A whole new air combat paradigm
The v3255 has changed air balance more than the patch notes would lead you to believe. No, air superiority fighters haven’t been improved (sigh), but now that Soul Rippers can be targeted by gunships, the dynamic of air combat changes a lot (at least in battles that have one or more Cybran players). Since the v3251 patch Soul Rippers have seen significantly more use now that they are much cheaper. It’s hard to defend against an early Soul Ripper commander assassination run, and it remains hard throughout the endgame to defend against Soul Ripper commander assassination runs with ever larger numbers of Soul Rippers (especially considering you can easily get twenty of them for the cost of a Mavor). Now that Soul Rippers can be targeted by gunships, a lot changes.
First of all, notice that Soul Ripper can be beaten by an equivalent mass of Broadswords (which is about eight). Also, only one of the Broadsword’s weapons can fire at the Soul Ripper; this has all the appearances of being a bug but is likely just a poorly implemented balance fix. If both of the Broadsword’s guns could target Soul Rippers, they’d just be way too effective at taking them down. Also note that a Soul Ripper can be taken down by less than an equal mass in tech 2 gunships. The role of gunships has thus changed from optional support unit to semi-mandatory defensive unit (in addition to its support capabilities).
Before, you could get away with not building gunships if you weren’t using them to attack. SAM missile launchers and commander dancing are effective enough against enemy gunship attacks, so you don’t necessarily have to counter enemy gunships with your own (though if you are Cybran and your opponent is using Broadswords against your units outside of your base, you really want some Renegades). But now that gunships are good at taking down Soul Rippers, and that Soul Rippers have become good units thanks to the v3251 patch, you want to have some gunships around when playing against Cybran players. And if you are Cybran, you definitely want to send some Renegades out with your Soul Rippers, because if the Soul Ripper runs into some Broadswords or T2 gunships unescorted, it’s game over.
Air superiority fighters and interceptors now have less utility on the battlefield. Whereas before they were the only way to take out a Soul Ripper outside of the range of your defensive emplacements and mobile ground anti-air, they are now eclipsed in this role by gunships. Now you’ll still need interceptors and fighters to take out CZARs, and to protect your gunships, but against Soul Rippers, they’re no longer your go-to unit.
Anyway, I like the new balance change. It gives an additional reason to use gunships and it makes air battles more complex by providing incentives to use some of the lesser-used air units.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Too much thinking involved.
June 20th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Hrmmm, if you think there’s too much thinking involved, SupCom may not be the right game for you :-/
June 20th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
That’s really not that revolutionary. I’ve been using gunships as defence craft against other gunships for quite a while.
June 20th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
now i dont know if this is a bug or not…. but i remember that both cybran and aeon gun ships USE to be able to shoot down other planes….
where as UEF’s couldnt…. (but they could pick up land units and work as transports)
BUT the broadsword could
now if this has been changed so that T2 gunships can hit Soul Ripper’s BUT uef’s cant…. i will have ANOTHER UEF’s disapointment to complain about!
June 21st, 2007 at 8:39 am
Meddish, no ALL gunships can target other gunships, the Soul Ripper is an experimental gunship and there for can be targetted by other gunships-it makes sense. So all T2 and the UEFT3 gunship can kill eachother, only the Broadsword(UEFT3)and the Soul Ripper can target Other (i.e. High flying Aircraft) I like the change… if their going to make things like the definition they give(*COUGH* Billy*) then Gunships killing eachother makes sense. not to mention Broadswords have the awesomely powerfull twin heavy plasma cannon which smokes most anything.(except renegades)
Still waiting on ASF’s to be improved though. as it is right now it’s “Wait, Whats a wasp?”
June 21st, 2007 at 8:52 am
I think Soul Rippers need slow, punchy AA to deal with gunships. A missile or projectile weapon that isn’t fast enough to hit interceptors, but one that has the kick to blow holes in enemy gunship forces.
Large gunship or bomber forces should always have to be escorted by interceptors. An SR counts as a Large Gunship Force.
My $.02
June 21st, 2007 at 9:55 am
Until we get fixed Air Superiority Fighters, I don’t think its worth it to escort them in with interceptors unless you have a massively overwhelming number of them, the fixed defenses (decent T2, and T3 mix) will simply eat them for breakfast, and then the rest of the enemy interceptors will just take out the bombers/gunships. Thus leaving you 100% open to a similar gunship/bomber counter attack.
That being said, if its an attack on an outpost where there isn’t much in the way of fixed defenses yet, or something similar, by all means.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:57 am
Soul Rippers do have “punchy” AA, their Iridium Rockets can target Gunships, all it takes is a little micro to get the enemy gunships into a clump, and then, BAM!, fire the Iridiums at them. Splash Damage takes care of the rest.
Renegades as escorts are even better, of course.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I think the balance changes make intys and ASF’s more important rather than less. The increased use of gunships to counter Soul Rippers means that ASF’s and inty’s will be necessary to kill the gunships both supporting and attacking Soul Rippers. If you are UEF against Cybran and he builds 20 Renegades to send with his SR, you will need Wasps or Inty’s to take out the Renegades before sending in your Broadswords. To counter, the Cybran player will need Inty’s or VaGeminis to take out your air units, etc.
Since even Aeon Gunships will be effective at attacking Rippers now, you can expect to need air to take them out, too, and they will need air to protect them, etc, etc.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:30 pm
[...] More air-talk There is some more talk about air combat over at SupCom Talk since the latest patch v3255… go have a read: http://www.supcomtalk.com [...]