Reset Rambles
I volunteered to have my account reset to test progression. I initially created this post to give my first impressions and add to it as I unlock more units but it has snowballed into a general commentary on the last few patches. I peeked at Tedster's in depth color feedback and wanted to spill my unspoiled guts before inevitably agreeing with everything he says. This'll mostly be some slapped together stream of consciousness so feel free to ask me to elaborate.
Progression Path
Intial Rotation: Grath/Howling Commando/Batterhorn
Purchase path: Juggernaut -> Toxin Alchemist -> Bramblethorn -> Teleporter
I chose this to avoid overlap because I figured other resetters would be going Red and I wanted to be able to back door if fighting was not favorable.
Progression (A)
I'll start out by saying that I was/am pretty opposed to the idea of a rotating lock from the outset. I don't think there are enough units/heroes currently in the game to warrant such a system. The easy counter-play example is toxin alchemists. They are necessary against certain compositions and without them those games feel very one sided. I can't play another color because I am missing key units (either out of rotation or locked). If someone decides to pick green before me then I can't use any of the eggs in my basket and am forced to play some strange free rotation like a pauper.
Card Slots
This lack of response is worsened by the card slot reduction. After having played a lot of games with the reduction I can say for sure that I don't like it. I don't like having my counter play options limited. Obligatory reference to the Kingpin/Transport combo - losing a unit slot really hurt this composition (amongst many other nails in that wretched coffin - #MKGA). Ideally I would want to use a deck that has the ability to respond to an opponent's composition. With limited slots card choices feel very skewed towards late game power houses and some T2 utility units. Any other choice feels wrong.
T1.5
Something that I think is very deceptive is the credit pricing on T1.5 units. They are cheap as hell but they are also garbage compared to saving credits and stacking your deck with T2 or T3 units. What role does T1.5 play in Atlas? They do not fare well against hero unit spam and they are not up to par with the utility that T2 units provide.
I think this is symptomatic of a larger problem with the early game in general. I think T1.5 should either have more utility which scales into the late game OR have their costs cut substantially so that their creation from game start is a viable alternative to hero unit spam. There is no reason to waste a deck slot on T1.5 (outside of maybe plated warriors pre nerf - because they had tanking utility).
Melee
So I wanted to take an moment to talk about how abysmal melee is in titan fights/caterpillar lanes as well as the unit/hero size patches.
You can't A-Move caterpillars. This is a good thing. This means you can A-Move enemies. But it also means you have to spend an absurd amount of your APM optimizing/correcting melee unit pathing to kill caterpillars. Ranged armies stutter into range and maybe split DPS among their caterpillars. Then they can come in for the last hit on your caterpillars and you end up losing all your invested actions if you have to respond to it. It feels like more work to lane as melee vs range.
The size increase has not helped pathing or surface area problems. Increasing unit size indirectly nerfs melee. There is less surface area on creeps/buildings to attack with. I'll very frequently have melee units running past gaps around a target where they can fit and attack if I tell them to!
It is better for me to split off excess terrapin troopers and have them sit on the sidelines doing nothing than move in with too many and have them clog and trip over each other. I think either increasing melee range slightly would help with this, or perhaps changing the way melee units pack in around a target so there is less wasted surface area. It is frustrating to say the least to have units running around aimlessly during most engagements.
Bramblethorns. One terrapin trooper is all it takes to block a Bramblethorn from getting surface area. It is so easy to kite Bramblethorns when they are tripping over terrapin troopers. They act more as giant sponges than terrifying goliaths. I think they need a very minor range increase (like Hydros' attack) or the ability to walk above hero units (kind of like colossi do in SC2). I would gladly exchange nerfs for these quality of micro life changes if necessary.
Titan Fights. Melee feels very strange in Titan Fights. Half the time you feel useless because your units cannot path to where they need to be. The other half of the time you're zoning/not really committing. And the third half of the time your whole clunky army is getting stunned by random titan pathing which you can't dodge because there is no room to do so. When you set your melee army on the titan half of it can't get surface area. Titan fights feel like way too much of a cluster fuck. I feel like there is this cool battle that could be happening but it's not because there isn't enough room for it.
Progression (B)
All in all, I don't think the grind is very bad in its current state. It is exasperated by the small player pool pitting resetters against non-resetters (and new players), but obviously in a release setting these problems would be less prevalent. I think we need a balance pass to really give good feedback on how it feels to progress. Having more viable options available will make progression feel better for the grinder.
I would be very interested to hear from new testers about their impressions of the system, specifically what their initial credit buys are and why they chose them.
Question for the devs: Will the quest log in the client have credit rewards similar to hearthstone quests? I know I wouldn't want less credits per game/level than I am getting now. Maybe have credit rewards for the tutorial, first bot game, first pvp game, etc to reduce the initial lack of choices. A little bit of a boost at the beginning would help fill in the gaps in the rotation.
Comments
Good thoughts. I tend to agree that there feel like too few units available at the moment for the progression system to be enjoyable. High-tier blobs feel especially powerful when you only have a handful of ramshackle units to fight them with, and there aren't enough combinations you can form to present your own "puzzle" for the opponent to solve.
The lack of good Tier 1.5 as a core army component really makes it hard to play without a full cadre of units. You could do pretty well in Starcraft with just a bunch of Dragoons/Stalkers and good micro but there aren't clear equivalents in Atlas right now, and I think that hurts a lot.
I would potentially suggest looking at T1.5 and what it would take for said units to be viable and strong as the core of an army. I think that would allow for some basic "rock" strategies that would work well even with limited support resources surrounding them.
Hey guys!
Sorry we don't have time for more thorough responses to these posts at the moment, but I just wanted to take a quick second to say that we agree strongly with practically all of the feedback we're seeing. We're actively working on changes in the next week to address the issues we see with T1.5s, melee, and progression. Soon!