Mystic~

I've noticed spontaneous vehicle exploding on the periphery of maps like Walls, Whiteout and Lakeside particularly when using flying vehicles. I presume this is the new soft world boundary at play, occasionally it fails to give the "return to battlefield" warning indicating you need to get away from the edge. When this happens you're subjected a silent count-down and subsequently the self destruct/kill command passes even despite returning to the safe zone in the battlefield.

Definitely, the only opportunity to take it out is if someone managed to get a head shot with him stood still. I put a post in the Feedback section of the forum about speed crates. Agent said they'll be less frequent after the upcoming patch.

We kept running in squads of three, nearly took out the Power Plant first time and then destroyed the War Factory. The plan was to destroy the Barracks when things were clear, but we kept getting massacred by whoever was the Hotwire with all the speed upgrades.

We were watching you from the bar roof and instructing everyone to plant AT mines, whilst trying to not get caught and assassinated by the insane speed-hotwire. Unfortunately nobody had enough money for nukes. That was a good rush, but our barricade stopped the worst.

Please can you amend crates so that speed upgrades don't stack beyond more than 10-20% of their base value. I was playing a game of Walls earlier today on the Nod team, our Airstrip was down and we were left organizing a number of SBH C4 rushes. However someone playing on GDI had spent the game accumulating a crazy amount of speed upgrade crates and this meant this person could defend and sweep large areas of the GDI base for stealth units in just a few seconds. It was hard enough to find a spot to remain hidden and once spotted it was next to impossible to evade or escape this person - they could successfully wipe out entire squads of 3 SBH with just a Hotwire armed with a Carbine. It was quite funny to watch this blurry character, sort of reminiscent of Speed crates in Sonic, but obv frustrating to be on the receiving end. Inf were never meant to be able to travel at super human speeds.

It's possible for GDI to ion the strip from the rocks. When I placed an ion here, it actually slipped down the rocks and landed on the edge of the runway. In terms of balance I don't think it's possible for Nod to nuke the barracks from the rocks.

Lakeside - connect the two refinery side cliffs with a rope bridge creating an extra base infantry route. Beacons/Airstrikes - I always liked the idea that these weren't affected by price increases. You're almost guaranteeing a team will lose once their power is gone. Perhaps something less than double if it must be implemented.

Yeah, my primary solution was an EMP - with the proposed gun a commando in theory would be able to fight off some of the defenders and can afford to use more brute force. The opposing team would still have to be alert and reactive to respond in time. If it could achieve a building take down single handed completely covertly it might be too powerful? It would still be capable of doing some permanent damage with the building armor in place. It's also possible to probe weak spots, perhaps where there are less than 5 mines. I'm not sure exactly how much mine damage they can safely absorb on average, but I've seen SBH run through doors with 4 and survive on occasion. So whilst the hoty/tech can do it without triggering alarms, they take more risk reaching their objective as they can't survive very long in the open and can be dispatched more easily upon discovery. If it were to be introduced I'd be tempted to remove upgraded sidearms from adv engineers to ensure they play a more supportive role - suggested the same thing for snipers and SBH (different thread). There's still the option of planting and defending a beacon, which GDI might start to try more and maybe people would start to work more in small teams of 2 as Commando/Hotwire in support etc.

