Hello guys,
I am new to this forum as you can see, but I really like the discussion going on here and I really like this game. Even though I can also claim I have played this game since 1984, I have to admit: I have never played it at the top level, I have never won any tournaments and while I think I understand the fundamentals, I am in no way a RA2 guru. My knowledge of the high-level play comes mainly from watching replays and videos. But! "Pro" players are just a tip of the iceberg and you have to pay attention to us, the noobs, if you want to have a game that is played by more than a few people. Now that I introduced myself, here are my points, meant purely as food for thought, as I don't have any experience with balancing RA2 or YR.
1) When 2 or more units compete for the same slot in players' arsenal, the only way to make them balanced (in terms of being used in a similar % of the games) is to make them exactly the same. If you make units with different stats, one will inevitably be better than the other in most of the games. You should be OK with one of the units being used only as a niche in a small amount of games (certain maps, certain enemies, as counters to certain units etc). That said:
2) Tesla Trooper. You say this unit is used in 1/10 of all games? Maybe 1/15? Good! Honestly, you rarely get better balance than that. Incremental improvements to the unit probably won't have a visible effect, until you cross a certain threshold and it becomes so good that it replaces some other unit as a backbone of an army. I think Tesla Trooper has its comfortable niche right now, even though the "cool factor" of the unit makes us want to see it more.
3) Tesla Tank. Balancing Tesla Tank around Rhino doesn't really make much sense to me (ofc I might be wrong), because it doesn't compete for its slot with the tank. Or with some other war factory units. It competes with the Desolator as they are mutually exclusive (unless you are making a mod where all unique units are available to all nations). So ask yourselves: How strong would Tesla Tank need to be to outweigh Desolator's utility? Pretty OP, I guess. So balancing Tesla Tank would need some deeper changes to many more units and/or game mechanics. You can replace every instance of "Tesla Tank" in this section by any other Soviet unique unit's name, I guess. We talk about Tesla Tank more only because it is a cool unit, as opposed to Terrorist and the Libyan Family Frost truck.
4) Apocalypse Tank. Basically the same as 2). Making it shoot while moving would make it much better, of course, which wouldn't be a bad thing - high tech units should be obviously better than low tech, given the investment. But: It still has its uses and changing it could create other problems. I would love to see it buffed a slight tiny little bit, so I don't see Soviets spamming Rhino tanks for 40 minutes, but that could be just my personal bias. At least it has the cool image of a slow-moving fortress which has to stop to unload those shots. Which reminds me, I don't like the actual Battle Fortress. It does too many things too well. But this seems to be only my personal problem, it doesn't seem to be unbalanced, I guess.
5) Chronosphere and Iron Curtain. Given the tools Allies already have at their disposal for late game, would it really help if Chronosphere would be on a 5-minute timer? If you argue that Chronosphere doesn't have much use in 1v1, it is a problem of utility, not the timer. Putting it to a 5-minute timer wouldn't fix that, it would just make the Chronosphere OP for matches where it matters. Iron Curtain is strong, yes. Would I mind seeing it nerfed to 6-7 minutes? I wouldn't mind, many other players probably wouldn't either, but it is true it might affect the high-level Soviet vs Yuri game in a bad way. So I wouldn't pick it as my biggest issue.
What is the thing I would pick then? Something about Yuri. I understand it should have a unique play style and I understand it should be rewarding when played properly. Every nation does things well when in good hands, but I feel like Yuri is doing a bit too much even if you learn only the simplest tricks. Having arguably the strongest superweapon might be solved simply by turning superweapons off, but (as many players here pointed out) superweapons are often the only counter for Yuri. Having the most punishing "cheese" tactics, especially with Magnetron, doesn't help either, not mentioning the navy. I am not saying Yuri cannot be defeated or that everything he does is OP. I, as an average player, just find him too annoying and yes, that is a factor, when you make a game.
So one single change I would love to see is a button in game lobby, which can be used by the host to disallow picking Yuri. Please, save comments like "Go and play regular RA2 if you don't like Yuri" for some other time. I like the new units and changes to Soviets and Allies that YR brought, I just think that Yuri, in its current state (not much effort went into designing and balancing him) should have stayed as a campaign villain only, maybe with some modded maps allowing him. Adding a button to disable him in lobby would save at least some effort of kicking people, because balancing him is probably beyond "one unanimous change". But i guess this is more of a suggestion to CnCNet client creators, not to guys modding maps for fun, right?
Edit: Red Alert 2 button in lobby doesn't do what I mean, unfortunately.
TL;DR: Nerf Yuri. Not much, just nerf/remove some of the most annoying things he does. Or delete him. That would enable you to nerf IC and that in turn would allow you to slightly buff Apocalypse tanks.
