More 1.3 critique and stuff

[Zero Angel]

I did some more 1.3 stratting lately, and these are my observations and critique.

Bomber
I noticed that the bomber's attack seems to have been nerfed. When sending the bomber vs an antenna/overseer or forge, it no longer kills the building , instead taking them to critical damage. The bomb seems to be easier to kill as well. Which is odd, since in a (1.2) human vs human strat where all players are competent, the bomber is already rather ineffective.

Lucky Foot and Wug variants.
These are basically the same types of recs, with not a lot of difference between them. Perhaps it would be best to merge their effects somehow. The Lucky Foot variant gives you the ability to make empty tanks, but not empty scouts -- which is rather nonsensical -- since when teams are in a bind, they need empty scouts. And the Wug variant gives you rather overpowered empty tanks. I played a 2v1 and was killing both of my opponents rather often, but they kept coming back in shielded arc warriors, even though they were only on 2 pools and had no scavs on loose. At which point I noticed that it kind of makes the enemy ships disposable to do it this way. I would suggest merging the units. 40 scrap for an unupgraded empty tank, and 50 for an upgraded empty tank.

Scav Pushing
This is a common tactic in vet games, used to prevent enemy scavs from collecting loose scrap from the battlefield, or to delay their deploying on pools, also used to quickly get rid of them in watery areas. This tactic is now impossible to perform.

Greenheart/Commando Variants
Should be allowable in regular strat. The additional units and buildings are interesting, and often requested by the other players.

ST: Death Island
This map didnt work for me, saying that it cant find the BZN file. This has probably been noticed by other testers, but just in case...

Weapon Linking
Its an interesting feature, and I usually set it to on manually every time. Would suggest this be set as default to on.

[Steeveeo]

ST: Death Island
This map didnt work for me, saying that it cant find the BZN file. This has probably been noticed by other testers, but just in case...

Same for Ice Cold.

[Commando]

Bomber

Yeah, Ken changed the way acceleration is handled for the bomb which makes it too slow and therefore too easy to shoot down.

[Commando]

http://www.bzuniverse.com/~betadudes/unprotected/GHandCommandoUpdate.7z

The above files should allow you to play with the Commando and GreenHeart variants in Strat and FFA.

[Zero Angel]

Hey Commando, for your 1.2 rec variant. Can you decrease the pod making speed to about 4 seconds? (from 5) I have always found that pods make exceptionally slowly in larger games and tie up a huge amount of rec time. There doesnt seem to be any practical/strategic reason for pods to take so long to make. I would suggest this change be applied globally, but if you could apply it to your rec variant, I'm pretty sure none of the 1.2 vets would mind.

[Commando]

I can do that if you want me to.

[Commando]

ZA, I'll make a thread for suggestions for the 1.2 variant.

[mrtwosheds]

Scav Pushing
This is a common tactic in vet games, used to prevent enemy scavs from collecting loose scrap from the battlefield, or to delay their deploying on pools, also used to quickly get rid of them in watery areas. This tactic is now impossible to perform.

This is one of the good new features, how it should have been from the start. Could you see someone pushing a bulldozer in a hover craft?
The more lame tactics removed the better the game will be..

[Zero Angel]

Lame? That is a matter of opinion and conjecture. I can't speak for all the 1.2 players, but it is a commonly used and well accepted tactic in that community.

[mrtwosheds]

I know I used to be a part of it, its also one tactic that can determine the outcome of a game in the first few minutes, when one teams first scavs all wind up in the water. Any change that helps a strat game last more the 10 minutes is good in my book.
I know I don't have to tell you just how many 1.2 strat games end very prematurely due to "unsporting" tactics like spawn point camping etc.
You can still shoot scavs, but then the other team will know that your doing it.
I would also point out that pb4 scavs need no assistance when it comes to driving into water.

[General BlackDragon]

I would also point out that pb4 scavs need no assistance when it comes to driving into water.

[wug]

Yeah, I think my rec. variant can be removed for PB5.  It doesn't add much value, so best to shrink the list a bit.

[Steeveeo]

Yeah, I think my rec. variant can be removed for PB5.  It doesn't add much value, so best to shrink the list a bit.

heh, I used to play your variant all the time before I started SRV. The doubled scrap flow was awesome and unlike LF's, the pilots were still there. (I think it was LF's that got rid of pilots)

[wug]

heh, I used to play your variant all the time before I started SRV. The doubled scrap flow was awesome and unlike LF's, the pilots were still there. (I think it was LF's that got rid of pilots)

Huh?  So, maybe I should fix it instead of scrapping it?  Uggg!

Anyway, my idea was basically that BZ2 strat took too long to build up units.  In other RTS games, you have multiple building to queue units, and could build up a sizable army/navy/whatever within 10 to 20 minutes.  In BZ2, you'd be lucky to have a battle of 8 or 10 ships.

Granted that when BZ2 came out, most computers couldn't handle anything more than 20 vehicles.  But times have changed, and bigger battles IMHO make for more intense game play.  So the whole idea of faster scrap rates and empty sabre/warrior was to reduce the downtime between battles.

It's the same reason why Extreme and Insane AI are more "fun" (perhaps).  Yes, the AI cheats, but the more units the AI throws at you, the more loose scrap the player collects, which makes for faster, more intense game play.

Anyway, I think there's a bug with my rec. variant - sabres aren't suppose to get mortar.

[Steeveeo]

Anyway, I think there's a bug with my rec. variant - sabres aren't suppose to get mortar.

I sure hope you mean empties.