It's chaos out there!

[ROBOTICSUPERMAN]

but no one even uses chaos drones.

Are there effective strategies?

Are they cost effective?

Or should I just forget about them?

Vids?

[ROBOTICSUPERMAN]

So. No one has a single strategy for this unit?

 

 

[Vulkov]

Did you mean terror drones ? They are great vs desolators. I know some people use them to infect Soviet war miners. Yesterday I saw a tactic where the guy infected a group of tanks with one drone ,mean while attacked the tanks with his army. The point was that he tried to hit and run every time the other player could have blow up his infected tank to stop the infection. The idea was to tease him so he couldn't destroy he drone and escape the tank attack at the same time.

 

PS : I'm a newbie so, may be I don't know what I'm talking about  

 

PS:PS : I'm sorry I haven't played with Yuri much but here is a video with a tactic for those drones :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7_ip46Lrs

[Ford (retired)]

Since you have a problem with certain units, check the link out, and maybe we can discuss over the balance of a game.

 

http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:AndrewFord/RA2:_YR_-_AndrewFord_Changes?cb=2768

 

As far as Chaos Drones go, they soft counter Desolators and if you put them on a Ctrl Group, you can sneak one into a fight and turn the tides of the battle without it being harmed.

[ROBOTICSUPERMAN]

Some of those changes sound good, obviously they would need further testing for foolproofness. But where are they? Have you got a mod with them?

[Ford (retired)]

Some of those changes sound good, obviously they would need further testing for foolproofness. But where are they? Have you got a mod with them?

 

Not yet, just a work in progress. I'm hoping to just have some maps with those changes inside them so people on CnCNet will be able to play them without any downloading, and it would be easier to test.

[FlyingMustache]

I've already done this for many maps, with some of the same changes lol.

 

http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=4035.0

[Ford (retired)]

Theres alot of changes that i disagree with and have no actual backing to. I'll sum it up.

Tesla Tanks: Too good against Tanks, and they are good vs infantry too so that makes them OP.

Grand Cannon: Why nerf HP, its already easy to counter in any competitive or meta environment.

Grizz/ Lasher Price: They shouldn't be cost effective to Rhino Tanks, because that's not their Strength.

Tank Destroyer: You nerf their HP?

Magnetron: You defeat their purpose entirely. They do no damage, require Radar, and 1000$.

Gattling Tank: They're fine, they are better than IFV and Flak Trak because they have no transport.

Why are you nerfing Yuri, no one even plays them. They have an easily abusable economy, and need synergy from all their units to succeed. They also have the worst Superweapons.

 

 

[FlyingMustache]

Theres alot of changes that i disagree with and have no actual backing to. I'll sum it up.

Tesla Tanks: Too good against Tanks, and they are good vs infantry too so that makes them OP.

Grand Cannon: Why nerf HP, its already easy to counter in any competitive or meta environment.

Grizz/ Lasher Price: They shouldn't be cost effective to Rhino Tanks, because that's not their Strength.

Tank Destroyer: You nerf their HP?

Magnetron: You defeat their purpose entirely. They do no damage, require Radar, and 1000$.

Gattling Tank: They're fine, they are better than IFV and Flak Trak because they have no transport.

Why are you nerfing Yuri, no one even plays them. They have an easily abusable economy, and need synergy from all their units to succeed. They also have the worst Superweapons.

 

This is a continuing process. That's why I'm doing them in the form of "patches" so to speak. After testing the changes with players over the course of a couple months, I make necessary changes to iron out problems. Not to mention these changes are more geared toward non superweapon games, since sw games are less strategic.

 

Tesla tank: it did in fact replace the rhino as basically a superman tank. hence why in 1.2 I changed it's armor to light. Therefore it could still be useful with it's power but not be as heavily armored as a rhino. Seems to be good now in the recent games.

Grand cannon: It actually isn't so easy to counter in the right hands. they had range, power, and high defense all in one package. In some cases it was game ending. 900 health? even more than an apoc at tier 2. This nerf was to make them fightable at tier 2. The grand cannon wasn't even killable by 4 eagles. I must admit that I might have trimmed off too much health and I will probably increase it a little later on. I haven't had a good player use them yet however, I'm awaiting further testing.

Grizz/lasher: my reasoning for this was the damage to cost ratio. Rhinos had a slightly better ratio in this regard. I feel the other aspects are balanced though. Grizz have less health, but higher speed. They have less range, but more attack speed.

Tank destroyer: This health nerf was because after buffing them in 1.0 the late game german army was quite powerful. TD + prisms + bfs were quite unbeatable to tier 3 sovs. The health reduction tackled that issue, without hurting tier 1 battles too much.

Magnetron: I didn't want to take this away, I couldn't figure out how I could make it pull units instead of lifting them. This mechanic was heavily abused by yuri players so badly that lashers weren't even built. You could ONE SHOT any tank unit from a range of 12 on many maps. All for 1000 bucks. This is why the mag cannon was changed in RA3. It pulls instead of lifts. I might change it later, but 1.3 is my first attempt at balancing yuri out and the magnetron was far too powerful as it was. Yuri's niche is mind control not juggling tanks, and that's all yuri players did. Yuri is still very powerful even without the magnetron. I think it's fine as a seige unit that deals damage to buildings and miners. I will probably make it cheaper though

Gattling tank: the damage reduction only effects the first stage of it's ground attack. This reduction was to reduce it's effectiveness against ground infantry and terror drones. They were so strong that yuri players would not even make a virus. Like with the mag, when yuri players aren't making certain units because other units do their job better, you have a problem. You yourself said it in your blog. I made them carry a passenger because yuri infantry is almost never used by yuri players. Yuri's lack of transport is part of this problem. Lastly, yuri needed some nerfs in certain areas. Nobody plays yuri because everyone BANS him, not because he sucks.

 

My changes have been tested in each update. Currently in 1.3, if you go random, you're not screwed for getting a crappy nation. You can freely go random without fear of this. There are a few problems that still need to be addressed, but I wasn't expecting to get it all right the first time.

[Ford (retired)]

Ok, some very valid points that I appreciate you taking the time to explain your thought process.

 

A glaring Issue i still have is

 

With the Tesla Tank, giving them light armor actually makes them more effective against Tanks. Armor piercing does 25% less damage to light armor than heavy. Sure they take more from anti-infantry weapons than Tank Shells, but Tesla Tanks are supposed to be weaker against the latter.

 

[FlyingMustache]

Nah, the light armor has also made them vulnerable to seige damage, such as prism tanks. Sure, a couple tesla tanks will wipe out a few prism tanks. However, in a larger group, the prism tanks beat tesla tanks due to this armor change. Basic tanks like grizzlies and rhinos do deal less damage to them, but many other units deal increased damage to them that it counteracts this issue. Desolators are very effective against them now, as well as terrorist bombs, demo trucks, rocketeers, miners, and infantry. The basic tank issue hasn't even been a problem in recent games.

 

Also, who said tesla tanks are meant to be ineffective against tanks? Hell, the developers gave them 100% damage to heavy armored units.