Update 8 [5/18/11]

Surely the OT rule is a good thing? I get intensely annoyed when we have a nice equal game, overtime comes up, and one or two assassins just buy juice and stroll into our base, destroying the ball in 5 seconds.

The only really off putting changes that stuck out were the Rocket turret and Moneyball changes.

From what I'm hearing the rocket turret change was a bad thing. I do understand that the initial set of turrets can be taken down easy but who actually made the case that the turrets needed a buff. I'm guessing it was experimental but from what I hear it is quite damaging to gameplay.

I'll have to see what the moneyball changes do but it really sets something off in me.


Other changes seem fine. I don't know about the juice changes though.

It's funny how a pc update can comfort a console player. For the first time since this game's release I no longer wish to have the updates that PC players get.

Sorry guys this update sounds like it sucks.

It does.

I wonder if there's a way to reverse the changes, both on client and server side.

The overtime thing makes sense. You screwed up and you pay the match for it. It will have some unintended side-effects and it heavily penalizes servers that aren't full 24/7, but it's an interesting step.

The juice nerf will have many interesting effects, however, across the entire spectrum of gameplay, mostly in the way of juiced players vs juiced players, but there will be several nuances and cheaper-end tactics that become invalidated from this, or will become invalid if further steps are taken in the same direction.

so.. one particular "win in 2 minutes" pubstomping strategy doesn't work anymore?

GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!

all servers set to all star rating 1star (means no one can play in AUS) still the black cloud issues with ATI cards

@zarakon - Anorite?

Indeed. A bit too much overreaction in this thread really. :|

A guy said I'm overreacting after Futuremark messed up Shattered Horizon. As it came out a few hours later, I wasn't.

Well, then let the time pass. Once it does, and if the worst comes, fetch the torches and pitchforks because it's not like a reversion patch is going to come within a day.

This is actually something I considered recommended once, but figured it would get shouted down as a horrible idea.

In most other sports I can think of, "overtime" tends to be something that's used to decide high-scoring games where the odds that the two teams are going to have the same score at the end are low. Victory goes to the team that got the most points-- there's no need for an overage unless they scored exactly the same. That's what baffled me about Overtime in MNC... it seemed to happen every single game (yes, I'm a pubscrub, you don't need to point it out), which sort of flew in the face of the concept of overage. I really don't see what incentive there will be to "turtle up" if you gain the lead... you can always, y'know, increase your lead farther, or possibly even win the game outright by continuing to play offensively. Don't forget, sitting in your base tossing up turrets is just feeding the enemy money, which they will use to break in and start hitting your moneyball.

I'm interested in how this will affect the game. If it really does RUIN ALL EVERYTHING FOREVER Uber can just revert it in a future patch.

My first thought is that I like the OT change, it's better than having a team turtling a whole match and going to zerg the moneyball in OT, but I guess it would be even better to have choices in the server config like OT only if even MB health, fixed OT, or OT until a MB is dead.

For the juice nerf... well I don't mind if the squishy assassins can't go tank turrets and destroy bases by herself anymore, maybe more people will start to understand the gunner is awesome for that task, and it would take a huge juice nerf to make the mortar stop melting turrets like butter.

Golly guys it's almost like sort of balance was implemented.

Three positives out of this patch:

1. Pubstomps are overall less likely within the first 5 minutes of the match.

2. Juice doesn't babysit players as much anymore. You still have to be on your guard and being careless can kill you regardless of your super saiyan state.

3. The idea of avoiding mistakes is emphasized. This drives a LOT more attention to bots now, meaning people will have their attention drawn to destroying them more often because simply holding out until overtime to destroy your opponent is no longer a real possibility unless you turtle, in which case the other team will have a whole lot more expendable cash than you.


Looks good to me.

How does changing the starting two Rockits to a level 2 change the game that much? I mean what if there was a trend that started where a player would upgrade the instead of buying skills?

What's the difference in having level 2 Rockit's at the start of a match then having them upgraded just shortly after the start of a match?

Also! Not a single players earns money off of the starting turrets unless they upgrade them.

In all honesty these changes help the start of a match greatly. Now the end game on the other hand....

Just went into a game, around 3 minutes until shields dropped, got another juice off the bullseye and then bought another, don't remember the actual overall time.

Not really. The defense nerf is 6% which doesn't concern me much if you're talking about raw damage. Ringouts are as powerful as they were, nothng changed. It's just that it takes me quite a while longer to fry both turrets now.

They forgot to mention that LazerBlazers do less damage to bots now
BAL_TURRET_L_DMGVSFOD was 8, is now 5.3

Not sure I like this as it pretty much punishes teams that manage to pull a turnaround but can't quite get that last push

Say Red managed to drop the Blue MB but only got a few hits on it before being pushed out and back to their own MB where they turtle up like mad til the timer runs out
At that point Red doesn't even have to try pushing anymore, they can just sit back with 6 Supports healing turrets and let the clock win it for them

Maybe re-rig OT so that the team with the weaker MB does less damage to the healthier MB?

Also, here's the full list of changes to DefaultBalance.ini between the April/May updates
4.23 | 5.18
BAL_FOD_L_SPEED 450 | 425
BAL_FOD_H_SPEED 400 | 450
BAL_TURRET_L_DMG 4 | 6
BAL_TURRET_JUICE 3 | .5
BAL_TURRET_L_DMGVSFOD 8 | 5.3
BAL_MONEY_KILLSTREAK_3 25 | 20
BAL_MONEY_KILLSTREAK_5 50 | 30
BAL_MONEY_KILLSTREAK_7 75 | 40
BAL_MONEY_KILLSTREAK_10 100 | 50
BAL_JUICE_DAMAGEMOD .33 | .4
BAL_JUICE_CRITMULT_ADD 3 | 2
BAL_JUICE_FIREINT .75 | .8

new
BAL_GAME_OT_WARNING_1= 120
BAL_GAME_OT_WARNING_2= 12
BAL_GAME_OT_END_WARNING= 12
// Turret debilitator <-Future addition? Maybe different type of Annihilator?
BAL_DEBILITATOR_COST= 250
BAL_DEBILITATOR_DEBILITATE_TIME= 15.0
BAL_DEBILITATOR_RECHARGE= 180

Looks like speeds/reload/health didn't change

looks like something to disable turrets for 15 seconds, with communication, that could be deadly....

but with the juiced damage reduction vs turrets its a lot easier to turtle into OT!