Needed Unit Changes

[Quovatis]

As far as I'm aware, the only 3 unit stats changes in the last year were the ShieldMaiden, Commandos, and assault infantry. The first isn't even a trainable troop, and the second two did help a bit.

We desperately need unit tweaks to make them balanced and actually see some action.

Bombers - I haven't seen a bomber used in an attack in over a year. I can tell you why: they die far too easily. With a single un-upgraded SAM capable of taking them out (and there are 4 of them on the map), it's a pretty bad idea to even attempt to use one, especially since they take up 2 air space. 2 fighter planes are better in every situation. Bombers need significantly more health (we're talking 3x more), then they might have a place in players attacks again.

Armored Cars - I've never seen one of these attack me...ever! Why spend valuable oil on something that a very cheap motorcycle raider can do just as well? I really don't know how to make it worth the cost, to be honest. Maybe being able to attack resources as well as troops simultaneously? I'm sure a lot of work went into this unit, so it's a shame it is never used.

Attack Helicopters - These were pretty good when released, but then the sniper towers were added, which pretty much killed any kind of gameplay with these units. Helis are almost guaranteed to be the furthest unit away from sniper towers, so they are targeted and go down quickly. Consider making them immune or take greatly reduced damage from sniper towers to see these units used again.

Mortar Troops - These are a hard sell for many players. They do splash damage, but fire very slowly, and by the time the shell actually lands, the target has moved, wasting the whole attack sequence. They are also pretty useless until the range upgrade in the library is researched, but even then, howitzers do a better job in almost every way. A larger splash damage radius might help balance these a bit more, to reduce the wasted shots, and make them at least an option to replace cannons.

APCs - These are actually good units. The one change I'd like to see is that the first wave of troops spawn instantly or after 1-2 sec. The problem is that the units move forward into danger before they have time to even spawn troops. This is a minor change to help the deployment, but otherwise, it's a balanced unit.

Machine Guns - I haven't seen these used against me since I was in Enlightenment age. The big problem is they go in front of the troops they are supposed to protect and die. I think an AI change can make these units useful. Make them guard nearby units (similar AI to the healing cart), and engage enemy units nearby. If there are no enemy units, they just follow them like a healing cart and never shoot buildings.

Commandos - Again, never seen these used much after Enlightenment age. The obvious tweak is to make them immune to traps, as many have suggested. If that's not an option, reduce their stats to be similar to the ninjas, so that losing one on a trap isn't a catastrophic loss in army size. The housing space reduction helped a bit, but more changes are needed.


Everything else is pretty good. The above need the most attention right now, especially the first 2.

 

[BeerMan]

Considering I don't currently use any of the units on your list, it's hard to argue with your logic. I did love the bomber when I first got it, but losing one became too painful (1 hour build time!). I think even 2x hitpoints would help tremendously.

 

[S_How]

Great post and feedback. Couldnt agree more, and it would add a lot more troop diversity. Other than a few APCs, I cant remember the last time I even trained a factory troop. Must have been Industrial.

 

[LordJestix]

Great post and feedback. Couldnt agree more, and it would add a lot more troop diversity. Other than a few APCs, I cant remember the last time I even trained a factory troop. Must have been Industrial.

i havent trained a factory troop since the quest they give you to do after you build it.

 

[Quovatis]

I use heavy tanks and APCs all the time. I know many use bazookas too, but MGs and armored cars don't get any use.

 

[Wynne D Fanchon]

I don't even have a Factory.

 

[Wynne D Fanchon]

Something I've learned in the past from other games I have played, when you have 2 characters, heroes, champions, units, classes or whatever it is that have a specific job, one will always be better than the other and it is very difficult to balance 2 units that have the same job.

Right now we have many of those scenarios such as fighter planes and bombers, siege infantry and siege cannons, raiders and armored cars, shooters and gattling guns.

I honestly feel like the factory shouldn't have existed because they spent all that time trying to come out with more unique units rather than focusing elsewhere in the game that needs more attention. The factory being part of your troop capacity literally just makes the barracks and factory clash against eachother and gives too many bad options rather than several good options....there are already units in the regular barracks that need to be balanced but instead we have a whole ton of units that are unbalanced, untouched and are literally there just to stare at and remind us of why we never train them.

