These days, everyone who comms almost always goes into chem, elec, and mech. It's seeming to me that those trees are "required" ones. Elec has arguably the best engine (3phase) and armor(reactive) and turrets, chem has the best weapons (HE+UMLs+gren rockets) and another really good engine(coolant), and mech has the chassis upgrades. It seems biology and physics are just not worth the money or time. Bio has an alright armor (regen), but a crappy ass engine (bio desiel), but takes next to no time to get. But the weapons are so expensive there is no point going for them except possibly in late game, and even then it's usually not worth it .Meanwhile, in physics, you've got great armor (reflective) and engine (nuclear fission: weather or not it's a great engine is debatable, but thats a different topic) AND good weapons (Heavy MGs, ER cannon). I'm not entirely sure why phys isn't usually the tree of choice: perhaps the lack of missiles and the uselessness of plasma, or the increased time/cost to get both nuclear fission and reflective. Perhaps this is a rant, but in the end it comes to this: why are elec and chem so much more used than phys and bio? I'd love to see a little more variety in the stuff I'm putting on a tank. P.S.- This does not apply to mittoes server, or any other one with similar rules; increased research speed and starting resources make bio the tree of choice there.
Depends on who you are playing with. The issue with Physics is how long it takes to reaserch many things. The armor and DUMG is all great, but you can't get an engine and armor nice and fast. I know Chem is the same issue as Coolant and Absorbant takes just as long as Physics engine and armor time, but Chem also has HE/UML. Electrical has that super heavy armor that is quite good, and 3 phase that just owns everything. Mechanical has bigger tanks.
I agree wholeheartedly. I just want something other than 3phase/reactive/HE/UML on my tanks every now and then. I wasn't quite sure which forum this belonged in: it could've gone in gameplay or suggestion too, so I just put it here. If a mod want's to put it in either other fourm, his call.
I do bio when there is not research modifier. My priority as com is to get engines and armor, and then grab the local med tank weapons, like bio war head. After that, you go for whatever research is best for that particular team. With NF, it's usually chem with upgraded MLs. For BE it's electrical and rail, then heavy. Afterwards, you enter physics and get the reflective armor to protect against NF heavies, then extended range cannons and HE cannons, and if the game takes that long, Artillery. Physics is for advanced weaponry that really kicks ass. As much as people seem to doubt it, ER cannon is one of the best. Reflective is also the best armor against missiles. Other than that, on fast research servers, I'll grab reactive 3 phase, then if I'm Nf I'll go straight for guided missiles, followed by chassis, ER, heavies, and then grab reflective and composite armor. I hardly ever go into biology in fast research servers because most people get reactive first, which is strong against bio weapons.
Problem is that they are the best weapons. Right now weapons balanced is kind of screwed. 3 Phase and Coolant are the best engines overall. HE and UML is the best weapons overall. Why research other weapons when the other team will get HE/UML and kill you? Plasma cannon is near worthless, ranged cannon is only great for artillery but not tank battles. The DUMG is nice and all, but HE is a better gun. Bio ML/MG is nice and all, but they cost a lot and take a lot of time. The regain armor and bio engine are just great for speed, so they can be researched though, but bio engine sucks. It is almost better to get 3 Phase and Reflective, it may cost more and take a little longer, but it is better. I know what I said is heavy and can be disputed, but I am talking about average games without special circumstances.
I use bio quite often. It's researched fast, is cheap and very strong at the beginging. In the bio-tree, there s also the bio-mg which really owns on some maps. But I agree with physics, it's more for lategame.
Part of the issue I think is the way maps are designed as well. There isn't nearly enough rough terrain to require engines with higher horse power and less stalling, etc. for example, with some engines in mvalley, you can climb the hills up to the plateaus, but others stall out or don't give enough torque to make it. More maps that restrict low torque engine movements or have choke points that can be avoided with a certain type of engine would make this better. Also, if the reflective armor accounted for front view angles of the armor, it would also make it more useful for maps where there are a lot of terrain differences. like, less damage from getting hit on top, more damage from the bottom for reflective, and vice versa for reactive or something.
Ive lernt not to reacerch comp (esspeachly on EMP_Money) because its so expaenceive to build a tank with it. Ive noteced whenever on EMP_Money and sometimes other map the other team or our team do a tank rush with heavys and comp we go bankrupt within 5 min.
Yea, on public servers you can only research comp if nobody takes a tank even though you are screaming like hell.
Its a shame that the diversity on weapons isnt a real choice. Hope they balance it in the next patch. Imo the major change empires needs beside moving to the orange box.
lol i guess its good that you guys are so into bio and chem, that explains how im able to rape countles vehicles with a 2xml du reflective fission/gas turb med. srsly i friggin love the du med raping capabilities ove:
some people are saying that phys is a late game tree. Is it? In early game, a DU APC can chew up paper tanks, and stand solid a chance against other kinds, too.DUMGs are also a great addition to meds and heavys. And i'd say many of you have it backwards, IMO ER cannon pwns on a tank because it's so much easier to aim, especially at range (hence ER) whereas often with HE it takes a few shots to find the right angle, and on Arty, if you're not close enough for HE then probably an artillery bombardment is not what you need (there are exceptions, of course, and ER still beats the living crap out of any standard arty cannon). I'm in agreement with Jephir, that one should rush phys. Reflective can replace reactive, nuclear engines can replace 3phase, and ER can replace HE. Of course, it's not necessarily as great as the elec/chem path for those purposes, but you get all the basics AND heavy MGs. As an added bonus, reflective is light enough to fit on meds and heavys.
A DUMG APC can hold back a ton of tanks almost indefinitely. The weapon doesn so much kill the enemy as it does piss off the entire enemy team and prevent them from advancing. I mean, you'd want to hold back if your armor was suddenly flashing from an apc a mile away, right?
du is teh stuff against nf meds and heavies, its incredibly easy to shoot at a single armor side while evading missile and cannon fire, and after the enemy goes boom you can repair your vehicle in like 10 sec and keep pwning
DUMG is ideal for attacking command vehicles. You can fire from 500-1000m and still do damage. When commanders think that they're safe behind their level 1/2 turrets I can kill them from far away. I did it few times yesterday. (single DUMG APC)
