Update on 02-05-2013
Thank you to all of you that have waited patiently for this update. Here's a list of what's changing today:
BUG FIXES
- Fixed First Turn AP settings to work properly
- Fixed train hazard to correctly keep the initiating player’s units alive at 100 hit points
- Fixed bug with bamboo tiles not appearing until late in the game
- Changed the Shaolin game board to have only one speed-boost tile
- Fixed Bloodrage icon to display properly when activated
- Fixed bug that kept Shaolin win achievements from being granted
- Updated Paladin description text to mention Revive
- Fixed a bug that prevented colors from changing correctly
- Fixed a bug that prevented taunts from displaying for opponents
BALANCE CHANGES
- Wraith's starting HP increased by 150 and soul charges reduced by 50 HP
- Paladin HP decreased to 900
- Shaolin monk movement increased to 3
- Poisoner debuff increased to 50%
- Sniper crouch bonus reduced to 250
- TF2 heavy HP reduced to 1100
Let's see--Paladin has 1000 EHP unbuffed now instead of 1111--that doesn't change too many kill thresholds except for unbuffed Axe Thrower (3 hit now). +2 Paladin can be dropped by 4x390 attacks I guess? There will still be lots of edge cases of course, especially with auras.
Sniper 250 means upgraded sniper (380) + 1 390 attack can't drop a vanilla 800 unit.
Poisoner 50% means unupgraded Poisoner + 1 other 200 damage hit can drop a vanilla 800 unit. Poisoner + an upgraded attacker still can't drop a +2 Monk-debuffed target in 2 hits. Poisoner can 3-shot a basic target on her own, making her a little more Archer-like.
Not sure about Heavy change--not much happens at 1100HP. Dies to 3 390 attacks against another TF2.
So the Paladin/Heavy changes generally don't affect many obvious HP thresholds, but will present subtle differences due to all the odd little bits of damage that can fly around in this game. Sniper and Poisoner seem specifically tailored to make the units more or less viable against generic cannon fodder targets, so Sniper doesn't control a row quite so easily, and Poisoner protects an area better against naked units that e.g. run in to stomp something.
Guide updated.
Gut reactions:
Overall: Not bad, should help overall. Moreover, balance was already pretty good generally, so moving in the right direction is only cause for happyness. That said, not to be a glass is half-empty kind of guy, but I dont know why Robot needs to go its own way in radio silence when the community put so much work into trying to make consensus recommendations -- and actually managed to get a reasonable level of consensus in the case of the Shaolin, which Robot did not heed.
-Dwarves: This may turn out to be a good change. Its nothing the community recommended, but it may be the right order of magnitude. Sure it doesnt impact too many threshholds too obviously, but its very common for Pallies to have some lingering splash on em.
-TF2: Same. Many in the community liked the sniper change, and the Heavy change, while not popular, was floated. I feel like this could work out well.
-Shaolin: Shocked that Robot went off on its own and ignored community consensus by boosting the already excellent Poisoner rather than the lousy Windblade as virtually the entire community wanted. Shaolin should certainly do *better* overall, record wise, but it seems like a very unstable thing, where Shaolin might even be OP if the deck swings their way, and remain hopeless in others. Not an ideal kind of equality, if they are equal now...
SixOkay also forgot to mention....
Bug Fixes:
-
Fixed the bug that kept Community Managers from reading and posting to the forums
Balance Changes:
- Witch maintained at whimpy
- The Tribe reduced to obscurity
First turn ap still broke for me? How bout u guys?
Yep, first turn AP fix did nothing.
First turn AP works for me. As does drawing bamboo :)
First turn AP works for me.
SixOkay also forgot to mention....
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed the bug that kept Community Managers from reading and posting to the forums
+1
I can understand not replying to every comment or every thread, but I would recommend strongly to RE that they think about their community engagement strategy. It's not working very well.
I'd recommend charging more money (10 cents more per team?) and hire a student to reply on the forums once a week. Even just to say, "we read about X issue and we're busy, but we will be looking at it" every week - what is the progress, hold up, etc. A weekly "reach out to the people" kind of post. As an ex-programmer type, I understand that communications will not likely be a strong point of the RE team, but it might be time to look for someone that brings that to your team.
Great game. Keep it great. Nice balance update, we'll see how it plays out in the next month or so.
First 3AP work, but now I'm stuck with 3AP, cannot find the setting page to change it to 4AP or 5AP.
UPDATE:
Found it in main screen, beside Achievement.
I'd recommend charging more money (10 cents more per team?) and hire a student to reply on the forums once a week.
Work for Robot? Ill sign up :D
Interesting. I was pretty surprised by the suggestion to buff the poisoner, but the more I play Shaolin the more I agree with it - this will tip it just over the edge to be able to 3-shot 800HP units and will make a 2X combo that little bit better to pull out an 800HP KO too (pre-patch, with a naked posioner, units still have a frustatingly tiny hp left after a 2X combo).
Neutral about the Wrath change. Maybe necessary, maybe not, but not that consequential either way.
Glad with the paladin change. They were simply too hard to kill before. This will make splash damage against them much more important, but still prevents them from being 3-shot by a 300 attack unit, which is a good thing. I'd have probably preferred a remove of the self-heal, but maybe that would have gone too far.
Very pleased with the Monk change. The Monk needed a boost and this should help quite a lot with comboing. I still thing Shaolin need some way of moving units though.
Not sure what to think about sniper nerf, but I'm glad that the heavy nerf isn't as bad as it could have been. 1100 HP seems far. It makes it more susceptible to the tribe, who struggle agianst TF2, (spike armor will more easily push the heavy over the AP edge) and AoE in general, whilst not reducing its tankiness as a 1000 HP Heavy would have done.