Shield drain rates measured and compared + balancing feedback

[xXThunderFlameXx]

I suppose having the drain and size be proportional wouldn't make much sense, but blasts going even through the largest shield despite being placed outermost doesn't make sense either, with enough cruise missiles for example you can burst through the repair bubbles, the end all solution for combat shouldn't be spamming the most OP weapons, combat needs a lot of balancing, I know it's not the focus of the game, and I get that the game is centered around building, but not even that is done right, you ever tried to build inside a tech, or work with a block that has like 30 positions, or have 8 drones you can't re-deploy and attach with bolts? Yeah.

 

[Falchoin]

I think usage statistics are very important since they show what people like to use often or not so often. But it’s just as important to know why certain blocks are used more than others.

Like the Havok shield being the most popular end game shield despite terrible efficiency. Even though it’s awful in some ways, it’s also the best at protecting your techs from splash damage which is most damage late game. Plus the Havok shield’s bad efficiency is masked since lasers and explosives deal half damage to shields, so by the time you‘re using them heavily they don’t seem as different.

Conversely, the Venture shield doesn’t get used much. My guess would be folks tried it, got blown up by <insert explosives of choice here> with battery power left, dropped it and never looked back.

 

[ZeroGravitas]

So the war corporation's shields require 8x energy to absorb same direct-fire damage as venture and 2x gso? I knew there's fishy wonky stuff going on, but didnt imagine to such magnitude.

So you really think they should be bigger and more efficient...? Best in all ways, because: Hawkeye. Hmm. So HE repair bubbles should also be fastest and most efficient (and big)?

With the HE shield bubbles being twice the radius of Venture's, that's 8 times the volume, inside. So you're able to scale up the battery capacity way more rapidly, too. That's a pretty powerful implicit feature...

inflating or scaling down the blocks based on their "popularity" from usage statistics

Kae greatly reducing the cost of the Venture bubble makes a lot of sense. It's very weird (and off-putting) for players to see that it cost more than the HE shield, with no justifying explanation (when obviously a tiny bubble). And reducing that price it makes sense to nerf the damage drain rate too, of course. (But it definitely shouldn't be worst than HE's, in this regard.)

My guess would be folks tried it, got blown up by <insert explosives of choice here> with battery power left, dropped it and never looked back.

Doubt many would go that far. More likey most try it on a tech, see the bubble is tiny, immediately remove and never look at them again. High price might not even be considered half the time, either.

We kinda' forgot the issue of the GSO repair bubble. The thing is more expensive, than the shield now! That... that's just wrong. Please, reduce it's cost to about 3000 BBs!

6000BB does seem like a heck of a lot for such an early game block (literally getting one in the first 5 minutes). That's not going to be even vaguely affordable to buy early on... I guess you just have to kill enemies for them? I don't know the early game well enough to know what GSO level you start seeing many enemies with bubbles... So if you loose the free early on, that's going to be kinda irreplaceble.

I'd have guess you devs worked through this kind of fundamental already, though, @kae?

 

[Ry5]

So the war corporation's shields require 8x energy to absorb same direct-fire damage as venture and 2x gso? I knew there's fishy wonky stuff going on, but didnt imagine to such magnitude.

Guys, the balancing in TT is utter ... It's official. And seeing how things going over a long time it doesnt look like it will ever change for the better.

By the way, inflating or scaling down the blocks based on their "popularity" from usage statistics is just plain silly and is showing disregards to both realism/common sense and a lack of vision and concept, lack of the "big pucture".

The Hawkeye shield does require more energy, but they provide such a larger surface area of protection, I think that trade off makes sense to a degree. That said, in my playing I do wish that they drain rates across the board was toned down a bit, or would be happy if that was the direction balancing was heading towards. Also since they are the "war corporation" they would have a higher passive drain rate, but would absorb damage more efficiently.


I think the larger issue at play here though is the lack of functional armor blocks. We wouldn't stack so many shields, then have to stack so many batteries to power all those shields and have the energy capacity function as our tech's effective HP if there was an armored block alternative.

Ideally there would be a block that would dampen Area of Effect damage, or have this feature added to the current armor blocks.