Developer blog from June 9th: upcoming balance fixes

The new set of modifications of the technical characteristics is ready and today we would like to present to you the balance fixes that will be added to our game universe. The adjustments will be related to the weapon, the system of crews, the modules and several ship bonuses.

 

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First let’s take a look at the changes of missiles. One of the most important innovations at all technical levels is that from now on the missile speeds scale according to the level of the ship just like projectile speeds .

 

Missiles

 

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Tactical warhead

This type of missiles belongs to a very fast and manoeuvrable ship - interceptor: covert ops. It wasn’t convenient in  attacking small and fast aims and the cassette volume of it was too small. In order to eliminate the drawbacks it was decided to reduce the active time, increase the damage, extend the explosion radius and to protect the warheads from the anti-missile system of frigates:covert ops. The frigate changes are presented below.

 

Energy-neutralizing missile:

The long staying visual effect of this missile in the battle field was disturbing the allies. The missile itself is used extremely seldom because of its ineffectiveness. That is why we decided to increase its one time damage and the impact of interaction, but to decrease the radius.

 

Slowing field missiles

The missile appeared not as efficient as expected due to its long action time and low damage. After the tests it was decided to increase the damage make the slowing effect more powerful. To keep the balance some of the characteristics were changed, so the radius and the duration of the slowing effect will be reduced.

 

Firestorm

The cassette of these missiles didn’t allow fighters to use it properly. To increase the efficiency and give the fighters more effective options it was decided to enhance almost all the characteristics of the storm: range, rate of fire in a volley,damage and travelling speed.

 

Cruise missile

After numerous tests it was decided that the general damage was not sufficient so an extra missile was added to the cassette.

 

EM torpedo

Quite frequently the situation arose when the frigate launched a torpedo and it exploded immediately when the enemy was near the frigate.From now on the torpedo will not explode immediately as there will be a small explosion delay.  Nevertheless the torpedo can be exploded when it meets an obstacle. To balance that the torpedo’s damage will be increased. The minefield is now available to all frigates and  should be used to fight interception.

 

Minefield and the mine

In the current version all the minefields are painted red, regardless of who set them - an ally of an enemy frigate. After the update the enemy mines will be painted red and ally mines - green. As it will change the efficiency of mines in battles it is decided to slightly increase the number in one cassette and to leave the recharging time as it is.We tried to add the mine field effect in such a way that the mines around the enemy explode more often and less powerfully. As the minefield is absolutely necessary for fighting interceptors it is now available to all the frigates.

 

Anomaly generator

Previously its damage didn’t match the visual effect, that’s why the generator was transferred from thermal to EM damage. Besides this weakens the high concentration of thermal damages in the game universe.

 

Attack drone and the dooms missile

This weapon was previously available at all technological levels. This enabled more experienced gamers to have a technical advantage in the game at lower ranks. Now these modules are available only at the higher ranks. The attack drones still exceed the frigate fight drones  and will not be changed while the one time damage of the dooms missiles  will be increased.

 

Plasma small missile

These missiles demonstrated their ineffectiveness because of the EM shield popularity. To begin with we increased the damage and the speed.

 

Weapons

The changes here were based on the feedback from the players.

 

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Destructor

Many people complained to us about the full control of the beacons with help of this weapon. However this control is a feature of the weapon but there is a safe radius. This is why it was decided to decrease the cloud radius and slightly enhance the damage.

 

Mortar

There are plenty of mortars used in the fights.We’ve got the impression that the frigates don’t an alternative weapon. As it is quite simple to master a gun and is not difficult to hit the target, it is decided to do the fix that will not effect the damage -  to decrease the explosion radius.

 

Scatter gun

On the contrary the gun is seldom used in the fights. Still we would like to keep the weapons simple for usage, but to provide alternatives.

 

The kinetic supercharger, the beam cannon and the RF blaster

These weapons showed low effectiveness in the fights of lower ranks. It was decided to increase the damage of the supercharger and the cannon, but to decrease the overheating and scattering of the blaster.

 

Modules

The players’ and testers’ opinions revealed the necessity to adjust the modules.

 

Spy drones

In the current game reality it is very easy to get rid of them, the recharging time is very long, so their ineffectiveness is clear, that is the reason to decrease the recharging time and the energy consumption.

 

Self-destruct

The low popularity of this module was explained by the inevitable death of the ship after the usage. We decided that that scenario doesn’t fit our game universe. That is why a new MECHANIC was created: after the activation all the ships in the area will be damaged but the bearing ship will have a chance to survive.

