- Joined
- Dec 14, 2007
- Messages
- 1,005
Edit: Upon reflection of feedback, some changes have been changed again. Read http://www.bushtarion.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34009&postcount=27 to see these changes.
Note: This is a long read but hopefully a worthwhile one. If you really cba to read it all, at least scan the suggested Thug route changes as those are the one I personally like the most.
Edit: Azzer asked me to put in a "summary" of each route so people can get a general idea of what the changes will do without having to analyse each unit individually:
- Fantasy - Removed from the game. Some units/concepts reused in other routes.
- Prot - Last Tick - Keeps its core idea of being a last tick route but increased strength and more survivability at range.
- Prot - VD - Still a prot/thug hybrid but with its own unique units and strong non-let killing.
- Prot - Pom - Increased strength versus health but reduced strength versus health/armour combo units. Non-let anti health.
- Spec Ops - Bunkers - Reduced cost and power to reduce effectiveness of Ninja/Spike flak. Introduced new punit to allow actual playing rather than sitting around flakking. Strong let defence.
- Spec Ops - SA - No major changes. Strong anti health and reasonable anti armour.
- Spec Ops - Puppets - General buffs to improve overall strength and allied play. Briber.
- Thug - Bikes balanced versus prots.
- Thug - Thief - Change to arsonist to provide quick and strong land grabs against prots. Support/anti prot.
- Thug - Dogs - Dogs come out early to provide early flak slaughtering. Buff to Nutters to allow a stronger last tick. Support.
- Thug - PB - No major changes. Support/anti non let.
- Military - Slightly easier to play during flak wars.
- Military - Striker - Weaker versus health. Slightly stronger versus tractors. Anti armour.
- Military - Harrier - Remains a balanced/support route but with LET flak and lower Harrier init to increase its overall strength. Strong anti armour, reasonable anti health.
- Military - RPG - No major changes. Anti armour.
- Robotics - No major changes. Anti health.
This thread is related to the discussion here: http://www.bushtarion.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2111
Note: I originally intended to rebalance all development ETAs and costs but decided that would be unnecessary without first deciding what routes/units would be in the game so I've left that out for now.
In this post, I want to suggest a major overhaul of all routes - units and technologies. The reasoning for this is as follows:
-The game is not balanced. Some routes are far superior/inferior to others
-Some routes seem to be trying to achieve the same thing as others, rather than have their own identity
-It will make it more interesting for experienced players to have to relearn some things as well as discover new ways to play, etc.
-I'd like to extend/improve the “early game” period (when people are still teching) which should make early decisions a lot more important and interesting
-I'd like there to be a bit more variation/personalisation in the routes, such as the Spike Trap, Stealth Thief, Chemical Sprayer choice in the Special Ops route
-I just don't “like” some of the routes/units in the game, personally
-Some routes are very hard to play solo – it would be more interesting for the game as a whole if each route could be played well solo.
-I want to remove as many of the “bonuses” certain units have against certain other units as possible. I'm not entirely against bonuses as some can be useful in balancing routes but at the moment there are far too many, imo.
Note: All names, stats, etc. are subject to change. They're just there to give an idea of the change.
Generic Changes
New research: Packet Analysing available after Airfield
ETA: 60
Cost: £5,000,000,000
:: Enables Intelligence 'Packet Analysis'.
'Packet Analysis' is effectively a spy report, but it cuts off any news which occurred more than x ticks ago (where x is around 2-3). A Packet Analysis should cost around £50,000,000-£100,000,000. This provides a much earlier ability to “spy” so that it will be not so risky (suicidal if you trigger SAS) to send lethals out on attacks before Spy School is finished. This will allow wars to be waged earlier on as well as lethals to be used in normal attacks (this is a main part of extending/improving the early game period). Note: This is a research, as is Hacking, so players would need to make the choice whether to do Hacking and then Spy School or this early on, allowing more flexibility in playstyle.
Fantasy Changes
Completely remove the Fantasy route. The reasoning for this comes under the “I just don't like it”, as well as it not having it's own identity. The Fantasy route as a whole just seems to be a slightly altered version of Thugs. Sure, it could be completely rebalanced, but there doesn't seem to be an identity we can give it that other routes don't have. I also want to “use” some of the units from the Fantasy route within other routes. The Fantasy route seems to have been implemented just to show off what the new (at the time) battle engine could do, with it's weird bonuses, firing ranges, etc.
