Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 5:55 pm Post subject:
Buffs Vs Nerfs
What’s your style?
Looking at Yuri naval units. Let’s say you have an imbalance in game. A unit is overpowered.
Would you Buff it’s counterparts? Or Nerf the culprit?
From my experience with playing games that often update or rebalance, and of who are trying to find a perfect balance; nerfing units or characters tends to result in more units that feel weak, underpowered, or unsatisfying to use.
Look at Crazy Ivan. His base form is arguably useless.
The philosophy of when to buff and when to nerf can be difficult.
Give me some example (if you have any) of times that you need to buff or nerf a unit in your mod. Or when you struggled to achieve a balance. What was the problem and what did you do? QUICK_EDIT
Yuri naval is not strong at all. Your only option is expensive boomers, without any other units to back them up. Boomers lost to Typhoons in cost basis, and have a hard time against hit-and-run Destroyers. I think Yuri needs more diverse naval, especially cheap anti-ship/sub/air. _________________
All the units in my mod are based on real life historical vehicles, so things like health, speed & damage etc are all based on their real stats. The main balancing factor is cost, which is calculated based on a formula using the aforementioned stats. So I dont really have to worry about balancing anything... _________________
Balancing in a way that buffs or nerfs depends on how you want the game to feel. If you feel games are ending too quickly or maybe only 20% of the majority just overpower everything else in damage, survivability, and usefulness, versus cost then you want to nerf. If you feel the game is too slow or some units again aren't worth the cost but most of the rest are, then you buff.
If we're talking about vanilla RA2 who's meta is to be fast-paced, then I say buff because most things are cost effective, just things like Tank Destroyers do less damage, die faster, and cost more than 2 GGI so they need a buff. If you were to nerf, then you'd have to nerf most things until Tank Destroyers did their sole purpose the best out of any other unit. _________________ "Don't beg for things; Do it yourself or you'll never get anything." QUICK_EDIT
Once you have enough variety of units, you don't have to worry so much about unit vs unit because there's always another option. So I would say the first step is to fill the roles you need filled, or leave them out strategically, then use cost to balance their effectiveness. Providing of course every unit does still have vulnerabilities, like a battleship that can't fight subs, or a heavy tank that can't defend against air attacks.
Figuring out net effectiveness can only come from lots of play testing, and that means fighting with the unit, as well as against the unit. Sometimes what feels adequate as your unit will feel overpowered in the hands of the AI. _________________ http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai QUICK_EDIT
Competitively Boomers are broken, comparing them to Attack Subs is like comparing apples to oranges, really.
Boomers can siege an enemy base at T1, nothing else in any other faction can.
Yuri was rushed and that is why community patches exist in cncnet client, if you want to balance Yuri, start by moving the Boomer to T3, then add lower tier units to fill in the gaps.
Balance is subjective at the end of the day but taking competitive PvP play as a guide is your best bet, probably. _________________
ayylmao on Discord QUICK_EDIT
Agree with XxpeddyxX 100%
Many maps mod Yuri's boombers to only shoot 1 missile or require battle lab for them (which isn't always fair either if you need defensive naval early game or after loosing lab)
It'd be great if they could be built at radar level but not get missiles until battle lab. Yuris only naval anti air force is to spam disks
Gats are super OP - Shoot while firing and can survive 1 Eagle shot
Mags are ridiculous and can drop miners on refineries and destroy them instantly.
Brute grinding for money with Genetic mutator is Super OP
Arguably the whole mind control thing is pretty OP in general (Your enemy pays for units that you get to use against them)
Chaos Drones are something that could be buffed (they're never used and cost $1k) but you'd want to nerf something else
I think Masterminds could be nerfed but not in the Community patch way (overloading at 3)
If WW built some kind of logic to make them have a range limit on how far away the "Mind controlled units" could travel then that'd be an interesting equaliser (maybe they can only travel 10 tiles away from the master mind)
It'd be great if they could be built at radar level but not get missiles until battle lab.
That is actually nice idea!
bbglas007 wrote:
Yuris only naval anti air force is to spam disks
And disks are expensive and only one air units as well. Not to mention while they are awesome, you cannot win with them only as win from air only, since they drain some structures, not shoot them. So, you have to travel across water or hills somehow to finish your enemy.
bbglas007 wrote:
Gats are super OP - Shoot while firing and can survive 1 Eagle shot
And yet they are the only one anti air ground units, while Soviets have flak tracks, apocalypse and flak troopers. Allies have GGI, IFV and GGI in battle fortress with can shoot anything down quickly. I forgot if GGI in IFV will get stronger missiles or machine gun.
bbglas007 wrote:
Mags are ridiculous and can drop miners on refineries and destroy them instantly.
