The vtol issue.
Posted: 17 Jun 2013, 22:17
Here is the problem with vtols, as I see it. I won't go so far as to say they are unbalanced, but I do suspect there is some tweaking to be done here. So, as succintly as I can put it:
What, in real world situations, is the counter to a medium body vtol swarm, when it makes its first appearance? I know there is AA, but realistically a player will be by that time very busy, so it's not the same thing as countering standing armies. Out of nowhere come 30 medium vtols to bomb factories. How do you realistically stop them within the tech tree?
Light AA won't do it. Sunburst won't do it. Flak won't do it. Assault guns and cyborgs won't do it. Vtol vrs vtol is not really a counter and good luck with it anyways. That swarm will almost certainly hit home, and if the player is smart and has them on return at light damage, most of them will survive so he can do it again. I guess the real question here is: Should tier one AA weopons be stronger? All they seem to be able to kill is light bodies, and even those have to be in fairly low numbers unless there is a staggering amount of AA guns scattered about. Players that use vtols go for AA, Factories and Trucks, not necesserily in that order. It is a pretty hard hit to take for any player.
Just one more point: the question I make is on the actual capacity of the tech deployed, not on preempting the strike. Of course sometimes a person simply has not defended for it, and should take the hit. My point is that even preempting it seems to be pretty futile, and I've seen this quite a few times. The light mg AA won't kill enough of them. Sunburst has a rate of fire that is too low and tends to shoot too many missiles at the same vtol. Flak dosen't seem to be able to do much damage to anything. Cyborgs and the guns that do shoot up are weaker than AA. Lancers do some damage but not enough and have the same low RoF problem vrs vtols as the sunburst. Everything that does work, whirlwinds, SAM's, lasers is so far up the techtree that survivability untill time of deployment is the issue.
My suggestion is either tier one aa needs to be beefed up or the good stuff needs to come down the tech tree, as things stand now I maintain that first strikes with vtol swarms are too powerfull and hard (impossible when done right?) to couter to be considered a balanced and legitimate tactic. I also maintain that this is why most players ask for vtols off, because they have experience that tells them it's just too hard to counter, especially with everything else going on. And when it comes to medium body vtols and splash damage weopons that can take out AA, like thermite bombs, the issue just gets worse.
What, in real world situations, is the counter to a medium body vtol swarm, when it makes its first appearance? I know there is AA, but realistically a player will be by that time very busy, so it's not the same thing as countering standing armies. Out of nowhere come 30 medium vtols to bomb factories. How do you realistically stop them within the tech tree?
Light AA won't do it. Sunburst won't do it. Flak won't do it. Assault guns and cyborgs won't do it. Vtol vrs vtol is not really a counter and good luck with it anyways. That swarm will almost certainly hit home, and if the player is smart and has them on return at light damage, most of them will survive so he can do it again. I guess the real question here is: Should tier one AA weopons be stronger? All they seem to be able to kill is light bodies, and even those have to be in fairly low numbers unless there is a staggering amount of AA guns scattered about. Players that use vtols go for AA, Factories and Trucks, not necesserily in that order. It is a pretty hard hit to take for any player.
Just one more point: the question I make is on the actual capacity of the tech deployed, not on preempting the strike. Of course sometimes a person simply has not defended for it, and should take the hit. My point is that even preempting it seems to be pretty futile, and I've seen this quite a few times. The light mg AA won't kill enough of them. Sunburst has a rate of fire that is too low and tends to shoot too many missiles at the same vtol. Flak dosen't seem to be able to do much damage to anything. Cyborgs and the guns that do shoot up are weaker than AA. Lancers do some damage but not enough and have the same low RoF problem vrs vtols as the sunburst. Everything that does work, whirlwinds, SAM's, lasers is so far up the techtree that survivability untill time of deployment is the issue.
My suggestion is either tier one aa needs to be beefed up or the good stuff needs to come down the tech tree, as things stand now I maintain that first strikes with vtol swarms are too powerfull and hard (impossible when done right?) to couter to be considered a balanced and legitimate tactic. I also maintain that this is why most players ask for vtols off, because they have experience that tells them it's just too hard to counter, especially with everything else going on. And when it comes to medium body vtols and splash damage weopons that can take out AA, like thermite bombs, the issue just gets worse.