Protestor Changes
Last Tick Protestor
Whilst the Extremist sub-route is a nice idea, it just doesn't work. There are too many flaws. Nobody can, or even should be, active enough to really make full use of the route. It's impossible to attack alone, something which every route should be able to do, imo (excluding flakking). It doesn't even do what it does very effectively. So, my suggestion is to remove the 3 units from this sub-route and replace them with the following units in order (note, the names are being reused to show what the unit is modelled on and can/should be altered):
Name: Extremist [£54,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: LET / NLD
Stats: **** / * / * / ******
ETA: 3
Initiative: 65
Route(s): Protestor
This unit is very similar to the current Extremist unit. However, it fires slightly earlier to armour-strip before Protestor Leaders fire, as well as firing before Bunkers to ever so slightly increase their strength against that sub-route. It is also ETA 3 to allow more efficient last-ticking, along with other Protestor units such as Gurus and Leaders. Finally, the unit does a lot more armour damage than it currently does. The unit should have about a 1:2 ratio on killing Psychopathic Androids, imo.
Name: Siren/Rebel [£47,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Stuns [r/m]
Targets: LET
Stats: *** / * / *** / **
ETA: 5
Initiative: 235
Route(s): Protestor
This unit effectively replaces the role of the Rebel – attempting to keep the route alive at range – and fills the role much more appropriately. The main aim of the route is to be a very powerful force last tick. A strong r/m killer defeats this aim. However, without a r/m killer, the route just gets walked over and requires too much activity. By replacing it with a Stunning unit (very similar to the original Siren unit), the route can survive much better at range without being overpowered itself.
Finally, the route has a choice of 2 purchase units, allowing slightly different playstyles:
Name: Fanatic [£42,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: LET / INN
Stats: **** / * / ***** / *
ETA: 4
Initiative: 234
Route(s): Protestor
Almost exactly the same as the current Fanatic unit. Damage wise, it should kill Secret Agents about 1:1.4. With this purchase unit, the route is extremely similar to what it currently is but does much more damage last tick and has more survivability at range.
OR
Name: Dragon [£87,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [r/c]
Targets: LET / INN
Stats: **** / ** / **** / **
ETA: 5
Initiative: 515
Route(s): Fantasy
The Dragon unit is the perfect replacement for the Fanatic in this route, imo. With its unusual r/c firing range, the route fits in with the last tick principle of the route as well as providing it with more survivability at range without being overpowered by losing a lot of last tick anti-health.
Violent Demonstrators
The aim of the VD sub-route seems to be a Prot-Thug hybrid. Which is definitely a nice idea. However, it's just far too similar to Thug and doesn't offer anything really special whilst missing out on some key areas from both routes and not gaining much in return. What I suggest is to remove the T/TL units from this route and replace them with the two units outlined below as well as a small modification to the VD unit. This should allow for the Prot-Thug hybrid whilst still providing something a bit “special” compared to the other sub-routes in those routes.
Name: Violent Demonstrator [£15,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: NLD / NLT / LET
Stats: *** / * / * / ***
ETA: 2
Initiative: 160
Route(s): Protestor
Improved health allows the unit to be better LET flak. Altered targeting provides slightly greater anti-pom damage as well as an early counter to mass Gurus, SGT and Small Droids.
Name: Sorcerer [£56,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [r/m]
Targets: ALL
Stats: *** / ** / ** / ****
ETA: 4
Initiative: 265
Route(s): Protestor
Very similar to the current Sorcerer unit. This unit is exceptionally good against non-LET units. Coupled with VDs for flak and damage last tick, these units provide a great anti-prot combination. The altered initiative allows them to fire before Prot Gurus which could be very useful in a wave attack.
Name: Gargoyle [£36,500]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [r/m]
Targets: LET
Stats: ** / ** / ** / **
ETA: 4
Initiative: 330
Route(s): Protestor
Again, very similar to its original unit. This unit provides the anti-LET that the route is missing with its non-let targeting.
So overall, these units keep the general theme of being a Prot-Thug hybrid (as Sorcs and Gargs are both Thugish units and have similarities to units in the Thug route) whilst still having its own identity and something a bit “special”.
Political Masterminds
This route is pretty balanced and has a good purpose. However, it's very imbalanced against the Biker unit and the Pom unit is slightly overpowered. So, I suggest the following alteration to the Pom unit as well as a change to Bikers (see later):
Name: Political Mastermind [£40,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLD
Attack type: Distracts [all]
Targets: LET
Stats: ** / **** / ***** / *
ETA: 4
Initiative: 180
Route(s): Protestor
The route is currently far too strong against health based units, armoured units as well as units that have a bit of both. Poms can counter health and health/armour hybrids and HV can counter armour. This change makes poms stronger against health only whilst keeping HV's strength against armour but removes the dominance it has over health/armour hybrid units. The removal of INN targeting means players will have to make more use of Protestor Gurus and can't just mass this single unit. Note: the removal of INN targeting isn't a necessary change but should make the route more interesting.
