Feedback and balance megadump

[Bananas]

work in progress. will update at random for a while.

Intro/Change log/Misc:

This thread is meant to be a collection of my suggestions and ideas on the game. I'm sure they'll be very opinionated, so feel free to comment on why I'm wrong. Some of the ideas/suggestions have probably been mentioned before. Numbers are being pulled out of thin air. Just what "feels good."

I'll try to keep it updated as I think of more things or patches are released.

5/12/2014 -   Updated misc.
             Added flying vehicle battle feedback
             Added 1k sniper rant

5/7/2014 -    Thread made
             Characters first draft done
             Vehicles first draft done
             Updated marksman, gunner, and officer

Miscellaneous Feedback:

• The Nod plane that drops vehicles makes way too much dust. If you're defending by the airstrip, it becomes incredibly hard to see.
  
• Hitboxes/net code seems slightly off. I get lots of no reg shots. I've also shot a standing still target in the top of the head and they took no damage.
  
• Repair gun makes way too many effects. If someone is repairing your character, it's really hard to see.
  
• The low hp effect on the screen makes it very hard to see some UI things. Option to turn it off would be nice.
  
• Hard to read chat, end of map voting, and votes on certain areas of maps. First thing that pops to my mind is the sky in Islands.
  
• Voice command system is awkward. Would love to see the commands implemented like the game Smite. Examples of key presses: VDB -> Defend the barracks! VSC -> Cover me! Or something like that.

Sidearms:

• Silenced Pistol
  
• Heavy Pistol
  
• Carbine
  
• Tiberium Flechette
  
• Tiberium Auto Rifle

1000 Credit Snipers Rant:

• 
  I don't see why 1000 credit snipers need to be in this game or need to be so strong. They counter light armor and infantry from any range. On some maps, they completely destroy flying vehicles. If there are two 1k snipers on the hill on Walls, your apache/orca has to cower in fear. You might not even get into your newly made flying vehicle before it's blown up.
  1k snipers also get to dominate all infantry battles. Two body hits to kill any non-free character is ridiculous with the fire rate the ramjet has. Anybody with even average aim can just dominate with the ramjet. One hitting free infantry is also frustrating. Just because you lose one building means that the enemy deserves to be able to sit half way across the map one shotting you anywhere? There's no counter to it either. A marksman has trouble even touching a 1k sniper at long range. I've seen so many new players, my friends I showed the game, and even some vets be completely frustrated by this. It's boring gameplay.
  Here is the pro's and con's I can think of for removing the ramjet:
  
  • 
    Pros:
    
    • Flying vehicles become stronger
      
    • More diverse infantry fights/seeing different classes get used more
      
    • The remaining sniper class is much more balanced
      
    • Less frustrating gameplay when HoN/Bar is down
      
    • Free classes become slightly more useful
      
    • Free up a class to implement a more fun design/weapon. Also a chance to further diversify Nod and GDI with side specific classes

Cons:

• Flying vehicles become too strong possibly. I doubt this will be the case though.
  
• Removal of a favorite weapon for some people
  
• Harder to cover beacons from a distance (could be a pro depending on your stance)
  
• Slightly harder to stop engineers from running between buildings to repair
  
• Harder to close out a game where the enemy bar/hon is dead

It should be noted I'm not talking about removing the iconic Havoc/Sakura characters. Just the weapon/design of the class. If the weapon isn't removed, I listed slight balance changes in the character section as a start. Here are some more drastic changes that could work.

• Severely reduce the weapon's capabilities by reducing fire speed, increasing reload time, reducing max ammo, etc
  
• Give the gun non-hitscan bullets like the marksman and patch has

Flying Vehicle Battles:

• 
  I'm finding the battles between flying vehicles really stale right now. Most of the battles are just both vehicles locking on, firing their payload, and then both limping back to base at half hp. It's hard to finish one off with the machine gun and chasing just puts you in a bad spot usually. A lot of times both vehicles will just stay out of range of the lock on staring at each other. Here's some suggestions that might make it more fun.
  
  • Remove the lock on of missiles so that they fire dumb
    
  • Increase range of missiles by quite a bit; increase range of machine gun by not as much or the same
    
  • If you still want a lock on feature, give it to the passenger rocket. Make the rocket slow enough to be avoided.

These changes would make the fights much more fun in my opinion. The orca and apache would probably need to be rebalanced after the changes. I could see the apache being easier to land dumb missiles with.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Guest

[Bananas]

GDI

Characters:

• Soldier - Seems to be a decent character. Maybe slightly weak. Feel like the spread could use a little tweaking. Hard to hit enemies at range.
  Shotgunner - Very strong at the right distance which is fine. Spread needs tweaking to be less random.
  Grenadier - Will have to play with him more to see. Feels fairly balanced though.
  Marksman - Seems to be alright. The non hitscan bullets make it hard to hit targets at a distance which seems to be what the class is for. Does good damage if you can manage the head shots. Wouldn't really choose him over other free classes in any situation. Suffers from low ammo and magazine size.
  
  • Increase magazine size to 12
  • Increase max ammo

Engineer - Perfectly fine.

Officer - Seems meh. For the price he isn't terrible. Hard to hit people at a certain distance and the gun is hard to control. His aim down sights seems to decrease the bullet spread? But it's hard to see while doing it and you move really slow. The gun also seems to fire from a lower position than others.