Yes, theoretically, but in battle, in practice, how many times you managed to do that against player? Also mags cannot attack on their own, you have to manually pick targets and mags cannot shoot infantry. And mags aside from dropping units are just like that. Their artillery firepower against buildings is weak.
bbglas007 wrote:
Brute grinding for money with Genetic mutator is Super OP
And putting iron curtain on demo trucks is super op as well for soviets or at apocalypses in some cases. Not to mention what you can do with chronosphere. So it is questionable.
bbglas007 wrote:
Arguably the whole mind control thing is pretty OP in general (Your enemy pays for units that you get to use against them)
And you forget to use cheap units and conscripts. Then mind controllers control easier and cheaper units then they are worth, while others destroy them. Also, you forgot robot tanks, fast, hover and deadly to any mind controller. And artillery as prism tanks or siege choppers.
bbglas007 wrote:
Chaos Drones are something that could be buffed (they're never used and cost $1k) but you'd want to nerf something else
Chaos Drones sucks mostly.
bbglas007 wrote:
I think Masterminds could be nerfed but not in the Community patch way (overloading at 3)
Swarm them with cheaper units or destroy with artillery or robot tanks.
Yes, if let alone masterminds can wreck havoc in units.
bbglas007 wrote:
If WW built some kind of logic to make them have a range limit on how far away the "Mind controlled units" could travel then that'd be an interesting equaliser (maybe they can only travel 10 tiles away from the master mind)
Yeah, finally we can do that with Phobos _________________
I guess the thing isn't just to think about what's "balanced" but does it feel good to use? Buffing / giving a new feature to the counters of an OP unit is better if it makes the game more fun. It's pretty boring if units don't deal much damage and everything takes a minute to kill IMO. QUICK_EDIT
does it feel good to use
(Not just in the context of whether it’s attack and weapon are useful or purposeful, or if it deals as much damage as it’s graphic implies; but also - do you feel like you wasted money? Could you have purchased 2 other units to achieve the same effect more efficiently) these types of consideration I think are important for balance. But then again; look at the Kirov. It’s not OP but at the same time it’s OP. Since the cost of the unit you can’t really match its effectiveness without spending more money.
Disc is powerful unit as it’s got way too much utility vs HP and vs most AI it really is a near instant win, the way you can micro manage them. but at the same time without the disc being as powerful as it is; if it couldn’t do what it does vanilla would it even be a good unit?
I’d bet the cosmonaut makes a good counter for it.
But the allies are really not prepared to fight it outside of the aegis and unit spam but it ultimately forces them to spend more money than the disc actually cost. Which basically mean that yuri decision (just like Kirov reporting) it controls its enemies econ. But I guess that’s why Tanya gets to be the most useful commando, and we also forget Chronosphere.
the Genetic Mutator exploit wasn’t an oversight, as the tactic is mentioned in the sound files. If you get you know 5 slave miners out, all on a depleting ore patch, you’ve got 25 brutes for pretty much free. Otherwise it’s -300$ reduction if you’re using initiated + cloning vat. Let’s say 10 initiate 2000 with vats 10 more initiate for free. You buy 10 brutes normally you’re spending 5000.
Boomer did always feel OP. And I think most online players agree it is OP, but denying its weapon until btech is one thing, but ofc making alternative ranged battleship for the other factions is going to levitate, but it’s not going to solve the issue as yuri will feel even more empty than he already was.
It’s a funny one because his navy feels so empty but technically it’s OP. I suppose now with ares you can make sure the boomer only gets this siege weapon when promoted, but that’s a major detriment late game. It could work using prerequisite over ride and so all btech units are replaced, if they have been built after lab was placed.
Stuff like the Gatling is a lot easier to nerf, since you can specifically nerf just the early, mid or late stage. I honestly didn’t know they could survive an eagle hit, (can any of its counterparts do this?) IFV base AA effectiveness I always found to be very weak, I’d never want to nerf the range of Gatling though if I did nerf it I’d probably nerf stage one, either how long it takes to hit stage 2 or how much damage it actually dishes. Something else you could do is actually make the weapon inaccurate as this would be pretty realistic for what it’s suppose to be but I’m not sure we really have good control over reliable miss chance without too many glitches associated like trying to use flakscatter or something. But maybe a physical projectile with some speed could help. This way we get to keep the damage satisfying but from some angles we can’t track the aircraft very well.
Something you could do for the IFV would be slightly nerf it’s speed, but buff it’s missile damage/range. It’s always a better choice vanilla over GGI since it’s got that incredible speed so not to effect this dynamic too much it’s speed nerf would probably have to be really small that it’s barely noticeable. You just gotta make it so VS a disc you only need as much as 1 disc costs. Since yuri is the OP, you don’t worry about Kirov, since a few IFV can outspeed the Kirov, they can outspeed the disc, but they can’t outrange it so it’s actually firing back. So since it sets the prescience, and Soviet’s do have a Cosmo option should it be enabled; rebalancing that disc doesn’t require at all a disc nerf, but instead just an effective buff to both of its enemies. QUICK_EDIT
But the allies are really not prepared to fight it outside of the aegis and unit spam but it ultimately forces them to spend more money than the disc actually cost.