Special Ops
A replacement for Chemical Sprayers isn't necessarily needed because Spike Traps and Stealth Thieves are fine as they are, but making them useful would allow more variety in what unit Special Ops players pick:
Name: Stealth Gardener [£10,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: INN
Attack type: Gardens [close]
Stats: * / * / 1000 plants.
ETA: 5 {reveal eta 2}
Initiative: 890
Stealth.
Route(s): Special Operations
The flakking effectiveness of this unit would need to be very low (ie. Only have 2-3 times the strength of a normal gardener) because they would allow for a vast amount of tactics for Special Ops players, especially early on.
Bunkers
I would suggest that both Bunkers and Sentries have the cost and all stats halved. They are currently too hard to kill, especially in the hands of a good player. And especially with the next change I will suggest, an alternative purchase unit to Sentries:
Name: Vampire [£72,000] OR [£92,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Converts [r/c] OR Converts [all]
Converts Unit Type(s): Living
Converts To: Lesser Vampire
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: *** / *** / *** / **
ETA: 5 {reveal eta 3}
Initiative: 240
Stealth.
Route(s): Special Ops
The Vampire unit as it is fits in very nicely with the whole Special Ops setup. Having this as an alternative to Sentries (in fact, I'd considering making it a replacement) would allow the route to actually attack rather than just flak and do nothing else. It also means if someone had gone Bunkers and then decided to join an alliance, they could do so without restarting as they'd have a decent unit to benefit the alliance.
Secret Agents
Just because of the removal of Fantasy and the change to the Vampire unit, both SAs and Assassins should be changed to:
* Does 50% less Health Damage against unit: Vampire.
* Does 50% less Armour Damage against unit: Vampire.
Puppet Masters
Imo, in an alliance, Puppets don't really have any advantage over using a Pom player with mass Hypnos. Hypnos fire earlier than Puppets, are eta 4 and have the benefit of also having Gurus and Poms in the route. Puppets are only better because they fire all 3 ticks and target ALL/LET (although a Hypno player can use Poms to block INN anyway). Puppets are good as a solo due to SGT and Steel Walls, although this is only in defence. Thus, I'd suggest the following changes to Steel Walls and Puppets:
Name: Steel Wall [£35,000]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: ALL
Stats: * / ***** / * / *
ETA: 5
Initiative: 40
Route(s): Special Operations
This puts them in the same vein as Jeeps, Humvees and Shields. They will be able to more effectively bribe in attacks, as well as provide a solid armoured flak unit in an alliance. The ETA makes them not too powerful. Their initiative and damage may need to be reconsidered too though.
Name: Puppet Master [£90,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Bribes [all]
Targets: ALL / LET
Stats: *** / ** / *** / ***
ETA: 4
Initiative: 665
Route(s): Special Operations
The improved initiative makes them slightly more effective, especially against some of the “early” round units. Their improved ETA also means they'll be much more useful in alliance play.
Thug
Change to Bikers coupled with the Pom change:
Name: Biker [£38,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: NLD
Stats: ** / *** / ** / ***
ETA: 4
Initiative: 195
Route(s): Thug
This change prevents very small Biker players constantly rushing big Pom players and taking no losses. This should not be happening in the game and is one of the biggest unit/route flaws, imo. However, with Poms reduced AD and Bikers increased AR, Bikers will still be able to take on Poms fairly easily (even Poms bigger than them). Bikers also won't be as squishy as they currently are.
I also think Terrorist Leaders should be changed back to £37,500, I never understood the reasoning behind upping their cost to £40,000.
The problem with both Thief and Attack Dog sub-routes is that it's rarely worth the trade-off of losing a Petrol player, unless the player playing Thieves/Dogs is exceptionally good (although having an exceptionally good player go Petrols tends to be more beneficial). Petrols are extremely useful for flak killing as well as killing blockers in wave attacks. However, hopefully the changes to other routes as well as buffs to Thief and Attack Dog will make the reliance on Petrols slightly less.
Thief
Replacement for Arsonists which are, quite frankly, rubbish:
Name: Arsonist [£35,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [all]
Targets: NLD / ALL
Stats: ** / * / ** / ****
ETA: 3
Initiative: 179
Route(s): Thug
Thief isn't supposed to be a strong LET route, hence the introduction of a new NLT unit. This unit provides many bonuses to the Thief sub-route. It allows ETA 3 attacks on prots again (which now isn't possible with ETA 4 Bikers). It provides a decent early counter to Gurus as well as providing a unit to stop NLD before they fire (as Bikers would fire after NLD again). It also means that the Thief route is useful to an alliance before Terrorists come out and means the route can survive as a solo slightly easier early on. Also, it provides an anti-Biker rush unit (not quite as necessary now, but useful nonetheless).
