Battle Tanks 8.42

[Exodus]

Well, the last version wasnt free of bugs
It took so long because of the Command Center, it took quite some time to put it together. Right now only the trader is able to buy it, but this may change if proofs to be ok. Also quite some balancing this time.

v 8.42

• Added new Trader Item: Troop Command Center
  
• Replaced Soul Restore (Ghost Tank) with an active healing ability
  
• Tank HP will only increase by 1% per Level now (down from 2%)
  
• Changed the duration of Banish (Demon Tank) a bit
  
• The minimum damage of Heavy Armor (Heavy Tank) is now the same on all levels
  
• Reduced the speed of Heavy Tank by 10
  
• Natural Healing (Guard) now also grants a magic reduction when rooted
  
• The damage of Flame Strike (Sky Tank) is now dealt like said in the Tooltip
  
• Increased the cost and the HP of the Infernal by 3000
  
• Decreased the casting delay of Chaos Teleport to 0.5 seconds
  
• Net launcher now disables for 3 seconds (up from 2)
  
• Decreased the time to change the weapon mode from 5 to 3 seconds
  
• Removed some stuck positions
  
• Bots now properly learn new skills at the beginning of the game
  
• Fixed a Fatal Error caused by Teleport Breaker and Strategic Locations
  
• Fixed a bug with the level requirements of Banish
  
• Fixed some Monopoly (Trader) bugs
  
• Fixed the drop bug of the Defuser Kit
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the Defuser to stop revealing invisible units
  
• Fixed some minor bugs

[Althend]

Thanx for all

[AngryMasturbator]

I think, that the heavy's speed reduction is a bunch of bulls****, werent they slow enough allready?

[LuckyD0g]

The Troop Command Center
The greeps should spawn be your the owner of the building, controlled by force, and must give profit to the owner.
I think this item is not imba.
I personally didn’t get what for are Updates, until I read in the forum. Maybe update mana max or regeneration of mana would me better.
So how many troup centers I can have (on item and in the info "spell"), just a bit confusing.
I agree the models are 'stage', but I don’t find it a big problem, is a design problem I think people will get use to it, like color of nicks and like Titan was a bit 'strange' model.

AI
Not listed in the change log AI are now better.
The AI is just super.
But they steel need a bit more rush, I mean Speed, I mean Speed item, and a Teleporter. In stages
for Demon Tank - Speed - after Update, for Sky Tank - Teleporter, for Frost Robot mana*2or3 and Combine of Speed and Teleporter. Its like must have in the pre-late game.
Yes AI are frag stealers, make him not to kill when near the 'victim' is some one(enemy of the victim) in range of ~0to400 because I don’t think the 'dead' will escape, of course if it will not damage the 'AI engine'.

CP when an enemy Concuers a CP.
AI are doing walk to CP, from CP to CP, but not a bit walk then CP.

-lai
maybe making it available from a team vote or player1 and player6 to diside do they need -lai or not.
When there are 2 plaeyrs in the team left auto turn on -lai
1 reason AI are now at good level
2 reason you can alwais kick AI

[DerSatan]

But they steel need a bit more rush, I mean Speed, I mean Speed item, and a Teleporter. In stagesfor Demon Tank - Speed - after Update, for Sky Tank - Teleporter, for Frost Robot mana*2or3 and Combine of Speed and Teleporter. Its like must have in the pre-late game.

i support adding a speed item for ai, maybe as the first item the automatically get after they bought heavy tank, demon tank or frost robot.

teleporter is much harder to implement for ai, since its active. it would be possible to make them use it to retreat when they are under 10% hitpoints for example. but to make them use it properly to attack people, i dont think that its possible in a way the AI does it good.


unfortunately, i didnt understand the other stuff you postet.



to the changes: i very much like every one of them. good work!
maybe the HT armor skill couldve made percentage like the gobbo's damage reduction, but every other thing is great.

[LuckyD0g]

The Troop Command Center
The greeps spawn from the Troop Command Center must give profit to the owner.

AI
Teleporter for AI, I dont think its hard to do.

AI steals kills
scenario:
1pl(Human) is in range 200
2pl(AI) is in range 800
6pl(AI) is the victem
The 2pl will on 99% will steal a kill. The player 2 must not steal a kill, just dont use the spell.

-lai
-lai can use only host, why not to make available for the team.
So that -lai can use eg pl6.
If -lai is off there are 2 plaeyrs in the team and if some one leaves the game the other will get gold, why not to give a choise setting to AI or Gold .

[ycoseth]

While I appreciate what's been done, I think this patch didn't fix what was wrong with the HT. The speed and the plating are part of it, but the problem is that it has the best possible skills for each role.