One Battlefortress filled with GGIs can take several discs.
Also, flak tracks with Industrial plants are very cheap and have splash damage... they possess biggest treats against airborne units according to me of all basic AA units. Just few Flak tracks combined with few flak guns and multiple discs cannot get into base. _________________
Battle Fortress with 5 ggi costs more money than disc.
2000 for the Fortress
400 per GGI x 5 = 2000
For balance I think 1 filled fortress should kill 2 discs before being nearly unusable, though the fight shouldn’t be too close, and GGI Bfort should be better because the Disc has a bunch of utility, power drain etc; that is not money spent on its attack power. Also even when the battle fortress died; you still have 5 GGI that can continue the fight.
But issue here as well, since 4000 will get allies something that can easily kill disc, but those 2 disc can be in two locations at once. While battle fortress is slow and cumbersome. A squad of IFV can kill one, and quickly move to the other if they are separated.
Flak is good >>> if IFV saw a buff to attack power or ROF, if flak needs a change; it should be lowered in cost.
If Gatling had a hard projectile with movement speed, it may be less effective vs micro managed Harrier + Eagle, but balanced so that if a squad of aircraft is used and not micromanaged, then the bullets fired at the front units should hit the back units. And hit the front units only when it is slowing down for the bombing. And also a harrier that is NOT at full HP should always see a movement speed reduction. QUICK_EDIT
Another way you can nerf Gatling tower and tank is giving it a very small minimum range of 1 for AA weapon. It would mean when the aircraft is closer than minimum range the Gatling tower has to restart its gun. And also he can’t fire vertical at a Kirov who is directly above.
From here can continue to nerf the damage steadily until 1v1 with a harrier, the harrier gets a bomb in but doesn’t survive.
The AI will like this. And anyway nobody would in real life fire a Gatling Cannon vertically because it would all rain back down. QUICK_EDIT
Battle Fortress with 5 ggi costs more money than disc.
2000 for the Fortress
400 per GGI x 5 = 2000
For balance I think 1 filled fortress should kill 2 discs before being nearly unusable, though the fight shouldn’t be too close, and GGI Bfort should be better because the Disc has a bunch of utility, power drain etc; that is not money spent on its attack power. Also even when the battle fortress died; you still have 5 GGI that can continue the fight.
But issue here as well, since 4000 will get allies something that can easily kill disc, but those 2 disc can be in two locations at once. While battle fortress is slow and cumbersome. A squad of IFV can kill one, and quickly move to the other if they are separated.
You did perfect job at analysing and calculating, but you forgot two things to calculate:
1. Disk is double slower than Any other aircraft except Kirov. Rocketeer, siege chopper, nighthawk travel double faster, so disc while has more health as good point obviously, it has double less speed. COnsidering fact that disc is ONLY air unit Yuri has, and it is slowest of other, then you have hard time to chase anyone from air.
2. While calculating, you forgot to mention that Allies are better in economy aspect. They have Ore Purifier anyway. Soviet has industrial plants, but that does not mean nothing to disc, and Yuri has CLoning vats, meaning it means nothing to Disc as well. But Ore Purifier benefits battle fortress. _________________
You guys only have to look at quick match statistics to realise that 90% of games played on there are sov vs sov
Burg Recently made a slight adjustment to the allies granting them a power buff
The first power buff IIRC was to make the power $700 instead of $800
The community hated this so instead he kept the price but made the build speed the same as sovs
MasterHaosis wrote:
2. While calculating, you forgot to mention that Allies are better in economy aspect. They have Ore Purifier anyway. Soviet has industrial plants, but that does not mean nothing to disc, and Yuri has CLoning vats, meaning it means nothing to Disc as well. But Ore Purifier benefits battle fortress.
But do you remember how many power plants it takes to get all the prerequisite buildings and power the sucker?
Meanwhile, Sovs can survive on 2 tesla reactors, switch to nuke for $1000 and sell the tesla
I think the Ore purifier isn't built as much as people think it is as its often an easy target and the game is almost over by the time you get it anyways
The other thing is it only effects ore, not oil, meanwhile the industrial plant maintains its effectiveness
A lot of the times, late game when you have 6-7 miners, all the ore is gone anyway or inaccessible
AnimalMan wrote:
If Gatling had a hard projectile with movement speed, it may be less effective vs micro managed Harrier + Eagle, but balanced so that if a squad of aircraft is used and not micromanaged, then the bullets fired at the front units should hit the back units. And hit the front units only when it is slowing down for the bombing. And also a harrier that is NOT at full HP should always see a movement speed reduction.
