34 replies to this topic

[atlas117b]

just an FYI, halcyons and marathons, along with berlins, are the only ships with any form of planetary bombardment besides capital ships. They are also very heavy ships (in terms of health/armor) compared to, say, a destroyer or frigate. If you dont get them, you will lose a heavyweight fight, aka EVERY fight with the covenant

Yes.  they are ther to take a beating while a large group of ships pounds the covies.  i am wondering if the halcyon should be available earlier (perhaps before paris) so u have a weak (attack) battle group flagship, then u dont always have to chance losing the capital ships right away.  would that change the dynamic of how the UNSC will fight covies?    

[Dianno5741]

Alot of your concerns have been fixed. After the patch i overhauled the covenant which included changes to the UNSC. Halcyons are researched before destroyers and about the same tier as paris class frigates as they are just BIG paris class frigates. Their utility comes from their ability to bomb planets and have an invasion ability. Marathons have this ability too and with the new balance the need for a double MAC is huge!. Also ive made archer missiles relevent damage. Those ships are now very important and frigate spam is not only no longer cost effective (Meaning you could buy a destroyer for less than the price of two frigates) but with the new changes will get slaughtered by a balanced fleet, if not slaughtered then youll come out with a phyric victory and youll lose in terms of money.
 
We dont have laser batteries, most ships are frontal facing. If i did though, those would be broadside therefore 18th century naval tactics of crossing the T would probably win here. Just add that Z component in.
 
And if im using any naval doctrine it would be the USSR. They used bigger cruisers and anit ship missiles fired from them rather than carrier fleets.

 

Spoiler

[m468]

Oh and good luck getting a single F-18 Hornet anywhere near a Soviet Cruiser, let alone sinking it with one Harpoon anti-ship missile. (I know it's off topic but a have a need to correct sometimes...)

[atlas117b]

 

Just finished a 9 hour battle over the course of a couple days against a Legendary comp and i now see how Marathons are needed with the frigate SPAM.  i was more or less just being an ass with my rambling point seeings as how u already made changes i was thinking about.... #daylatedollarshort

 

 

M468:

 

I was using the Hornet attack as more of a TOP GUN MOVIE fight (Mavrick their 120 miles out and closing!).  A battle group gets really nervious when fighters are racing towards them with really big missles.  In HALO fighter are annoying but not like the F22 Raptor threat we have today.  #ihateurfacesomuch

 

 

[Dianno5741]

Its fine,as time goes on im tweaking them constatly. Although prices might equalize more due to the AI, frigate spam might be as cost effective for resources as a balanced fleet. BUT pop wise they wont be. So while you could get say 3-4 frigates for the price of a marathon, youd also spend approx 3x as much fleet pop for very little return in damage

 

Example: Cost wise a charon is 200. A marathon is 800.

You could get 4 charons for the price of that marathon.

 

BUT fleet pop wise. A charon is 5 fleet pop. A Marathon is 8.

 

Charons do 500 MAC every 25 seconds and 100 archer missiles every 25 seconds.

Marathons do 1000 MAC every 25 second and 300 archer missiles every 25 seconds.

 

So for 400 credits you could get two charons doing 1000 MAC and 200 archer and have 1200 health combined. But cost 10 population. Where as your marathon will cost 7. So charons are good in the short term. Bad in the long term for frigate spam.

 

By your third charon youd have 1500 damage and 300 archer missiles with 1800 health. but invested 15 fleet pop. Meanwhile youd have the fleet pop for a 2nd marathon totaling 14 pop and doing 2000 damage and 600 archers with combine health of 5000. So late game marathons are much more pop efficient at fire support. Those pop numbers will change but thats the basic idea.

[atlas117b]

Dianno5741:

 

the tech tree for the UNSC feels really good as far as attack/armor build up.  It would be nice to have maybe 1 MAC PLATFORM upgrade separate from the other ship based MAC power ups.  opion only based on fighting other UNSC and not Covies though.

 

 

My wife is gone so ive have loads of time when i go home to play this now 

[Defender0]

Why would you need an SMAC upgrade? the thing does 15000 damage unupgraded lol

[atlas117b]

it would be more like health/armor or range.  it takes everything out, but it takes forever to shoot and dies fast.  i understand it isnt suppose to last forever and i didnt know if it would adjust the dynamic too much towards carriers.  if its the perfect defence it wont work, im just selfish and dont like to lose planets.

 

If the SMAC is too strong the invader has to use carriers, but the defender just pounds the carriers with a DEFENCE FLEET.  so it kinds just goes around in a circle.

 

P.S. putting the range and chance to hit with the Valiant Heavy Cruiser was a great move. it makes having them around a MUST HAVE

[Defender0]

It has a recharge of 10 seconds, 15 seconds faster than any ship based MAC in the game. And it isnt the perfect defense, there have been price and build time nerfs, courtesy of Dianno

[atlas117b]

i was fighting UNSC only also.  again just me.  and im weird.  at least thats what my wife tells me......

[Dianno5741]

im hesitant to give it a health boost since a SMAC was a glass cannon and plasma torps turned them into molten slag. but their range is being tweaked right now

[CanadaMan7]

Atlas, what version are you using?

 

Good to see so much balance work happening though. You're a one-man balancing army, Dianno.

I need to hop online one of these days and try out these changes.

[atlas117b]

im just playing the public beta.... i loaded it a few weeks ago.  i think ill double check that hoe to make sure im not playing with the paper mache version of the UNSC. 

 

when the wifes away HALO i will play

 

its also supper busy at work but my boss is gone and im in charge......  all this power flowing through my vanes is making me feel invincible!

[Defender0]

I need to hop online one of these days and try out these changes.

If me and despoiler set up a game, we'll most likely message you about joining in

[Dianno5741]

Yeah, Defender and despoiler helped alot in the combat testing.