balancing cruisers

[knorke]

You could also give Cruisers a weapon with basically zero range. For example bombs, a downwards firing turret or a Independance Day style laser.

For that kind of weapon cruisers would need to be made practically immune to AA since land units supported with a few jeeps(say 5) would kill the cruiser before they get in range, it would be effectively suiciding your cruiser and would not be worth it unless the weapon is extremely powerful(nuke scale attack power) or the cruiser could simply tank that amount of damage and make it back after dropping a few high damage bombs.

I think it is possible to find a balance between "useless suicide" and "nuke scale attack power." C&C Zero Hour has a similiar weapon on the big China Helicopter btw.

It would probably better to make a cruiser have a far more powerful long range(900) laser or plasma type weapon with a lot of splash(20-50) but a long reload(1minute) so it can just work as a slow heavy fire support cannon.

long reload time does not matter if it has a "powerfull long range attack with lots of splash": one shot will be enough to kill a depot with all miners working on it.
With long range it will be even easier for cruisers to stay outside AA range (stay over hills or water where jeeps can not go), this would be more op than the "bombs idea."
Also, even if you kill the Cruiser, it will already have fired.

I think it would be also annoying gameplay if the cruiser wastes that big attack on a single tank or something.

Or make it a weapon that reloads only after cruiser has morphed in to lab and back since long reloads would be circumvented this way in any case.

sounds cumbersome tbh.

IÔÇÖm sorry if IÔÇÖm just bashing down ideas but IÔÇÖm just trying to make a way to make cruisers work without killing them completely.(anyone remember how commandos used to be in BA 7.15 before the nerfs, I donÔÇÖt want the same thing to happen to cruisers(resigned to the scrapheap of unusable units)) personally I think theyÔÇÖre pretty good as they are with some minor tweaks here and there to make them more balanced(reload mainly[donÔÇÖt want to have the range nerfed because of reasons stated above])

The goal here is not to remove cruiser's abilities to attack. It is to not make people use their cruiser's offensively.

With its high speed, good mobility and long range attacks it will be used offensive. Reload time does not matter so much if it can go near the enemy, shot and disappear. On defense long reload time sucks, because you want the damage _now_ before your base gets killed:
"Oh, the cruiser just missed again. Well, wait 10 seconds until it reloads. Wops, you are already dead."


Wombat:
I dont understand what you mean. Imo tanks, mechs etc. should be a players main army and Cruisers only used sometimes. (ie in a full out attack)

[oksnoop2]

Give cruisers fuel. Makes them stay close to home maybe? Or implement some kind of crazy pylon system where cruisers can only fire with in the range of a pylon.

[knorke]

crazy

[Wombat]

i mean that if cruiser or anything else is mobile factory, u can move it all over then map, make units with it and use as main weapon during the fight (maybe with some developed morphing and add-ons like... this huge ship in THIS) so u dont need static base.

well, i dont expect u to take this idea serious, it totally changes gameplay, but maybe good idea for some mod.

[knorke]

cruisers already are mobile factories and you hardly need a base. well, you need powerplants but a handfull is enough you can hide those or just rebuild.
there are no static bases...

[Wombat]

there will be for sure after nerf, which MIGHT make them less effective at front

and

It was intended almost entirely for defensive purposes.

[knorke]

uhm what buildings what your static base consist of?
radar towers and turrets?

[nightcold]

personally, my problem with cruisers is that people are use them instead of actual units..... last few games i played, cruisers was far more important and played more of a role than actual units...and cruiser cost too much, you spend more money on cruiser(and cons) than you do on normal units....and cruiser are far more effective than normal units any way(why would u spend too much money on them)...


my conclusion:the giant ships in the sky that shoot stuff are a bit op for early game ...(the ability to produce them is, not the stating com....thou com's aa is op...)

i think that cruiser's having the ability to shoot be something that u gada pay extra for after you make one....and cruisers should cost less...

[SanadaUjiosan]

Good news everyone!

All of the missile-based cruisers (all of them except the battle cruiser and battle flagship, which use lasers) should now have next to no problems with targeting.

Among other things I've forgotten about (I had to go through several ideas before this finally worked), I made the actual flares turn to target. Ranges were made the same between air and ground missiles so there should be no hang up targeting other cruisers.

These cruisers also have alternating fire now. The rates will be increased later, but that'll come with balancing.

Hurray!

[knorke]

hooray