 

System hack

A new visual effect is added to give a perception of who and when activates the module, so that the enemy understands if the modules should be used or not. Previously it was impossible.

 

Guard drone

This module is simple in use and quite effective. After multiple tests it is decided to reduce the projectile speed and the maximum and optimal distance of shooting for keeping the balance.

 

Warp gate

They are rarely used because of the long recharging time. It is decided to make it usable avoid turning it into the module of survival for the engineering frigate just like a jump of long-range frigate. Also this gate appears a bit further from the ship.

 

Static barrier

Low durability and long recharging time made this module inconvenient for use. Therefore it is decided to decrease the recharging and add durability.

 

Spectre field

The module was too complicated for players and was used in well built teams only.That is why it was decided to replace the possibility to pass the shield with usual regeneration. The players still can make their allies invisible.

 

IR pulsar

The long active time didn’t allow to the enemy to capture the target. The player was vulnerable too long. The time was decreased.

 

A1MA

The module showed low effectiveness and wasn’t used as expected, i.e. defense of big ships for casual players. Now the module can be used for frigates and fighters due to the energy reserve. In the same time the decrease of the action radius will enable the enemies the leave shooting area more quickly.

 

Engineer’s drones

The tests showed that the durability was low so it was increased.

 

Multiphase shield adapter

The change in the module mechanic is caused by a lot of energy not used by the ship. Now the extra energy gives more resistance.

 

Mass shield generator

It is decided to simplify the use of the module and make it active by default to avoid the unpleasant situations when the frigate pilot to switch them off. Besides the module still has a possibility to instantly restore the hull or shield durability for the pilot or the allies. The regeneration will depend on the remained energy of the engineering frigate.

 

The changes of the technical characteristics will only be made to one ship - the engineering frigate of Empire Garm.

 

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Garm

This ship only has got a bonus to increase the durability of the engineering modules by 100%. It is decided that this bonus is not effective and it is available to only one engineer, it is worth changing it for another one. More information will be available in the patchnote.

 

This is a full list of balance adjustments of the upcoming update and soon you will be able to try them in our game universe.

Awesome…

 

So when are you going to remove all the OP alien ships from Invasion?

 

 

I and many others have put hundreds of hours into this game, but have never been asked for specific feedback on any of the patches (aside from polls relating to Facebook connectivity).

 

Are you only polling the ‘super testers’? (I.e. dedicated, veteran players with the best ships and equipment.)

 

What about collating feedback from the new and/or casual players?

 As the minefield is absolutely necessary for fighting interceptors it is now available to all the frigates.

 

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Awesome…

 

So when are you going to remove all the OP alien ships from Invasion?

 

 

I and many others have put hundreds of hours into this game, but have never been asked for specific feedback on any of the patches (aside from polls relating to Facebook connectivity).

 

Are you only polling the ‘super testers’? (I.e. dedicated, veteran players with the best ships and equipment.)

 

What about collating feedback from the new and/or casual players?

We regularly collect feedback from forum posts from any kind of player.

if you will increase a minefiled radius to 1km - I agree. Otherwise - please leave torps as they are. It is the single perfectly balanced heavy rocket in game. If enemy interceptor flies without the EB that’s his fault he closed less than 1k from the poor engie. That’s what was holding inties off from ignoring all fighter planes of enemy and diving straight onto enemy engie. 

 

System Hack  - please fix it. Yesterday I noticed that it no longer hacks enemy mines, minefields, holoships, healing stations, nukes, warpgates. So now it only affects microlocator, attack drones and tackler drones. It was perfect counter for those LRF minefields, and hijacking those healing stations was sneaky.

 

Increasing damage on Beam Cannon? Have you guys played this game recently? In T4, Chiron can do 6.5k dps at over 3km with that cannon, Scimitar, Blood Tormentor, all empire LRFs they just rock with this gun.

if you will increase a minefiled radius to 1km - I agree. Otherwise - please leave torps as they are. It is the single perfectly balanced heavy rocket in game. If enemy interceptor flies without the EB that’s his fault he closed less than 1k from the poor engie. That’s what was holding inties off from ignoring all fighter planes of enemy and diving straight onto enemy engie. 

 

System Hack  - please fix it. Yesterday I noticed that it no longer hacks enemy mines, minefields, holoships, healing stations, nukes, warpgates. So now it only affects microlocator, attack drones and tackler drones. It was perfect counter for those LRF minefields, and hijacking those healing stations was sneaky.

