Spring RTS Engine

I saw a shell shock wreck that had made it far through the dsd basin, before reclaiming it, I felt some pity for it.

More seriously, I think that unit has very few edges over other. It cost roughtly the same as a samson yet it can't

- fire on mobile unit
- fire on air unit
- take as much pain

And it's only advantage as far as I can see is that it can barely fire out of hlt range. And that's a small one as I can't recall the number of time I only needed to send some stumpies to destroy most of them and scare the rest. Even more questioning is that a couple of rez bot will make that hlt immune to a whole army of shell shock.

Seeing all these problems I would give that unit a little more of something, it could be

- damage
- emp
- agility
- make units bump around like the riot tank weapon
- hit point
- cost

You also forgot that the sam-trucks have longer sight range and more speed.

To me, the biggest problem with the L1 arty is none of the stuff you mentioned, but _speed_. By the time they get into firing range, the fight is over... and if stumpies come to get rid of them, they can't get out of their own way to let your own tanks come to their rescue (so instead, your tanks have to be positioned into that narrow little space between their range and the range of whatever they're shooting at).

Its main advantage is in killing CrazyBoy, but I have plenty of other ways to do that.

Waldo made shellshocker on geyser and won on last tourney, so its a good unit

JohannesH wrote:Waldo made shellshocker on geyser and won on last tourney, so its a good unit

Heh, I would attribute that win to dumb luck rather then skill or unit use.

It is a rather underrated unit though. In general its only purpose is anti-hlt, but its also good for killing llts when they are surrounded by wrecks/dt or when you want to kill them with some range to spare.

Pxtl wrote:(so instead, your tanks have to be positioned into that narrow little space between their range and the range of whatever they're shooting at)

Yeah, basically for that reason the best defense for arty is your own static defense :/

t1 arty is wank, missle truck fills the same roll better

its only use is on a porc map, and that is it very very slightly outranges the HLT. its dps is tiny, its fragile and its slow. i bet waldo couldve won without making shellshocker just fine

If someone makes a unit in a game and wins it does not instantly mean that unit is good for its cost..
The person might have won cause of other factors.
He might have played so much better that building one shitty unit didnt make him lose.
Maybe if he spent his $ on some other unit he would have won faster or it would have been easier.

If I can beat you up with a pair of feathers, which conclusion would someone with common sense arrive at:

• Im so hard I pwned you with something as measly as feathers, you never stood a chance
• Feathers are fearsome weapons, beware the man with a featherbed

Haha Johannes look what you did.

Llamadeus wrote:Haha Johannes look what you did.

Needs replay maybe.

anyone got it?

Pxtl wrote:You also forgot that the sam-trucks have longer sight range and more speed.

To me, the biggest problem with the L1 arty is none of the stuff you mentioned, but _speed_. By the time they get into firing range, the fight is over... and if stumpies come to get rid of them, they can't get out of their own way to let your own tanks come to their rescue (so instead, your tanks have to be positioned into that narrow little space between their range and the range of whatever they're shooting at).

Agreed. This unit needs buffed turn speed and movement speed. It just feels so cumbersome to use because it's so slow and the response time is terrible. By the time you see the stumpies coming it's too late to save them.

I would just like the option of NOT using that vertical shot with it.

Stealth870 wrote:I would just like the option of NOT using that vertical shot with it.

You mean give it a trajectory setting like a Guardian's high trajectory/low trajectory button? Hmm...

Nonoce wrote:More seriously, I think that unit has very few edges over other. It cost roughtly the same as a samson yet it can't

- fire on mobile unit
- fire on air unit
- take as much pain

But it

- has higher range (HLT killer)
- can shoot over any obstacle (samson fails hard at his)
- has splash damage (often enough to hit repairers on the fly)

Long story short, in 8v8 games, where frontlines are often clear in the very beginning, its a great unit. Basically a cheap mobile guardian. On huge open 1v1 games it's pretty useless though.

I used to hate t1 arty, now I love it. Unblockable shots and splash damage make it the ultimate static defense killer. On DSD, you can keep the enemy under constant fire and force him to charge into your defense line. T1 arty is usually fast enough to retreat if the frontlines are close.

i would like to see it beeing better too.
from the feel point of view, it fits the unit well that it is slow, so i would like a bit more range or more units-bouncing-away or similar. Making it faster may be the best in making it balanced, but it would also make it more similar to the samson -> less diversity/fun.

artt is outranging hlts, what else u want them to do >>

Well the most "conservative" way to better balance them would seem to be to add some extra range, but for me the fact that to attack an hlt they have to put themselves in a vulnerable position is what define them as t1.

Adding more range would make them balanced but we would lose some dynamic in the t1 game.

I still think all things taken into account, this unit is not worth it's metal (considering enemy side to be at the same level and not using them) and it would be better to give it a LITTLE more purposeful role.

@ HectorMeyer

I find that it's only a good investment on DSD if your L1 fac is close to the front. Otherwise it will spend 90% of it's lifetime slowly driving to the front line. It's like the Vlaunch tanks that way.

Setting them up for High/Low trajectory switching would nice.

I think that at the very least it would be a place to start for testing.

Its the only T1 combat unit that is a 100% support unit where other units have to guard it, because it can't protect itself against other combat units or run away when it gets rushed.

Its best used as a porc buster, and to draw out the enemy forces while you tickle a few HLT or LLT spam.