Holkins priority on the enemy commanders

Discussion in 'Balance Discussions' started by netpyxa, June 2, 2019.

  1. netpyxa

    netpyxa Active Member

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    I dont think that this is a good idea. In a couple of FFA games that i have played i have found that once you build Holkins and T2 radar then every enemy commander in 600 radius will automatically be targeted (only using RADAR DATA without actual visual identification) and very quickly destroyed.

    I think that we need target priority: commander properties be removed from all long range units (Ares, Holkins, the battleship). Targeting a particular commander imo should include proper recon and manual input.

    What do you think?
    onyxia2, Quitch and cdrkf like this.
  2. lulamae

    lulamae Planetary Moderator

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    You have to recon the commander yes? Just can't be a blip on the radar" Or can it?
  3. netpyxa

    netpyxa Active Member

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    Just radar blip and targeting is done 100% automatically without any player input.
  4. lulamae

    lulamae Planetary Moderator

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    If the Holkins knows which blip is the commander without the player having scouted/seen it first, then I would agree with you.
  5. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    Once you have scouted a unit - and you'll scout a Commander in the opening minutes - the game remembers it forever. So you see a Commander once, and units will always know which blip is the Commander from that point forward.
  6. xankar

    xankar Post Master General

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    It would be nice if we had radar differentiation between units and structures, as well as separate radar targeting priorities and visibility targeting priorities.

    For example, have radar-based artillery targeting priorities be:
    1. Closest enemy units
    2. Closest enemy structures
    Then, if you have visibility on things in range, switch over to visibility-based targeting priorities:
    • e.g., visible enemy commander vs radar-visible structure........ it would target the commander
    • e.g., visible structure vs radar-visible structure........ it would target whichever was closest (or something).
    Something else that would be handy is: if said artillery lost target priority data even if radar is kept but visibility is lost. So, if you had vision on the enemy commander before and your artillery was focusing in on it, then artillery targeting priorities would fall back to the above radar-based targeting priorities in the examples above once visibility of the commander was lost.

    I don't think this will affect the game much, at least in any bad ways. Specifically, with radar differentiation. The worst result I can think of is pelter creeps becoming a little less effective if you're able to see radar-structure blips as a separate icon from radar-unit blips. Although, this isn't really anything that would much change if someone decides to spend the 60 metal to scout out a pelter creep anyways.

    Also, why does the commander have the highest targeting priority on so many of the things in this game?
    Last edited: June 6, 2019
  7. killerkiwijuice

    killerkiwijuice Post Master General

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    Because if you keep on sending a unit over to the enemy base, they'll attack the commander by accident and eventually the comm will die from all of these repeated hits. Can't believe we didn't think of this strategy before.
  8. xankar

    xankar Post Master General

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    Makes sense.
  9. netpyxa

    netpyxa Active Member

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    Or just remove the commander priority targeting and everything else is really fine.

    It is always easy to prioritize a single commander manually anyway. You do that by ordering the attack on said unit. After that you can order your vehicles to move elsewhere but they will keep shooting said target (they have rememebered your order) and this is a feature in our game AI. Your units only stop prioritizing said target if you issue a STOP command.

    On the other hand Holkins automatically prioritizing Ares is a very welcome change and changes metagame making Holkins effective defence against Ares in the ending stages of large games.
  10. MrTBSC

    MrTBSC Post Master General

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    i agree with xankar
    there definetively should be differentition between visual unitpriority and radarblib priority ..
    so what should happen is:

    if the commander gets into visual range then the holkins or any artillery (that currently have the com priority)
    should indeed use that priority .. if the commander gets back into range were Artillery can only attack blibs then
    it should keep attacking the comm but not because it knows it´s the comm but it´s the unit it currently focuses on until it´s either destroyed, gets of range or the holkins changes targets based on visual/blip priority ...
    makes sense?

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