 

Increasing damage on Beam Cannon? Have you guys played this game recently? In T4, Chiron can do 6.5k dps at over 3km with that cannon, Scimitar, Blood Tormentor, all empire LRFs they just rock with this gun.

Good day. thank you for the comment.

About the system hack. it shouldn’t work on holoships and nukes. All the rest should work.  if it still doesn’t work after the patch please leave a bug report.

Beam canon. yes the experienced pilots “rock” with it but still it is pretty complicated in usage for casual players.

The torps were too strong in the battles, and they were not fitting our gameplay properly. The minefield will be better for this and don’t forget that u can use the torps still but by shooting in the obstacles, the damage from them will occur any way.

And the last, i’d like to recommend to wait for the update and test the fixes then the discussion i believe will be more productive) and also from our side we can assure you that the feedback from our players will be closely monitored by us and if needed we will provide further adjustments.

Do slowing miss. get dmg boost, how much are u nerfing sentry drones? Will micro loc selfdestruct when u kill recon that planted it? What’s the range of new selfdestruct? Will u nerf Invasion missions & boost synergy gain from them?

Do something to push veterans out of lower tiers like t3 instead of pushing the skill curve down because: “the experienced pilots “rock” with it but still it is pretty complicated in usage for casual players.”

 

Give us proper “end game content pvp” instead of those so called “balance” stuffs that have the only goal to make the entire game “casual” friendly. 

so now the facetorping frigs will drop mines instead of torpedo. Mines don’t even need free aim just click and wait… What exactly is the goal here? Replace torpedo with minefields everywhere?

We regularly collect feedback from forum posts from any kind of player.

 

No man don’t fool us, you clearly don’t listen to what community says. And looking to the last patch incoming you clearly don’t even listen to your testers. 

So please stop with this lie.

so now the facetorping frigs will drop mines instead of torpedo. Mines don’t even need free aim just click and wait… What exactly is the goal here? Replace torpedo with minefields everywhere?

 

" the experienced pilots “rock” with it but still it is pretty complicated in usage for casual players."

 

Do something to push veterans out of lower tiers like t3 instead of pushing the skill curve down because: “the experienced pilots “rock” with it but still it is pretty complicated in usage for casual players.”

 

Give us proper “end game content pvp” instead of those so called “balance” stuffs that have the only goal to make the entire game “casual” friendly. 

 

What’s the point of making the game more n00b friendly? Attracting more people or keeping players in the game? What’s the point of that if there’s not even a proper ad campaing to fill the game with people. 

 

I’m not a hardcore gamer but this changes are making the game boring.

so now the facetorping frigs will drop mines instead of torpedo. Mines don’t even need free aim just click and wait… What exactly is the goal here? Replace torpedo with minefields everywhere?

 

Instead of the 13K+ base damage, it’s 7k… I guess that’s the difference… And you can’t use them effectively in both close and long range.

Beam canon. yes the experienced pilots “rock” with it but still it is pretty complicated in usage for casual players.

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>Beam cannon

>COMPLICATED

>literally aim and click and no leading no spread…

if that weapon is complicated for someone i’d suggest them to stop playing until they learn how to count to 10

Nerf… Facetorp, nerf mortar, how to compensate it, give all frigates mines! 

Then i’d prefer that you did nothing over there, the facetorping was okay. But mines suck if they are everywhere on the whole damned map.

 

Master tactic for tourney on Saturday, 7 Anaconda-Ms and 1 Styx, all have Mines.

guys, guys. we are closely monitoring the opinion of you, super-testers and also we have the statistics of usage. the first point especially is my job so guys don’t be so rude) due to amount of tables and meetings we have about them. the next thing connected to this topic is to exactly collect your suggestions after checking this patch out. this update will not be the final step of the balance fixes. If after the update we’ll see that some changes were not productive we will cancel them. and about “Ace” friendliness. it’s not the goal we just believe that some weapon and modules should be easier for acquiring then others.

Much clearer now, I must say it is interesting change. Finally Garm is being reworked. Looking forward to this change.

“We tried to add the mine field effect in such a way that the mines around the enemy explode more often and less powerfully”

 

It seems people  missed this part ;p

So, we are returning to Engi warp jump to beacon and drop mines era?

The minefield is now available to all frigates and  should be used to fight interception.

 

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