Balance Chronotank Strategies

[des1206]

Okay, first, here are some stats I collected.

- Damage wise, vs armor the CT has the DPS of the Phase Tank (2nd highest in game after the TT), and vs buildings CT has the DPS of the medium tank. It's not effective vs infantry. 

- Health wise, at 300/300 the CT has same health as the Light Tank. But with Mammoth armor, it is more resistant to bullets, flames, heavy tank shells, and even Volkov's hand cannon. This effectively give the CT medium tank health (or better) vs many units. Vs Tesla weapons and Mammoth Tank shells, there is no resistance bonus and the CT is just like a Light Tank.

- Speedwise, at ~8m/s, this tank is one of the slowest vehicles in the game. Teleportation is your only way to get away from an enemy.

 I'll admit I'm at a loss on how to use the CT effectively. The teleportation ability is nice, but I feel in terms of "battlefield niche", the tank is easily eclipsed by Longbows on air maps. The primary function of the CT is an anti-vehicle ambusher that flanks enemy vehicles with its increased mobility via teleporting, but LBs does this job very well already at 1/2 the cost!

Additionally, given its $2,400 price tag, this unit is almost always used with a mechanic. It handles tank duels decently, you just need to try to teleport in from the flanks or the back, but there is always a risk of teleporting next to a group of enemy units and losing $3,350 worth of value.

 

Despite this, there are still three tips/strategies I think currently work:

1. Given the tank's special armor, it is really resistant vs Flame Towers. Try to solo using a CT vs using a medium tank, and you will see the CT only loses half of its health to kill a FT vs >75% of the med's health (numbers based on min FT health). If you have a mechanic, you can try your luck and repair a bit between flames.

2. Of course, you can always teleport past enemy defenses to the back of their base, but vs a well prepared (mined) team, and given the CT's high cost and mediocre DPS vs buildings, it is a risky play. You can try to sneak it with an engineer to C4 mined buildings, but engin C4s do less dmg these days and again CT's DPS vs buildings is mediocre (to finish off the building). 

3. Teleportation is your biggest strength but also risk. You have enough health and DPS to play as a MBT, but you are also meant to be an ambush unit, so:

- Use your teleportation sparingly, "walk" unless you can see your destination is safe.

- Don't teleport from places enemies can see you if you are trying to flank them. Hide behind cover first and then teleport.

- Don't teleport to places where enemies can see you. They will either turn around to face you first, or you teleport into a bunch of Volkovs. $2,400 + mechanic is expensive. 

- Don't always try to maximize your teleport distance. Instead pick a destination with cover, or places on the map that those slow Soviet units often don't visit.

- If you need to retreat, generally teleport back towards your base (behind friendly lines) for safety.

 

Here are three ideas on how to improve the unit:

1. Make Chrono initiation time and reset time a function of distance teleported (Less distance teleported, faster reset time). At 300m max range with 30 sec recharge time, maybe the scale can be 1sec/10 meter of distance jumped (i.e 200m jump, 20s recharge time)?  By making short jumps faster and therefore less risky, it will encourage drivers to jump from flank to flank and make this unit more fun to use. Imagine how annoying it is for a Soviet tank column to have to deal with a CT that is in front of them, and then hops to their right, and then hops to their left. Phase Tanks can ambush too, but they can't jump from flank to flank. This will also add strategic depth to driving the CT and reward skillful jumping with lower recharge time.

2. Allow CT's map's "radar" feature to show enemy and friendly units in the entire circle (300m radius) instead of the current short range (~100m?). This will help CT drivers make smart decisions on where to teleport. This may be too OP in preventing sneaky Soviet rushes.

3. Lower the CT's price to $2,000

Edited June 3, 2020 by des1206

[FRAYDO]

Honestly, threads like these are very refreshing. I love your analysis style that you have done here and previously for other units. As impressive as the vehicle is, I am not a regular user of the Chronotank myself, although I am certain this information will be very helpful to the Allied team.

[GaryOak]

Nice post, Des! Like Fraydo, I find them very refreshing and take my time to read.

A few questions / remarks on this one;

1 hour ago, des1206 said:

1. Given the tank's special armor, it is really good vs Flame Towers. Try to solo using a CT vs using a medium tank, and you will see the CT only loses half of its health to kill a FT vs >75% of the med's health.