Attack Dogs
Nutters and Attack Dogs should be switched in the tech tree (along with a slight reduction in Attack Dogs damage). This will allow Dogs to be used as a early flak killer along with Petrols and thus provide more variety in the Thug route people play. I also suggest a change to Nutters are they're utterly pointless at the moment:
Name: Nutter [£10,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [close]
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: * / *** / * / **
ETA: 2
Initiative: 350
Route(s): Thug
This unit is basically a close range only version of a Hooligan. I'm sure everyone can see the benefits of that so I won't write a load of crap explaining why it's good.
Military
General
Military routes are overall pretty weak against flak attacks. This makes them pretty poor solo routes, especially overall. In an attempt to increase the number of routes playable as a solo, I'm going to suggest alternatives for both Privates and Officers:
Name: Military Police {Private alternative} [£12,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [close]
Targets: ALL / INN
Stats: * / * / * / *
ETA: 5
Initiative: 701
Route(s): Military
Note: The development for this unit would be slightly more expensive than that of Privates.
This unit is designed to make the flak wars stage of the game slightly easier for solo Military players (although they can be useful in an alliance too but ETA 5 makes them difficult to use). I'm not going to point out why this unit would be so good but experienced players should see why.
Name: Military Barricades {Officer replacement} [£45,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [m/c]
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: * / ** / *** / **
Initiative: 354
Immobile.
Route(s): Military
Note: The development for this unit would be significantly more expensive and slightly longer than that of Officers.
This unit is, again, designed to make the flak wars stage of the game easier for solo Military players.
Striker
Overall, the Striker sub-route is one of the, if not the, strongest LET routes in the game. It has both huge survivability and high fire-power. However, I feel that it is too strong against both armour and health based units even as an anti-armour route. Thus, I suggest the following change to Apaches:
Name: Apache Longbow [£145,000]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: LET / INN
Stats: * / ****** / **** / **
ETA: 3
Initiative: 560
Route(s): Military
This change will increase the sub-routes weakness against health based routes as well as increase its chances against tractor flakking.
Harrier
The Harrier route is a bit of a jack of all traders, master of none. Harriers are decent AD And Rangers are decent HD but overall, you'd be much better off with pretty much any other route in an alliance. All the units in the route are very squishy too. The EMP unit should be removed, this has been mentioned so many times and I really cba to write out reasons, it's just an awful unit. Thus, the following change to Paratroopers and Harriers:
Name: Paratrooper [£32,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: NLT / LET / ALL
Stats: * / *** / * / ***
ETA: 3
Initiative: 680
Route(s): Military
Basically a decent LET flak unit for Harriers to make up for Harriers' lack of armour as well as a decent NLT killer to counter some of the newly introduced units.
Name: Harrier [£80,000]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: * / *** / ** / ***** (up their health slightly so that they're more likely to fire after RPGs/Striker)
ETA: 3
Initiative: 266
Route(s): Military
Init changed to before Assassins so the route isn't so weak against Spec Ops if you aren't mass Rangers. This changed definitely needs to be considered a lot as Harriers would fire before Hools and thus allow more successful rushes on Robots. May need to change their ETA to 4 or just not implement this change.
Robotics
Shields
Overall, Shields are not worth losing PA for. PA are awesome early on and great all round for killing most health based units before they fire. The increase to Shields' AR was a decent idea to make the route better, but there's still one major advantage of PA over Shields. Their ETA. ETA 5 units are very rarely used on a large scale. With Shields being ETA 5, it makes the route quite weak in defence for an alliance. Often you don't want to send defence till incoming is ETA 3 so you can see what's needed where etc. Thus, I suggest making Shields ETA 4 and reducing their AR slightly (although still stronger than they were a couple of rounds back). This will make them much more useful.
Stunbots
The swap of Stunbots to the second tier of developments was great and has made this sub-route much more useable. Nanobots do seem better this round but a lot of people still prefered CS. So, I'm suggesting players get a choice between CS and Nanobots like the choice between Stealth Thieves and Spikes etc.
Crazed Droids
Everyone knows CDs are crap. Originally they killed flak but TDs killed flak better so they were useless then. Now they kill Tractors but CWs kill Tractors reasonably well as well as kill LET so it's just not worth justifying buying CDs over CWs. Thus, I'm going to suggest the following change to CDs:
Name: Crazed Droid [£65,000]
Unit Type: Robotic
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: ALL
Stats: * / *****(*) / ** / *(*)
ETA: 4
Initiative: 176
This new unit will be very similar to PA's in stats but fire at close and target all instead. It is mainly designed to give Shields and Stunbots an early firing unit that they miss out on not having PA's.
