Please rebalance the Missile Silo

[melheor]

As other players have pointed out, it is extremely overpowered, basically a bazooka sentry with unlimited range. It would be an interesting game mechanic if it didn't completely make half your troops useless, half your tactics useless, and rally point useless. From watching replays and dealing with it myself, I can see 3 viable "nerfs" (either one would probably work by itself) to it that would give the attackers a fighting chance against it.

1. Increase cooldown to match or exceed that of the rally.
2. Decrease damage to 1000 DPH, so that it can't 1-shoot APCs and other supposedly semi-tanky units. (not sure if this by itself would be effective enough)
3. In addition to rally, introduce a "disperse" skill, allowing troops a chance to dodge it.

Also, please make it NOT ignore Decoy, as it does now.

 

[LordJestix]

The balancing needs to be done on the troop/tactic/general training time. The fact tactics/generals and long training troops are never used for raiding is the #1 problem. Although reducing the DPH to 1k instead of 2k would put it more on par to its influence in the Eagle Artillery from CoC. That has a max level of 2 with 90 dps or 300 dph. it fires every 3.33 seconds.

 

[smaug81243]

The balancing needs to be done on the troop/tactic/general training time. The fact tactics/generals and long training troops are never used for raiding is the #1 problem. Although reducing the DPH to 1k instead of 2k would put it more on par to its influence in the Eagle Artillery from CoC. That has a max level of 2 with 90 dps or 300 dph. it fires every 3.33 seconds.

That's a concern but pretty irrelevant to this discussion.

I agree with OP. The missile silo isn't even close to balanced. I decided to test it versus an alliance member and two missile silo shots in I had 1 tactical helicopter remaining, 1 heavy tank and my mercs. Every howitzers and rifleman was gone despite having a protect used on them. The bazooka tower is something that should be removed from the game. This is something that while cool needs to be rebalanced. The fire rate needs to be reduced to something like once a minute, damage reduced by an absurd margin or some other nerf. It's the equivalent of putting a mortar in the game that shoots every 5-6 seconds and 1 shots the vast majority of your army while having unlimited range.

 

[LordJestix]

the concern isnt irrelevant to the discussion. you would be using tactics nearly every pvp battle if you could train them in a reasonable time. Same with generals. Generals tank well for the silo so if it didnt take 24 hours to retrain them or even 30 minutes you could use them to tank for the silo. IF we could use the tools we have we could withstand how strong it is.

 

[Lord P]

I agree with your comments on balancing tactics and generals train times as they are crazy in their current format. I do think though that nerfing the train times on these items isnt the right solution to the silo.
The main issue for me is it completely negates rallying, in fact it is now suicide to even try to rally. Given the rally is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of dominations warfare and the only foil against some pretty lousy AI behaviour it seems crazy to me that one building should negate it completely. I agree that there are work arounds to the silo but not being able to rally for up to half a battle, regardless of whether you’re using tactics, generals or mercs as a distraction is just stupid imo.

 

[Manifesto]

Also, please make it NOT ignore Decoy, as it does now.

Is that right? Could it be that the silo locked onto troops before the decoy was deployed?
Anyway, I've seen some videos and while I think it would be good for protecting MY base, I do feel it is way overpowered. Firing every 10secs is way too much, more like 30 secs or even a maximum of 2 shots per battle, if the DPS stays what it is.
The other solution is to reduce the DPS significantly but I think this takes something away from what the silo is, it's supposed to be a monster, so let it be devastating.
However, this should be balanced with a much slower rate of fire or possibly a higher trigger point ie: it should take considerably more troops to trigger the silo, not 2-3 tanks or 2 generals. It should take about half your army to trigger it.

 

[smaug81243]

the concern isnt irrelevant to the discussion. you would be using tactics nearly every pvp battle if you could train them in a reasonable time. Same with generals. Generals tank well for the silo so if it didnt take 24 hours to retrain them or even 30 minutes you could use them to tank for the silo. IF we could use the tools we have we could withstand how strong it is.

This isn't something that matters if you have tactics or not. Unless you intend to use three sabotage in a row and hope your army gets to the middle of the opponents base in time. A missile that kills pretty much your entire army in one shot and fires every 10 sec with unlimited range is insane.

 

[melheor]

Is that right? Could it be that the silo locked onto troops before the decoy was deployed?
Anyway, I've seen some videos and while I think it would be good for protecting MY base, I do feel it is way overpowered. Firing every 10secs is way too much, more like 30 secs or even a maximum of 2 shots per battle, if the DPS stays what it is.
The other solution is to reduce the DPS significantly but I think this takes something away from what the silo is, it's supposed to be a monster, so let it be devastating.
However, this should be balanced with a much slower rate of fire or possibly a higher trigger point ie: it should take considerably more troops to trigger the silo, not 2-3 tanks or 2 generals. It should take about half your army to trigger it.