Like I get it that the factory is supposed to represent the rise of the Industrial Age and whatnot but why add something that really doesn't have much purpose AND has not even been touched in forever. Sometimes less is more.

I'm sure they have some sort of system that allows them to track how much/many of what units are being trained the most/least and when you see that there are probably some units that are at the bottom of that list or rarely built, like armored cars or siege infantry, it's because something is wrong.

 

[Horsepower]

When APC's came out I felt they were great. Used 2 in every attack in MP. After watching them I've noticed the AI is awful and they often spend much of the attack trying to get from behind walls. I'm now trying to gain a lot of oil for Amelia upgrades so can't afford to lose APC's since they cost oil. I now go back and forth between APC's and Main Battle tanks. The tanks actually Perform better in battle although I do miss the troop spawns. I wars I don't use either one because I prefer the Tank Distroyers and my 3 generals.

Another troop which has come in handy in wars is the veteran engineer. Depends on the opponents base design.

 

[kennynguyen]

Except amored car, i've frequently used other factory troops (commando sometimes only but he's much more powerful than 1 tank if not trigger trap & cheap oil). Trust me, look outside of the box and you wl see interesting use of those

 

[JMoney]

Pretty sure they haven't fixed how commandos don't set off traps like how night witches didn't after a patch. So really, they are technically "buffed" at the moment. Decoys are super handy with them, too. Also, I pretty much only see armoured cars having a purpose as a clean up tool with a massed tank army comp destroying all the defending buildings. Normal raiders do that too, however they have a bit of a small hang up on the kremlin defenders from farms; armoured cars do not have this issue since they have bonus damage to defending units.

 

[FroggyKilla]

Armored Car should've been the Industrial Age upgrade to the Raiders, not the Motorcycles. But yea, everything seen on the original post might need a buff.

 

[Motaz Tarek]

Bombers: i guess the better solution is to make them require only 1 space

armored cars: better make them shoot over walls

attack helio i agree sniper towers obliterated them, yet their damage is still too low

mortars: I don't understand what's the point of adding them till the moment, tanky howitzers? i think i would take more dps than more hp when it come to seige units as u need more dps in wars and let the tanky job to tanks and heavy tanks

apcs are cool the way they r, maybe u shouldn't deploy them first and everything will be ok

machine guns i agree, suicidal AI just as bazookas

commandos are already immune to traps since the last update (unannounced change) also applies to ninjas

i would like to add infantry, their role is over with APCs introduction only minor role to clean up edge of maps in war, unfair to special infantry units-based nations (roman japanese germans) unless they make APCs spawn special infantry for them too

 

[Wendy]

i sometimes use armored cars to 50qv in war...doesn't change a lot but i think that's the purpose of the unit

 

[Jester]

I am German and, yes, APC spawn my unique infantry.

 

[Jester]

The best tweak to the Amoured Car is to change their Favourite Target to "Any" from "Resource". Everything is fine with their stats

 

[kennynguyen]

I play Roman and APC also spawn unique troop Friuli

 

[DomiNationsVigiles]

Hi Quovatis!

Thank you for your well thought out, constructive feedback. This is the type of discussion that we love seeing!

I've passed all of these notes on to the development team, and their goal is to begin focusing more on balance changes. The Bomber in particular is something that we're looking at updating in 5.7.

Beyond 5.7 you can expect to see more Troop, Building, and other balance changes with each release. The bulk of your post also focuses on Factory Troops, which we can agree is a good focus for these balance changes.

You can follow these updates as they happen here: https://forum.nexonm.com/forum/nexo...4705-game-balance-updates-latest-post-5-23-17

 

[Motaz Tarek]

oh glad to know that, hope they really got the same stats

 

[SiuYin]

Motar: AI need update, it should focus on building, ie target on a building and do AoE to unit nearby. and also need to reduce training time, 5min is a reasonable training time for its casualty rate

Commando: reduce training time, they are performing suicide attack, a shorter training time is required, I would say something like 4min

Helicopter: DPS is far too low compare with 8 troop size, it need at least 500 dps(prefer 800) to defensive building