OMG Uber Cannon is so OP. Fix now!

or...
"How I learned to love change."

The main thrust of this post is: when you find yourself thinking something is overpowered -
Check Your Premises.
Chances are you aren't thinking about counter strategies and have already written them off based on your own bias or the balance prior to these changes.

What does all this change mean?
Well, I'm glad you asked. It's almost like I read your mind.

It means that the game is not balanced. Not by a long shot. However, this build is specifically focuses on getting the 'big rocks' in place.

What are the big rocks?

• Game pace is in the ballpark. It means that most games tech increases at a good pace. End-game scenarios come on line at the proper time. The time cost of playing out strategies is approximately what we're shooting for. Game pace has a lot to do with build times, economy balance, and movement speeds. It is not final.
• Unit balance is in the ballpark. This means that the unit roster is fairly close to what I'd call 'foundational'. Not every unit we're ever going to build is in the game. However, I believe that the units that are in in the game feature a broad swath of available strategies. Those units' numbers are balanced in such a way that they fit the roles needed to execute those strategies. Unit balance has mostly to do with unit health, firepower, and special abilities. It is not final.

What can we expect?

• The commander is powerful. No seriously. He's your commander and he's powerful. The Uber Cannon is very powerful and intentionally so. It's made for stopping early game rushes, but also at a cost and to not be too powerful late game.
  • "But Scathis, you just made commander rushing OP." - Again, lots have changed. There are some strong downsides to commander rushing you may have to consider. You may find it powerful at first, then find counters you haven't considered. Check your premises.
• Orbital, Air, Naval, Land layers all have strengths, weaknesses, and are an integral part of the entire gameplay experience to Planetary Annihilation.
  • "But Scathis, Naval and Orbital sucks." - Again, lots have changed. Nothing is final. If you are playing solely a ground game and can't manage to counter a strategy, look to these terrain layers. Also - Check your premises.
• Things will continue to change. This is only the first swipe at getting the balance 'in the ballpark'. I feel like we've got the game to a point where I have a foundation to build from. What we had before was not a balance that could be built upon. If you find yourself thinking the balance is wrong and it will never change, Check your premises.
  • "But Scathis, you only put out an update every couple of weeks, what if there's a balance emergency." - If there is a true balance emergency, we can do hot fixes. Those do happen from time to time. However, if you think there is a balance emergency and something is crazy over powered and we haven't addressed it quickly, maybe you should... Check your premises.

That is all. It's an exciting time and I'm looking forward to see how everyone uses, and probably breaks, the new gameplay and balance. It's best to get these big changes out of the way first, as anyone who's been through Super MNC's beta/balancing process can attest.

If you have additional or more in-depth feedback, please see our balance discussions.
https://forums.uberent.com/forums/balance-discussions.84/

On first pass,game looks well and plays better.

Certainly is quite the big patch.

Gonna be really interesting to see how everyone's playstyles change because of this.

Not gonna lie. I am concerned about the Commander changes, but I'm excited about them too. Just gotta play it a bunch and see how it all goes.

*cracks knuckles*

Time to get cracking I suppose.

I am too. But I can either continue to guess how thousands of players are going to use it and counter it or I can release it and see how those thousands of players actually use it, then make changes from there.

That's what we get for being apart of the iterative process, right?

You break things to fix them.

Now we gotta see if this is when you break it to fix it, or if this is the fix to what was broken.

Sometimes what players think is broken is their perspective of the game. The stats sometimes say otherwise.

You are just my favourite guy right now.

i have nothing to add yet, it must not be at steam yet

So I'm back, gunships are pretty cheap. . The commanders weapon seems fine. Countering a commander in TA could work because when he rushed your base it was easy enough to kill his energy. High hp of the powerplants makes this a hard exchange considering a com walk into your energy field has potential for game over time.

Scathis.. for President of the Earth .. 2016

well at least until someone puts rockets on the moon and ruins it for all of us..

I'm gonna' love linking people to this when they post new "x is OP" threads.

So emmm. Something needs to be fixed I think.

http://www.twitch.tv/clopse1/b/504566113

What in the way of stats and numbers can you publish about how units are used?

Thank You, Scathis

Indeed

It's all in the build.

dude take out a players power first then he cant use it at all

We call that the Clopse Build.
http://www.twitch.tv/clopse1/b/504566113

And the trouble with fighting it is that I can't see an easy way to scout it quickly enough to be able to properly respond.

Personally it looks like it's only feasible due to how much health the commander has. While less health makes it harder to defend with the commander, it makes it a lot easier to push it away before it manages to force the final engagement.

I'll go run a few games this way and see what comes of it.

Sorry, I didn't understand that at all.

And... this is exactly what I was afraid of.

Edit: It's Halo Wars all over again.