[Suggestion] Backdoor protection

Comments

• cdiss Member

  August 15 edited August 15

  I have no idea why Markdown isn't properly making a bulleted list on this post.

  TIL to get a bulleted list, you have to have a fully blank line before the list starts.
• cdiss Member

  August 15

  Additional idea, which could help with the "arbitrariness" of many of the above systems and create interesting gameplay to boot. Instead of these backdoor protections being outright and automatically disabled by (non-Titan) enemy units nearby, perhaps the units have to take some action in order to disable the backdoor protection. For instance:

  • Having a unit standing in a certain specified zone / zones disables the backdoor protection
    
    
    • This could be interesting if it encourages the pushing team to have to move slightly farther in in order to disable the backdoor protection
    • This encourages the defending team to drive the invaders out of these zones in order to defend well, which creates strategic play
    • Of course, this also has the main intended effect that the backdoor protection (in any of the forms listed in the OP) protects against a lone Titan pushing after the rest of the enemy army has been forced to retreat. Either (1) a Titan should not count for standing in the zone / zones, or (2) the zone / zones should be situated so that the Titan couldn't do any damage while standing in them (i.e. not melee range of any structure).
  • Alternately, perhaps the enemy army has to destroy some small target to disable the backdoor protection for x seconds
    
    
    • Clearly, the "small target" should respawn pretty quickly, and could either be destroyed again if the army is still there, or if the army has retreated, then it provides backdoor protection against the remaining Titan
    • In this scenario, the "small target" shouldn't be attackable by Titans, or it defeats the purpose of the backdoor protection

  Either of these suggestions, combined with the backdoor protection ideas in the OP, would make the backdoor-protection system feel less arbitrary/artificial, and also create interesting tactical and play/counterplay situations when pushing or when defending.
• Millea Member

  August 15 edited August 15

  To add to this, I just want to state what I feel like is a problem with the current titan system and why.

  These are situations that are not uncommon that I have encountered before. I probably have replays somewhere but they're probably easier to illustrate in listing what happens.

  1. A team wins the titan
  2. The team pushes with the titan
  3. The team's army is destroyed
  4. Titan kills shield battery due to army distracting enemy team's dps units

  Another situation

  1. A team wins the titan
  2. The team goes off to do camps, using titan as distraction
  3. The titan kills the warp spire without support in addition to killing the camps

  A third situation

  1. A team wins the titan
  2. The team sends the titan bot
  3. The team sends their armies top
  4. Losing team defends vs titan
  5. Bot warp spire is destroyed, and top shield battery is destroyed
  6. Army retreats

  A situation similar to the third:

  1. A team wins the titan
  2. Team sends titan bot
  3. Team sends armies top
  4. Losing team defends vs army
  5. Army retreats with few losses, bot warp spire and bot shield battery destroyed by unsupported titan.

  Most of these super annoying situations are caused by the titan being able to kill buildings by itself even when the enemy team has 3 armies on it.

  Now of course they don't happen every game, and in some games the titan mechanic works better than others, but I feel like the annoying situations aren't uncommon. The "backdoor protection" is one way of solving this problem.

  Another suggestion in the same category as @cdiss 's suggestions

  • Titans have an aura which makes nearby units do additional damage against buildings, but the titan does not do a substantial amount of damage by itself.

  Sort of unrelated points that I couldn't fit anywhere else:

  • I do like the idea of making ion cannons do substantially more damage and being used to back up a push until they are destroyed, but it just feels weird that they're a small supplement to titans' huge dps rather than a force on their own.

  • The first titans' dps feels a lot better than later titans' dps. The first titans' dps is half of the second titans

  TL:DR: Titans in the later stages of the game being able to destroy structures without support despite enemy armies trying to kill them leads to many extraordinarily annoying situations which are not uncommon.
• Motiva Member

  August 19

  I tend to think that titans are more of the problem than simply backdooring. The RTS elements of this game should (imo) promote multitasking and stretching teams, and attacking one point while a juggernaut/titan attacks another is a nice dynamic. Although I think your solution is acceptable, I think there are other possibilities.

  I wouldn't mind seeing a few iterations with some sort of ability either defensive/offensive on the Archive itself to really slow down any titan play that chooses to ignore the batteries without a serious sustained attack with the armies as well...

  In general though, I think the titans as a push mechanic is one of the key mechanics that makes the game feel less like a 50/50 moba/rts hybrid and more like a MOBA. I would like to see armies end the game, and I would like to see a more robust production and economy enable less penalties for taking risks with your armies (as long as the economy backing is there) so that you don't need these contrived "game ending" mechanics.