Free and Open Source real time strategy game with a new take on micro-management

Beta 5 rebalance

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The game is too static. Once anybody gets level 3 towers and there's no fruit on the map, then you can play for a full hour wasting wave after wave of soldiers on a small group of towers, only to have them repaired or rebuilt. That is not fun. If you've ever played a game on the map Blitz and lasted more than 10 minutes, you will probably have switched bases twice and fought to the last soldier just to stay alive, raising and destroying buildings on the fly and finding clever last-minute solutions. Outsmarting your opponent, not outlasting him.

However, when rebalancing a game you have to be very careful not to overdo it. A few damage points too low and defense towers could just become worthless. Also, if you give higher penalty for clearing so clearing your opponent's wheat is not overpowered like it is now, you may make clearing wood in an overgrown base very hard. So I'd rather rebalance too few than too much.

Still, many level 3 things are quite overpowered, mostly because getting to level 3 is really not as hard as it appears. "But it's level 3" is not an excuse to make it super-powerful, because you would kill all other strategies. If a lot of strategies are possible, it allows dynamic and creative play.

Honestly, I would get rid of the armor system entirely. It needlessly complicates things, and it holds no benefit at all. Right now, level 1 and level 2 warriors do equal damage to level 3 towers per hit. If we really need this armor, I would work in %. If you remove armor, edit hp appropriately as follows: HP = 15/(15-armor)*hp. 15 is the damage done by a level 3 warrior.

I use the following format to indicate levels: (x, y, z) means x at level 1, y at level 2, z at level 3.

Defense Towers

What: Hit points of towers changed from (480, 1440, 2000) to (500, 1250, 2000) but armor reduced from (8, 12, 15) to (8, 10, 12). Range of towers changed from (5,7,9) to (5,6,7). Damage of towers changed from (30,40,50) to (30, 38, 46).

Why: Defense towers are overpowered. I've tested it, a level 3 tower reachable on one side (4 warriors) can not be killed by any amount of full-health zero-hunger level 4 warriors. They turn hungry before it's destroyed. About 15 warriors are killed before that happens. That's just plain wrong. This makes the game very static, so I'd rather have them underpowered than overpowered.

Swarms

What: Hit points raised from 700 to 2000, but regeneration rate halved.

Why: Once enemies are at your swarm, it's dead. You'd almost want them to ignore enemy warriors and just rush for the swarm. This would give them a bit more "buffer", but it still won't last long once enemies are in your base.

Workers

What: Hit points reduced from 200 to 150. HP penalty for clearing wheat increased from 10 to 15, clearing wood stays at 10.

Why: If towers are weakened, so should the workers. They should have enough hp to go get fruit in hostile territory, but they shouldn't have enough to go and clear enemy wheat if it's protected by towers.

Explorers

What: Hit points increased from 38 to 42 (no longer one-hit by level 2 towers). Air damage stays at 6, ground damage (lvl 3) from 8 to 5 (this damage does not respect armour). If this damage is splash damage, reduce both to 1.

Why: I have seen entire armies evaporate due to a few level 3 explorers. 8 damage may not sound like a lot, but it is. Level 3 warriors do 6 damage to level 1 warriors. These bombers should be strong, but they shouldn't throw nukes.

Warriors

What: If you keep armour, keep the damage (13,14,15,16). Otherwise, change it to (6,8,10,12). Hp from (250,250,250,250) to (150,200,250,300).

Why: (13,14,15,16) may not seem like much increase, but considering armour (warrior's armour is 10), this damage is really (3,4,5,6), which is about the right proportion. They should also gain hp when upgrading. Now warriors early in the game survive quite long, while in late game they don't even have time to do a heroic "nooooooo" (while spinning around very fast).

Misc