Research Myths: I Can't Believe I'm Writing This

I'm going to say something really dumb, so tell me if it's already implemented, but... When I revive someone, I would like some kind of effect to sort of show I'd depressed the button. Or rather, for when I have failed to revive.

Like obviously when you revive someone the body jumps and there's a noise, that's all good, but...there's sort of no clue to tell you where you're targeting, or what's going on when it doesn't work. You're literally kinda whacking buttons on that key pad waiting for it to work.

I always thought that was sort of difficult.

 

/just read some post on page four


JGF if you want to make your points seem credible, I advise you to not claim that damage upgrade is great AND that money is any indication of research imbalance in one post.

 

Vehicle damage + nuke = win

 

Would you recommend TWO posts to make this point ?

Money - in case you didn't know, is a tank battle map with choke points. Easy for grens to shoot approaching vehicles and many nose to nose battles. And you think this is not a good map to show vehicle imbalance?

As for Damage upgrade - this may have been fixed. But NF Rifleman with damage upgrade was way more powerful than BE Rifleman with Damage Upgrade. Do the test on district with a buddy. I haven't run tests in quite a while, but obviously no one else is either.

PS: That was TWO POINTS in one message. I apologize for having more than one point of view. Try to keep up.

 

I have no comment on Money.
But damage upgrade is retarded, it's a skill that can't usually be useful(unlike health upgrade, speed upgrade..etc), and you can't even control when it'd be useful for you(unlike dig in).

 

haha, laugh it up, Ive played that shit map over several hundred times.

How is that even an argument. You just said it yourself why its a crap map to take any notes on. The only combat a vehicle will see is a slugfest. There is no room to manouver. Any search that helps you harrass that is not arty doesnt work on this map whatsoever. Fuck, even crossroads is a more legitimate map to do that.

 

Thought I'd use this thread instead of making a new one.

Nuke Explosion width is way too large. I was almost more than a barracks away from the explosion site and I was instapwned. It was downgraded to HIT for a reason, but instead it has "kill all humans" on the side, and is really really slow to reload.

Let's nudge up that reload and nerf that radius right down.

 

I would nerf the reload to the point that a soldier could run 80% of the length of the explosion radius. Right now it seems you can't really make it very far from baracks and they can hit you again after they just fired.

Probably nerfe reload and up dmg to compensate dps.

 

The weapon seems a little insane right now. I remember it used to sort of be to clear a couple tanks at the same time, and clear inf, but not in as quite as bad a radius. Could we have it like....do 70 damage to inf instead of instadeath?

In fact, what is splash even for in Empires? Is it mainly to deal with infantry? If so, is there a better way we can make the weapons deal damage to infantry?

 

I feel like there could be two types of splash - one for anti-inf and one for anti-vehicle/building. I think that lack of distinction really hinders things, and something that maybe should have a large anti-vehicle splash gets nerfed down because of its damage to infantry, and vice versa. We could benefit from splitting those properties down, and might help us have weapons that are good multi-tank killers, but that we don't have to turn into something like the HIT - crazy zone nukes that reload super slow and give off a lot of heat.

 

Insta-kill weapon is one of the worst things in Empires, especially if you consider how we used them.

 

More tips for aspiring com's

Regarding best commander practices. Some things I have learned:

I was recently very impressed with Kyro commanding on Rage. One attribute that I think differentiates a good com is that they are always hustling, always building, always giving targets, looking ahead, timing their actions to be in vehicle when research timer runs out. Commanding from the mini map and not just watching from the overhead view. I remember early days of commanding it was fascinating to watch the game from top down view and give targets and give instructions. I reserve that for begin game now.

Other com's are actively pushing the front line. This draws the attack from nubs to the com and not the team mates you are near. So they get easy kills. It also distracts vets. Most front line com's can effectively use the vehicle as a barrier to shield team mates and buildings while they are being built. The really good boomers, like Hobbes, can tell the class of each player so they know they can approach anyone but a scout. Nothing more distracting than having a com drive around your barracks while team mates take out that barracks.

