GaryOak

I was thinking about this for a bit today, and some interesting thoughts popped up in my head. Amongst them was the realization that alternate scoring *would* actually solve the issue I have with the GS / CC system. I think I can also finally summarize what my issue is; - Players buying a GhostStalker get to play as a unit that, whilst the unit is balanced and not unbeatable, gives them an advantage that can not be matched 1 on 1. - The way the system works, said players will basically have all the say on who next has the right to make use of that advantage. - Making full use of their sense of social fairness and teamplay, said players will invariably confer the advantage on only 1 player for the entire game: Themselves. - As a reward for this behaviour, other players without advantage may watch as said players climb up to top all the score and stats lists. Now imagine the scenario where score and stats tracking works dynamically, and somehow any kill you make as a GhostStalker only adds 0,2 kills to your KD. Any points you get will count as 0,001 points in your score. As if the game says: “Sure you can play as this strong and important character. But that will give you an advantage that other players can’t match, so your score and stats will be compensated to reflect your gameplay more accurately.” I’m not saying this should be implemented, but it is a made-up scenario that would actually solve my issues with the current system. Because this is what bothers me about it all. It’s players reaping the rewards from having an advantage that other players can’t get because they said so. PS I do think GS and CC are balanced well and actually not that hard to kill. I might have overstated things a bit in order to make my point clear.

First of all props for the impressive work! The game is a lot of fun, and even though it might not be inmediately apparent to everyone I think you've introduced some brilliant ideas and improvements for Reborn's gameplay. I'll post my 2 cents concerning some things that stood out to me. A. GDI Juggernaut / Nod Artillery Starting off with the biggest issue I see, the artillery units are simply way too good in straight up combat. I haven't tested all possible lineups extensively, but I'm pretty sure a deployed Juggernaut / Artillery beats any other unit save the Mammoth MKII in straight combat. Fortunately you managed to give both units just about exactly the same amount of raw combat power (which is impressive considering differences in weaponry), so there is no issue in terms of faction balance. I do believe though that the characteristics of both units should be reconsidered, else they might start dominating gameplay soon. Changes I would suggest: - Drastically reduce (splash) damage against infantry. If you have a juggernaut and see a cyborg commando coming you should want to be PACKED as you want to get the hell out of there! Instead as it is right now you'll want to be DEPLOYED as you will give the cyborg commando an ass-whooping. - Reduce splash damage against vehicles. In TibSun, any enemy vehicle was a threat to a deployed juggernaut. We don't want the juggernaut to be useless against vehicles though. So how about reducing splash damage, but keeping a good damage output for direct hits? Skilled players and players targeting stationary targets should still wreak havoc, but outright dominating enemy vehicles in 1on1 combat should be less common. - Reduce weapon spread to offset the above mentioned effect and to give players the chance to deal good damage to targets if said targets are immobile or stationary. - Increase unit HP and / or armour. I remember that a deployed juggernaut was in trouble if enemy vehicles attacked it, but I also remember it being able to tank quite a few hits. That helped it survive until friendly reinforcements could arrive to protect it. B. GDI Disruptor I should say the unit is balanced quite well already, but I do think that damage output is a tad bit too low as I think I saw a friendly Titan do about the same DPS to the Nod PP today. The Disruptor is more expensive and has to move into close range for it weapon to be effective - considering these characteristics I would expect the sonic emitter to really wreak havoc once it does get into firing position. The same DPS as a Titan is a bit underwhelming though. C. GDI Orca As other people have mentioned, having only 1 load of 8 missiles feels...strange. I must say that the way the orca can hit and run feels very good, and it does just about the right amount of DPS too. It's just that I keep waiting for more missiles to load every single time im back at the helipad, lol. D. GDI Ghoststalker / Nod Cyborg Commando I'm really impressed with how you've managed to balance these units! It feel almost perfect; they are powerful units, but not as dominating as they used to be. People who know me will already have guessed what I'm about to complain about though. It's about the fact that there can be only one of each, and about the way in which players consistently hug them for the entirety of the game - sometimes for many games in a row (* cough * Silverlight * cough *). IMO it's too easy to keep hugging the GS / CC once you've acquired one, as the unit's combat power is more than enough to have a steady income of $, and if the enemy manages to kill you you can respawn and re-buy the unit in like..5 seconds? That's the only window of opportunity for other players to try and have a go at using the best infantry class around. Players using the GS / CC will tend to refrain from participating in aggresive gameplay strats though, and they usually use every lame tactic they can come up with to make sure they stay alive so as to reduce that window of opportunity for other players to run the GS / CC to 0. That bothers me, whether said GS / CC is friend or foe. Moreover, you might recognize the feeling of friendly competition that sometimes comes with the struggle for the MVP title, or the drive to achieve a K/D on which you can look back with some pride. Yeah, it's all point-whoring and kill-whoring anyway and no one really cares etc. etc. Still, I'm sometimes not sure what to feel about GS / CC users topping the game's lists. That's because if the GS / CC was hugged for the entire game by the same player, there simply was no way to compete with them on fair terms. I wish I could come up with a solution for this. I do support the build limit on the CC / GS, because having multiple copies of them running around would also be weird. Meh so yeah idk.

