some balance changes i think are necessary

[Zoy64]

these changes would be for the heavy units (byte, worm, and connection)

Byte-the mine-laying thing should only take 20% of its health, not 30%.

Worm-the health should be lowered, and the attack increased

Connection-the reload should be shortened from 5 sec to 3 sec.

one last thing: i think it should be Connection>Byte>Worm
Why?

The Worm should get the deadliest attack, but sense it cloaks, it should have lower health. If the Byte and the Worm got into a 1-on-1 fight, the Byte should win, unless the Worm attacks first. Then the Connection should be the heaviest, being able to take out the other two (albeit with much of its health gone, but win nonetheless.)

See?

[zwzsg]

I hear people claming Network and System are overpowered more often than I hear them saying that Hacker is overpowered.

So I'm not sure nerfing hacker and buffing System and Network is the way to go.

Also, in Connection vs Worm fight, take into account that the connection may dispatch packets and the worm kill the whole packets batch in one go.

More generally, since the Worm has AoE, while the Connection and Byte main attack are focused, it would make sense, than one on one, Worm lose against Byte and against Connection. Though, worm is very short ranged, and can't hit air, so, uh, ah, balance matters are complicated.

[knorke]

the mine special of the byte is very powerfull, i think thanks to this system is my favorite faction.

with network it is the problem that on small maps and in the beginning i often do no have enough damage-dealing units. the swarms die fast, aircraft take some to time mass and i found dispatch ability of the driving connection not that usefull: if you dispatch 15 swarmthings in the start, thats almost all of your army. and in lategame 15 swarmies are not that usefull anymore. Also, if your mainbuilding is surrounded, the dispatch doesnt help anything: even if all my units are already defending it, i often find them to be too weak.
So yes, a faster reload for the connection might be ok i think.

[Zoy64]

I think that the Network's Carrier should be able to dispatch units to defend itself and the ability to fill the packet buffer, but that is only if you own at least one port.

[Pxtl]

To me, the biggest balance issue of KP isn't one of power, but one of micro-management. The System is just plain *easier* than the other factions.

[overkill]

The deployed bugs seem.....a little lacking. Perhaps buff their attack a little? As a hacker player, i need some thing to really put the hurt to byte spam. But the current ones arent cutting it.

[Pxtl]

The deployed bugs seem.....a little lacking. Perhaps buff their attack a little? As a hacker player, i need some thing to really put the hurt to byte spam. But the current ones arent cutting it.

Well, part of the problem is the whole "more damage at longer range" thing. It's hard to keep the enemy at bay. Or did that feature get cut? Really, it needs more graphical indication.

[Zoy64]

another network idea, the ability to turn on/off a feature for auto-deploy. When a port or connection is attacked with auto-deploy on, then they would deploy some packets to defend themselves so that you wont have to micro them all the time

[zwzsg]

Make it a widget. The Lua AI gadget already does it, so you just have to carefully crop the relevant lines, then widgetify it. Here are the relevant lines to get you started.

[Zoy64]

thank you zwzsg, ill start looking up how to "widgify" it.

[zwzsg]

Nevermind, won't work, just found out widgets aren't let known the attacker, even when they are in LoS.

So instead I made it attack the closest visible enemy, even if it's not the right one. Also bufferize idle packets (every, not just the ones dispatched by the widget).

Edit the range and timer values at the top to suit your taste.

[KDR_11k]

The Connection's gun is really a secondary feature, the dispatch lets you deploy a focussed force near the frontline without the risk of having it intercepted mid-route. I think that's how the Network's spam tends to be equivalent to others even with lower stats because of the superior logistics, the Net can get units from the factory to the frontline instantly while moving large amounts of spam is very difficult for other factions and units in transit cannot fight yet (so they have a significant number of units that are unable to fight at any given time because they're still moving to the front). Network attacks can invoke the full strength of its army while other factions tend to be limited by logistics.

The Byte is antiswarm, while it can defeat a Worm by outranging it that's not really its main purpose as its pitiful performance against ANYTHING large shows (Bytes shouldn't be used for destroying buildings, for example). Bytes are supposed to work in tandem with Bits anyway, a Byte volley tends to leave survivors with little health, another volley would be a waste but Bits could finish the damaged enemies off. Bytes have a long enough range to have spam between them and the target and really, a System strike force should have Pointers at hand anyway.

Worms are supposed to attack once or twice and die, that usually happens when they attack swarms unless they get a favourable situation (small swarm numbers), then they can amass Viruses and establish a defensive position. Worms don't work well with support so that's where their combat against Bytes tends to even out. Bytes can detect cloaked Worms so if they take too long to attack your Bits can even kill the Worms before they strike.

Exploits aren't strictly anti-armor, they're saturation bombardement, creating killzones for any enemy movement and occasionally harassment to force an enemy attack. A good number of them can make a chokepoint impassable for enemy spam units. Your anti-armor approach is immobilizing the armor with DoSes, then killing it with Bugs. A bunch of Bytes may not be stunnable all at once because they block your line of fire but their movement is blocked that way too. Remember, stunned Bytes lose the armor bonus they usually get when closed.

Also Exploits are nice fire support for Bugs, regular Bugs can't shoot through each other but Exploits can strike when the Bugs can't, in a large engagement it's better to convert some of your Bugs into Exploits (clinical test: vs 50 Bits, 50 Bugs lose, 50 Exploits lose, 25 Bugs and 25 Exploits win).

[Google_Frog]

The Byte doesn't need to be anti-heavy. System has the best anti-heavy in the game; the pointer. With about 5 pointers you're immune to heavy attacks in a large area as pointers can just snipe them.

Connections look fine as is. Their main power is from spawning packets, this is not just a logistics ability. When using connections spawn packets mid-battle to give the connections a massive DPS boost. Treat packets like less of a unit and more of a global mana pool for the connection and node's DPS boost ability.

I think the map restrictiveness is more of a problem with KP. System is very good on small maps as they can make pointers very early on to shut down enemy expansion. On medium maps Net does well when they have enough packet income and free space to make firewalls. On very large maps I've found that hackers are best as they have good spam units and micro free anti-heavy which are still effective when built with the relatively small base income on large maps.

[zwzsg]

Speaking of balance, just found something odd. Three out of four times I had 2 Hacker KPAI beat 3 System KPAI. The only explanation I can find is that the AI use alot more the exploit (and with cheating los).

[Zoy64]

something else that i have noticed, the Packet's "build" speed-it could be decreased. I usually have a hard time trying to keep up with the other factions, so could you please decrease the time required to "build" Packets by a tad? I dont mean set it so that you make 30 Packets in a second, just shorten buildtime by a really small amount please.

[KDR_11k]

Packet production rates are identical to the other factions' spam production at minifacs.

[Zoy64]

strange, cuz they just seem a small bit slower than the others, but maybe its just me... (i am not saying this just because i love the Network, i said so because something just seemed out of whack)

[zwzsg]

While making my mission editor (which is just a lua dumping and reloading units with their commands), I noticed that the NX command is only executed once, instead of repeating like a normal attack, and when I turn the pointer on repeat, then queue slowly fills up with attack orders. So it looks like there's something broken with the NX command implementation. Maybe I'm too blame since I remember having to edit it to make it so using the NX button not only give authorisation to fire NX but also make it fire the NX where you clicked and not where it wants to because it just saw an enemy.

[Logabob]

I'm probably just not very good, but Network seems a little OP. Mainly when some guy just spams Flow and base rushes your main; it's very difficult to stop unless you've had the upper hand in terms of expos.

It's more of a mid to late game tactic as you need to build up enough of them.