HB, New Modes, and Normal Mode

[IlPalazzo]

Let's try to get another discussion going about HB, possible new modes, and making normal better, as I think we can all agree the last one was more of a flame war than a decent discussion. Feel free to post any suggestions or questions involving Normal, New Modes, and the removal of HB.

When I have time I'll edit this post with some relevant information from prior threads.

Goals/Questions
- How to make "Normal" more attractive to the majority of players. Is it too slow?
- What is imbalanced in HB - and what can done to remedy these imbalances while keeping the fast-pace it has?

Some Imbalances with HB:

Just to mention some of the most obvious facts:
*You can change Tank/get hulls at a much lower lvl becouse of the additional gold.
*This results in a worse possibilty to use temporal advantages against people waiting for a stronger tank/hull, becouse the length of the advantage-time window is decreased.
*Same argument can be made with porter and the opportunity window with porter against no porter being shorter and any other temporal advantage.
*This implies different early-mid game balance in strategies. For example: artillery shot of the demolisher is way more effective in normal than in hb.
*Total weapon damage in comparison to Creepstats differ from normal mode, neglecting their difference in creeping capacity in hb (and/or shifting it towards different weapons).
*This Gold-to-Creep-stats difference influences all types of playstyles depending on force upgrades, namely: factories, troop command, troop command center, mines (item and demolisher), orbital control and bomb.
*It influences the defensive capacities of towers and barricades as well, making them weaker in general.
*Force Upgrades differ, shifting late game tank balance towards tanks without requirements, especially Frost Robot.
*As the importance of force upgrades decrease, the importance of control points decreases as well.
*Control Point Teleport becomes cheaper in terms of creeps-to-kill, making a more defensive orientated (camping) playstyle more viable.
*Offensive Factories become weaker due to the lower armor upgrades.

Possible Improvements to the old HB:
- Increasing troop strength: To make creeps more balanced in comparison to tanks.
- Increase the interval of upgrades: To make creeps
- Increase the XP rate: To have them scale with the Tanks/Equipment.
- Change the dynamics of Tank Bounty: To lessen the detriment of having newer players on the team who die often.


To prevent the same problem from happening again, let's lay down some rigid rules for both sides:

1 - No personal attacks. - No snide remarks, name-calling, mocking, etc... Calling people "noobs," "homos," "liar," etc. from either side will not be accepted.
2 - No accusation of intent.- Don't pin wrongdoing on anyone. If you think some alternative could have done to achieve the goal in a more fitting way, state it - as it would only be beneficial for the discussion than simply calling someone "evil" or "dishonest."
3 - No arguments or analogies related to real-world politics/history/racism. - Let's avoid a flame war... Everyone should be mature enough to make an argument without diving into this.

Anyone who doesn't follow these rules will have their posts edited (text highlighted in red and dashed out), being moved to off-topic, or deletion. Any post that violates these ground rules, in part or full, WILL be dealt with one of the actions mentioned above. That said, you are free to repost any constructive part of your post on this thread. You are encouraged to dispute a point if you disagree with it (even the ones summarized below), but remember to not violate the rules above.