Build 82

[rob]

Hello Brave Testers!

We just pushed build 82. Changes include:

* Add new Excluder-class Barrier Unit to the Maze Region
* Make homing missile red and orange
* Increase size of Butcher's missile
* Fix longstanding bug which temporarily disappeared crystals at game victory

This week Tim worked a lot on the Maker, our internal content creation tool. This work, while not visible to users, should streamline or ability to create new enemies, tanks, etc. I spent a lot of time this week refactoring the internals of the game server. This work was also invisible to users, but still critical.

The new Excluder sits in the "doorways" between the corridors of the maze region. Look for it!

Thanks very much for playing! We really appreciate it!

Rob

[Ood]

Any further thoughts on resolution of infinite 'connecting...' problem?

[rob]

Is your firewall blocking port 843? It's needed for Flash to connect to external servers.

[Ood]

I have no idea. I do know that I can play some multiplayer flash games.

[tarbomb]

"Sticky" town level up bug is still around.





On an unrelated note, I'm beginning to find the butcher more of a nusiance than an interesting enemy. The concept of a guided missile firing enemy is a good one, and the butcher as an enemy makes scouting in circle regions somewhat challenging again (but still not particularly difficult) but the execution needs work.

First: for something that does a lot of damage, the missiles don't follow the cue of "more damage = bigger/easier to see". We're used to that pattern: minion guns are really thin, drill gun beams are wide, and convoy guns are bright and light up your screen. In contrast, the missiles are still a lot harder to see than even a GCT bomb.

Second: the missiles are pretty much impossible to dodge when you have a few of them coming from multiple angles. Dodging two or three missiles is easy. Dodging a full salvo... not really. If two of these things are close together, you're pretty much forced to run away and, if you don't have enough speed prisms, origin. The missiles are sufficiently tenacious that you can't simply dodge and go on with killing them. I want to see a revised missile that will lose "lock" and aimlessly drift (perhaps looking for the next player) if its target manages to get out of its frontal arc, making turning into the missile a valid dodging strategy. I'd also prefer to see a higher speed and wider turning radius on the missiles - right now whether you can dodge a missile by running or not highly depends on whether or not you've got enough speed prisms - newbies are at a particular disadvantage here. Having a speed higher than a player tank and a wider turning radius would force people into maneuvers to defeat the missile's lock. In the scouting vid I linked above, my favorite strategy for getting away from missiles is to blink or speedboost. This is neither interesting or makes for engaging play.

Third: missiles fire at too high a rate. The point of missiles is to have something to dodge, not to have inescapable damage dealers. I'd prefer slower-firing missiles with higher damage.

[rob]

You are a really good scout! Thanks for that video.

[twardy980]

I'm not sure if this is because of the new build, but when I was almost killed and I origin'd I became invisible. When I was hit with one shot, I died. So I think that when I reach exactly 0hp I become invisible and will die with one hit.

[tarbomb]

twardy980: The invisible tank bug has been around for a very long time. Essentially, when you get to 0 hp, your tank goes invisible and anything that hits it will kill you; the only way to fix it is to refresh the game.

[Kelsoo]

Certain enemy types are far too rare and could really heavily benefit from. Especially the isolator wall unit. Just a
short concern with the enemy variety in regions. As for the new unit, I am pretty sure I have yet to even see it since
the build was released.

Anyways I would like to add another tank to the list of buff/nerf. The Trailblazer. And I would like to add that I
think this tank is absurdly overpowered for what it does.

First off, it triumphs over every single tank at convoys (when people actually bother to do them) (At this point
newer players seem to ignore them and might not even be aware they exist, convoys are dying even more quickly)
but anyways there is no reason to use any other convoy specific tank, anymore period. Turning the Avenger, Pally,
Corsair (Corsair can slightly hold its own as a support tank), and to an even further extent, Cutlass in to
bigger laughing stocks than before.

Some of this can be attributed to convoy routes as well though. At this point I really miss the old ways convoys
used to work, it encouraged region clearing as well, which is also an issue in this and previous builds. Although if
convoy routes were changed to work somewhat like the old ones did (going from town to town both horizontally
and vertically) I think it could be a step in the right direction.

I have to quote Ood on this one as he summed up this nicely:

Ood "Convoy's themselves aren't 'broken' too terribly, they however need some variation (as does the entire game).
What happened to the plans to make them wander a little, zig-zag, do loops, etc.? One of the best bits of olden
convoys was when they turned, you weren't quite sure exactly what was going to happen."