Think of what you would want in a stun skill / killing shot. HT has the longest range (2000) and does the 2nd most damage (1500), Demon Tank has the same range, only 250 more damage, but 1 more second stun. Seems like a minor upgrade for a tank that cost twice as much (10k to 5.5k). Think about a creep clearing skill, you'd want it to target everything, non-template based, and high damage. HT has all of these, it's much much better than the LT ultima (as it should be), but it's light years beyond the Shredder. Even at Metal Stars lvl 5 (Tank lvl 13), it does only half as much as level 1 Hail of Bombs. The tanks are only 2.5k apart in price, it's insane the amount of power that tank still has, and it's not tied to the armor or the speed.

It needs it's skills nerfed or shuffled with the other tanks. For example, make it more like the Thunder Tank's shock. Or, if the tank must have the missle, make it the ultima and tune down Hail of Bombs to Shredder's Metal Stars range. Or make the skills Ground Only so flyers are a counter like the Goblin Tank.

I just played a game where the 4 people on the same team all went Heavy Tank. They rolled the enemy team despite there being 2 good players both in Air with Lasers and they simply couldn't deal with it. Multiple missles and AOEs made it difficult to win even 1v1 or 2v2, despite having better weapons. The fact that a player can start LT/Weap and do nothing until they get 5.5k then roll people with a HT and un-upgraded weapons is still a bit ridiculous.

[DerSatan]

i think the heavy tank is now fine as it is. if 4 people of one team team use the heavy tank, i got to ask how many goblin tanks the other team used. the goblin tank is a good counter to them.

you cant expect that "air with lasers" is a counter to them. if you think the heavy tank is imba, you should play it yourself some times. you will see he is balanced. just beeing popular doesnt mean beeing imba.

[ycoseth]

I play as the Heavy Tank on occassion, and honestly I feel like it's too powerful despite it being one of my favorites. Once you get it, you can easily farm any LTs/Helis/Tinkers, including ones with Iron Hulls. I don't think I've played one game without at least one person going LT/Fireball-Fan of Knives-whatever and just camping NPCs for 5100 and moving up to the HT. The issue I have with it is directly related to the low cost of it. When the Infernal moved to 18k, it breathed new life into the Frost Robot because the cost disparity became so that you would actually get it instead of waiting.

The fact that it's relatively simple to get a HT without needing to do anything early makes it so good. What can you do with that 5.5k that gives you an advantage?

Let's say myself and another LT both started 2x Basic Magic and he camped for 5500 and I spent it on items.

I get:
Steel Hull (2500)
Swarm Rockets (3300)

So when he jumps up, he has 5500hp, and 148 dps. I have 3000hp, and 368 dps. If we stand and fight then I will barely edge him, but he has a rocket that at level 3 (Tank lvl 7, which is about the right level) does 900 damage to my 540, not to mention he has higher armor and thus damage reduction. If creeps are factored in, he takes less per shot and I would lose anyhow. Because of the range of the missle, it is difficult to run because it's range doubles that of most weapons.

The best option I think is to go full-on weapons, but then you become rocket-bait.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the Goblin Tank costs more than the HT and that once the HT is in play, it's hardiness makes it's easy to deny kills while picking off easy opponents and not allowing them to get a quick and easy upgrade. I feel like the appropriate "counter" should be a bit cheaper, but the Shredder's skills aren't enough to make it viable. Metal Stars and Shred are both outclassed by HT skills, and the nature of the Shredder (running into crowds or defending points) don't take advantage of the weaknesses of the HT (speed) since it has teleport anyway.

[ycoseth]

I thought of this after my last post:

What if armor requirements were added to all tanks above 5k? Something like armor level 3-4 for HT, 5-6 for GT, 7 for Sky, and 8 for Demon. Not as strict as the world-beaters (Frostie, Infernal, and Titan) but limiting the rush to a mid-tank and subsequent denying of kills / easy farming from superior skills. I've seen people get HT in under 10 minutes just from amassing a quick 3-5 kills and farming, and in that case it's horrifically hard to counter, even 3v1 it's not assured you will kill a HT when in starter tanks.

With armor level 3, you can at least get some breathing room and it lowers the impact of one scrub feeding a good player. I understand many see BTanks only in guild, arranged-team form but a majority of your players are casual, pick-up players as well.

Let me emphasize I see no problem with a LT getting a 2nd weapon and getting kills before upgrading, I specifically think that it's too easy to sit and do little at the game's beginning and get 5100 to upgrade to the HT, at which point it does not have an effective counter (unless you count the exploder). One of the old infernal's many issues was that it was cheap enough to acquire before the game state was ready to handle it and it rolled people. I feel the same is true for the HT, it is powerful enough and cheap enough that when it hits the board <10 minutes into the game, it's enough of a turn that you have effectively lost.