Nope, take a look here:

Decoy near the silo is placed at 1:14, you can explain away the first shot at 1:15 but not the second at 1:25

 

[Manifesto]

Maybe the silo didn't fire on the decoys because each decoy's HPs wasn't enough to trigger it?
If that's the case it would suggest decoy isn't worth using anymore.

 

[SiuYin]

everything under 3000HP will get kill with 1 hit. the list as below
I think only tank / heavy tank and tactical helicopter able to survive after one hit

it is insane.

 

[Festivus]

You guys aren't placing the decoys correctly. The decoy needs to be placed where:

1) the missile silo is within the decoy's area of effect (7 squares), AND
2) outside of the missile silo's "no-fire" zone (which is 6 squares).

So, your decoy needs to be placed PERFECTLY at 7 squares distance from the missile silo to be effective - otherwise either the missile silo will ignore the decoy, or the decoy will ignore the missile silo. That's why it doesn't "seem" to be working.

I'm afraid that under those circumstances decoy probably isn't the best way to go about dealing with it.

My solution is sabotage + strike fighters. Same as I destroy bazooka sentries every time I encounter them.

 

[Lord P]

melheor I would suggest in your example provided that the reason the silo didn't aim for the decoy is because there were higher hit point targets elsewhere (eg the Tank Destroyers.)
I don't think the silo targets the decoy over all other targets in the same way other defending structures/units do. It will focus on the highest cluster of hit points on the map, which will more than likely be 3 tank destroyers. If the TDs get separated or damaged enough the silo will target somewhere else with higher cumulative HPs. That is exactly what happened in your replay - it changed targets from the TDs to a substantial group of troops which I'd be willing to guess had a higher cumulative amount of HPs than the decoy that was placed earlier.
The issue I've found is that the silo doesn't seem to target the decoy until it has fired at least once at your troops, which is absurd.

 

[melheor]

So what you're saying is that there is an orbit of half a square around the silo that should be easy enough to nail for anyone with bot-like measuring skills? Peace of cake...

p.s. I'm not convinced about this orbit, people keep talking about it but no one has proven that it's actually there. So far all I see is proof that decoy doesn't work. The rest is speculation, show me a video proving otherwise.

 

[JNation]

Before we jump to conclusions that decoys dont work for silo, can someone test this by using only a decoy, no troops. maybe friendly challenge themselves...

 

[Tower]

The decoy works anywhere on the map except inside the "red zone" but the decoy doesnt have enough hp to atract it. 3 tank destroyers got 2x as much hp as a decoy

 

[LordJestix]

You guys aren't placing the decoys correctly. The decoy needs to be placed where:

1) the missile silo is within the decoy's area of effect (7 squares), AND
2) outside of the missile silo's "no-fire" zone (which is 6 squares).

So, your decoy needs to be placed PERFECTLY at 7 squares distance from the missile silo to be effective - otherwise either the missile silo will ignore the decoy, or the decoy will ignore the missile silo. That's why it doesn't "seem" to be working.

I'm afraid that under those circumstances decoy probably isn't the best way to go about dealing with it.

My solution is sabotage + strike fighters. Same as I destroy bazooka sentries every time I encounter them.

The missile silo has an AOE of 50 tiles(the entire map) so as long as its not placed in the dead zone next to the silo it should trigger it anywhere on the map.

 

[Festivus]

No, the decoy ALSO has an area of effect, and the silo needs to be inside of that AOE as well. That's the only explanation as to why multiple clusters of decoys with greater HP than deployed armies are not drawing fire. Just as a decoy placed anywhere on the map will only draw fire from buildings and units within its AOE, the same goes for the missile silo.

Both the silo and the decoy need to be within each other's AOE for it to work. How else can we explain multiple decoys stacked on each other failing to attract its attention?

 

[Festivus]

No it won't. Just like a decoy anywhere on the map in a normal battle won't attract building fire or defenders from areas outside of its area of effect, so goes the missile silo. The missile silo's range in this case is irrelevant; only those buildings or defenders within the decoy's area of effect will be drawn to it, those outside it will ignore it unless they walk into its area of effect.

Given that we already know this about decoy, and that multiple decoys stacked together outside of the decoy's AOE are failing to attract the silo's fire, it's reasonable to assume that the decoy needs to be placed such that the missile silo is within its AOE. Which is 7 squares - right on the edge of the missile silo's no-fire zone.

 

[LordJestix]

It can be explained by either 1. a bug, or 2. poor development

 

[Vincenzo Wind Warriors]

The ineffectiveness of Decoy to distract missle silo may be because the Decoy's total hp is spread across the 5 infantry and central tank. It's possible the infantry are too far apart to be included in the same hp calculation and so the silo goes for merc tanks instead. I have tested with 3 or 4 decoys right on top of each other and this does seem to attract the silo. 4 decoys is obviously not a viable option however. Sab and planes seems to be the safest option but this is problematic with the level 3 silo because it's hp is so high (made worse by lvl 7 Egyptians!)