Anyway - research is only one aspect of commanding. Research alone might work on a map like Money or cross roads, but not very many other maps.

One thing I do is dump armories like candy as team mates push forward. This helps in a few ways: 1) It draws fire from Grens to the building, making them easy target for our players. 2)It enables players to heal up, load up or change their class for the current situation. Game play changes rapidly from start to middle game once a VF is built. 3) It enables vehicles to reload and hide behind. 4) It is a barrier for troops on an open map. I would rather drop Armories than Barracks, leave the rax's for key locations. They are also quick to build, and does little to the forward momentum of a push.

One other thing a com should do while pushing the front line is to take 4 seconds to check for targets in the area - especially when he is alone. Sucks getting killed outside the com vehicle from an unseen enemy.

Next is blocks. How many times do we have a veteran in command vehicle that doesn't build turrets and block off locations the enemy will exploit. You know - during an APC rush you drive to the back of the base where most com's don't build turrets. Put up some walls to block access to the back. Also I love when com's build rax's in locations that the enemy will surely build a ninja rax.

A very important issue: Make sure you have two spawn points at main. Not an APC - because they will expire, but a second rax. A rush will surely take out the first rax, then your team has to walk back to help, and you lose everything in the interim. The second rax should NOT be built next to the first.

Every time your team has to come back to help you - they lose momentum. One change in momentum is enough to lose the match. Build turrets to defend and learn the most effective locations.

One more thing - learn to twist buildings. Rax should feed directly into the VF. You should not have each team member run for five seconds to get to the vf. Although if you plan to keep them apart to keep them both from going down - I have no issue as long as you get an APC next to the VF. Practice building a base on Canyon as BE on the hill. It's so easy to keep a base alive on that hill and so easy to lose a base on the low ground.

The radar gives you a better view of a large range around it. Most coms post them far from the enemy main, but ideally we start placing second radars, nearer the front. I wonder how much of dust storm would be made visible from a center radar? They are expensive at 600 resources though.

One other tactic I use with a vet team. I try to keep them on foot past the start of the middle game. The other team is pushing crappy APC's - I have defenses. A good number of grens who know to drop mines are also keeping main from being constantly attacked. The longer they keep out of vehicles the more resources we have for tanks. Mediums are important on some maps - but nubs will waste more than their fair share of resources. In a close game or when mismatched I will tell nubs to ride in second seat, jump out and repair when your tank driver is under attack, drop him ammo and if he is shooting from a spot - half build a wall to defend against turrets or long distance gren missiles. A ground engineer with a tank is very powerful, they help the tank kill close grens. Most good grens shoot tanks from hills which make it difficult to kill from inside the tank. That nub engie can be very effective at keeping that tank alive and constantly fighting on the front lines.

 

You can do that. Like you said, it's not a target, but you can "draw the box" and see where the enemies from com view.

 

Yes - what Spartacus said. Nice finding those riflemen hiding in the woods.

Also regarding the Armories. Your best engineers are spawned at the start of the game. You see the enemy a distance away pushing on your squad of engineers after the initial push. The best thing you can do is stop them - by dropping an armory. (This assumes they have a rax nearby). They instantly build the armory. Then you give them targets and the vets will change class to squash the engie push of the opposite team. Rifleman and gren vs squad of engies - of any skill level, with an armory - who do you think will win that push? The nubs will keep build skill, the veteran squad leader will get revive.

Once the vets change from Engie - you won't get them back. You will have a great squad leader, revive engie. He will build your armories and forward rax's, or hopefully the nub does while the squad leader revives during a push. Usually a squad of five will have two engies.

A good Engie will enable you to win games. When I see a vet during Heavy stage push as an Engie in a jeep, I know we will win. They will get all the resource points and drop enemy points while the nubs fight head to head.

 

And Lazybum - when you get to the point that no one is building armories, it marks the doom of your team. But sometimes the com can make the difference by pulling up short of the front line and building some of the armories. Also instruct the grens to sit next to the armory while firing and hold E. It makes it pretty clear that that squad is short an engineer.