Cold Take #2 - Quant's Rule

If nothing else, the existence of Quant's Rule, even just as a short pithy statement to sum up a big balancing tenet, is one of the best things to come out of CA/ZK. IMO it's something that every game should at least keep in mind, regardless of the genre. It's applicate in any game where the player can make choices about what to use, which is most of them.

emissary has better stats per metal spent then lance but i agree that 4+ cloaked lance is devastating

I like the principle. With that said: commander buff, when?

Might be as simple as adding back the two missing upgrade slots.

Commander morph is a proven losing strat and yet people derive immense fun from babying their fragile comm into a juggernaut of destruction. Sad that it only succeeds about 1/5 times.

Part of the problem is lack of top-end power. You can spend a paladin's worth of metal on a comma and yet end up with something that's much worse than a paladin. How about throwing us a bone?

A general problem with commanders is that a commander with a bit of metal invested is so much better than a Paladin. The relationship swaps at 10k metal, when the Paladin stops being a nanoframe. Another issue is that commanders are not supposed to overshadow all the units in the game, and the high degree of customisation means we have to balance this requirement to the most extreme designs.

Man I don't want to be "that guy" but I disagree with you GoogleFrog.

While I acknowledge that commanders are useful and flexible and that you can begin using them right away, unlike a Paladin ... the fact remains that you have had to make several changes to the game in order to control Paladin rush. Commanders were ho-hum before the nerf and have become even more so. Basically, they are big walking targets. I've had fully pimped out commanders costing like 15k metal that were still significantly worse than a Paladin.

I do remember the days of PiktsWolas rushing around with his ultra-regenerative strike god-comm wrecking everything in sight and even of Firepluk's invisible dgun comm picking off key targets one after another.

But those days are long gone.

All I'm asking is for a bit of a top end boost so that sinking 15k metal into a comm doesn't result in a damp squib :)

Astran we can disagree on how powerful commanders should be, but setting the bar anywhere close to Paladin is unrealistic. The game just won't work with comms at that power, the pressure to snipe them or counter them will be immense if people can morph up to a Paladin gradually. There is a lot of space between current commanders and that point though. I'm just saying that "comm is nowhere near as good as Paladin" is a bad place to start.

quote: the fact remains that you have had to make several changes to the game in order to control Paladin rush

Paladin had one direct nerf since 2017, a 6.5% drop in speed and some reduced turn rates. I recall that being more about catching it, not about the early game. The nerf you're probably talking about is the 50 energy requirement for Strider Hub, which was aimed directly at Paladin. But this nerf drives home my point. Having a Paladin very early in the game was, if not broken, then at least a bit game warping and would get old.

Buffing commanders to anywhere near Paladin is a proposal that would see Paladin rush effectively return, but rather than cause half a team to sink all their metal into it for four minutes, progressively stronger versions could be used in the field as it is built up over ten. The commanders we were seeing prior to the nerf/rework were not as powerful as Paladin, but they were big and efficient enough to warp a whole front around them. They would do things that no other unit can do, such as the ranged beam laser commanders that dealt reasonable DPS at 500+ range. Very few units do this, as it tends to end up as a "riot" against a lot of units. Fencer deals constant accurate damage at high range and most of its other stats are terrible to compensate. This sort of thing is just barely ok on a weak glass cannon. That sort of ability on a unique single unit warps the front around it and, here is where we may disagree, the game is about units. Controlling a bunch of individually simple things in complicated ways.

quote: what if, striders are built as a smaller version of themself and require upgrading once or twice?

It's an interesting idea, but it feels like a solution looking for a problem. Striders seem to work fine, why add complexity?

I'm not asking for a Paladin ... I'm asking for a commander that isn't worthless :D

It seems that I mill have to rein in my commorph tendencies and accept that morph is actually a noobtrap ;)

quote: Part of the problem is lack of top-end power. You can spend a paladin's worth of metal on a comma and yet end up with something that's much worse than a paladin. How about throwing us a bone?

I agree that finally getting rid of the morph-option would be a good idea.

quote: May as well get rid of it. Then all the noobs would stop morphing comm in base to level 8 and losing us games.

They will find something else to loose games in no time.

As the topic is quant's rule, comm morph does not seem to fit that idea very well. The comms can end up rather balanced overall (even if not worthy). Would it be interesting to push on that? (ex: each comm morph for support comm => make it slower, larger reclaim build range; each comm morph for recon comm => larger jump radius; lower health).

The main strength of Lance is that it's a riot in disguise. It's much harder to go murder some lances with a raider ball than any other arti.