Oh noes!!! Nerf teh Riptidez!!
Well, lo and behold a new patch (3596) has been released and it appears the Devs agreed with those who say the Riptides are overpowered. Their cost has been increased 20%. This is a pretty serious blow to the unit, it now compares much less favorably to the Pillar and Mongoose and is no longer very useful on land only maps. It is still a very effective raider and as a hover unit it can still deliver some nasty suprises, as well as sweep the seas clean of frigates and Aeon/Seraphim T1 hover units (one of which was also made vastly more expensive, the Seraphim T1 artillery).
If my post on the Riptide had anything to do with this, I want to say I am deeply sorry to all UEF players out there, I never meant this to happen. The Riptide is still around, but its no longer going to be quite as feared. Don’t worry, the UEF is still a very strong faction in Forged Alliance.
There are a number of other balance changes, but the most important is that the Seraphim T1 artillery unit has had its cost increased a whopping 50%. I really have no idea why this was necessary, maybe someone else can enlighten me? My only guess is that this is particularly for water maps where the Seraphim artillery can do devastating damage from off-shore, so this reduces that advantage somewhat. But on pure land maps this will probably just mean we will see more of the Seraphim medium tank, which is nearly identical to the Striker.
The Cybran Sky Slammer’s anti-ground DPS was also reduced. I watch a fair amount of replays and I very rarely see this feature used, though it is quite cool, I wish more AA units could do this. I can only imagine someone somewhere figured out that if you spam enough of them they are overpowered. I would love to see that replay.
There are other changes as well, to see the full changes go to this forum post.
Sadly, this means replays from the old patch will no longer work, including the replay I just posted on below.
Feel free to comment on the changes, lets hear what you think.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:42 am
nice job on the quick posting of a revie/synopsis of the new patch. It’s a shame they had to nerf a lot of things, but of course it can be expected.
one of the things listed in the fix list was a bug where strictly FA players could still play as the other races. Since it’s been fixed, it shouldnt be a threat any more… so does anyone know how it was done?
November 16th, 2007 at 12:42 am
- Seraphim T3 Sub Hunter - Reducing MaxRadius on torpedo to 70.
Good, other factions will have a chance to control the sea.
- Riptide, UEF T2 Amphibious Tank - Increasing Cost 20%.
I think it is okay, it is still a good anti-t1 unit.
- Seraphim T1 floating atillery - Increasing cost 50%. Mass cost is now 54.
A bit high, but needed (not that much imo)
- Nukes now do damage instantly instead of radiating slowly outward.
Good.
- HARMS, Cybran T3 Torpedo Ambushing System - Increasing MinWaterDepth
I think that was to fix the “invincible HARMS bug”.
- Seraphim T2 Tactical missile Defense - Increasing ProjectileLifetime.
I did not know that was needed, I almost never play as them :P
- Novax, UEF Experimental Satellite - Reducing crash damage to 3000.
Good, the old amount was OP
- Skyslammer, Cybran T1 mobile anti air - Decreasing Ground Gun damage by 50%. DPS is now 20.
Meh, unneeded.
November 16th, 2007 at 5:28 am
I’m worried that if the balances continue to be too hasty we will end up with generic factions, with only slightly different looking units. This would be sad. I understand the balance issues are critical of course, and the majority of changes in this patch seem to achieve this. However I just have a magging concern that the faction-unique play-styles will become gradually eroded. Just my 2c (or 2p - I’m british you know, old chum!)
November 16th, 2007 at 5:29 am
@ Breezy
The FA-only faction bug was exploited simply by choosing “random faction” before a match.
November 17th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Has anyone else been experiencing a lot of crashes since this patch when playing on large maps? I don’t have extensive testing to back me up, but I do know that I had played at least an hour on the shards 40×40 map pre patch, and post patch I can’t play this map for more than 10 minutes without the game crashing out on me. No other changes to my system.
Interestingly enough, testing last night allowed me to play for three hours on the map without a crash, but only after I ran the Core Maximizer program.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I’ve played a few 20×20 with no crashes, but I haven’t tried anything larger than that.
Does the Core Maximizer still work with FA? I thought that was specific to the old SupCom.
November 19th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
No, at least the version I have has a menu that allows you to select FA or SupCom.
I haven’t had the time to do more extensive testing, but I do know that I tried to load my skirmish back up (at the 3 hour mark) and it won’t even load without crashing FA, Maximizer or no.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
After getting some complaints from my friends in competitive games, we looked a little bit closer at the effectiveness of the UEF Janus T2 fighter/bomber. It could take out any other T2 air fighter (tested against the Corsair, Swift Wind, and whatever the Seraphim one’s called) in one-on-one combat on fair terms. Don’t get me wrong, I love its performance, and there’s nothing wrong with its air-to-ground abilities in my opinion, but it’s true to say that it could probably use some tweaking in the air-to-air department. Not too much though. I like my fighter bomber. :p
November 21st, 2007 at 10:59 am
All of these fixes were needed and were the final changes suggested by the closed beta players.
Sky Slammers were stronger than mantis on land btw. Seraphim TMD was shocking.
November 21st, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Thanks for the explanation Deman. I knew there was more going on than I was aware. Probably the only change that will continue to cause complaints is the Seraphim T1 artillery cost increase. Most people seem to agree it was necessary, but most people also seem to think the increase was a bit much.