Boom is EXTREMELY useless.

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by tehtrekd, March 24, 2014.

  1. nick2k

    nick2k Active Member

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    I've actually found them useful when being attacked by unsupported vanguards.
  2. Shalkka

    Shalkka Active Member

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    It's not like any of the other units have any staying power so the downside of the unit isn't that big a difference from the rest.
    igncom1 likes this.
  3. sycspysycspy

    sycspysycspy Active Member

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    Isn't that what ordinary artillery does ? except the fact that artillery are not able to target another planet.
  4. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    I've seen commander snipes with them.

    they are overlapped in how they are used, if they are to be one time shots those shots have to be plausible to land and effective in damage. Right now they do land pelter damage. Just, a good bit of aoe, and some more health, and they will be threatening to keep at distance. Also, should auto detonate at max range or not try to stop short.
    MrTBSC likes this.
  5. mjshorty

    mjshorty Well-Known Member

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    10 health, less then anything else in the game, 1 dox is ult counter to 10 of them D=
  6. aevs

    aevs Post Master General

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    Since there's damage falloff, I disagree here. Who's to say if you want to run up close to a unit and explode or if you want to explode earlier and deal less damage?
    Instead, I think there's a different change that could make them very useful and extremely easy to micro (and would probably simplify their AI a bit too); detonation on death (when not in a unit transport). Since there's no friendly fire using them in groups is still just as viable, dropping them with transports is now very viable, and running them towards a tower is still a bad idea. There's no need to chose when to blow them up, as getting closer is better but if they can't get there without being destroyed, they are still able to do some damage (against, say, a flame tank that would currently cut through a horde of them like butter)
    They would also then pose a threat if kept at the back of an army until close combat occurs, in which case they would be very useful as they would still deal quite a bit of damage instead of just the occasional successful explosion.
  7. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    that would simplify things
  8. thetdawg3191

    thetdawg3191 Active Member

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    I've occasionally mixed them in when teleporting in an invading bot army. i can definitely agree they're for swiftly taking out undefended targets, or ones that lack range (like infernos and vanguards). however, when set to attack area, or patrol, they don't respond correctly. yes, it takes an ungodly amount of them to crush any defense at all. but then again, why are you using only booms? the way i use them, to booms charge in, distracting fire and potentially revealing gaps or weak areas in a defense, which they proceed to blow open. their superior speed and spammabilty means you can rip them out for a quick (though short lived) response. they're also excellent for chasing down fleeing comms, despite the fact that many will die.

    if nothing else, their very presence can sometimes induce panic if utilized correctly.

    so i'll go ahead and say using them is a gamble.
  9. christer1966

    christer1966 Member

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    It would be good if they had more health, could leap, explode and deal damage on death and go underwater. These traits would give them more of an ability to assault a base.
  10. Taxman66

    Taxman66 Well-Known Member

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    They should be able to charge into a target once they get very close, where they are unable to take damage once they do. This is like the mercies from Forged Alliance, which were actually a useful suicide weapon since once they reached the the proximity of the target they would turn into a 'projectile' rather than stay as a vulnerable 'unit'.
  11. keterei

    keterei Active Member

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    Use them with transports. Two pretty cheap units which can do a lot of damage quickly, after you've gotten rid of defenses.
  12. philoscience

    philoscience Post Master General

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    A big problem is that their attack commands are totally bugged right now. If you tell them to area attack they will all attack the exact same nearest object (usually a wall) and if you tell them to direct fire they often will bug out and not attack anything at all. In my game the only way I could direct fire them was by attacking the ground rather than structures. They would be useful if they were slightly faster with more hp, and if giving area commands would have them disperse throughout the entire target area. That way you could build 30-40 of them and area attack an entire wall installation or undefended area to prepare for your main invasion.
  13. whiterocker

    whiterocker Member

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    Everyone who have played TA without mods know that this is exactly how they works. Except from that they explode if you destroy them.
  14. websterx01

    websterx01 Post Master General

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    It's always fun to drop 100 of them on an enemy comm and watch it get overwhelmed, even if it is slowly. As a proper unit, they're totally useless. They have good potential, particularly for being a second wave in an attack when your enemy is trying to repair.
  15. melhem19

    melhem19 Active Member

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    the boom bot need a little more speed, a little more heath, and a less cost
  16. madmecha

    madmecha Active Member

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    I like the idea of them leaping into the air to attack their target. If when they reach their attack range they fired a rocket that shot them to the target. They would momentarily be considered "Aircraft" instead of ground. Now that would mean AA could kill them, but they would now have a roll that's very different then normal ground. With them leaping they also could jump over walls, over structures, over rocks!, over water ways. Could see a lot of sneaky things you could do with them.

    I keeping thinking exploding Flee. Make them faster then current and give them the leaping ability.
  17. fabiotche

    fabiotche New Member

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    The Booms can be effectivelly used as scouts? Since they are faster and have bigger vision radius than doxes it can't be used to fast destroy expansions really early?

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