Comments

• wondible Member

  May 26

  Based on one game only.

  Collection is pretty good. No fiddling with click priority or pathing around allies.

  I saw people tagging some gems and then leaving a fountain for a while, which seemed like it made it easier to come in and cut off some progress.

  During TW4 I could easily get production to full recovery; tonight I easily maxed out production and still couldn't do a full rebuild, even with handily the lowest supply in the game. Felt like I had to keep waiting for wave after wave of units to complete.

  Do advanced units no longer take longer?

  I usually didn't feel limited by scrap when buying units. I actually bought some upgrades towards the end.
• AceAl Member

  May 26

  I was able to play two games on this build.

  Game 1 - G7f1627836ff645b5825c553641ffbc10

  I loved the feeling of more scrap, where I could afford both tech and lots of advanced units. When we reached the Trebuchet stage (a little early possibly) I could afford to try many different advanced unit answers, including my own Trebuchets. Still wasn't enough resources to just flood Trebuchets en masse, like I would if I had cheat codes.

  Game 2 - Gdb9bf702becb4530854710896b0d4213

  Died way too much and so was struggling economically, but still a fun game. When I discovered a new type of back door cheese strat, late game mass shadow, I felt like a bit of a jerk. I suggest decreasing the pop cap for shadows, or at least giving the core true sight.
• CohLysion Member

  May 26

  Gem Changes

  (1.1) - I'm sort of ambivalent towards either of the gem collection modes. I don't really have any of the negative reactions a lot of the TW4 people were having with having to click on them, and I can imagine a case where I'd actually not want my teammate to split them with me, some attempt to get a teammate an early lead, so I guess I'd fall on the side of keeping them clickable.

  (1.2) - I've only played what I assume is the shorter 45s wait on gems. That still feels long coming from previous tests, if it was longer that would definitely feel a long wait. I think it probably depends on map, and how long it takes to travel across lanes relative to how long one has to guard. Sidebar: charm to reduce capture time for your team? Hero with a passive?

  Production

  (2.1) - I like the unified production tab. Makes things more straightforward and narrative.

  Squad Changes

  (3.1) - Only thing I really played much with was the changes to Pyrosaur. In packs, very much like the narrower, welding torch cone. For the area of effect, the unit feels big now, though. Like, effective cross-section of unit vs. cone feels high.
  (3.2) - I feel like maybe I could notice the changes to Fair Warning in engagements against Vela, but I'm not sure.

  Art

  (4.1) - I love the increased contrast in the buildings, the heavy black/gold combo is really nice (and not just because Go Purdue).
• SpideyCU Member

  May 26

  I'm with @CohLysion that I don't mind having to click the gems to gather them - maybe the act of merely clicking them is easier than T-click so I already feel it's easier. I certainly didn't MIND just having to walk near them but it didn't feel like it saved me much effort, and I agree that there are corner cases where I may not want to click on one.

  Liked the production tab changes, made things a bit easier to trace out.

  In terms of gameplay, one thing I do agree with one of the TW4 testers was that while gem spigots were spewing, it felt like the side that was ahead had a clear advantage. It was a time for forced engagement, if not to collect gems yourself then instead to try and just deny gems. The alternative is to kill titans, which also yield gems but don't result in a Jugg aspect at the end. Yeah, I can try to harass but I feel like all I'm doing is buying time...and I'm not sure what that time is for, heh. The larger army standing next to the spigot will be able to beat me in a straight-up engagement and there aren't any other objectives for me to say "well, if they're distracted with the spigots, I can X". Maybe I need to up my dropship game, or use trebs...

  Otherwise, the actual fighting was fun and the scrap allowed for far more variety. Maybe it's a little TOO high but it's fun so I certainly won't complain if it stays that way!
• Deaucalion Member

  May 26

  Gem Collection

  I liked the new auto-collection system. I like that gems take longer to collect, since it forces players to sit on their gems longer and makes the pace of collection more deliberate when gem fountains are contested.

  Scrap and Production

  2.5x scrap feels really nice for the most part. With the extra scrap and changes to the production system, I feel like I am seeing more of a transition in squad composition as the game progresses. I did try concentrating on T1s + upgrades and was pleased to find that I was being punished for it. Squads with high concentrations of T2 and T3 units were able to trade profitably against me in engagements.

  In the mid-to-late game, the limited queue size actually prevented me from queueing up more than a fraction of my total supply in sandstingers at once. This was a little annoying since it asked me to refill my queue every few seconds (while I was trying to micro my undersized army of sandstingers on the field). I wasn't able to do it and spent quite a bit one game at half army strength. I like that this sort of encourages players to transition into fewer, higher supply cost units in the late game to avoid this queue limit. However, it isn't actually taking mass T1 strategies off the table, just making it very difficult and unfun to manage its reinforcement. Could the queue limit be removed? Or could some particularly low supply units be bundled like zerglings?

  With the increase in scrap payout from gems, Neutral camps and fountains are very significant, and I think that I lost both my games in large part because the other team was more proactive in harvesting theirs. I made the mistake of trying to generate scrap, which put me behind on army supply cap while not generating enough scrap to catch me up. So my opponents were ahead on scrap, on upgrades, and had larger armies that were able to dominate the fountain regions. This meant that they got more scrap from the fountains, and my team was under pressure and had less time to clear camps, so the games snowballed from there.

  Unit Changes

  I didn't have much pvp experience with any of the changed units. The change to Vela is actually something that I have been thinking about for a few weeks, but I didn't mention it because she seemed to be in an okay place. Now that its been implemented I will have to try her out.

  Art

  The new building art does look cool. I am kind of surprised to see it since the base is mechanically vestigial right now. I'd much prefer to open my production menu by clicking a button on the dashboard. I know there was some thought of selling skins for buildings. If that is still on the table, I have a suggestion; don't make the bases structures, make them airships that touch down on their designated landing sites at the beginning of the match. Pimping your spaceship is ten times more exciting than decorating your building.
• AceAl Member

  May 26

  @CohLysion said:
  (1.1) - I'm sort of ambivalent towards either of the gem collection modes. I don't really have any of the negative reactions a lot of the TW4 people were having with having to click on them, and I can imagine a case where I'd actually not want my teammate to split them with me, some attempt to get a teammate an early lead, so I guess I'd fall on the side of keeping them clickable.

  If it works as you imply with the team-mate feed potential, then I might want that option too?

  The rules regarding the team gem splitting/stealing are unclear to me right now - and that's why I liked the auto collect. I'll need a lot more certainty about how gem collection works in order to be happy with my choices in a deliberate click mechanic. With auto-collect, I'm content with ignorance.