Scope of the next patch

[Zock]

It has been relatively quite over the last months since the release of the last patch. After some good start in summer, development went slow in autumn, delaying the release of the patch into this year. I've been working on restructuring the balance team a bit to speed up the development process, and we're finally making progress at a good rate again. But this is a big, complex and ambitious patch, and because of that it doesn't only require much more time but it's also especially important to make sure the changes are good. Balancing factions is easy, but when it comes to do this and other changes in a way that makes the game more interesting and fun, it is also easy to achieve the opposite by accident. It will be another while before the patch will hit beta, but that is just giving everyone more time to test and enjoy the feature/bugfix patch that is in the FAF beta mod for the last couple of months.

I'd love to write a blog of some sort to keep you more frequently updated about the balance process, the reasons and decisions behind some changes or problems we're encountering and solving, but that would require time that would be missed in the actual balancing work.

Now to the actual reason for this post, considering that the t3 patch will not be released anytime soon, but seeing that first bombers and hoverbombing are mechanics that are frustrating many people, some (especially ones that just started) to a point that they stop playing, while other players like and enjoy the mechanic to a great amount, i've decided to fit in a smaller patch before the t3 patch that we started working on yesterday. This patch will include changes to first bomber and/or hoverbombing (This does not mean they will be removed. This doesn't mean they won't be removed either. Keep posting your opinions and feedback, even though we are rarely responding because we are too busy, we do read and consider everything) and a couple of other changes like HP nerfs for various buildings (HQs, anyone?) and changes to a few ACU upgrades (Yes, Nano is one of them).

This will unfortunately delay the t3 patch further, but it will hopefully be a more immediate improvement to the game for many people.

[IceDreamer]

T2 arty change in minipatch plz

[Iszh]

Did i miss something icedreamer?

The t3 land change needs indeed more time and please dont forget if you nerf percival anyhow this unit is not equal to other t3 it is the uef equal to koloss monkey and ythota. UEF will have not only no snipe weapon anymore but no "walk through" weapon at all if percival is nerfed even a bit. Uef cant win games anymore just sit back eco wall and fire nukes to enemy.

[IceDreamer]

Errrrrm... How does asking for T2 Arty change have anything to do with Percivals?

Anyway, I can assure you that despite some of his alpha changes being... questionable, progress is being made, and Zock has no intention of changing the internal T3 balance away from having Percivals be flat out the strongest land assault unit.

[Iszh]

First part of my post was about t2 arti second was about zocks alpha but of course i trust in you that the result of any balance patch will be always a good one!

[Zock]

Little sneak peak about the bomber changes:

[Exotic_Retard]

and what are the stats you put on that bomber? xD

Spoiler: show

hehehe ... already fixed in equilibrium!

sorry

[Zock]

not quite equilibrium, but close enough

startturndisntance 4.5
breakoffdistance 20
randombreakoffmult 1
turnspeed 1.5

Not done with it yet though. I will try more work with KTurn next and finetune the ability to hoverbomb. If you guys liked this video i'll make another one showing the result when it's done.

[MrSprengmeister]

I like the Idea with the T1 Bomber. The Video shows that the tighter circle is making them usefull to non Experts like me. It solves Hoverbombing too, because the benefit is lowered with that.

I also hope that the issue with the bomb dropping will be solved with the Patch. (especially the Zeus)

And last but not least, don´t go for big changes, because I experienced a lot of balance destroying Patches in other Games. Small changes are always better.

[Rudolph'sRedNose]

Is this a bomber buff? Are there any cost/build time changes? Will locking factories with one bomber and killing everything else with another and minimal micro be a thing?

Edit: I'm thinking of the people this change is supposed to help.