Tis the Season to be Cybran?
Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving break. I certainly did, lots of quality time with my new daughter, and I had time to play almost a dozen ranked games of FA which was great, including several on Dark Heart which I’m fired to review now. In Supcom news, Forged Alliance is now released in Europe and the online numbers have skyrocketed accordingly (well, doubled anyways). This game is apparently quite popular in Europe. I’m just glad to have more opponenents for ranked play and more custom games available, though the ladder is about to get a lot more competitive.
Anyways, to the post. Well, this blog is called SupCom Talk after all, so here’s the topic for discussion:
Is it just me or is Cybran incredibly popular these days? I don’t have any actual statistics, but it seemed almost all of my opponents from games this weekend were playing Cybran, and I see them in replays constantly. Obviously UEF is very popular as well. Aeon is very rare these days, and Seraphim, well, there are plenty of poor saps who are stuck with Seraphim since they only have the stand-alone version of Forged Alliance, but I don’t think many folks play them given the choice.
So why the huge popularity with the Cybran? Let’s dig into this a bit.
They have always been a strong faction, for a variety of reasons, but apparently people have gotten the idea that they are somehow buffed or even overpowered. The factional differences in Forged Alliance have been one of the most rewarding features in the expansion and there are now much more distinct reasons for choosing one faction over another, as certain factions now genuinely reward certain strategies and types of play. Not as much differentiation as in Starcraft or other RTS games, but much more than existed in the original retail Supcom. However, this of course comes at a cost in balancing difficultly, making it almost certain that one faction or another will be perceived by the community to be overpowered. After enough patches this will somewhat go away, hopefully, and people will feel they can choose the faction that they feel suits them the best.
Anyways, here is my quick analysis of why the Cybrans are so popular now, but I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts as well.
1. I suspect the main reason is the Jester. This unit has absolutely enormous potential to give you an early edge, probably more than any other unit in the game. The larger the map, the more effective it is. It is basically a quick flying light assault bot that can raid lightning fast and requires a whole different set of defenses to defeat. Are people playing Cybran simply because of the Jester?
2. The Cybran have the best experimental lineup. Or, if not the best, at least by far the most useful. They have an experimental for every situation, though I miss the old cheaper Scathis sometimes, now it is a mobile Mavor-clone.
3. The Cybran have the most gimmicks. The emphasis on stealth can be quite effective if you use it right. The Mantis repair ability can also come in handy if you know when to use it. The Sky Slammer ground attack capability is also quite cool and uniqe to the Cybran. These are all highly situation dependent and require a lot of extra micro-management, but they do give the Cybran an edge.
4. Who can forget the Loyalist tactical missile diversion, this is real handy, I mean how many other units don’t just deflect a tactical missile, they point it back at the guy who fired it?
The Cybran have plenty of weaknesses as well, in my opinion. They do have a cool set of T2 and T3 amphibious units, but this is offset by their lack of any hover units. They have very weak sheilds, their ACU has the least HP, and their naval selection is nothing to write home about. The mantis is a solid unit, fast but a bit weak when it comes to HP. The Cybran artillery is quite weak but does have the cool EMP effect (that is actually visible now). Their T2 point defense is notoriously weak. Many units in the faction use lasers which can be blocked by terrain in the most annoying of circumstances. These and more are the reasons I’m not a Cybran player myself.
Thats all I have for now, so lets hear what you think. Do you consider yourself a regular Cybran player, and if so, what keeps you loyal to the faction? Have the changes in Forged Alliance caused anyone to switch to Cybran? Is it the Jester or is there another reason the Cybran are considered so strong?
November 26th, 2007 at 3:09 am
i think that this may just be an after effect from people who played as cybran in vanilla (cause almost everyone was cybran in vanilla). so they just go with what they know. i myself never touch them. i like aeon and sera. with some Uef thrown in to spice things up every now and then
November 26th, 2007 at 5:38 am
It’s because Cybran have the special hidden “Chuck Norris” easter egg unit.
November 26th, 2007 at 5:40 am
I always play UEF myself unless Aeon seem better suited for the position/location … then again, I haven’t got FA yet (its coming hopefully today) so I don’t know if I would like the Sera better. I think TypeSno is right, most people played Cybran after the game came out (they were probably the coolest looking race).
November 26th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Here’s my theory:
Assertion 1: most players are wary of playing as Aeon because of the changes to the aurora. The drop in speed implies that a player must be more micromanagement intensive in the early tier 1 phase if they want to make full use of their firing range advantage.
