The Novax

[Apofenas]

Hello!

Currently the novax satelite is very under used. Main reason is its efficiency for its mass. Yes, it has same(+/-) dps/mass as t3 arty, but has no real AOE and doesn't get boost from t3 pgens. It can be usefull in some cases, but gets obselite by either fatboy or by arty.

The main reason of its ineffectiveness is inability to shoot it down directly.

I suggest to make satelite center cost 14k mass and satelite another 14k so it's same 28k total. However allow novax senter to produce more than one satelite; like 3-5. But make them targetable and killable by nukes. Although make them faster so they could operate further than in anti nuke range and quickly fall back.

This would make sat an efficient defencive weapon, with direct efficient counter that all factions have. It'll also fix some sat issues like nuke blocking(which had to be fixed in past) and sat crash through shield(~14k mass donation to deal 3k damage will not be a good choice).

May be (more complicated idea) implement an upgrading system like factory, so you could see which novax senter has more sats on it by amount of HP on it. Or system like on ACU, where you would be able to choose between making more sats or making one stronger(aoe, additional damage, additional damage to shield, ect) or making sat station stronger(more HP, shield, personal anti nuke, ect)

Please share your opinions.

[Blodir]

Buff Novax vision radius significantly --> First Novax is now a super scout, 2+ Novax' can actually start chewing through shields

[IceDreamer]

Yup, I'd buff vision too.

As for rebuilding, apofenas, I have been working on that for a while and there are some issues,mostly cosmetic. Firstly the release animation refuses to reverse for some reason, so the hack I found is to re-spawn the centre each rebuild. Second, getting the build UI to work is proving tricky, as no factory is able to build T4 at present.

Another thing is that while allowing a centre to rebuild the Satellite seems fine (the only way you can kill a sat is with nuke impact), allowing one centre to build multiple sats is more of a change. Good - each satellite is cheaper. Bad - kill one centre kills all the sats.

Personally I'd be fine with this, assuming I can make the UI work. Dunno how others might feel.

I am flat out against making Novax targetable by anything. The whole point of the weapon is that you have to hit the station, and as long as the weapon is not OP I see no issue with this. It's different, it's funky, and it forces you to play a bit different. The ultimate anti-turtle; it's not just hard to turtle it, it's impossible, and that's a good thing.

[Iszh]

I told before it would be a nice idea to change the main use of it. Atm a mavor is useless since spamming sats if better. But it should be Novax is the first weapon to annoy enemy and not killing him and then it is used to scout for mavor when targets are out of t3 radar range.

I would remove the weapon completely or make 50dps out of it and make it a 8k mass cost flying omni array without e usage. that would be experimental radar without e cost which includes that while e stall radar stays and mobile over the map. I think thats worth 8k mass. People told it would be to strong beeing a flying omni array. Maybe they thought it gets vision but i thought more about very small vision and just radar and omni like a real t3 radar. Maybe reducing movement speed to 1/10 of now.

It removes t3 stationary arti and mavor from the game atm ... and bit radar would be nice in general for uef units with big range like fatboy and summit. a flying t3 omni with low speed also could not cover the whole map and not show exactly the units wihtout scouting them before.

[yeager]

I'd say a bigger view range would be good, if it has the same dps as arty I don't see why it needs a buff, maybe a slight one, but nothing huge

[Apofenas]

It has same DPS/mass on paper, but lack of AOE, no boost from t3 pgens and damage being delt over time is huge disadvantage which make novax useless in killing bases. Mavor or 3 dukes easily break through heavy shielding; 8 novaxes don't(if there are sera shields, mobile shield spam and shield assist, novaxes will never break no matter how many).

If I ever start novax spam i usually end it with 6 novaxes being sat crashed on 3 SMDs or other valible targets and reclaimed to get mavor.

[Iszh]

Novax has vision and 100% hit rate. And it acts 10 times earlier than you can get a mavor. And to produce the shields while beeing under attack of 1 or 2 novax already is difficult. Novax is times more deadly than to invest 250k in a mavor. Novax will end the game earlier.

and how can cybran naval factories on water protect their assisting engis from novax? there is no way. Thats just one example where this weapon is a desaster for the enemy. Air players on seton, how you can protect 30 t3 pgens from beeing killed by 1 novax within 1 minute you cant spam shields all arround without losing air, and this for only 28k mass cost. Itis even out of range of any t3 arti and novax still can reach it.

[IceDreamer]

It has same DPS/mass on paper, but lack of AOE, no boost from t3 pgens and damage being delt over time is huge disadvantage which make novax useless in killing bases. Mavor or 3 dukes easily break through heavy shielding; 8 novaxes don't(if there are sera shields, mobile shield spam and shield assist, novaxes will never break no matter how many).

If I ever start novax spam i usually end it with 6 novaxes being sat crashed on 3 SMDs or other valible targets and reclaimed to get mavor.

This is incorrect. 6 Novax, possibly 5, can be staggered such that the beam never ends. At this point, there is no reasonable defense in the game which can stop it. I have made replays in the past proving it can get through any reasonable Seraphim shielding. The only thing which showed promise was the sheer bulk of the UEF bubble scu.

[Exotic_Retard]

buff the speed of the actual satellite. a faster novax would be easier and nicer to use, and better vs units, since it can be used to catch them now

(also there is less of a start up time - atm 3 min on 20x20 - before the sat starts doing damage)

[Apofenas]

This is incorrect. 6 Novax, possibly 5, can be staggered such that the beam never ends. At this point, there is no reasonable defense in the game which can stop it. I have made replays in the past proving it can get through any reasonable Seraphim shielding. The only thing which showed promise was the sheer bulk of the UEF bubble scu.

In my gaming experience i saw even 10+ sats struggling to break through heavy shielding. And 23 sats being completely useless against shield assist from paragon.

Spoiler: show

eventually guy with sats decided to crash a couple through shields though

However Dukes and mavor don't really care about shield assist, t2 and mobile shields as they have way too big damage per shot and huge AOE.
So i won't believe you untill i see proof. Why? because their dps stays same: 1200dps-168 regen/sec which will take like 20 sec to take 21k shield out, isn't it? 3 shields with 25 sec recharge covering each other would be able to recover fast enough. Theoreticly.