Balance and roles of the infantry

[dtdesign]

Hello,

I’ve been absent from Ren-X for quite some time and recently gave in the itch to install the game once more. There have been some changes in the meantime and especially the infantry got some interesting (balance) changes. I’m a passionate FPS player, with a strong preference for tactical shooters, for over two decades and I have my fair share of ExtraCredits

Over the past weeks I have focused a lot on infantry warfare in Ren-X and started noticing a few things that feel a bit rough around the edges. I would like to propose some subtle changes to various characters classes that I feel should bring them more in line and to raise the skill ceiling.

 

Marksman

The sniper has really grown on me, it is incredibly useful to defend the harvester from a remote place. It is a bit too powerful over longer distances, especially since there is no damage fall-off.

Suggestion: Slight decrease of the rate of fire of the marksman rifle.

 

Shotgunner / McFarland

The shotgun / flak cannon has always been wonky, and the hit rate feels somewhat arbitrary, with point blank shots doing almost no damage while some shots barely touch the knee and still bring a 1k toon down to low health.

Suggestion: Honestly, this is probably the most difficult piece, because it is super easy to throw off any balance. I’m not sure what to do about them and I simply wanted to point it out.

 

Gunner

The fast projectile speed and very long range make it an effective tool to fight against Nod tanks. It is exceptionally efficient against the Artillery, which by itself has become the dominant tool for Nod’s area control. The lack of a target lock is greatly offset by its high velocity, it almost feels like a laser.

On top of that, the splash damage against infantry feels a bit too high, the Gunner already has a respectable sidearm which should be the weapon of choice against players.

Suggestion: Decrease the rocket velocity without changing the effective range. Reduce rocket (splash) damage against infantry to promote the use of the sidearm.

 

Havoc / Sakura

The inaccuracy of the unscoped sniper rifle is great, it stops players from abusing it in close quarter fights, focusing more on their designated role. However, this means that Havoc and Sakura are merely used to fight enemy tech support for tanks, which feels a bit dire to me. The utility smoke grenade is highly situational, and I think it would make more sense to push them towards a recon unit.

I can imagine something like a “mini” scout airplane that works like the air strike binoculars, but instead provides intel on all units in a small area.

Suggestion: Replace the smoke grenade with replenishing binoculars that tag enemies in a small area like the scout plane.

 

Sydney / Raveshaw

The delay before the weapon activation isn’t my favorite change, but I can see the motivation behind this, so I’m not going to complain about it.

My concern is the EMP grenade which has been used in multiple matches by the attacking side to box in the opposing team. The map design usually leads to a small corridor for vehicles out of the base and often a strong presence of Sydney (and to some extent Raveshaw) caused a constant spam of EMP grenades despite their significant cooldown. The EMP grenade is a nice touch, but they enable one or two good players to put a complete halt to a breakout attempt. Even if the effect is only active for a few seconds, it gives the attacking team the slight edge to pull some range and tear the defenders apart.

Suggestion: Limit the EMP grenade to 2, requiring a refill in the base, like (timed) C4. EMP grenades should be a meaningful choice.

 

Mobius / Mendoza

This is by far the classes that receive the most complaints and oh boy, do I like shredding GDI with my lovely doza. Despite the usual complaints about Mendoza’s damage against vehicles and especially buildings, I see nothing wrong with that. Nod’s superior infantry is quite balanced considering the toy vehicles in comparison.

However, both are the top choice for dominating any sort of close quarter combat, with Field (X) and Under being the prime examples for this. I would like to see some balance of their weapons in terms of “user friendliness” by shifting damage away from headshots. This would make them a bit more forgiving while also reducing the impact of a handful of top players whose superior aim capabilities completely crush the average player.

Suggestion: Increase the damage multiplier against infantry, but decrease the multiplier for headshots.