Pelter/Holkins the new Laser Tower?

The pelter needs either a lower rate of fire or lower accuracy. The pelter should bring range and AOE to the laser towers speed.

Laser towers definitely don't need a buff.

OR a buff that comes with a nerf, like assigning the larger ones an energy cost to fire.

When one unit is too powerful you don't buff the other units to make them equally powerful, you nerf the single unit.

we can do 2 things...
make the RoF slower
put a minimun range to fire

I still want an increased energy cost to all static weapons, possibly baring the AA rocket turret.

I'm surprised that nobody stood up in defense of the laser tower. I'm building them very frequently.
Pelters are effective against small amounts of units, while the laser tower (T2 and T3) increasingly outclasses the pelter the more units it has to fight. One pelter and two laser towers are more effective against 30 tanks than 3 pelters would be.

Seriously, a handful of bots kill a single pelter with ease, while they have far more trouble killing a laser tower.

But I have no problem with an artillery overhaul.

But reducing accuracy IS a nerf. It reduces the weapon's effective damage.

This is a good direction for defenses. Energy drain allows the turret to be cheaper, while the full cost is still required to open fire.

Of course the goal for artillery is not so much to make it cheaper, but to add liabilities that make it more difficult to use.

Increasing artillery's range, making it inaccurate, making it splash, reducing its cost, and making it cost energy to fire are all good ideas. However such a radical change is more than just a balance tweak because the unit is too strong. It is changing the entire design of the unit because it is currently not suited to its intended role.

I hate to say this but, this is a hard topic for me to answer, due to everything needing to be balanced.

Honestly, maybe they should fire slower.

I really do want defenses to have an energy cost, but I'm worried about doing it the TA way, where nothing would fire until enough energy was stored. PA seems to be trying to make the economy a little more forgiving than that. Should the rate of fire just be slowed if your energy runs out, instead of weapons becoming completely useless?

I think I saw a pelter nerf in a recent check-in. I believe it was slower firing speed and turning speed, and lower damage, but an increase in splash range. All from memory from last week, and I didn't see the numbers. It may have been in a private branch, which is code for may not make it out soon or ever, could just be for testing purposes. I know, pretty vague and not even a promise, but the point is that we're thinking about it.

I'm really happy that you guys at Uber have been more comfortable talking about this sort of thing before it's done. Thanks!

actually, i think the main problem with the pelter is that it does direct projectiles like an ant. if it fired all its projectiles in an ark like the sheller, im sure alot of problems would be fixed.