Constable scrutiny

It's been good having constable be able to defend itself vs fleas as many of us requested. It was a move in the right direction for the JJ factory. But...

One thing that got overlooked is that the unit is perhaps now too low cost for it's overall combined package. It's currently the cheapest con unit, but arguably top tier for expansion speed and defensive capability.

I'll make the most concise comparison that I can:

Constable - 130 metal - Jumps, slows, defends itself against small raiders.
Mason - 140 metal - No abilities. (Hell, I bet a constable could brawl with a Mason plus at least 2 darts perfectly fine)

Watch Godde's expansion in this match: https://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/671285
Perhaps you will also notice how poorly my tanks handled combat on the slight terrain that they found constables on in the early game. Regardless, if a small number of construction units can render 780 metal in tanks impotent, it is worth putting the unit back under the microscope.

I propose an increase in cost (20-30 metal) OR slight decrease to slowing power OR reduction in beam range OR nerf to construction speed to get this expansion monster in line. It's too fantastic.

I personally don't care which category this falls under JJ nerf or constable. Offender is constable.

"Nerf the strong unit, buff the weak unit"

I thought the principle was exactly the opposite ?

Are there weak jump units?

Toad is somewhat weak considering its cost and the AA options available on the other factories.

It's the most expensive mobile AA unit, but slightly underwhelming in terms of raw attributes. The attributes its given also fail in specific ways:

- can be bombed by a pair of ravens like other mobile AA which are much faster and cost half as much

- non-tracking weapons will likely miss targets outside LOS due to radar wobble
(so the extra range over some other mobile AA is kind of wasted)

I think need change cost-value unit Wasp 300 -> 130 and do add it slow ability and laser (take from swift) but.. stop! We have Trident! Need Trident do add buildpower 10 and built-in storage . GoogleFrog i have plan for patch, where are u

I'll repeat my tired opinion of what's wrong with Jump and the current situaiton.

Why did Constable need a gun to kill fleas? Because there is no other JJ unit capable of doing this job. Pyro is too heavy and also a riot raider. Puppy is suicide anti-raider that loses 2.5x value when killing a Flea.

Why does JJ have no units capable of killing Flea? Because JJ does not have decent raiders. Why does JJ have no decent raiders? Because JJ has no riot, so all their units have to have a riot sidearm - and good raiders with good riot weapons would be obnoxious.

Why does JJ have no real riot? I don't know. Flavor maybe? Legacy reasons?

Splitting the Pyro into a lower-weight jumpbandit and a proper jumpriot (say, an arc flamer, maybe with funny damaging effects on jump, like a blazetrail) would fix the flea problem while not requiring Constable to be able to fight raiders efficiently.

Of course, that still does nothing about it having massive effects against heavy raiders. In that izirayd video, Constables aren't the damage dealers, they just slow things. In other battles you can see it trivially outrange and more or less counter things like Reaver.

If their weapon is intended for self-defense, then perhaps it should just have lower range.

izi is right the wasp is to expensive make it slower and cut the cost. anarchid is right about the distance it should be lower for flea protection.

quote: Blitz is arguably the worst raider against Constables since they are so heavy and slowing down a few heavier low range units is easier than slowing down a bunch of cheap raiders.

That merely adds insult to injury: the change was supposed to help against the lightest raiders :P

It is the slow that makes the Constable good against heavy raiders, not the DPS.