Damage Reductions...

[pooty]

I can get the .dds file from ucc

But I don't have any way to get CSRailGun_Tex.utx (Why UCC doesn't have .utx exporter is beyond me...)

[captainsnarf]

I just looked, the bomber lasers are perfectly reasonable. No changes needed.

Snarf, I am missing some textures in git
Textures\SpankerEffectCore.dds
textures\CSRailGun_Tex.utx

So either I need those, or you'll have to make the range change.

Uploaded! oops

[pooty]

Updated Arbiter on the Server. Only change is rail gun range is 14500 UU (same as Omega). Its still pretty far out, and might need to be shorter, but its going to be noticable... at least on my monitor, the previous range exceed fog visbility on AJY. Here, you'll be much more visible to employ the rail gun.

[pooty]

Hmm. So playing last night on FJY, they flyers still own. It makes me think that mostly the flyers are still too OP and need some further damage reduction. I mean Falcon easily destroys a Mino, let alone any other tank. And not even considering Mirage Vulture or Raptor, Omega, or such. I can almost hear Enyo telling me NO!, but I think its something to consider.... and maybe its just the map... flyers are going to dominate any map due to speed and 3D.

[Enyo]

Hmm. So playing last night on FJY, they flyers still own. It makes me think that mostly the flyers are still too OP and need some further damage reduction. I mean Falcon easily destroys a Mino, let alone any other tank. And not even considering Mirage Vulture or Raptor, Omega, or such. I can almost hear Enyo telling me NO!, but I think its something to consider.... and maybe its just the map... flyers are going to dominate any map due to speed and 3D.

It’s the map, the foliage provides cover for the flyers. That’s thr only reason the falcon owns the mino here, normally mino lasers pick off falcons with ease. And what’s wrong with flyers owning a map or two, considering we have few flyer dominant maps? Doesn’t automatically mean nerf all flyers.

Seriously, if you start nerfing flyers, you need to also nerf minos, odins, etc. And no amount of flyer nerfing will make the stains look up.

BTW, on the Arbiter, it now gets decimated by a dragon because the Dragon now has longer shot range, Arbiter doesn’t stand a chance. Shortening the range was not the right move, I suggest put the range back and reduce damage to where it takes 2 shots to kill flyers. Rhamp brought it up first, and when I got raped by the Dragon repeatedly too I agreed.

[pooty]

I think where I was going was that even on open maps a skilled Falcon pilot will almost always own the mino... but yes you're right it comes down to skill. Pharizwheel in Falcon vs. Mino is easy pickings.
So we can leave those alone for now and work on map balancing.

WRT to Arbiter, The Dragon would have to hit it twice to kill it. But 1000 health Dragon vs. 200 pt Arbiter? Was anyone expecting the Arbiter to dominate a Dragon?

The Range needs to be shorter, and no more than 15000 (Avril Range, or else the snipers will just pick off ground troop who would have ZERO chance of even hitting it). The Dragon is larger, slower and easy to hit by comparison.

Dragon range is 20000, for the beam, typical vehicle laser range and does 120 damage.
Aribiter range is 14500 for the rail, and does 350 damage.

At 350 it kills almost every Raptor type in one shot, and even the Cicada/Wraith/Draco in like two.

So perhaps make the range 15000, Reduce the Rail damage to 200, but I think perhaps increase the agility/speed a bit, we slowed it to try to balance it, but I think of it more like a faster, agile, yet fragile flyer... thoughts? The Dragon primary is pretty potent especially with a good aimer driving...the Dragon likely would and IMO should be able to take out an Aribiter.

[Rhamp]

A faster, more agile Arbiter that requires at least 2 shots to kill other fliers sounds good. If it isn't able to instakill fliers, then its hp pool should be bumped up to compensate, otherwise a starbolt, dragon, or phoenix will delete it almost instantly. A dragon should be able to beat an Arbiter, but in the current state, the arbiter has no chance to even get within firing range before it gets deleted by the dragon. On ass destruction last night, the dragon became the arbiter 2.0, with nautical and me sitting in the sky swatting other fliers. There was no reason to ever use the arbiter currently, since its a worse dragon in every way. The dragon is more effective than the arbiter at sniping fliers, and it had many times the hp pool so its a lot harder to bring down. Since the dragon is a slow, heavy hitting flier, make the arbiter a more agile flier that if flown well, can potentially dodge the dragon's shots and out maneuver it instead of being a flying sitting duck.