I know what forg would say about this

I think you might have to pay a fee for donating in other currencies than USD.. I actually had to pay more EUR than my targeted amount of USD, even though the exchange rate was still at about 1,0030 USD per EUR at the time.

Donated! It's not much, but at least we're at that 50% now..

In this new vid, FRAYDO has a hyper realistic dream

I just love that TeamWolf is the eternal bad guy of these type of videos lol LG scum

Damn..Can't compete as I'll be on Ibiza that weekend

Congratulations to the winners! High level gameplay, and I enjoyed the games very much! I cry everytime

ok one small new vid

EDITED: Uploaded these to youtube, they would get deleted off the other channel

Exactly this. I've tried looking to see the effect so many times that I've gone wondering if its not actually bugged, because I just never got the impression it made a single hit point of a difference. Even worse, trying to hit the rear instead of the side has ended up in me missing quite a few shots. And that just feels bad - if you can't even see the difference between a side hit and a rear hit, you realise that you would need like 50 succesful "Rear hit instead of side hit"s just to make up for missing that one shot. Today, whenever I get the choice between targeting front, side or rear, I know exactly what to go for. The side that's most likely to land my shot on.

[SEMI LONG READ - SORRY] One of the most important issues regarding balance for me is that I actually really dislike playing as Soviets. Yeah they are the slow but heavy firepower Faction, where the Allies are the quick and nimble Faction. The thing is, though; A good working Allied team can still present a heavy frontline with really high fighting power (think of: Mobile GAP + Medium tanks, Arties and Mechanics). In fact, a really good Allied front can probably beat any Soviet front, IMO (just IMO tho, lol). A good working Soviet team is, however, still completely tied to the fact that they are slow and that the Allies have vastly more options for moving around and being dynamic. EG: If you're playing CamosCanyon as Soviets, and the Allies blew up all the FT's -> you need to be afraid of phase rushes. But if you want to guard against phase rushes, you need to keep some players behind to defend. If you keep some players behind to defend, your slow moving rush has so much less chance of actually accomplishing something. In the end, the Soviets will have to let the Allies make the first move and react to it. Overall, I must say that I think that the Allies have way more ability to dominate the battlefield and determine a game's course of events. For my feeling, if the Allied team has good players, the Soviet team is almost always reactionary in play. Do I have any suggestions on how to 'fix' this? Nope, because I suck. In fact, a lot of people will probably disagree with me anyway. And even if they don't, the stats prove that the overall balance between the 2 factions turns out fine in the end, I guess..

If @ryknow69 was behind that chrono rush, I will add my vote for him! We were seriously impressed by that one on the soviet side EDIT: If I'm not too late, I would also like to mention @forg0ten1and @SilverShark. High level play and they outscored me like every game too