- Just to be sure: Did you test this in equivalent circumstances? Because, off course, the strength of a full-HP flametower should vary depending on the number of players, right?

1 hour ago, des1206 said:

 I'll admit I'm at a loss on how to use the CT effectively. The teleportation ability is nice, but I feel in terms of "battlefield niche", the tank is easily eclipsed by Longbows on air maps. The primary function of the CT is an anti-vehicle ambusher that flanks enemy vehicles with its increased mobility via teleporting, but LBs does this job very well already at 1/2 the cost!

- I would argue that, as implied by your post, the Chronotanks niche lies in the unorthodox Chrono mechanic. In some maps, transporting multiple chronos behind the lines (hopefully unseen) is just the thing to shift the balance.

- Overall I get the sense that you find the CT to be a difficult unit to use cost-efficiently, and I definitely agree with that. I also note that losing CT's can give the commies a lot of points..

[des1206]

Bonus Tip: 

Because of the Mammoth Armor's resistance, 1 vs 1 a mechanic could actually out-repair a Volkov or Heavy Tank. So if you found yourself teleported next to the wrong person, as long as it's 1 vs 1, and you still have your armor on, pop out of your CT and start repairing! A CT continues to recharge whether you are in or out of the vehicle. Just try to survive 30 seconds before getting out of there.

[Silverlight]

On 6/2/2020 at 11:32 PM, des1206 said:

1. Make Chrono initiation time and reset time a function of distance teleported (Less distance teleported, faster reset time). At 300m max range with 30 sec recharge time, maybe the scale can be 1sec/10 meter of distance jumped (i.e 200m jump, 20s recharge time)?  By making short jumps faster and therefore less risky, it will encourage drivers to jump from flank to flank and make this unit more fun to use. Imagine how annoying it is for a Soviet tank column to have to deal with a CT that is in front of them, and then hops to their right, and then hops to their left. Phase Tanks can ambush too, but they can't jump from flank to flank. This will also add strategic depth to driving the CT and reward skillful jumping with lower recharge time.

I like this idea.

[Gummiel]

On 6/3/2020 at 6:32 AM, des1206 said:

1. Make Chrono initiation time and reset time a function of distance teleported (Less distance teleported, faster reset time). At 300m max range with 30 sec recharge time, maybe the scale can be 1sec/10 meter of distance jumped (i.e 200m jump, 20s recharge time)?  By making short jumps faster and therefore less risky, it will encourage drivers to jump from flank to flank and make this unit more fun to use. Imagine how annoying it is for a Soviet tank column to have to deal with a CT that is in front of them, and then hops to their right, and then hops to their left. Phase Tanks can ambush too, but they can't jump from flank to flank. This will also add strategic depth to driving the CT and reward skillful jumping with lower recharge time.

If this is done you probably should allow you to teleport without having to open the map up, to be able to better control the short jumps (you would ofc still need the map for long jumps)

Edited June 27, 2020 by GummiBear

[GeneralCamo]

After playing around with this for a bit, I don't think there should be any warning that a Chronotank is teleporting into an area until it actually does so. Right now it spawns a vortex where it will be teleporting; this is fine for AR's Chrono Miner that could otherwise end up landing right on top of you and crushing you, but for a vehicle designed to ambush all it does is signal the enemy "please point turret here". This alone could give the Chrono Tank the first shot advantage that it should have to allow it to be more effective at being an ambusher.

[NodGuy]

My favourite strategy is to observe the Soviet base, specifically the War Factory, from a safe distance within my chronoshift zone. I do this in the hopes that the enemy will purchase a Demo Truck. If they do I will chronoshift into their base and destroy the trucks. If there are any defences I will try and shift to a blind spot.

I was able to do this a couple of weeks ago on KOTG. The enemy was planning a demo rush and purchased two Demo Trucks. As they were leaving I shifted to the front of the War Factory so the Tesla Coil could not zap me and shot the first truck, which when detonated also detonated the first truck. It was hilarious and definitely a highlight of my recent game experience.

It's also useful to get to know the usual sneak routes players will take with their Demo Trucks so you can better intercept them.