So, im experienced player from earlier, mainly playing frost.
Here are my experiences, and suggestions, trying to answer some of the issues.
- t1 nature, frost
- adding t4 to pvp
- make ALL cards viable
- get all Maps, no matter the distances to work technically. (so asymetricly balanced no matter how u design the map. more freedom in such)
theese are the goals to fulfill, and from there, you get players. and if you get players, you get the rest.
1. t1 nature: yes nature has awesome synergy with a summoned up rush with archers and healsers, wind against small units, root agains melee, frost can outplay this, but new players never get this done. lets also invite young players getting things done. for this, i have one general suggestion,
which is to strengthen the defensive power, because yesterday i had a good match, where one player did play defensive towers and utility buildings alot, trying to compensate me having the economy and tier.
I would like to see, that towering with t1 is more effective, than having 2 or 3 wells in advantage, so that you are not THAT dependend of economy.
So in general, i would make towers cheaper, and/or faster to build, restricted to t1 defensive structures, so they stop to cost all your economy, while the opponent can grab wells.
tower spam can be devastating already, once they are up, it takes quite a effort to get rid of them again, but this doesnt apply to t1 towers, as there are siege units alot in t2, high range, so it would not hurt to see towers being more viable. getting more range if placed by a well would be an option.
this would have effect, that you retard the gameplay to higher tier, so t1 is not the only tier new players will see coming. you must be able to rush them still, thats why 10-20% cheaper, faster to build in t1 would not destroy that a rush on an unprepared player will fail. with a group of soldiers, those towers are easy to destroy, but not if there are many towers. so they must be more flexible to play, and not hurt the economy flow as they are not moveable, you need that economy disadvantage softened in the beginning.
so let the first 5 towers not lower the economy flow, with gradually less bonus, the more towers you have... you say it.
this would lead to nature also be motivated to defend, playing less archers and heal power, if their t1 attack gets thrown back.
it would also kill the split army abuse, because T1 natuer can defend better, so it softens the hard effectiveness in its t1 rush, and also the weakness of nature.
frost gets less penailty to set up some towers at start, having somewhat more time to get into the game because it relys on getting into position, by game design it shall win with less wells and map control taken, but once in offense, the cheap frost units compared to other colors, have good ability to siege, and only have weakness at start, becoming pretty strong until late-t2-t3 they usualyl have a huge problem with the giant units of the other colors like harvester, ashborn pyro, burrwer, siege units in general, so you are forced to shield your wells, but cannot play units, which hurts mostly if the number of units you can play is very low.
- so in general i would add granularity to the economy, or the unit numbers. but that is ofc. lots of work to redo, but adapt the pvp economy might be easier, raise the start money alone would work, add more wells to the map in general, reduce their cost in general, but is would lead to t1 becoming obsolete, so there must be a phase where t1 can interrupt a player going to t2.
what hurts me often, is the low time needed to build the sphere (it is a valuable step that should need more time for the enemy to react), which should be gradually longer for each tier. (in pve this is a bit problematic bcause of time limits, but in general, make the tier differences more distinct would be good.
i know my suggestions seem a bit wild / not focused enough, to you, but that comes later. theese are approaches, that you can pick off some, dont need to take everyting. just need some adaption to what is doable, and are most likely to work if done to end. i know there are some factors, that you need to care for. i think this is solveable, ask me if you dont know.
I have large large rts experience, but have not so much discipline to play to top ladder things, instead i observe and try to improve the game itself, instead of adapting my functioning brain to a non-functioning concept. maybe you think im failing somewhere, but just dont stop going on until every aspect is solved.
this is enough text for once. lets start here and not stop until we have a good rework.
