balancing legions

Suggest and discuss new ideas or ways we can improve the game.
iceblink
Posts: 294
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:46 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by iceblink »

Sephi you are right in saying that activity is the problem. That is partly why the current system doesn't work, even if the balancing is good, activity can still be very different. And picking up activity is hard (ask Ailill, she tried hard to get our legion more active!). My theory on that is that you can only manage to do it for a short while, after that people only stay active if they see a good chance of winning.

But this is exactly why the ones who *are* active would be helped with more firepower, imho.

@ecvej: it would help those players, but wouldn't it also destroy the game more or less? Or at least the storyline behind the game.
ecvej
Developer / Administrator
Posts: 704
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:43 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by ecvej »

It's doubtful if they'd still be able to fight that well against an overwhelming enemy. Think we'd also need to work on things they can do on their own to score points even if they don't have a blob to fight with.
Seraphim
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:52 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by Seraphim »

Well dunno if this was mentioned already, but how about smaller legions get a somewhat higher score multiplyer? Won't make a difference in actual battles, but it does allow smaller or dying legions to be able to climb the rankings faster, this making the game more interesting for them.
iceblink
Posts: 294
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:46 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by iceblink »

Why not increase firepower as well, instead of just the multiplier? Better points is a little help, better firepower is a little more help.
Seraphim
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:52 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by Seraphim »

Hmmm truly I would hesitate to give out extra firepower. The "higher" levels should even it out a little bit. Maybe a bit more HP would work, but I am against more firepower. For one, it's hard to balance, but secondly, if small legions are stronger individually than large legions, they could exert a large influence over larger and maybe even more active legions. Aside from that, large legions are tougher to control due to activity and span of control, so a small legion with more powerful ships could in theory be a more effective fighting unit than a large legion.

While this would undoubtedly be more fun for the smaller legions, it also means the larger legions would inevitably seek to create power blocks with these smaller legions, because of their higher potential damage output, or alternatively, become highly frustrated when thwarted by a smaller legion.

An example of how I see it:

A few days ago it was Tib + Bor vs us Krils at PK. If Ajaxus had a good chance of staying alive that fight, it's likely we could have worked out a NAP and sided together against you, since the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now Ajax was not in that fight, because their survival odds were low. If those odds were better, Ajax would not be so shy to join the fight. We already drove off the NAP forces. Imagine if the Ajaxus legion, pumped up, had been there as well.

Outnumbered we stood fast. Add 4 ships that count for 6-8 ships, of which it is fair to assume they are active and fairly high level due to the multiplyer, in terms of firepower to that, it's likely Tib + Bor would not even have attempted.

This all depends of course on how much firepower you add, I am aware of that. But in order for the adding of firepower to be effective for these plans, it would have to be such amount that a legion of 10 could hold off a legion of 15 at least. If you go for less, then it's not enough and it won't change anything to the dynamics, and you might as well not bother.

---

What I would rather see is the replayability of a small legion increased.

If you die as part of a small legion, it sucks a lot, because unlike the larger legions you can't really hide in the masses and level up easily. Chances are your level 1 fighter will be gone before it reaches level 2 again.

If you insert some sort of minimum score cap, if you die you could restart in a level 2 fighter instead of a level 1 (which actually makes sense, since the planet's resources would be working to accommodate 5 pilots instead of 10), then the amount it sucks to die is less. In addition, you also start out with more health and firepower once you die.

Of course a danger here is that you can drag out games needlessly this way. For that purpose and to avoid suicide exploits, I would also put in place a maximum reborn score cap, so say you can at best start as level 2,5, but never 3. And perhaps a maximum of "refills" within a given period of time.
Pender
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 9:43 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by Pender »

Something that wouldn’t take a lot of effort (I think) is a little rebalancing of Jax ships. It doesn’t address the issue directly, but some modest upgrades could work.

Sorry if someone said this already - I didn't read the whole thread yet.
Flint
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:11 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by Flint »

I like the points for non-bombers bombing idea. As long as bombers do more damage on average, as well as get more points per bit of damage, then I don't think it undermines bombers. Might make for shorter games as there would be more planet shooting and maybe not waiting until everyone gets cruisers.
Fwiffo
Posts: 66
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:08 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by Fwiffo »

Personally, I'd like to see less bombing, it's one of the more boring parts of the game. There should be more incentives for getting into fleet battles, which is where all the fun is.
Itsje
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 10:19 pm
Location: Wassenaarse Slag - Netherlands
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Re: balancing legions

Post by Itsje »

perhpas we are just thinking to difficult.

why not just close the HW,s for enemy,s up to Turn 100
Or a enemy legion can only acces a HW once it has 1 carrier and 1 cruiser

And for the bombers wel i say give them a scantower :)
or make then more efective against Repp ships
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iceblink
Posts: 294
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:46 pm

Re: balancing legions

Post by iceblink »

Less bombing is more to my liking also.

I like the closed HW idea, though it has complications... some people may use it as a hiding place...
It would fit in the gameplay, HW has shields that can only be penetrated by cruisers and carriers, or something like that :-)
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