Patch 3703 Beta

[Elusive]

Haveing just read the updated changelog in detail I can say that im very happy with most of the changes. Send my thanks to the balance team. But I still do want to comment or be clarified on a few things.

Static Flak gets a buildtime buff to be more in line with other static AA buildtimes.
Mass cost: 392 → 400
Energy cost: 3920 → 4000
Buildtime: 958 → 540

Massive drop in build time plus res costs much easier on the eye are good changes, but stationary t2 flak is generally considerd to be a poor choice and this doesnt really do anything to change that. It would be nice if it was a little more effective against t3 air.

The mass cost for repairing in air staging platforms is removed to prevent units from becoming trapped in the platforms while stalling mass. The energy cost of repairing is increased. It is also buildable by T1 engineers to allow for easier refueling of planes far from the main base.
Tech level: 2 → 1
Repair Mass cost: 0.5 → 0
Repair Energy cost: 5 → 30
Buildtime: 534 → 450

10/10 great change. The only thing I can comment on is perhaps it may be benifical if air stageing could gain adjacency bounuses, but thats besides the point.

Assisting Nuke Launchers has been nerfed by increasing the buildtime of the missile and proportionally increasing the buildpower of the launcher.
BuildPower: 1080 → 1500
Missile Buildtime: 324000 → 450000
Assisting Nuke Launchers has been nerfed by increasing the buildtime of the missile and proportionally increasing the buildpower of the launcher. It also get a nerf of build time for consistency with experimentals' built time nerf of last balance patch.

Not so much a comment on this change its self, but are there any plans to do something similar with nuke subs/seraphim battleship or is this just being reserved for SML structures?

T2 shields are getting a nerf to their buildtime and their recharge time. Cybran have buildpower buff to compensate, so they can upgrade on their own as fast as before.
ED3
Recharge Time: 18 → 25
Buildtime: 1067 → 2200
Buildpower: 30.575 → 29.3

Is this a typo or is the ED3 actually getting its build power reduced ontop of haveing its build time doubled?

[keyser]

Is this a typo or is the ED3 actually getting its build power reduced ontop of haveing its build time doubled?

its BP has been reduced because the BT on the ED4 has been reduced.

[Little Miss Murder]

Hi guys,

Are all new "FAF" team and ladder games automatically using this patch now? Or must you still select FAF beta?

When I select "FAF" as the game type, the lobby reads "3703", not 3703 beta. I have no idea what's what and the blurb on the news tab doesn't provide any further information.

Thanks!
Rhianne

PS I'm grateful for any Bulwark nerfs. Those things are ridiculous.

[FtXCommando]

Ladder uses the default balance, not the beta patch. Custom games will only use the beta patch if the host launches with the beta patch.

[Apofenas]

Massive drop in build time plus res costs much easier on the eye are good changes, but stationary t2 flak is generally considerd to be a poor choice and this doesnt really do anything to change that. It would be nice if it was a little more effective against t3 air.

I tried to suggest MuzzleVelocity increase to make this thing catch t3 air way better. This would probably make it a good option in team game maps like Wonder against early strat rush or air loss so land players could get at least some sort of defence themselves.

10/10 great change. The only thing I can comment on is perhaps it may be benifical if air stageing could gain adjacency bounuses, but thats besides the point.

The thing with air staging facilities is that they don't exactly consume energy. They to apply the effects like energy drain and regen to the units themselves. Right now it is -300 e/sec and than restores 50 hp 10 times a second.
The power consumption didn't go away so it may still cause your units to stuck in air staging facility. Let's see if it is the problem in beta. -300 e is a lot of e for early stages.

Sadly these are still a pain to build with t1 engines. 450 BT is 1:30 for t1 engie

[5cript]

The build time of T3 Arty have been increased to keep up with BT nerf of experimentals that happened last balance patch

Emissary (Aeon): 30764 → 120000
Hovatham (Seraphim): 29792 → 110000
Duke (UEF): 30278 → 115000
Disruptor (Cybran): 29308 → 105000


aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!! why?
the buildpower nerf on the experimentals was already a big pain.

And the exp nerf had a reason, so that T3 land had a place. This is just for conformancy for them? why?

[Farmsletje]

t4 buildtime nerf indirectly buffed t3 arties. With this change the balance should be the same as it previously was.

[keyser]

Because of the nerf bt on the experimental, while not applied on the T3 arty, lead people to build less experimental, and more T3 arty. Usually they didn't scale up their BP, and were looking to spend all their mass into a T3 arty, as they used to do on experimental before. Ending up with accelerated T3 arty/turtle phase.
This effect wasn't foreseen in the last patch, and we patch that out.

Hopefully the desired outcome of the T3 rebalance with this new change is to give :
- a longer T2 phase, since T3 is less rushable/cost effective
- a real T2/T3 transition phase (T2 still worth it for a while)
- a T3 phase, less prominent than before the T3 rebalance
- an experimental phase, with stronger experimental in comparison to T3 unit ; but more difficult to reach, requiring the necessity to get the infrastructure (BP) to be able to get them in a decent amount of time
- a T3 artillery phase, that comes later into the game, and start when the experimental phase is already established
- the T3/experimental/T3artillery phase will overlap, since T3 will still be worth it to spam, experimental will still help for base busting/crowd control, T3 artillery will still be useful to inflict damage in situation where land attack are extremely risky.
- the game ender also get a BT nerf.

Overall the BT nerf also give some consistency. It requires player to scale up their BP in function of their tech advancement and mass income. An engineer will not all of a sudden spend 10 times more mass on a project because of the tech advancement lead to a decrease BT/mass ratio. Finally it also lead to some diversity, eg salvation being more rushable than other game ender (it always been a disregarded unit, and this is also necessary for not breaking the paragon vs other game ender balance)

[5cript]

Ok, I don't like it, but I respect your explanation as sensical and valid.

[LabPunk]

Won't these BP nerves give Cybran and UEF an undue advantage in the late stages?