis when a Loyalist is nearby)
- Crotalus ACU / SCU upgrades fx scale more visibly with energy consumption (easy to check if a SCU upgrades to teleport if you scout it for instance); better fx for teleport "preview swirl"
- fix chrono dampener stunning air units
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LAND UNITS:
1)ACU underused upgrades changes:
Seraphim ACU:
- Restoration field 1 range increased to 22 (from 15) = same as default gun range ; Restoration field level 2 range increased to 30 (from 25)=same as gun upgrade range. This way, it's easy to know where units can benefit from the aura. If it's not enough, effect on buildings can also be added to make it more appealing.
- Chronotron Refractor mass cost reduced to 3500 mass (from 4500), adds 400 damages instead of 300.

Aeon ACU:
- Enhanced Sensor System small cost reduction : mass cost = 600 (from 750), energy cost = 12000 (from 12500), buildtime = 600 (from 625)

2) T2 Land adjustments to make balance better between all factions:
Cybran rework : Rhino and Wagner roles switched (Rhino = heavy tank, Wagner = fast tank).
- Wagner : 1150 HP, 50 DPS, 5 torpedo DPS (from 3). Same veterancy and cost as previous Rhino. Speed = 4 (from 3.7)
- Rhino : 1450 HP, 110 DPS, turret turn speed = 120 (from 90). Same veterancy and cost as previous Wagner.

Aeon:
- Blaze speed = 4 (from 3.7), this will allow Aeon players to counter Hoplites and Mongeese, also will work very well since mobile shields have also speed 4
- Obsidian : AOE = 1.5 (from 0) / or 4 hp regen per sec for the shield instead of 2.

Seraphim:
- Yenzine : speed = 4 (from 3.7), it will help Seraphim against Hoplites and Mongeese and also for raiding.

3) t3 land adjustments, especially for engy mod:
- Percival speed = 1.75 (from 2)
- Higher veterancy thresholds for the stronger t3 units (so that they are coherent and not the same as Ilshavoh):
Percy and Bricks = 20/40/60/80/100 (from 9/18/27/36/45); Harbingers and Othuums = 15/30/45/60/75 (from 9/18/27/36/45)
- Harbingers can reclaim on patrol (like ACU): 'patrolhelper' category added; reduced build rate to 2 (from 3) to make up for the ease of use.
- Aeon snipers : can shoot while moving (and the weird deploy animation that resets the weapon very often is removed); ignore t1 land units unless manually targetted ; mass cost reduced to 640 (from 800); buildtime to 3600 (from 4800)
- Seraphim snipers : can shoot while moving ; ignore t1 land units unless manually targetted ; mass cost reduced to 640 (from 800); buildtime to 3600 (from 4800)

4) Fatboy adjustments:
- Better repartition of shield and health HP to make veterancy more meaningful
Shield HP = 15000 (from 20000)
Health = 17500 (from 12500)
Veterancy thresholds increased to : 40/80/120/160/200 (from 25/50/75/100/125)
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AIR UNITS
1) Cybran Jester : mass cost reduced to 180 (from 200), veterancy levels = 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (from 3/6/9/12/15)

2) t3 Gunships rework:
- T3 UEF and Cybran gunships: + 2 speed (10 instead of 8)
- Restorer better at AA and less efficient at anti-ground : AA damage  : 200 DPS (from 142 = +58 DPS); 65 ground DPS instead of 120 (13 damages from 24), 6000 HP (from 6500)
- Continental adjustments to make it more in line with the other t3 air units while keeping everything it offers: 39 ground DPS (from 66), 220 AA DPS (from 266), energy cost = 52500 (from 29531), buildtime : 7200 (from 5250); veterancy = 6/12/18/24/30 (from 3/6/9/12/15). Still very powerful unit.

3) T3 bombers better to deal with armies (more AOE) and a bit less efficient to snipe (less damages) + faction diversity:
general changes : 10% cheaper mass and energy cost (1890 mass, 94500 energy), + 1 AOE, less damage per shot

In details
- UEF = lot of HP, but slower and lower damage : 5000 hp (from 4000), 13-15 air speed (from 15-17), 2000 dmg (from 3000), aoe = 7 (from 6)
- cybran = a bit cheaper, better AA weapon, average damage, lowest HP: 20% mass cost decrease, 20% energy cost decrease  (1680 mass, 84000 energy) 8 aoe (from 7), 3200 hp (from 3700), 2250 dmg (from 2750), AA DPS from 30 to 90.
- Sera = still good at sniping, a bit less HP: AOE = 6 (from 5), damage = 2750 (from 3250), HP = 3500 (from 3900)
- Aeon T3 bomber = less good at sniping but still good damage, stun units, slightly slower: Damage = 2500 (from 3450), AOE +1 (5 from 4), and air speed = 14-16 (from 15-17), Added stun weapon for 3 seconds (1 second only for Experimentals and ACU / SCU)
- Solace T3 torpedo bomber: +750 hp (4500 instead of 3750) so that it can survive one more Cruiser salvo.
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NAVAL UNITS
1) Anti-air adjustments:
- Aeon, UEF, and Cybran Cruisers get a small splash (slightly less than SAMs): AOE = 1 (from 0)
- Cybran Frigates AA DPS reduced to 10.8 (from 16), higher hit rate remains (this adjustment is due to the Cybran cruiser getting an AOE, making the need for very strong AA frigates less important)
- Aeon Aircraft Carrier : AOE = 1, DPS = 400 (from 600) so that it's not too strong with the AOE compared to the other Carriers
- Atlantis : AA weapon AOE = 1.5 (from 0)

2) T3 navy adjustments:
- All aircraft carriers except Atlantis : -4000 HP
- UEF Battleship : added a charge bar for the 2 main canons
- Sera t3 sub : HP reduced from 4500 to 4000
- Cybran Battleship: speed = 3.3 (from 3) damage halved, rate of fire doubled, same DPS
- HARM: reduced HP to 8500 (from 11000)

3) Strategic Missiles Subs rework :
For all strat subs : standard nuke price (same as nuke launchers, but they still do only 25000 damages per nuke) :     
BuildCostEnergy = 1350000 (from 1764000)
BuildCostMass = 12000 (from 16800)
BuildTime = 324000 (from 453600)
- range reduced to 90-400 (from 128-1024)

- Cybran Strat sub : stealth ability added, maintenance = 200, tac missile range increased from 150 to 200
- UEF strat sub : tac missile range increased to 175 (from 128), missile hp increased to 3 (from 2), because it shoots only one missile at a time
- Aeon strat sub : tac missile range increased to 175 (from 128), missile hp increased to 3 (from 2), because it shoots only one missile at a time

Sera Battleship Nuke cost = same as previous strat sub cost:
        BuildCostEnergy = 1764000, (from 1920000)
        BuildCostMass = 16800 (from 19200)
        BuildTime = 453600 (518400)
- Damage Reduced to 25000 (from 70000), same as strat subs
- range of nuke reduced to 90-410 (from 128-1024)

4) T4 naval units speed buff:
- Aeon Tempest speed increased to 2.75 (from 2.5)
- Atlantis: speed increased to 2.75 (from 2.5) ; SAM weapon gets 1.5 AOE (from 0)
- Megalith : underwater speed multiplier = +37.5% (from +25%) = 2.75 speed undewater (speed = 2 on land is unchanged)
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STRUCTURES:
Cybran TML: splitted missile acceleration = 6 (from 15), max speed = 15 (from 25), so that TMD have more time to shoot down one additional split missile.