Note: This is a long read but hopefully a worthwhile one. If you really cba to read it all, at least scan the suggested Thug route changes as those are the one I personally like the most.
Edit: Azzer asked me to put in a "summary" of each route so people can get a general idea of what the changes will do without having to analyse each unit individually:
- Fantasy - Removed from the game. Some units/concepts reused in other routes.
- Prot - Last Tick - Keeps its core idea of being a last tick route but increased strength and more survivability at range.
- Prot - VD - Still a prot/thug hybrid but with its own unique units and strong non-let killing.
- Prot - Pom - Increased strength versus health but reduced strength versus health/armour combo units. Non-let anti health.
- Spec Ops - Bunkers - Reduced cost and power to reduce effectiveness of Ninja/Spike flak. Introduced new punit to allow actual playing rather than sitting around flakking. Strong let defence.
- Spec Ops - SA - No major changes. Strong anti health and reasonable anti armour.
- Spec Ops - Puppets - General buffs to improve overall strength and allied play. Briber.
- Thug - Bikes balanced versus prots.
- Thug - Thief - Change to arsonist to provide quick and strong land grabs against prots. Support/anti prot.
- Thug - Dogs - Dogs come out early to provide early flak slaughtering. Buff to Nutters to allow a stronger last tick. Support.
- Thug - PB - No major changes. Support/anti non let.
- Military - Slightly easier to play during flak wars.
- Military - Striker - Weaker versus health. Slightly stronger versus tractors. Anti armour.
- Military - Harrier - Remains a balanced/support route but with LET flak and lower Harrier init to increase its overall strength. Strong anti armour, reasonable anti health.
- Military - RPG - No major changes. Anti armour.
- Robotics - No major changes. Anti health.
This thread is related to the discussion here: http://www.bushtarion.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2111
Note: I originally intended to rebalance all development ETAs and costs but decided that would be unnecessary without first deciding what routes/units would be in the game so I've left that out for now.
In this post, I want to suggest a major overhaul of all routes - units and technologies. The reasoning for this is as follows:
-The game is not balanced. Some routes are far superior/inferior to others
-Some routes seem to be trying to achieve the same thing as others, rather than have their own identity
-It will make it more interesting for experienced players to have to relearn some things as well as discover new ways to play, etc.
-I'd like to extend/improve the “early game” period (when people are still teching) which should make early decisions a lot more important and interesting
-I'd like there to be a bit more variation/personalisation in the routes, such as the Spike Trap, Stealth Thief, Chemical Sprayer choice in the Special Ops route
-I just don't “like” some of the routes/units in the game, personally
-Some routes are very hard to play solo – it would be more interesting for the game as a whole if each route could be played well solo.
-I want to remove as many of the “bonuses” certain units have against certain other units as possible. I'm not entirely against bonuses as some can be useful in balancing routes but at the moment there are far too many, imo.
Note: All names, stats, etc. are subject to change. They're just there to give an idea of the change.
Generic Changes
New research: Packet Analysing available after Airfield
ETA: 60
Cost: £5,000,000,000
:: Enables Intelligence 'Packet Analysis'.
'Packet Analysis' is effectively a spy report, but it cuts off any news which occurred more than x ticks ago (where x is around 2-3). A Packet Analysis should cost around £50,000,000-£100,000,000. This provides a much earlier ability to “spy” so that it will be not so risky (suicidal if you trigger SAS) to send lethals out on attacks before Spy School is finished. This will allow wars to be waged earlier on as well as lethals to be used in normal attacks (this is a main part of extending/improving the early game period). Note: This is a research, as is Hacking, so players would need to make the choice whether to do Hacking and then Spy School or this early on, allowing more flexibility in playstyle.
Fantasy Changes
Completely remove the Fantasy route. The reasoning for this comes under the “I just don't like it”, as well as it not having it's own identity. The Fantasy route as a whole just seems to be a slightly altered version of Thugs. Sure, it could be completely rebalanced, but there doesn't seem to be an identity we can give it that other routes don't have. I also want to “use” some of the units from the Fantasy route within other routes. The Fantasy route seems to have been implemented just to show off what the new (at the time) battle engine could do, with it's weird bonuses, firing ranges, etc.