Varieetty. Randomness. Both can increase the general enjoyment factor of convoys and the game.

Secondly, I will attack what the Trail was designed for. Because scouting is laughably uncomplicated and
unchallenging, once you get the hang of it, which takes about a little less than half an hour or so. As long as you can find a Beta Processor, or Watchtower, or even an Alpha Processor (and to
some extent security towers will do) you can prolong scouting to last as long as you want with no danger
whatsoever. The main problem in my opinion comes from how stupidly damaging its always on turret actually
is, although its shield regeneration rate could use a nerf.

All other gripes I have listed in previous builds. In particular I would like to focus on my post about the Fury last
build, because if any tank needs a buff, it'd be this one. Well it is tied with the Cutlass.

Dec 21, 2013 2:00:41 GMT -5 Kelsoo said:

Fury: The Fury is one of those tanks. I used to consider it a better Phantom back before the Phantom was
born again. Though it still wasn't that great of a tank. Obviously now the Phantom is a much different tank than it
was, and the Fury is still pretty mediocre (a little worse than mediocre, sub par maybe), and in a game revolving
around only using the optimal tanks or getting the highest possible DPS, this tank has problems.

So, the Fury can feasibly solo all regular structures in game, and can even be used on Zeta's and Omnis. That
doesn't mean it should though. While it can solo most structures in game it does so with extreme boredom and
monotony, having to constantly (especially for a tank that is supposed to be somewhat beefy) leave the battlefield
to regenerate it's shields. With a useless 2nd trigger, shields that do not pair well with it's DPS and turret structure.
You get a tank that can be used, but it really isn't a help to the team, or itself.

My opinion on what can happen to improve this tank goes as.

- Kill the second trigger off. There is almost no use whatsoever for a immobilization mine in this game at all
(you could even go as far as saying that paralyze is overall not that useful of an effect in the game without a stun, or
without being used on convoys/ moving targets such as patrols. Though even then a immobilization mine would not
be useful on those encounters), and it is almost never used by most players, even in the situations where it could be
even slightly useful. Replace it with an invincibility trigger (as opposed to invis) to add beefiness to the tank (without
letting it immediately recharge shields) and also play support. Or something else.

- Increase the beef of the inner shields, or all. I hesitate to say this as I wouldn't want to end up with a redo
of the Phantom. So increase them slightly.

- Change trigger one to do more damage to minions as opposed to structures? As well as increase regular
DPS and reduce triggered DPS.

The Cutlass is just bad. Bad shielding, low damage, un optimized and trounced by the Trail on the one thing it was
actually good at. I think the Cutlass's biggest problem is most likely the fact that convoys are no longer prevalent,
but it is also overshadowed by the Trail, and facing PTSD of the balance nerf to its AA guns (The Hurricane has better AA crowd control than this tank).

[Kelsoo]

Jan 13, 2014 17:09:18 GMT -5 tarbomb said:

So, I just encountered an aggressor drone base. I'm not sure why Kelsoo said it was annoying to kill - I managed to mop one up solo quite quickly in a speed-boosting zone. With no guns and no preexisting minions (making a swarm takes time), it's actually a pretty straightforward enemy to kill, provided you don't dally too much. The philosophy seems to be "kill it as soon as possible if you see it, before it spawns drones," which adds more variety to gameplay, since simply staying at the edge of the cleared region isn't a completely viable strategy anymore.

Try killing it without a Thunderbolt. Yes creating a swarm takes time, but so does actually killing the tower. I agree on the concept on adding another dynamic, but kill as soon as possible is kind of implied already on all towers. I feel that the minions or it in general could benefit from less HP, as for staying at the edge of a cleared region, this tower does not spawn nearly enough to actually employ that. Which is a problem of other new enemies as well.

As far as I am concerned, I consider it a nuisance for three reasons. 1. It drops nothing worthwhile and is a fairly long fight. 2. If you are using a tank with limited aim, or low surrounding shields, it will be incredibly annoying to kill (in my opinion). And 3. The distance you have to be from it to spawn its minions is relatively far (possibly further than a buffed Hornets range) and while this can be seen as adding variety like a butchers missiles do, the minions are such a nuisance and have enough HP to be more annoying than anything else.

Although, on the topic of new towers and enemies, most of the new enemies are incredibly Hornet un-friendly. While you could put the argument to just ignore these towers, it is almost impossible, as they spawn with such frequency that they will almost always cause problems for the Hornet, which I assume will have a fairly difficult (or tedious) time taking out towers that have an even larger range than it.