Lotus Forest Why

quote: Not sure how lotus forests could be a consequence of superfluid though. (and honestly they perplex me, I don't understand why they don't get skirmed to death)

The last meaningful change to Lotus was a 5% dps buff on Mar 5 2020, but that more or less coincided with the rest of the superfluid changes, so is meaningless on its own as well.

Is this just a fad?

>most raiders get minor nerf over 2 years on top of being mangeled by superfluid
>cons get nerfs
>artillery gets marginally slower across the board (and not just in move speed)
>higher tier porc gets repeated nerfs
>all the commanders get infinitely stronger as a solo fighting unit, but get some individual nerfs later on; engi gets a buff
>lotus forests appear
>suprised pikachu face

Lotus is just an insanely efficient unit compared to any other porc, and most units and with engi comm and priority being a thing, well....

The Lotus forest has really happened the last month or so, and wasn't as prevalent before that. My opinion is that the past few patches broke the raider interactions with changes to duck(dominant), kodachi(dominant) and scorcher(no longer even with kodachi), really accentuating raider RPS. If you lose this raider RPS, the best solution then seems to be to play defensive, make riots and lotus.

To me Lotus has always been a no brainer.

Game after game I keep repeating "lotus in base" and nubs never listen, and get their base destroyed by a single pyro.

I'll tell you why I use Lotus:

1) It's very efficient. For a measly 90 metal you get a static unit with good damage and a decent range, that can be put behind tough buildings like solars to enhance its effectiveness.

2) Lotus secures your expansion. There's nothing worse than grinding forward and suddenly your big heavies get cut down by a bunch of glaives and you get chased back to your starting position. Securing the advance with lines of lotus provides not only a fallback line but also hampers light unit swarms from simply screaming back up into your territory in a counterattack.

3) Lotus is good for porc push. Because they pop up so fast you can even advance against pickets with them by building them inside the picket radius of fire. I've often had commander vs commander fights determined by my popping lotus up faster.

4) There seems to be a sudden prevelance for using swarms of fleas again. A pair of lotus can eat a bunch of fleas for breakfast and they nicely complement ranged units that find themsleves swarmed by them. In fact ranged units + lotus are quite effective I find.

5) Lotus works well with other statics like faraday. A couple of faraday become a lethal obstacle with the addition of 2 lotus. 180 extra metal buys you an awful lot of protection against base drops and short ranged units.

Finally: Lotus can help fight air units to some extent. Stuff like Locust becomes much less effective at raiding when Lotus are dotting bases, and gnats can be killed off before comnappings are completed.

TLDR: Lotus is very efficient at many roles and costs little. Build lotus.

Am I an authority on lotus forestry? I need to know that before I take the effort to think about it.

quote: what makes you ever prefer picket over lotus or stinger.

Picket looks better.

quote: Am I an authority on lotus forestry

You are its harbinger.

I think the forestry comes from the fact that early expansion are spearheaded by the (engi) comm. Then another front opens where normal units fight and roam. Engi comm simply can't control himself, he NEEDS them build. Engi is all alone, it's a scary world, he needs his tree friends. If it's problematic: bring variety to the opening part of the game (because the meta is rather fixed in bringing engi or jump comm out) or make lotus more expensive.

Oh what Fine says. I actually wrote something very similar but scrapped it.

quote: For many factories cost-effectively killing lotus takes immense amounts of qwop (burn apm into ronin retreat)

Just use retreat zones?

i, too, dont understand stardust. i even build quake more.