Protestor Changes
Last Tick Protestor
Whilst the Extremist sub-route is a nice idea, it just doesn't work. There are too many flaws. Nobody can, or even should be, active enough to really make full use of the route. It's impossible to attack alone, something which every route should be able to do, imo (excluding flakking). It doesn't even do what it does very effectively. So, my suggestion is to remove the 3 units from this sub-route and replace them with the following units in order (note, the names are being reused to show what the unit is modelled on and can/should be altered):
Name: Extremist [£54,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: LET / NLD
Stats: **** / * / * / ******
ETA: 3
Initiative: 65
Route(s): Protestor
This unit is very similar to the current Extremist unit. However, it fires slightly earlier to armour-strip before Protestor Leaders fire, as well as firing before Bunkers to ever so slightly increase their strength against that sub-route. It is also ETA 3 to allow more efficient last-ticking, along with other Protestor units such as Gurus and Leaders. Finally, the unit does a lot more armour damage than it currently does. The unit should have about a 1:2 ratio on killing Psychopathic Androids, imo.
Name: Siren/Rebel [£47,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Stuns [r/m]
Targets: LET
Stats: *** / * / *** / **
ETA: 5
Initiative: 235
Route(s): Protestor
This unit effectively replaces the role of the Rebel – attempting to keep the route alive at range – and fills the role much more appropriately. The main aim of the route is to be a very powerful force last tick. A strong r/m killer defeats this aim. However, without a r/m killer, the route just gets walked over and requires too much activity. By replacing it with a Stunning unit (very similar to the original Siren unit), the route can survive much better at range without being overpowered itself.
Finally, the route has a choice of 2 purchase units, allowing slightly different playstyles:
Name: Fanatic [£42,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: LET / INN
Stats: **** / * / ***** / *
ETA: 4
Initiative: 234
Route(s): Protestor
Almost exactly the same as the current Fanatic unit. Damage wise, it should kill Secret Agents about 1:1.4. With this purchase unit, the route is extremely similar to what it currently is but does much more damage last tick and has more survivability at range.
OR
Name: Dragon [£87,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [r/c]
Targets: LET / INN
Stats: **** / ** / **** / **
ETA: 5
Initiative: 515
Route(s): Fantasy
The Dragon unit is the perfect replacement for the Fanatic in this route, imo. With its unusual r/c firing range, the route fits in with the last tick principle of the route as well as providing it with more survivability at range without being overpowered by losing a lot of last tick anti-health.
Violent Demonstrators
The aim of the VD sub-route seems to be a Prot-Thug hybrid. Which is definitely a nice idea. However, it's just far too similar to Thug and doesn't offer anything really special whilst missing out on some key areas from both routes and not gaining much in return. What I suggest is to remove the T/TL units from this route and replace them with the two units outlined below as well as a small modification to the VD unit. This should allow for the Prot-Thug hybrid whilst still providing something a bit “special” compared to the other sub-routes in those routes.
Name: Violent Demonstrator [£15,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: NLD / NLT / LET
Stats: *** / * / * / ***
ETA: 2
Initiative: 160
Route(s): Protestor
Improved health allows the unit to be better LET flak. Altered targeting provides slightly greater anti-pom damage as well as an early counter to mass Gurus, SGT and Small Droids.
Name: Sorcerer [£56,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [r/m]
Targets: ALL
Stats: *** / ** / ** / ****
ETA: 4
Initiative: 265
Route(s): Protestor
Very similar to the current Sorcerer unit. This unit is exceptionally good against non-LET units. Coupled with VDs for flak and damage last tick, these units provide a great anti-prot combination. The altered initiative allows them to fire before Prot Gurus which could be very useful in a wave attack.
Name: Gargoyle [£36,500]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [r/m]
Targets: LET
Stats: ** / ** / ** / **
ETA: 4
Initiative: 330
Route(s): Protestor
Again, very similar to its original unit. This unit provides the anti-LET that the route is missing with its non-let targeting.
So overall, these units keep the general theme of being a Prot-Thug hybrid (as Sorcs and Gargs are both Thugish units and have similarities to units in the Thug route) whilst still having its own identity and something a bit “special”.
Political Masterminds
This route is pretty balanced and has a good purpose. However, it's very imbalanced against the Biker unit and the Pom unit is slightly overpowered. So, I suggest the following alteration to the Pom unit as well as a change to Bikers (see later):
Name: Political Mastermind [£40,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLD
Attack type: Distracts [all]
Targets: LET
Stats: ** / **** / ***** / *
ETA: 4
Initiative: 180
Route(s): Protestor
The route is currently far too strong against health based units, armoured units as well as units that have a bit of both. Poms can counter health and health/armour hybrids and HV can counter armour. This change makes poms stronger against health only whilst keeping HV's strength against armour but removes the dominance it has over health/armour hybrid units. The removal of INN targeting means players will have to make more use of Protestor Gurus and can't just mass this single unit. Note: the removal of INN targeting isn't a necessary change but should make the route more interesting.
Special Ops
A replacement for Chemical Sprayers isn't necessarily needed because Spike Traps and Stealth Thieves are fine as they are, but making them useful would allow more variety in what unit Special Ops players pick:
Name: Stealth Gardener [£10,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: INN
Attack type: Gardens [close]
Stats: * / * / 1000 plants.