I think someone may have suggested this before to an extent and past updates have been going more in this direction anyway: The Havoc/Sakura class should be a full out aggressive commando unit adept at infiltrating and destroying bases with C4 and other equipment (smoke, emps, grenades etc) and easily dealing with basic infantry, sort of like the Commando unit in the original Tiberian Dawn and in keeping with Havoc's character in the solo gameplay; and not just a souped-up sniper. They just don't feel right or suited to the role of sniping. The primary gun could be changed to some sort of silenced assault rifle - something like the Carbine but styled with a much longer barrel to be more powerful against infantry with both hipfire and including a mid-range scope/semi-auto. You could even give them a grenade launcher attachment to make them useful against stopping light armored vehicles (middle click or something) like the turret smart-bombs featured on Whiteout - and still be some-what useful against heavy armor. It would be pretty frustrating to get mowed down by a Humvee/Nod-buggy. These changes would turn it into a versatile character that is rugged and more capable of traversing the battlefield and surviving for longer periods behind enemy lines. Presently the hotwire and tech class with the carbine upgrade is already masquerading and being used as the primary commando unit - but they really lack the health/armor and weaponry to put up much of a fight unless two (or more) go as a dual pair and heal each other. Havoc/Sakura were both given timed in a prior update, but in keeping with what I'm suggesting here they would be given their timed C4 back in addition to the remotes - or given two timed and one swappable for a smoke/emp grenade in addition to the two remotes. Hotwires and Techs would then become the primary supporting and defensive unit of the game. Sure, they could still sneak/infiltrate on their own... but to me they're more like a football/soccer goalkeeper pushing to the front - they're vulnerable and it's very risky for them if undefended/supported. There would then only be one sniper class, which could be buffed again to compensate for the loss of the Ramjet - or the 500 could be given the Ramjet instead and turned into a 750 or something - idk. Obviously there would be some new weapon modelling, animation and some coding required as its asking for more than just a tweak, maybe existing assets are enough - I don't know exactly how well the game is still supported in this respect but it would be great if this were feasible.

I'm in favor of completely removing sidearms from SBH and Snipers. What makes the SBH balanced is the fact that its laser deliberately goes *Pew Pew Pew!* to give away their position whenever they fire. Being able to silently assassinate hotys/engineers disarming beacons is way to powerful. I agree that snipers primary role should be as long - mid range infantry and that they should not suddenly have the option of pulling out a powerful carbine/flechette gun (effectively changing their character) the moment you manage to close the distance. They have their chance, after that they still have a pistol. I also think that Techs/Hotwires should be able to re-select the standard silenced pistol once their primary is out of ammo -- and/or introduce some sort of melee attack whereby you can still hit them with the rifle butt. I have some suggestions for Havoc/Sakura but will start a new thread for it.

"Building captured" haha

Perhaps just go straight for a low-powered version of base defenses similar to the low tiered infantry/vehicles once destroyed.

I like this idea. So long as engineers/adv engineers are actually charging it in real-time and not say allowed to charge it and then disappear. There'd probably need to be some sort of cool down between shots fired (ob lasers/agt missiles) and other things conceded... I would suggest making base defenses more sluggish. So for example slower (lock on times) less powerful (less damage inflicted) and decreased accuracy. This would mean infantry can still infiltrate a base without instant ob/agt death. Perhaps even make them blind to stealth units. Otherwise 3 engineers / 2 hotys/techs is still easily a good trade off if it worked at its full performance.

I like the sound of these: Reduction in splash damage (radius) Reduce the sprint speed for engineers Introduce latent arming - so that remotes cannot be detonated until after the beep sound, 0.5s or something small. They'd then be used less like heavy grenades with more emphasis on their placement. Aside: Grenades need to bounce less and do more damage (particularly against vehicles.) I think engineers should definitely keep the remotes, because they're the only way to counter a rush of 4 or more players during the early game (especially Chems which I agree are over powered) and as Super mentioned they're important in quick building rushes - timed always get disarmed easily if everyone dies. I would like to see some sort of terminal time out/lock out (5 seconds) so if an infiltrating player is discovered, that the enemy player cannot continue to refresh health/armor and spam remotes. This would likely mean they'd get one opportunity to refill or change character for the duration of fighting off the infiltrator.

I've spent more time exploring the map now. My suggestions are: Bring back the bridge or create a steel catwalk linking the two cliff sides, the infantry cliff paths and bunkers. Perhaps make the cliff paths accessible from the inner side like Field as to avoid infantry being pummeled by tanks mid-game. The two tier map design was fun and provided additional ways to infiltrate. Add some trees or foliage to the middle section to provide some ground level cover for infantry from both vehicle routes. Remove the concrete walls blocking the back of both GDI/NOD refinery and GDI Weapons Factory. I think its a good idea to keep the small piece of wall that prevents side access from the front of the refinery for both teams. Add some X blocks to indicate the invisible vehicle wall preventing access to the side of the Weapons Factory and some palette crates or something placed against the WF itself to provide cover to infantry trying to infiltrate via the side door. Previously the ramp provided some cover. Would it be better to make each harvester go to the tiberium field nearest each refinery? At the moment each teams harvester has to trek through the base to the opposite side which seems unnecessary. The quicker tiberium collection should make the game faster paced. Replace the concrete wall linking the Hand of Nod and Power Plant with some X vehicle blockers so infantry can still access this way. Bring back the Air map buildings with roof ramp access. It's possible for GDI to b2b the NOD Refinery, but NOD can no longer do the same back due to moving its location. If you place more of a kink or turn in the NOD side rock formation GDI will no longer be able to shoot the refinery via b2b. Its possible for NOD to place a vehicle right up against the entrance camping the middle route, where as GDI gets blocked at the point where the Weapons Factory and Refinery Silo meet. I was never a fan of the weapons pick ups, so don't mind that they're gone.

