[10:39:49 AM] <[LCC]KingRaptor> I only quoted the parts I thought were relevant to the discussion :S
Quotations are fun.
Well, since you nuckfuts are having this rousing conversation on my dime, I might as well include a choice quote that King missed out on.
BA's gameplay has been adjusted so about 15-25% of combat units are scaled off of the Flash Tank. This means that a certain number of them will be viable in combat, given that they now have comparable abilities for comparable costs.
The units that I cited, among many others, are units that are not scaled to the Flash Tank. Because of this, they don't get built. Why have so many units if you're not going to build them?
Hurricanes are scaled to the Flash Tank. Ground based anti-air (except for Flak against Gunships due to death chains) is not. Tier 2 Fighters are. Tier 1 Fighters are not. As a result, late-game I can spam Hurricanes and Vamps and slaughter another player who spammed Chainsaws (anti-BOMBER turrets), SAMs, Mercuries, and tier 1 Fighters.
LLTs are balanced against the Flash Tank. HLLTs are by default as their weapons are LLTs. Beamers are not. Dragon's Claws are not. Dragon's Maws are not. HLTs are not. Guardians are miles away. As a result, unless I've got a nice DT trap set up, which costs my attention, or mines, which only last for so long AND cost my attention, those Flash Tanks will roll right over my defenses given not much of an edge in resources spent on them at all, and THEY CAN ATTACK ANY POINT IN MY LINE. Almost instantaneously at that, because as we've covered, they're fast. I can counter with my own Flash Tanks since obviously anything but swarms of LLTs, which I can't place everywhere for cost, are ineffective.
For the most part, Vehicles in BA enjoy huge advantages over Kbots. I don't know why, but the results are clear. Speed advantages out of keeping with their inferior terrain climbing. Health advantages for almost no additional cost - look at Construction Vehicles versus Construction Kbots - significantly more speed, same build power, almost 3x the health, and for only 10% more cost.
Vipers and Pitbulls get raped by Flash, so to balance them, their dps is doubled.
Wait, say what? Where did doubled come from? How about increased by 40%? How about 57.9%? "Sorry, Tired, but our vast playing experience suggests that numbers are smoke and mirrors and the more rounded a value, the better. While we're at it, btw, we've decided to increase the Juggernaut's maxhealth by about 10x. We haven't really tested this, because only a fool would build Juggs, and we didn't build them that often even when they were decent, but we're going with our guts." @$%#!
So I thought to myself, I've got some time - I've got a spreadsheet - Heaven knows I've got experience. Why don't I just sit down and recost/rebalance every single unit in the entire mod until they all have some sort of reasonable role for a reasonable expense. If a VERY few units are a little slower, fine - so be it. Better than shifting the way that speed/range/dps interact and having to drastically change every single other unit in the entire mod.
DemO, since you think that more units are fundamentally better, why don't you try to destroy my BA Comm with 50 Fleas and I'll try to destroy yours with 10 Flash Tanks. Nice to have all of those tentacles at once, but some objectives require specific attributes, and attrition resistance can be a powerful one. You'll be happy with the scouts again, btw - I just killed their dps, which makes them faster again and cheaper. Huzzah~