To be honest the Anti Nuke is a piece of crap. And the best policy to have is mutually assured destruction.
Every game turning into a nuke-spamfest is one of the reasons I stopped playing this game for now. The binary gameplay that it brings just annoys me too much. A rebalance of the anti-nukes is certainly something I'll be looking out for.
Nuke spam? I just rush a nuke if I start losing ground, nuke the guys production, and finish him off with ants and levelers, or T2 bombers if I have them. Only nuke spam I have seen was once during a three way team game, each side had at least one nuke (it was a little weird watching them all lose their bases lol) I do wish nukes were more than just a to hit or not to hit mechanic, but that just makes them a priority target for a bomber snipe.
Like you say yourself, "I just rush a nuke". As if it's a standard solution to losing ground. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Sending in units, while using the nuke to finish him off?
I was losing ground though As in, I was losing the unit war. Sometimes I go orbital instead of nuking, just depends on the situation. Sometimes the extra intel + energy orbital provides gives me the edge I need. Just remembered: I was playing Mot a few days ago in a FFA4 (unfortunately I did not know how he operates). I took out one guy using a nuke (losing the unit war, so I nuke his production and energy, he pulled back and I mopped up), then turned my attention to the rest of the battlefield. Too late. Mot dominated the entire map, whereas I had only expanded as far as I needed to sustain my production (which was not a lot). He sent all 2000+ units of his at me in bunches. I fired 4 nukes in total before I was overwhelmed, destroying half of his on-field units, though he managed to produce them back into the field before defeating me. That was nuke spam, right there: 100% of my build power on a single nuke launcher, pumping one out every 50 seconds or so. Did it help? Yes, it was quite effective. Was it significant? No. Nukes are a low skill/high power tactic, and Uber has rightfully built into the game ways to completely negate the effect of nukes. I use them now because I am not an amazing player. I have quite a few weaknesses, and I attempt to patch the holes by using nukes. Later down the road, I'll be using it more tactically, but for now, its a FOO strategy.
I expect at some point anti-nuke missiles will come down to the ~33% of a nuke cost they were in TA/FA/Supcom2. Right now it's a bit silly.
Had one today where someone targeted the edge of the anti-nuke radius. My anti-nuke fired and the nuke hit at about the same time, basically wasting the anti-nuke missile. I now believe that there is simply no point in building anti-nukes. It's a waste of metal that should go into an additional nuke. If you build a nuke and your opponent builds an anti-nuke, you can always nuke everything right up to the anti-nuke or anything to the sides. If you both build nukes then it's a race to see who finishes first and can scout properly. Extra true in multi-team games where you can't be sure which direction the next nuke will come from.
Had that happen to me today. 10 person, 5 double teams. One team built SIX nukes, and proceeded to nuke snipe all of us. All of us. Me and my pal had the most units on the field, but that didnt matter when he could just drop 150 fighters onto my base to find our CDRs. Really short game lol.
I think that the small radius makes sense, otherwise you would never be able to nuke anything since you could cover all your eco in anti-nukes, it makes you very vulnerable.
Um. This doesn't stop some turtle-extremists i've played (and let turtle to my mistake). I've seen upwards of 15-16 Anukes in one base, covering the entire base. He even had ANukes outside his laser turret lines. Mind, I had nuked the other 2 players economy to death before using ants and levelers to finish them off. So he had a reason to be paranoid - but you have to understand, I only had ONE NUKE lol.
I liked this. Honestly, there are a few natural counters for nukes. Space, spread out makes you thin against army invasion but at least it buffers it with space they must travel, and nukes can't hit anything significant. Bombers. You can snipe anything with enough bombers, and nukes are one thing. It also blows their one investment so you can chip their normal forces down. Obviously streamlining your own t2 gets you your nuke first. Valid strategy. Oppositely, establishing good t1 and just raiding eco to delay enemy nuke while covering lots of metal gets you your nuke pretty fast too believe it or not, it gets you late t2 but fast growth to late t2 and t3