If you fix the optimisation/lag issues you could perhaps ask B0ng or Yosh to put it up and let us test it as a pre-pug map. I ran around a bit on Skirmish as GDI and noted: it's going to be really difficult to sneak into the Nod hand now the ramps have been removed and everything walled off. Likewise Nod can only get into the War Factory from one side, and both entrances are exposed and visible now the stairs have been removed.

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I agree with where you were going - a small tweak to timings could fix the problem without creating any unnecessary development. However I'm talking about time to arm and you're talking about time to detonate which are two different things. What you suggested has implications as to how they can be used and I even gave you an example.

It would work by automatically forcing engineers to jog when a player selected their remote C4 preventing them from dash-sprinting and throwing a heavy pack all at the same time. However a good player would still be able to get round this by running into range before changing weapons. I think this would cause a lot of complaints. How about if there's a short delay 0.5 - 1 seconds before it can be detonated from the time of placing? This way it would still be possible to strategically detonate remote C4 in real-time when countering incoming enemy rushes. There needs to be some sort of 'C4 ready' event trigger that can be synced with the end of the double beep sound instead of instant detonation upon throwing. Out of all the possibilities so far this seems to make the most sense, infantry would have a better chance of avoiding being hit in the face and tanks get a little longer to gun down any engineers that pop out of destroyed vehicles before their C4 can be detonated.

I don't know if this has already been discussed elsewhere... Is it possible to review and make some balance changes to engineers please? Perhaps to a lesser extent techs/hotwires as well. My issue is primarily with free engineers being able to charge down the more advanced classes at close quarters and just throw a remote C4 and detonate it killing their enemy and themselves in the process. It's a cheap and effective tactic that is often not possible to counter, i.e. being unable to kill them in time to save your character unless you manage a one shot kill with a PIC/Rav and being free they obviously have nothing to lose in trying it out. The same also applies to tank battles whereby you destroy the enemy tank only for you to also be taken out by their last ditch suicide C4 charge—there's no reward for winning your skirmish in these instances other than you destroyed their vehicle. My ideas are: Force engineers to run (if sprinting) when they have remote C4 selected. Apply a safety that prevents remote C4 from being detonated if the player is still in the blast radius. Apply a small negative points penalty for every player suicide to deter engineer suicide bombings. Make remote C4 heavier and reduce the current throwing distance by 1/3 - it's twice the size of timed C4. -- OR introduce a feature whereby throwing distance becomes dependent upon how long the player holds down the mouse button. Click to throw it at your feet or click and hold a little longer for a greater distance. I imagine this would work a bit like charging a volt rifle, but with less delay and causing the player to become stationary. It's use in destroying buildings would remain unchanged, it could still be thrown over bridges etc. However this would now prevent many instances whereby players hide behind corners in third person only to throw C4 in your face or whereby an engineer with a full stamina bar can out run and suicide into someone with depleted stamina.

Islands needs a ladder cannon! Or maybe to connect the infantry cliff routes into the field.

You miss the bit off camera where the AGT starts shooting at me and then I evade by driving in-between the med coming at everyone and the MRLS, but they still don't react. It was pretty amazing that everyone made it and it looked like Super-kh teleported out the way at the end.

I've been waiting 2 weeks for this, lol. Just skip to 14:35 for the good part and rush prep.

lol—he could probably run past most of the base defenses like that.

This has my vote. They were originally used to help counter vehicle rushes, but they're not fit for this purpose anymore. It should still be necessary to time the throw so that the detonation coincides with the desired vehicle(s).