Assertion 2: the recent increase in cost for the tier 1 artillery of the Seraphim most likely made them less attractive (you could spam them like crazy previously). Add that they do not have either hoplite/mongoose or shield/stealth generator and players have difficulty spotting an obvious advantage.
Assertion 3: between the UEF and the Cybrans (the two remaining factions), the ‘cool’ aspect is on the Cybran’s side with their cybernetics and nice art design. Their jesters and (much later) monkeylords help as well ;).
I know my theory is not much on number crunching or actual evidence but it might represent what is going on through a player’s head when deciding what to pick in their first few games. I have actually been working on a Cybran guide detailing all of their strengths and weaknesses. I have not finished it yet but it’s already 11 pages long (I was actually wondering if I could post it on supcomtalk when it’s ready).
November 26th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Most of my played games are played as Cybran, why? Because that was the race in the demo version and i keep playing with them. Nowadays i started playing the other factions, to get more information about their weakness and strength. Knowing all in the game makes better players. And the Cybran units design is awesome!
November 26th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
There certainly is a little history to it, since the UEF were generally weaker in the original SupCom, and the Aeon went up and down with each patch. The Cybran were probably the only consistently strong faction in the original game, so no doubt a lot of folks have simply stuck with Cybran after FA came out.
I also the Cybran art style and building animation is pretty freaking cool.
@Dotswarlock: I could definitely post the guide on SupCom talk, that sounds fantastic. I will probably need to proof-read it first though, and I might check with Cyde Weys just to make sure he doesn’t have a problem with it. You could also consider writing some Cybran specific articles for the site, that would allow some actual discussion on some specific elements of Cybran play. You could get access to the site as an author or I could post the articles for you. I would love to see more faction-specific and unit-specific posts, and seeing as I’m mostly a UEF guy we could certainly use some more authors.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Cybran is by far the coolest faction, that’s why Cybran has been my primary choice of faction since the original SupCom beta.
Cybran has also as mentioned been consistently good through all versions of the game.
Nowadays I have a hard time choosing a faction since all of them are so cool :)
November 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Maybe currently the most played races are UEF and Cybran but that will change during the next 2-3 weeks, because lots of 1on1 ranked water maps, giving Aeon (and Seraphim) a huge advantage!
Disadvantage is the lack of range of T2 Aeon Units, but T3 Aeon is very strong again.
Seraphim currently has very strong T4 but Cybran and UEF seem to be very consistant throughout all the tech levels.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I’ve played UEF from the start, even when they were the underpowered race. Probably the only reason is because they reminded me the most of the Arm from Total Annihilation compared to Cybran or Aeon. ;P
November 26th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
The Sera T4 (experimental) bomber is just overkill.. plain and simple ÜBER unit. Strong vs. air .. and instant devastation vs. ground.. and has a big-big shitload of HP too :)
But I also always play UEF ;]
November 26th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Cybran popular? Sounds familiar, back from last summer (when I actually played) when it was the ONLY faction ever played on ranked land maps.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I like the UEF, but most of the players I know like Aeon and Cybran.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
@Engineer
I just posted my first draft here (which I’ll probably be updating in the next few days or so):
http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=23312
It was a strange twist of fate that I winded up in a ranked game against you on the same day. It’s unfortunate that connection issues had to stop the game though, it was an interesting beginning.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:37 am
I think it is because of the awesome fan fic by Dots…
(Bagby RULES!)
November 27th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
hey atleast we are seeing lots of UEF.
November 27th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
awesome cybran guide =)
November 27th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
yeah dotswarlock, sorry about that, that sucked. Stupid motherboard Wifi. It’s really convenient, but also really unreliable sometimes. Had the game gone on, I would have beaten you in the end, of course! UEF over Cybran any day!
Your guide is, in a word, awesome. Reading it I realize I’ve seen your writing before, you have a great fan fiction style and lots of practical stuff in there too. Am I the only one who thinks dotswarlock would make a fantastic SupComTalk author?
November 27th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
That could be fun although I might just have to slice my thoughts into smaller pieces. I can’t throw all my ideas in just one day after all ;)
As for the UEF being greater then Cybran part well… it’s nice to see that the UEF’s strongest weapon is still their propaganda :P
(Just kidding!)
November 28th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Yeah, that guide is excellent, I am not a Cybran player myself but it’s making me want to try it.
Now we only need another couple of people to write a similar thing for UEF, Aeon and may be Seraphim! :)