The problem is the Zeus weakness is AIR units, meaning that once again, air has a rather major advantage considering that bomber spam is also the best way to wipe out other titans as well, the Zeus needs a ground based counter, but it doesn't which in-lies the problem.
Think about what happens when we really get a ground base counter to Zeus. I think all the air units become totally useless. Currently, we already have very good counter units to the T1 bomber. The storm which has the area of effect can destroy the tones of bombers in a very short time. If we remove the Zeus from the game, it turns out that player won't build any air in the late game because the ground based AA is strong enough to against any other air units. Ground base AA too strong => No one builds bombers => No one builds fighters => Air units are useless in late game. Thanks to the Zeus, player must consider to build some fighters. Air fighters counter the Zeus. Zeus counter the ground units. And ground units counter air units except the Zeus. It is just fine. Since the Zeus already has two strong counter units: T1 and T2 fighters, the Zeus doesn't need any ground base counter. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I believe that it is no method to buff the ground based AA to counter the Zeus without influencing other air units. If the ground based AA is strong enough to counter Zeus, other air units are also countered. We can only adjust the Zeus and keep other units to stay the same. If Zeus is ineffective to ground targets, it will be come an expensive Hornet which is nearly useless in current game.
WAIT WUT, air units are already subjectivly better than AA, get a critical mass of bombers and you sort of win, add that to the speed and versatility of air and its actually rather OP.
It is true from early game to middle game, but it is not true for late game. Player knows to build the T2 AA turret and T2 AA vehicles. If you have ever rushed the bombers into the T2 AA turret, you know that the area of effect can destroy the bomber in short time. T2 AA is very important after middle game, it can prevent the enemy to snipe your commander by massive bomber. If you only use T1 AA turret and spinner, the T1 bomber are indeed very dangerous when they get too many. T1 AAs have no AOE, so they take linear time to destroy the bombers. And it may be too late to stop the enemy bombers doing something terrible.
In this game, almost everything is overpowered, and this is why we like this game due to it's fast gameplay. That beign said there are enough ways to counter zeus and when the enemy could have built more of them, he could as well built more of something else that would also grant him victory with no real counter option. Zeus is fine the way it is.
this is another problem, to kill zeus you need air, but i think the colonel can do it quite well if he spam also turret
The Zeus is a joke. Spam them with pheonixes and you're guaranteed a win every single damn time. No point in building land units. I seriously can't see how this was a logical balance decision.
It is true in large planet, land units are too slow to cross the surface. But for middle or smaller planets, I find out that the best combination is Ares, leveler, storm, and pheonixes. Zeus is not cost efficient enough to hold the air superiority. Its low HP is not good for survival, and Zeus is quite sensitive to micro mistake. Since the battle on smaller planets tends to be more compact and tense, players have no enough time and resource to spam too many titans. In this situation, Ares is a more reliable options.
I think that in small planets Atlas is better than Ares. Not only because it's awesome, but because it can destroy units much faster, and you don't need much range on small planets.
Looking through all these posts I believe we have reached a consensus: The Zeus is far too weak and should have the speed of a scout plane and the manoeuvrability of a dox. Additionally, the Zeus requires a rapid fire insta killing AA hardpoint mounted atop the vessel with a 360 degree firing arc and an rof of 2 shots per half a second.
I still think Ares is better than Atlas even in small planet. Ares has longer range and much higher HP, it is not so easy to bring it down by ground units. Ares can kite the enemy without receiving the return fire. But for Atlas, it must rush into the enemy. This makes it quite fragile to enemy levelers. Unless the planet is a very tiny planet, Ares is unable to fire due to the curvature of the ground. Otherwise, Ares are almost better than Atlas in all aspects. Nice trolling.
Make t2 snipers decent anti air (vs slow air units) and/or make missiles both stationary and mobile also hit air units and the problem is solved.
There are many ways to modify the Zeus. One of my ideas is to nerf the weapon range of the Zeus. Thus, the ground AA units and buildings can do more damage to Zeus before being destroyed. And the fighters can kite the Zeus by longer weapon range and faster movement speed.
The weapon range of the zeus is already quite small (compared to it's size). This would mean he could only attack the unit it is directly above?
Check the PADB, The weapon ranges of Zeus, spinner, and AA turret are all 100. And the range of storm is even shorter, only 80. Thus, ground based AA units and turret are inefficient to counter the Zeus. Zeus can one shoot them without receiving too much return fire. I think its weapon range can be set to 75 ~ 80. But I don't want to make Zeus as same as wyrm. Zeus should still have some weapon range, and it doesn't need to fly over its target. By the way, the weapon range of T1 and T2 fighters are 100 and 120.
perhaps he could do some less damage? his rate of fire is fast enough anyway. But the weapon range can do something to. perhaps i'm visualy mislead that i have the impression the zeus weapon range is small.
For me the balance with the Zeus is fine, titans take time to build, so you have enough time to scout them and stack more fighter in your base to only counter the Zeus. With 10 T1 fighters the Zeus didn't have time to do big damages. Ground defensive AA unit are good against more mobile unit. But they are less efficient against heavy armored air units. And I think it's ok. Zeus>AA ground>fighters>Zeus