ETA: 5 {reveal eta 2}
Initiative: 890
Stealth.
Route(s): Special Operations
The flakking effectiveness of this unit would need to be very low (ie. Only have 2-3 times the strength of a normal gardener) because they would allow for a vast amount of tactics for Special Ops players, especially early on.
Bunkers
I would suggest that both Bunkers and Sentries have the cost and all stats halved. They are currently too hard to kill, especially in the hands of a good player. And especially with the next change I will suggest, an alternative purchase unit to Sentries:
Name: Vampire [£72,000] OR [£92,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Converts [r/c] OR Converts [all]
Converts Unit Type(s): Living
Converts To: Lesser Vampire
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: *** / *** / *** / **
ETA: 5 {reveal eta 3}
Initiative: 240
Stealth.
Route(s): Special Ops
The Vampire unit as it is fits in very nicely with the whole Special Ops setup. Having this as an alternative to Sentries (in fact, I'd considering making it a replacement) would allow the route to actually attack rather than just flak and do nothing else. It also means if someone had gone Bunkers and then decided to join an alliance, they could do so without restarting as they'd have a decent unit to benefit the alliance.
Secret Agents
Just because of the removal of Fantasy and the change to the Vampire unit, both SAs and Assassins should be changed to:
* Does 50% less Health Damage against unit: Vampire.
* Does 50% less Armour Damage against unit: Vampire.
Puppet Masters
Imo, in an alliance, Puppets don't really have any advantage over using a Pom player with mass Hypnos. Hypnos fire earlier than Puppets, are eta 4 and have the benefit of also having Gurus and Poms in the route. Puppets are only better because they fire all 3 ticks and target ALL/LET (although a Hypno player can use Poms to block INN anyway). Puppets are good as a solo due to SGT and Steel Walls, although this is only in defence. Thus, I'd suggest the following changes to Steel Walls and Puppets:
Name: Steel Wall [£35,000]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: ALL
Stats: * / ***** / * / *
ETA: 5
Initiative: 40
Route(s): Special Operations
This puts them in the same vein as Jeeps, Humvees and Shields. They will be able to more effectively bribe in attacks, as well as provide a solid armoured flak unit in an alliance. The ETA makes them not too powerful. Their initiative and damage may need to be reconsidered too though.
Name: Puppet Master [£90,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Bribes [all]
Targets: ALL / LET
Stats: *** / ** / *** / ***
ETA: 4
Initiative: 665
Route(s): Special Operations
The improved initiative makes them slightly more effective, especially against some of the “early” round units. Their improved ETA also means they'll be much more useful in alliance play.
Thug
Change to Bikers coupled with the Pom change:
Name: Biker [£38,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: NLD
Stats: ** / *** / ** / ***
ETA: 4
Initiative: 195
Route(s): Thug
This change prevents very small Biker players constantly rushing big Pom players and taking no losses. This should not be happening in the game and is one of the biggest unit/route flaws, imo. However, with Poms reduced AD and Bikers increased AR, Bikers will still be able to take on Poms fairly easily (even Poms bigger than them). Bikers also won't be as squishy as they currently are.
I also think Terrorist Leaders should be changed back to £37,500, I never understood the reasoning behind upping their cost to £40,000.
The problem with both Thief and Attack Dog sub-routes is that it's rarely worth the trade-off of losing a Petrol player, unless the player playing Thieves/Dogs is exceptionally good (although having an exceptionally good player go Petrols tends to be more beneficial). Petrols are extremely useful for flak killing as well as killing blockers in wave attacks. However, hopefully the changes to other routes as well as buffs to Thief and Attack Dog will make the reliance on Petrols slightly less.
Thief
Replacement for Arsonists which are, quite frankly, rubbish:
Name: Arsonist [£35,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [all]
Targets: NLD / ALL
Stats: ** / * / ** / ****
ETA: 3
Initiative: 179
Route(s): Thug
Thief isn't supposed to be a strong LET route, hence the introduction of a new NLT unit. This unit provides many bonuses to the Thief sub-route. It allows ETA 3 attacks on prots again (which now isn't possible with ETA 4 Bikers). It provides a decent early counter to Gurus as well as providing a unit to stop NLD before they fire (as Bikers would fire after NLD again). It also means that the Thief route is useful to an alliance before Terrorists come out and means the route can survive as a solo slightly easier early on. Also, it provides an anti-Biker rush unit (not quite as necessary now, but useful nonetheless).