The reason why fliers dominate the maps is that those who fly them well know where they need to be and can push key points on the map quickly. Even on DJY, having a hammerhead hitting a key node at the correct time wins games despite the hammerhead being a flying piece of shit that flops around anytime anything sneezes on it. Fliers rarely can take out anti air vehicles on their own (other than the fliers that are made for that, like the omega), usually requiring some sort of distraction or cover to take advantage of. Once one side has accumulated enough nodes with fliers to overwhelm the other side, then its usually game over since the losing side doesn't have enough fliers to dogfight and the limited anti air vehicles would get swarmed. If fliers were nerfed, then it would be the same story except with high powered vehicles, so fliers as a whole are fine the way they are. If a map is going to be flier heavy, as long as there is either sufficient anti air vehicles (that don't take for fucking ever to get into position, ex. VolcanoHigh) and/or fliers at the core, then games should remain fairly balanced.

[Enyo]

WRT to Arbiter, The Dragon would have to hit it twice to kill it. But 1000 health Dragon vs. 200 pt Arbiter? Was anyone expecting the Arbiter to dominate a Dragon?

The Range needs to be shorter, and no more than 15000 (Avril Range, or else the snipers will just pick off ground troop who would have ZERO chance of even hitting it). The Dragon is larger, slower and easy to hit by comparison.

Still disagree... the Arbiter's range should be as long as a dragon or any lasers that can hit it. Reduce the damage to 200 or 250 so it takes 2 shots to kill flyers, and give it more than 200 health. And yeah, maybe speed it up a bit. Reducing range for a vehicle that is shooting a rail cannon makes no sense, reducing the damage does.

with only 200-250 damage, it still has no chance against a Dragon toe to toe, but having as long a range at least gives it a fighting chance. The pendulum has swung too far on this flyer yet again.

[pooty]

The pendulum has swung too far on this flyer yet again.

All these changes need real play testing. Sometimes they don't go far enough, sometimes too far.
It was clearly way to OP, and frustrating to play against by many players.

So Summing up based on feedback:
- Lets increase the range. I played with shorter range its kind of lacking. I still feel 20000 is too far (yes the Dragon has that but still), maybe go to 17000 (SR Range).
- Reduce Damage to 200 (Was 375) (2 shots will kill Raptor types, Helicopters, Mantas, 3 kills wraiths,dracos and knocks them around). Also I'll try to scale the damage so that it does more to vehicles and less to infantry. This would compensate for the Aribter hanging out of range from infantry.
- Increase health to 275 (That way Aribiter can survive one shot in Arbiter vs. Arbiter duels)
- Increase Agility/Speed somewhat. It shouldn't be as nimble as say the Guppy Bomber, but better than it is. I think straight line speed could be better.

Comparing it to the dragon is like saying a badger can't take on a Mino. Dragon is a big, badder flyer than the Arbiter should ever be...

Also, we can check the primary weapon damage too, and make sure its inline. Hopefully I'll get to update it

[Enyo]

Comparing it to the dragon is like saying a badger can't take on a Mino. Dragon is a big, badder flyer than the Arbiter should ever be...

Also, we can check the primary weapon damage too, and make sure its inline. Hopefully I'll get to update it

100% agree… but the Dragon is intended as a node destroying machine that can also protect itself from air and ground vehicles, so it’s always gonna be more powerful than the Arbiter.

However the Arbiter has one and only one specific purpose, and that’s anti-air. By shortening the beam distance, you’re taking away the one thing it’s good at. Makes no sense, distance should be the same as everything else like it at 20000. Reducing the damage is the best way to balance it.

Forgot about Arbiter’s primary fire, it needs changing or fixing, it’s completely useless.