Funnelweb and Starlight

It seems that the current fad in the FFAs are those 2 things.

Funnelweb is:
-All-terrain
-Has shields that grant massive damage redistribution and regeneration.
-Can reveal approaching cloakers with drones
-Can distract enemy AA, but also get shields drained by said AA.

On its own, it is a decent unit for its cost. The problem is that funnel synergizes with itself very well. Fire line blocking is not a big issue with funnels because of drones. Shields scaling extremely well is a well known thing. 1 funnel is an ok strider, 4 funnels are a nightmare. Yes, they can be beaten with good use of EMP, but no other unit scales so well with just itself.

4 funnels actually beat a detriment, while cost the same. And the more you get, the bigger their advantage over any other unit gets.

Imo, they deserve a some nerfs:
-Lower the DPS on main guns (a slight reload time increase should work)
-Increase the price to 8k
-Decrease the drone respawn rates

By doing all of these, funnels would be much easier to counter with heavy AA which would disable most of their DPS and drain the shields. Their unique features (all-terrain, drones, shieldstacking) mean they will stay relevant even after the nerf, but will not be the best option for almost every situation.


Starlight:
Starlight is a superweapon which has 2 competitors: Zenith and DRP. However, unlike the other ones, starlight

-Has absolutely insane single-target DPS, making it useful against any land units, including detriments
-Is precise, making it very easy to just snipe strategic structures
-Can be walled off.

The only way to deal with a starlight right now is either through bombing, or by walling yourself off and building your own starlight.
It is vastly superior to the alternatives, but costs only 17% more than the Zenith.

The second in strength is Zenith. Zenith cannot be walled off due to its size, but does not need to be placed on a hill either, its low accuracy makes it only useful against bases, not individual units or structures.

DRP actually costs more than Zenith, probably due to its ability to hurt individual units. Its non-perfect accuracy and shorter range make its real DPS much lower compared to starlight though. And its range is actually noticeably shorter than for the other 2 superweapons.


I suggest the following:

-Add 50e drain for active DRP and Zenith, 100e drain for starlight
-Adjust the Zenith cost to 35k (from 32k), Starlight to 45k, 50k maybe (from 35k)
-Drop the Starlight DPS from 3,333 to 2,000. It still crunches through pretty much everything, but a bit more slowly.

Just to give you a sense of scale, to neutralise 2000 DPS, you would need 36 aegis shields, which would be draining 324 energy per second. 2000 DPS kills a Detriment in 12 seconds.

We need mirriros, so we can bounce starlight lazor away! Then shot moon(s) down, and make it fall on enemy base! Win!

quote: Most ffas are just porc till starlight

It depends heavily on a map. Maps where each player has a well-defined and easy to defend personal territory usually end up as porcfests (Hunters is the best example, Azure Rampart and Castles also count).
Maps where borders are hard to define and defend, and a lot of wealth is on "neutral" territory often end up with massive wars.
I really dont know why the former kind of maps is more popular, i wish more "open" 4- and 5-way FFA maps existed.

Funnels, as i have said, dont look dungerous until you meet a ball with 5 of them. I dont know of any way to deal with them that doesnt involve EMP/Disarm. It's like a felon-based shieldball on steroids.

quote: Superweapons aren't supposed to be really balanced though.

Well, as i understand, they are not supposed to be balanced in the typical rock-paper-scissors way. But i see no reason why their prices should not be balanced according to their relative usefulness. I'm not suggesting to change their mechanics after all, just some values like DPS and prices.

Well... imo if someone has starlight before anyone else in the ffa game, it's because no one scouted it / attacked him while he was still building it. Nerfing it in any way is unneeded, its 35k metal. Could make 5 nukes instead and emp all but 2 antis of whoever you are against and you win.
Also, nukes annihilate funnelwebs so theyre not really a problem.

Once the drones are dead, 5 scorchers can kill the funnelweb...

1 screamer > funnelweb

I think that the Super Weapons should have an RPS balance.
Something that could involve terraform and shields perhaps.
Like one superweapon excels at taking down terraform. One at braking through shields. While one is good at both but need direct Line of Fire to its' target so you can't protect it with terraform and only shields.

Starlight isn't an i-win button. It's expensive to counter against but terraform in front of all your main structures or shieldspam stops it and in ffa you normally have more than 3 singus so e isnt a problem.
I've seen loads of matches where the player with the first starlight loses.