Rocket Soldier - Fairly balanced. Provides rocket rush option to both sides which is nice. Seems to overshadow gunner in building damage. Great for anti-air.

Mcfarland - Clearly in need of a nerf considering his price. Personally I don't think it's the damage needing a nerf though. I think these nerfs will hit him hard without destroying him. He might still need more nerfing after.

• Reduce splash damage by 75-100%
• Reduce the amount of smoke and clutter his shots make
• Make bullets fall off 10% sooner
• Reduce magazine size to 6

Hotwire - In a good spot right now. More powerful with sidearms in X.

Gunner - Tried him out again. Seems like a significantly faster reload speed would fix him mostly. Still feels slightly strong against infantry considering the aiming is less hard.

• Decrease reload speed by 15-25%

Patch - Fairly impressed by Patch's new gun. Seems to be decent against everything.

• Increase projectile speed by 10%
• Fix the scope to be useful

Deadeye - Balanced but suffers from the no fire bug.

Mobius - Seems to be balanced.

• Fix right click alternate fire. Jams before ammo is out with no warning. Unsure if intended

Sydney - Seems to be good after the changes in patch 2. Suffers greatly from the "jamming/no fire" bug.

Havoc - 1k snipers will be controversial. I think they are in need of a nerf. They simply do too many things the best. I suggest small nerfs to start with.

• Reduce fire speed by 10%
• Reduce damage done to light armor by 25%

Vehicles:

• 
  Humvee - Humvees and Buggies are fun to drive, but they aren't super useful throughout the game.
  
  • There is a bug where you can drive into barracks and weapons factory with Buggy and Humvee in RenX. It was possible to go into all buildings in the original. Let Buggies and Humvees drive into any building. This would give them usefulness throughout the game.

MLRS Withholding opinion till I play with some more.

APC - No opinion yet

Medium Tank - Seem fairly balanced. Would like to see them get more range so they can hit more things easier.

• Increase projectile range

Mammoth - Not really my cup of tea, so I can't say much. I will say they seem a lot less effective in beta 2.

• Change speed back to beta 1 amount

Chinook - Not much to say about it. Added mounted turrets are nice addition.

• Dying from vehicle explosion in chinook is pretty lame.
• Possible interesting/useful addition might be auto deploy parachutes when chinook dies. Would be fun to see 5 parachutes deploy.

Orca - Very bad compared to apache. The machine gun is hard to hit infantry with or head shot them.

• Increase ascend and descend speed
• Give them a machine gun like the apache has

Nod

Characters:

• Soldier - See GDI entry for Soldier
  Shotgunner - See GDI entry for Shotgunner
  Flamethrower - Incredibly weak against infantry and vehicles. Needs a major overhaul.
  Marksman - See GDI entry for Marksman
  Engineer - See GDI entry for Engineer
  Officer - See GDI entry for Officer
  Rocket Soldier - See GDI entry for Rocket Soldier
  Chemical Trooper - Seems to be in a good spot. I'll play around with some more to see for sure.
  Technician - See GDI entry for Hotwire
  Stealth Black Hand - In need of some changes related to their stealth. A lot of ideas have already been suggested so I won't spend too much time on it. The stealth detection range for infantry feels good, but the cloak can still be hard to track. Also it's too easy for them to slip away while you shoot at them.
  
  • Need to flicker when damaged so teammates know you're shooting one

Laser Chaingunner - Can dominate any infantry fight unless a sniper kills him in 1 hit. Feels slightly weak to vehicles.

• Decrease damage to infantry by 10%
• Buff damage to vehicles by 5%

Black Hand Sniper - See GDI entry for Deadeye

Mendoza - See GDI entry for Mobius

Raveshaw - See GDI entry for Sydney

Sakura - See GDI entry for Havoc

Vehicles:

• Buggy - see GDI entry for Humvee
  Artillery - Withholding opinion till I play around with it some more.
  APC - No opinion yet
  Light Tank - Pretty balanced. Would like to see more range and the ability to block vehicles more effectively.
  
  • Increase projectile range
  • Fix them to where they can block vehicles more effectively

Flame Tank - Seem to be in a decent spot. Hard to kill infantry with it. Feels slightly sluggish.

• Make it easier to damage infantry with
• Increase turn speed and/or movement speed by a small amount

Stealth Tank - Missiles are hard to aim. Movement feels funky. Also has some of the weirdest collisions with walls and such.

Chinook - See GDI entry for Chinook

Apache - Superior to orca in every way. I think it's fairly balanced, just the orca isn't on par with it. The machine gun feels great on apache.

• Increase ascend and descend speed

Edited May 9, 2014 by Guest

[Bananas]

Map Feedback:

• Lakeside:
  Walls:
  Whiteout:
  Goldrush:
  Islands:
  Mesa:
  Field:
  

[Terekhov]

LCG needs more than 5% nerf imo. RoF needs slowed by 25%, it's a bit crazy fighting one right now, especially with the effects you see when they hit you.

[Bananas]

LCG needs more than 5% nerf imo. RoF needs slowed by 25%, it's a bit crazy fighting one right now, especially with the effects you see when they hit you.

You're probably right. 5% probably wouldn't be enough. Maybe 10%. RoF nerf would affect their vehicle damage. Guess they could buff vehicle damage heavily to compensate. I'll change it to 10% for now.

I haven't been on the receiving end of LCG enough to know. Do the effects make it really hard to see? Or is it a high graphics thing? I play on lowest settings.