I don't have any information on upcoming units at this time.
I am not aware that Champions are being looked at for rebalancing at this time.
OF champions are good canon fodder for points in GvG.I will bring it up so the devs are aware of the general feelings about it.
just wondering will the goods produced from GB's etc move to next ERA? start producing ''The Future'' instead of Tomorrow?
This wouldn't make any sense in amid of an era....just wondering will the goods produced from GB's etc move to next ERA?
Thanks for that, Forgot that the bonus was added on top of the damage reduction. (assuming that was the case) What I also forgot was on top of that, the unit is now weaker for by being damaged.
We also don't know how Inno simulates the fights. it could be they do it without buffs since they may want to remove as many variables as possible.
The poison skill seems like an attempt to counter reactive armor, but because of how it functions, and because of the RNG factor, it's a very poor counter.
My proposed solution: remove the poison ability and add a previously popular ability called "power shot".
This ability would allow mantas to actually beat the units it is supposed to counter:
- shoots through eel stealth
- shoots through crab armor
However it would still be weak against the counters due to the low range. This would let cruisers and turrets kill them easily still.
It's very possible...if they even simulate them at all. If they did, I feel like mantas would never have had the flying ability in the first place!
@Zarok Dai thanks for the announcement about the manta rebalancing. Why only 9 range instead of 10, though? I presume it's to keep them from retaliating against Surrogate Soldiers (who are boosted against light and have 10 range), but this means they can still be outranged by eels and I can't think of any other relevant unit that 10 range would allow them to retaliate against (they do still get outranged by Battle Fortresses and Behemoths, however). Time will tell if the defense increase and the rather substantial increase in fast bonuses will be enough to compensate for the fact that they'll be taking retaliation as well from an eel they approach in the bushes...as well as the fact that, although they're boosted against heavy units, the AF heavy units are also boosted against light units and feature either stronger armor (than crabs) or the ability to stealth...as well as enough range to avoid Contact completely.
This is a very interesting idea and would indeed allow it to handily deal with its boosted units, with the bonus of also being effective against the AF units below it (it's going to fall very short in this regard with only the Contact ability). However, I think power shot doesn't really make sense for the Manta from a thematical perspective. For the Rail Gun, you had this hulking monstrosity of a weapon that quite clearly was capable of firing devastating blasts of energy at its targets. This little machine modeled after a sea creature though? I'm not sure if it makes as much sense here.
As it is, though, mantas are worthless against units they are supposed to counter from earlier ages. Namely hover tanks, battle fortresses, and behemoths. Plus eels, as stated above.
True, but my solution is intended to be more relevant to balance than theme.
As it is, though, mantas are worthless against units they are supposed to counter from earlier ages. Namely hover tanks, battle fortresses, and behemoths. Plus eels, as stated above.
Don't eels have a range of 10? So even with this rebalancing mantas won't be able to retaliate against them, nor hit them directly when they hide in bushes. With a movement of 24 vs eels' 35, eels will be able to kite them almost every turn unless terrain is very unfavorable. Kinda useless upgrade imo...at least in theory.
Looking forward to feedback from people who have tested them in battle. (sadly i cant test, only in CA on beta)
But I'm thinking if mantas remain the way there are ... at least GE will be easier for us
I do think theming is important to the developers, at least to a degree. In some cases abilities do seem to be there just for balance purposes (like Contact), but in others it seems more like it's because the ability 'fits' the unit. Of course it's all up to the developers in the end, but to me personally it'd be odd to give a Rail Gun's power to something so small.
Inno seems to have forgotten about Hover Tanks by now, though at any time that could be changed similar to what happened with Rail Guns (though that wasn't as bad as people wanted to make it out to be). It's quite true that they're still relevant today, though that's also in large part due to dumb AI for fast and light units. I feel like Mantas will probably be able to handle Behemoths in most cases but Battle Fortresses are definitely a weakness. It doesn't help that AF heavies are boosted against light units, either. This is unlikely to change, though, as the developers tend not to focus on cross-age balancing and only on units from within the same age.
Behemoths outrange mantas. When a unit has contact, it is only good against other units with equal or less range. This is one reason why the TE light unit is so weak. It's also why anti aircraft does poorly vs combat drones, despite being boosted against them.
Anyway, I don't really see how unit abilities are themed. For example, what do turtles have to do with area of effect damage?
Setting that aside, giving power shot to a unit with 5 range isn't the same as giving it to a unit with 30 range. Rail guns were only powerful because they could kill everything in 2 hits without taking much damage.
Hehe, what's the defense on that one? All lvl 4 is beatable with about 180% attack and no high Orangery....And then there is battle #56 (Nr. 6 of stage 4 GE), which cannot be beaten by units - but only by insanely high GBs:
* Orangery level 80+: two or three crabs + rogues might work
* Zeus, Aachen, CDM all at level 80+: 1 drone + rogues might work (I have only read that - not sure whether this should be a TE combat drone or an AF dragon drone.)
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