Currently, I believe walls have a number of problems. First among them is balance. By this, I mean that building large stretches of walls in front of defenses make the area nearly impenetrable to enemy armies. Walls are tough and block incoming fire. This in and of itself is not a bad thing. The problem is that when players build large lines of walls around their bases, it is nearly impossible to break through without the use of a nuke. In addition, the longest range artillery unit (the Sheller) has a range of 160. The short range artillery defense has a range of 260. This means that there are no units that can defeat the walls without being in range of even tier 1 defenses. So how can one defeat the walls currently? Well, you can avoid them entirely... or nuke them. But if the only way to destroy walls efficiently is nuking them, or going around, walls would seem to eliminate the purpose of ground warfare. And ground warefare is what most people find the most fun part of this game. So, in a sense, I guess I am arguing that walls, in their current state, reduce the overall "fun" level of the game. Currently, the "Gentleman's Rules" allow only 1 wall piece per defense tower. While this "works" for the most part to alleviate someone from building a giant set of walls, it requires people play by a set of rules not actually in the game. I would rather the game itself be actually balanced. Moreover, walls are clunky to place. People who can click faster have an advantage in placing large stretches of wall. But over a decade ago Age of Empires perfected the "click and drag" wall building approach. So why not drastically reduce wall strength, and make it a click and drag system that is not as clunky or difficult to use. In this way, people could also build well defined bases. Base building, in that sense, is something many players throughly enjoyed in AOE, and I think many players would enjoy if it was available here. Also: Gates, so that units don't have to go around walls! Again, this is present in much older games, I don't see why this can't be implemented here. Bottom line: Weaker walls, the click and drag method for construction, and gates would make the game more balanced and more fun. Thoughts?
I agree even with small nerfs walls are still too O.P., Neutrino's currently working on being able to build them in a line, best to anticipate. I think they could really do with being shot over by t2 units and a health nerf. there's going to be t2 walls anyways if I understand correctly.
@tatsujb lol at elevator music . I accidentally hit the post button after I typed a sentence and a half lol. Also, that is interesting; I had not previously seen a reference to t2 walls. At this point I might question the need for them given the strength of current walls... But I suppose we shall see.
I think the biggest problem is that wall are blocking shots. I admit I havent tried them for a while, maybe they are not as bad as they were before. But generally it should make no difference to a 1v1 of 2 tanks if wall is between them or not. The last time I tried it could make a difference and 1 wall + 1 tank was much more powerful than 1 tank. Make walls so small that they dont block shots from any side and only block movement and make them cheaper. Look at the FA walls: they cost maybe 1 or 2 mass and have 4k hp. But they are not imba at all...
To me the walls are OP yes, but not because of their stats. Building one wall has the same cost as a t1 mobile unit but can't do anything. It mean that building walls make an area hard to get to but only this area, while with mobile units you can grant yourself map control. With this map control it is not really hard to get enough ressources to build a LOT of T1 tanks and few mobile artillery/T2 tanks to do the real damage. The defense shoot to the closest unit so you just have to send your T1 tanks in first line to allow your T2 to pierce the line. Once done, you can either send a second wave or build a counterpart of the defense you want to pierce (in range if you can, and then the ennemy loose his position, or just a bit out of it and you can build your factories here). A fortified position can hold only if it evolve. Because of the cost, you can't fortity enough of the planet to not be in a loosing by economy situation, even with walls. And even if you manage to secure a large proportion of the planet, you won't be able to make ALL of the perimeter strong enough to stop an assault. It's up to the attacker to find the weak spot(s), once done, turrets and walls won't be able to do anything for the base as they can't move. Yesterday i've played a game againt someone who had built a huge defense line with walls, T1 arties all along mixed with laser turrets and T2 Arties, i've manage to pierce and get half of his energy production with +/-300 t1 tanks. It's all about how you manage your units and that's the point of my post. Walls are not OP by themselves, they are because of the lack of formation management. If you can send your units in line with some space between each units, the T2 arty can only get 2 or 3 tanks at a time instead of 6-8 and then their lifespan increase a lot. Enough, to give the time to your mobile arty (arty bots are really good at it) to take out enough stationnary arties by shooting behind the walls to pierce if not on the first wave, at least with the second. Walls are really good to multiply the defensive potential of the position but their purpose is to delay, to be buffers. They can give you some time but they can't compensate a loosing by economy situation. With just some formations management i'm pretty sure they will not be a problem anymore.
Well that and the mobile artillery is either so bad that no one uses them, or that no one uses them from the meta and so can't deal with walls when compared to the more mobile competitive play.
The arty bot is not that bad to me. The "arty tank" should be faster and have a slightly better range but that's it. The arty bot is a really good unit to pierce small fortification, that and if you manage to get them behind the defensive line of a turtler they can ruin his eco really fast, way faster than any other unit. The only way he can stop them is either with mobile units or stationnary arty as the arty bots can take out any other turrets without taking any damage. However, the arty tank (just 2 or 3 of them is already enough) are REALLY efficient to stop a compact assault of tanks on your troops or any position.
