Re: "the gimmicky laser moon"

It never before occured to me that a single engineer + catalyst or haley could be used to attract nuclear weapons fire.
It does sound cheaper (but slightly more micro-managerish) then building anti-nuke.
And since the AI actually targets haleys, it works against that one too.

I alsmot thought you were going to say "to attarct nukes into you waitign anti-nukes", but this varaint works out too.

Catalysts/halleys work by far the best as nuke (or SXX bait, I've got plenty of free SXX kills with a waiting umbrella by a catalyst). This is partly just psychological I guess, people go 'ermahgerd super weapon must destroy' but also I think I'm correct in saying that they're always visible, even without radar coverage?

Anyway I find baiting resource intensive weapons with a single catalyst/halley is pretty effective on a lot of occasions.

At least they appear on orbital Radar.

Maybe double the build time or metal cost, so it's still a game winner, but really hard to actually complete.

i just want to add -- and we do appreciate the feedback -- that we still view the metal planet laser as a balanced, game-ending weapon. of course, i really like this conversation. please continue. just wanted to make sure everyone knows where we are on the laser.

wow.... like what's the point now ??

To discuss why it might not be as balanced, or other things that could make laser gameplay funner

i dunno. i feel like this is just a tad knee-jerky. feel free to discuss the good and the bad constructively. provide examples, maybe even. there's lots of conversation to be had about the weapon. i just want to make sure you're aware of how we feel about the weapon and its design. it's pretty natural for a developer to design something that they're proud of and believes works really well.

Well the unit functions as a map size decreaser.

Just like the asteroids.

This is one of the main reasons for all of this game's shortcomings. And I don't mean that in a rude kind of way, its just that the developers are the least capable people of judging their own game.

no because you can immediately destroy all of the map, whereas the asteroid functions as a map size decreaser just like you said which really illustrates it's progressive nature.

I personally agree with Uber on the annihilasor. It's powerful but also very difficult to actually get in a game with opponents of equal skill.

It's very easy for something to feel very OP if your on the receiving end of it, however in this case I think it's more likely a result of imbalanced games. A very strong team that expands to other planets and has a massive resource advantage will easily use an annihilasor to kill the weaker team. In a game where the teams and resources are even, the opponents will be able to prevent all 5 catalysts getting on line without much hassle (it's really hard to defend, especially as you can can't put defences in the middle of them so you can pretty much always attack them).

Well the Annihilaser is still a game-ender, even with a cool down..of lets say 5 min after the first shot

You're kinda giving off mixed signals here, Brad.

You're basically saying "We think the annihilaser is perfect where it is, so we're not going to change it. But we do enjoy hearing your input on how it's imperfect and should be changed."

i disagree. we have an opinion. and maybe you have an opinion.

What I got from it is that Brad's saying that it actually fits their idea of balance you see... People see it as imbalanced because they're looking at it wrong. It being game ender, super weapon, was literally the point. It pretty much works exactly as Uber imagined it to.

I feel it could at least use a cost increase though, as it's similar in cost to a galley yet can fire multiple times, AND destroy a planet.

This is rather an alien concept in the strange dimension known as the 'Internet'...

*i agree*

Brad, I believe the asteroid smash is underpowerd compared to the lazor. You know it well Brad. Yes I'm referring to what happened at PAX.

I'm not saying a smash would destroy an entire planet, but it should at least destroy a lot more than it does now. Which also gives space for cool lava destruction effects. The lazor is fine if it's balanced with other annihilation weapons.

I think attacking Brad is wrong, because as people already said, this weapon is balanced in its way and serves good and specific role in game. You can easly deny metal planet if you are a good player.