Mycen wrote:
I don't think this idea is bad at all, it's really the only one proposed so far that isn't totally lame. (Well, the jamming would be nifty too, but it wouldn't actually address any concerns raised in this thread.) I just would like to hear more detail about what you're proposing. It doesn't seem to make much sense - you say the current Novax is useless because the opponent can just build shields, but the weaker version would be useful because it forces your opponent to build shields. You see how I'm confused? How much earlier do you envision it coming out that this would make a difference? 20k mass is still more than a Monkeylord you know. Also, what kind of damage/AoE/firing cycle are yout talking about? With a change in target priority the Novax's current weapon is already pretty good at killing engis.
That's a valid concern. The reason I believe the cheaper version forcing your opponent to build shields is (edit: missed this part) different is because while the original novax is equivalent in mass to about 27 shields (admittedly not counting pgen cost) I've argued for a much cheaper cost (13500) meaning the opponent building shields works much more towards paying back the novax's cost. At the same time, it wouldn't be unfair to the opponent because the new novax wouldn't be able to break through shields at all. I can't really explain it really well, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that the original novax would make people build shields when they already had to (because the novax would usually only be seen late game) and you/teamates are building artillery, so they need shields anyway.
As for damage and firing cycle, I originally suggested 200 total damage with a 15 second fire cycle, at a small 13.333 dps and 4 aoe. However, Because of engineer hp being 150, I considered dropping the damage and kicking up the fire rate to every 11 seconds. However I think that would be too fast (would allow you to stay in one spot and destroy shields that are under construction).
As much as we hate the really long fire cycle (the novax just feels like it's doing nothing) I think it's actually better to have a balance between short and high rate of fire. If damage is low but fire cycle is short then it forces the novax to stay in one spot to make full use of it's dps. If damage is high but fire cycle is long then the novax can be a little too annoying, able to fly around and attack throughout the whole map because as long as it finds a suitable target in 20 seconds it isn't wasting any dps. I want the novax to roam around, but not so much that it can freely attack any expansion without some penalty.
Using the map Twin Rivers as an example it takes about 15 seconds to cross from one end of the air players base to the other (the two mass extractors to the left and right of the base). So I think 200 damage per 15 second cycle is fair, but it's of course up for debate.
I imagine the novax mostly being built somewhere in the middle experimental stage, perhaps in between percivals and fatboys. At this point the UEF player gets slightly ahead (assuming a non UEF opponent of equal skill) until the opponent can bring multiple experimentals online and into one spot. For a short time the novax will give the UEF player a slight edge in intel and BP raiding while also giving the opponent a chance to fight back (because of course the novax will still need time to pay back it's cost and in the meantime the UEF player has took 13.5k mass out of their military budget).
If the novax gets this change, it'll hopefully do what I expect it to do: make higher tech engineers more viable, force armies to include mobile shields in unit compositions, and this is REEEAAAALY stretching it, but maybe just maybe make the game more aggressive.Statistics: Posted by Evan_ — 18 Mar 2017, 17:02
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