Attack Dogs
Nutters and Attack Dogs should be switched in the tech tree (along with a slight reduction in Attack Dogs damage). This will allow Dogs to be used as a early flak killer along with Petrols and thus provide more variety in the Thug route people play. I also suggest a change to Nutters are they're utterly pointless at the moment:
Name: Nutter [£10,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [close]
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: * / *** / * / **
ETA: 2
Initiative: 350
Route(s): Thug
This unit is basically a close range only version of a Hooligan. I'm sure everyone can see the benefits of that so I won't write a load of crap explaining why it's good.
Military
General
Military routes are overall pretty weak against flak attacks. This makes them pretty poor solo routes, especially overall. In an attempt to increase the number of routes playable as a solo, I'm going to suggest alternatives for both Privates and Officers:
Name: Military Police {Private alternative} [£12,500]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [close]
Targets: ALL / INN
Stats: * / * / * / *
ETA: 5
Initiative: 701
Route(s): Military
Note: The development for this unit would be slightly more expensive than that of Privates.
This unit is designed to make the flak wars stage of the game slightly easier for solo Military players (although they can be useful in an alliance too but ETA 5 makes them difficult to use). I'm not going to point out why this unit would be so good but experienced players should see why.
Name: Military Barricades {Officer replacement} [£45,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: NLT
Attack type: Disables [m/c]
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: * / ** / *** / **
Initiative: 354
Immobile.
Route(s): Military
Note: The development for this unit would be significantly more expensive and slightly longer than that of Officers.
This unit is, again, designed to make the flak wars stage of the game easier for solo Military players.
Striker
Overall, the Striker sub-route is one of the, if not the, strongest LET routes in the game. It has both huge survivability and high fire-power. However, I feel that it is too strong against both armour and health based units even as an anti-armour route. Thus, I suggest the following change to Apaches:
Name: Apache Longbow [£145,000]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: LET / INN
Stats: * / ****** / **** / **
ETA: 3
Initiative: 560
Route(s): Military
This change will increase the sub-routes weakness against health based routes as well as increase its chances against tractor flakking.
Harrier
The Harrier route is a bit of a jack of all traders, master of none. Harriers are decent AD And Rangers are decent HD but overall, you'd be much better off with pretty much any other route in an alliance. All the units in the route are very squishy too. The EMP unit should be removed, this has been mentioned so many times and I really cba to write out reasons, it's just an awful unit. Thus, the following change to Paratroopers and Harriers:
Name: Paratrooper [£32,000]
Unit Type: Living
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: NLT / LET / ALL
Stats: * / *** / * / ***
ETA: 3
Initiative: 680
Route(s): Military
Basically a decent LET flak unit for Harriers to make up for Harriers' lack of armour as well as a decent NLT killer to counter some of the newly introduced units.
Name: Harrier [£80,000]
Unit Type: Machine/Vehicle
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [all]
Targets: LET / ALL
Stats: * / *** / ** / ***** (up their health slightly so that they're more likely to fire after RPGs/Striker)
ETA: 3
Initiative: 266
Route(s): Military
Init changed to before Assassins so the route isn't so weak against Spec Ops if you aren't mass Rangers. This changed definitely needs to be considered a lot as Harriers would fire before Hools and thus allow more successful rushes on Robots. May need to change their ETA to 4 or just not implement this change.
Robotics
Shields
Overall, Shields are not worth losing PA for. PA are awesome early on and great all round for killing most health based units before they fire. The increase to Shields' AR was a decent idea to make the route better, but there's still one major advantage of PA over Shields. Their ETA. ETA 5 units are very rarely used on a large scale. With Shields being ETA 5, it makes the route quite weak in defence for an alliance. Often you don't want to send defence till incoming is ETA 3 so you can see what's needed where etc. Thus, I suggest making Shields ETA 4 and reducing their AR slightly (although still stronger than they were a couple of rounds back). This will make them much more useful.
Stunbots
The swap of Stunbots to the second tier of developments was great and has made this sub-route much more useable. Nanobots do seem better this round but a lot of people still prefered CS. So, I'm suggesting players get a choice between CS and Nanobots like the choice between Stealth Thieves and Spikes etc.
Crazed Droids
Everyone knows CDs are crap. Originally they killed flak but TDs killed flak better so they were useless then. Now they kill Tractors but CWs kill Tractors reasonably well as well as kill LET so it's just not worth justifying buying CDs over CWs. Thus, I'm going to suggest the following change to CDs:
Name: Crazed Droid [£65,000]
Unit Type: Robotic
Unit Class: LET
Attack type: Kills [close]
Targets: ALL
Stats: * / *****(*) / ** / *(*)
ETA: 4
Initiative: 176
This new unit will be very similar to PA's in stats but fire at close and target all instead. It is mainly designed to give Shields and Stunbots an early firing unit that they miss out on not having PA's.
Last edited: