Balance Flame Tower OP?

[des1206]

Hey, guys, I did a test on the various Tier-1 base defenses and the time it takes to destroy a heavy/medium tank (hitting their front armor). Here are the results:

 

Turret: 23 seconds

 

Flame Tower: 30 seconds

 

Pillbox: 55 seconds

 

While the turret is clearly the winner here and for good reason, I noticed the FT is pretty good at killing tanks too. Also I noticed that many times while I had the front of my medium tank facing a FT, the fireball ended up hitting my side (non-front) armor anyway, perhaps due to the size of the fireball, thus negating my armor advantage.

 

My point is that should we think about nerfing the FT against tanks a little bit? It is supposed to be a mid-way base defense in-between the turret and the pillbox.

Edited May 11, 2016 by des1206

[MPRA2]

Honestly, 90% of the maps dont have tesla coils, and since the range and accuracy of the flame tower is ass.... it should stay the way it is. It at least prevents solo and small light rushes... but against med tanks and arty rushes.... its useless.

[Pushwall]

Or maybe the pillbox could use a buff against vehicles (though not a big one - it shouldn't be anywhere near as strong as the flame tower)? I feel like they're just completely irrelevant the moment vehicles come into play...

 

As for flame towers hitting your "side armour", it's possible they're actually hitting your tank's barrel, which is an 100% damage zone.

 

Looking at the LE parameters it turns out that I actually removed projectile extensions from flame towers due to issues with the projectile easily snagging against trees, but forgot to do the same for turrets. Whoops. So the flame tower's fireball hitbox is pin-sized (so that's certainly not your issue) and the turret shell's hitbox is a fair bit larger than the shell itself. I'll be sure to amend that so the turret shell's hitbox is also pin-sized; while this will make it less lethal against infantry it'll also improve its ability to shoot through forests and other obstacles.

 

Bear in mind also that turrets also have a much larger anti-vehicle range - 140m versus a pillbox/flame tower's 120m. With a clear line of sight they can start damaging Soviet vehicles earlier than the vehicles can damage them, unlike pillboxes/flame towers where both parties get their first shot off at roughly the same time. And turrets, just like tesla coils, have 25% more health than flame towers or pillboxes - which, even with the heavy/mammoth's slight DPS edge over the light/medium, lets them survive a little longer than a flame tower, and a little can be just enough to matter. Given how many turrets I've seen get taken down to <20% health and then saved by engineers, compared to flame towers which tend to just die, that 25% extra health is certainly doing them good.

[MPRA2]

"Or maybe the pillbox could use a buff against vehicles (though not a big one - it shouldn't be anywhere near as strong as the flame tower)? I feel like they're just completely irrelevant the moment vehicles come into play...

 

As for flame towers hitting your "side armour", it's possible they're actually hitting your tank's barrel, which is an 100% damage zone.

 

Looking at the LE parameters it turns out that I actually removed projectile extensions from flame towers due to issues with the projectile easily snagging against trees, but forgot to do the same for turrets. Whoops. So the flame tower's fireball hitbox is pin-sized (so that's certainly not your issue) and the turret shell's hitbox is a fair bit larger than the shell itself. I'll be sure to amend that so the turret shell's hitbox is also pin-sized; while this will make it less lethal against infantry it'll also improve its ability to shoot through forests and other obstacles.

 

Bear in mind also that turrets also have a much larger anti-vehicle range - 140m versus a pillbox/flame tower's 120m. With a clear line of sight they can start damaging Soviet vehicles earlier than the vehicles can damage them, unlike pillboxes/flame towers where both parties get their first shot off at roughly the same time. And turrets, just like tesla coils, have 25% more health than flame towers or pillboxes - which, even with the heavy/mammoth's slight DPS edge over the light/medium, lets them survive a little longer than a flame tower, and a little can be just enough to matter. Given how many turrets I've seen get taken down to <20% health and then saved by engineers, compared to flame towers which tend to just die, that 25% extra health is certainly doing them good."

Pushwall does have a point. In all honesty, nobody goes to save Flame Towers anymore, very rarely will I see someone go out to save a Flame Tower unless the team is desperate. (Guard Duty is probably the only map where I see players repair them the most)

while FTs do decent damage against some vehicles, the moment there are more than 2 or 3 vehicles in play, the FT becomes useless and pretty much doomed, even if an engineer tries to save it.

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by MPRA2