When I first started playing Empires, people were using much different strategies than they are now. Now I started playing when 2.1 came out, so gameplay-wise and balance-wise nothing really changed, but tactics trumped one another. Now these are just general trends I notice. Given unique circumstances it's entirely possible you don't feel the same way. At first everyone always went for composite armor. That was the easiest it seemed at the time, since you can pick up a med tank right after that. Then people explored the bio tree and realized they can get something for a whole lot cheap. Then everyone got these super cheap tanks to attack. Then they moved onto the physics branch getting reflective and DUHMG. In the past, you were called an idiot for getting DUHMG, now it's pretty much standard to research one of the heavy MG. In escort BE use to almost never lose, because the would just rush with lots of heavies with HE and blast all the NF that tried to sticky them. NF never revived. Then they started reviving... Then NF practically won every match. And now it's roughly even when I play on who's gonna win. In crossroads people used the standard tank route at first. Then they realize they can just turret spam the middle first, research up all the way for a win. Now you only see stalemates for a long time in crossroads. CV never frontlined in the first matches I played. Now it's practicely required to gain the ground you need. The inflitrating unit that did the most annoyance use to be the Scout as he sabotage everyone. Now it's a toss up between him and the grenadier, with nine mines that can flip cv's or take out one or more buildings. Anyways, I think that's one of the things I like about this game. You never know what kind of stunt the other guy may pull. Even if it involves locking up his cv in the dam at valley, then ninja DUHMGing APCs the enemy cv with a vf built by a scout... on the other side of the map.
I agree. I see a lot of comms going down electrical now because BE -> Lvl3's, Rail Heavies NF -> Lvl3's, Super Lights I remember when composite used to be the armor everyone got. Now, it's like it has the plague. Guess it goes to show how the mod is evolving
And without stat changes too! HEMG isn't in the spotlight, but I'm working on getting it there. Many a medium on shadows_rc2 has succumbed to HEMG+long range cannon rape from empty.
i always go for HEMG, 5 apcs with heavy HEMG's just rape defenses and tanks. There is no flaws, and vastly superior to DUMG.
Jump out and kill the infantry. If you fail respawn and try again. I wouldn't call it bad against inf
It use to be chem because of the cooling and HE shells.. Then it became Bio because of how quick it was.. Then I think it was Physics for a bit now its Electrical.. You nerf one thing and another gets stronger :p I know dizzy is trying his hardest but this is a tuff task to tackle.. Maybe the new research tree will fix this Maybe one day it will be evenly matched.. It's funny to see noobs constantly spinning out tho.. emp_recruit: OMG WTF THE DRIVING SUCKS IN THIS GAME > dubee: Quit holding down foward puppy: I like hairy woman with dog faces terrorists win
bio ftw, cause people get nukes and DUMG, and bio is great against that. And later on you get collant. pure win
chem got nerfed because of absorbant. with low resources its amazing how much of a difference absorbant can sometimes make there, but there is no denying that it is the weakest armor, the ONLY thing it counters is a BE rush for rail heavies, not getting any of the other weapons. And even then, its good, but gren support takes it down fast, and BE rail heavies can fire so fast, a good shot can take care of absorbant with only a little more effort. The only true super weapons these days are rails for Be and nukes for both teams. BE should always win if it gets heavies in most cases, unless they forget to defend nukes. These days, electric and physics are about equal. To take most of the map and hold it long enough to get LVL 3s everywhere gives you time to get your super lights and go heavies, then go rails for BE or start chem with NF. By the same token, physics is just as viable. Reflective, IMO the best armor in the game, gives APCS enough strength to rush. A physics turtle is pretty deadly, as hording enough resources to get 4-6 fast, well-armored uranium APCS out and rush their comm is an instant win if you have adequate drivers. For NF chemistry is a must for your UMLs, and of course coolant and HE for both teams. However, its JUST AS FAST to research bio<regen as it is to research absorbant materials<absorbant armor. It doesn't help that besides HEMG, every weapon in the path needs an upgraded chassis to be used. With an engine with no speed benefit and an armor that cant take enough hits to allow the tank to make use of its extreme cooling, it makes it an unreliable starting research path.
I remember back in the day everyone used to build their bases on isle on the beach, and the game ALWAYS ended with one enemy team taking the cliffs and chucking grenades down. then some smart arse built his base on the cliffs and won a few games and now that's the only way the map is played.
I remember crossroads being an all out skill-based brawl with every guy for himself. Then some pussy built lvl3 MGs up top and thought he was good. Now it's the only way the map is played. LOOK AT THE BSID VS JPL CLANMATCH DEMO TO SEE HOW REAL MEN PLAY, DAMMIT (after bsid losing their lvl3 mgs to jpls goddamn mortar hax :p)
Meh, stuff becomes popular and unpopular. Happened in 1.073 as well. 90% is just people being sheep not knowing whats actually good exetera. I mean reactive is nice and stuff on LTs. And I've always been a huge supporter of reactive/3phase(3phase in particular) however reactive I would say is researched 5x more often than it should be. It is expensive( a 2/2/2/2 reactive med is more expensive than a 3/3/3/3 regen med and will generally do worse against almost everything) On AFVs you lose the advantage of being able to go 3/3/3/2 with armor and again very expensive. Apart from "super lights" the only real advantage is being close to 3 phase. As well some of the stuff you have mentioned has been due to the popularity of mitteos and high res servers as well as 2.12 balance changes. Absorbant considering its weight and you can go 4/4/4/3 on a medium with cannon/uml comes out on top of regen in most cases except against mgs and stuff without speed. My main complaint with it is it is slow as death to research and its location is next to an engine that is also slow to tech and doesn't really prove to be useful until later in the game so you really gimp yourself early game going abs/coolant. Whereas you can go bio/regen and almost be at meds by the time abs and coolant are done. As well if the enemy gets DUMG you might as well just gg.
Rush nukes, sit overheated shoot, sit overheated, shoot, spam nme refs with nukes, spam nme base with nukes, pray someone suicides, rebuild your base as the nme spams with nukes, try and break through and kill cv, cry because you wasted an hour on failmap. Slaughtered is only slightly better. Although I did have fun on money in a 6v6 a week ago or so. With such low players it makes the cv rush viable again. Weeeeeee I ran over their comm and a bunch of them just like the good ol days..... I miss small games like in 1.073 the 3v3 where you could just boot around in the cv and do everything yourself.
The thing that turned me off for a long while was that apart from the fact that people would bitch at you if you researched something different, if you hadn't researched the popular item, even if it was better, they wouldn't have a clue how to use it and would just get pwned and blame the comm