AnimalMan wrote:
Stuff like the Gatling is a lot easier to nerf, since you can specifically nerf just the early, mid or late stage. I honestly didn’t know they could survive an eagle hit, (can any of its counterparts do this?) IFV base AA effectiveness I always found to be very weak, I’d never want to nerf the range of Gatling though if I did nerf it I’d probably nerf stage one, either how long it takes to hit stage 2 or how much damage it actually dishes. Something else you could do is actually make the weapon inaccurate as this would be pretty realistic for what it’s suppose to be but I’m not sure we really have good control over reliable miss chance without too many glitches associated like trying to use flakscatter or something. But maybe a physical projectile with some speed could help. This way we get to keep the damage satisfying but from some angles we can’t track the aircraft very well.
Yes, this is how AA works in real life - I love the tracer effect - its not instantaneous - Skip to 50 seconds to see tracers
Really interesting navy vid and weapons at 00:50. I think a lot of people recognise that allies are disadvantaged in many ways more than that they are advantaged. Rocketeer is a good early tool to have but economy in the long run, once you’ve got an ore purifier and the ore fields are dying then yeah allies get a nice late game advantage with the purifier but it’s a long time to wait especially at starting credits 10k
The IFV has some nice utility, due to its speed + spy, Tanya, seal, but asides this it’s not that great a unit. The combinations aren’t as useful as RA3 combinations, and to think; you are spending more money on an IFV, and then if you want to maximise its effectiveness you’ll need to spend more on getting an infantry inside it. No doubt 7 IFV are more useful and I don’t know probably more useful all around recon than the Bfort.
Imagine a FFA with two allied players a Soviet and a yuri, one allied player spam tonnes of IFV vs the other allied player using battle fortress GGI combo. I just feel that the unit spam has more the advantage but is still generally disadvantaged because of the creeping price difference over time. You gotta think aswell if Yuri manages to get a hold of that the battle fortress with 5 GGI using a clone you’re giving him way too much power, and because he’s dealing with less physical units it’s more likely he’ll get it and have a devastating effect.
A 1000 cost Yuri clone capturing a 600 IFV is not what yuri really wants. And if he’s got mastermind involved you need the numbers to overload it.
I also think that the min range on the Gatling gun would be useful so that yuri is forced to have 2 Gatling guns cover each other. And if a plane manages to get above it its not dealing with full blast stage 3 Gatling gun on its flight outta there.
I’d be careful with allied power balance, because Soviet have +2 cell occupied by Tesla reactor. Let’s say we want to wall them off to prevent infiltration and give some basic Defense. The price difference is nulled with the extra money sov has to spend. But I guess this is technical and you never see people walling off power. If he’s gonna load a power buff in there maybe have allied conyard start with a small amount of power.
Build sov nuclear reactor 1000 sell Tesla reactor, may be but allies do get spy sat. Huge advantage for 1000, they just can’t get any money back from it. It’s not like they could get spy sat and sell radar because they depend on it for aircraft. Though this could be viable if allies never intend to use aircraft, you’re not USA, and spy sat counted as a prerequisite radar
I’m gonna hop in game and test that power plant wall total cost for allies vs Soviet
Edit;
Turns out I am wrong
Allies, Conyard + Power + Barracks + Wall (around power plant) totalcost 1700
Sov, Conyard + Power + Barracks + Wall (around Tesla reactor) totalcost 1500
^^^^ this is totally not fair so early in the game. As wall is placed you are charged 100 credits however long that wall is (not like rA3)
What he could do is increase the cost of Soviet wall to either 150, or as high as 200. This will scratch that 200 credit difference away. Even just walling the Conyard which is standard, even the cost of two wall segments at 150 or 200 would better balance the allied power plant losses. QUICK_EDIT
Turns out Disc cost 1750! Anyway check out results
now here is 10 IFV 6000 vs 12 Flaktrack 6000
The effect can barely be seen vs Disc but here i set stage 1 gattling projectile speed to 25, stage 2 to 50, and kept stage 3 to 100. With the idea that if the unit is moving, the gattling has a tough time keeping up until its weapon increases firing rate. It definately has some effect, since both fire at the same time and there is no break. QUICK_EDIT
The effect can barely be seen vs Disc but here i set stage 1 gattling projectile speed to 25, stage 2 to 50, and kept stage 3 to 100. With the idea that if the unit is moving, the gattling has a tough time keeping up until its weapon increases firing rate. It definately has some effect, since both fire at the same time and there is no break.
Their projectiles are invisible (by default) and speed does not affect them, what you see here is the fact that one gatling tank was facing its target while the other was not. _________________
ayylmao on Discord QUICK_EDIT
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