EA Staff (Retired)As someone who only plays Solomon, unless dailies require a different commander. I find Dr. Liang to be far more troublesome then Jackson/Oxanna. Personally, I feel Dr. Liang should be a mid-late game commander, I don't see a reason why his drone needs to be effective during the early stages when it would add more thought to the player on how they should play against certain commanders.The current state of the game is extremely stale, I've had way too many Attack Bikes/Tanks vs Pitbulls which with proper grouping and micro, the Pitbulls will eventually take control of the map.
I don't see a issue with the amount the harvester gives, scouting before you build your harvester can solve a early rush on it.
I'm sorry, but you cannot call this an RTS in its current state. I'll explain why.
My opponent and I start off with harvestors into vehicle factories. He spams pitbulls and I counter with bikes. He spends all his resources zerging my harvestors while I cost effectively take down his pitbulls. But the 1 to 2 shots they get (certain maps is unavoidable) allows him to score a harvestor and now he is vastly ahead.
There's no strategy in this games state (ONLY ON CERTAIN MAPS). I love this game but I wont hesitate to drop it for the insane harvestor award.
The current state of harvestors makes missile control pointless. If you are able to be the harvestor hunter, you win the missiles by default.
Please tell me another RTS where killing harvestors/ workers gives bonus resources. The fact that you killed it is a huge blow in and of itself. The 100 tiberium reward is extremely excessive. Please realize this. At the very least it should only occur once.
I love this game and it is my favorite mobile game but I seriously cannot get behind this mechanic. In my matches once a harvestor is down thats it. 95% of the games are lost at that point. The fact that I dedicated all my resources to defending it MEANWHILE I am punished for that fact is nonsensical.
The death of a harvestor means the match is decided. The only way the killer can lose is by a HUGE blunder on his part. (Which does happen) Do you really want to create an "RTS" where the ONLY way someone who is behind can win is if the opponent makes a gigantic mistake? The potential to comeback is what makes an RTS. It is the reason starcraft broodwar spawned all of ESports.
I don't necessarily disagree/agree with how harvesters currently work but if we assume the other design, where killing a harvester offers no reward but requires the player to rebuild the harvester for the original cost, the snowball effect would be drastically worse since if they kill your harvester, they already put you behind and if you have to spend the 60 tiberium to rebuild the harvester, you put yourself even further behind while they continue to apply so much pressure that there is nothing you can do to fight back since they now have economy advantage as well as unit advantage.
I think the 2nd harvester should ALWAYS cost tiberium, while the first remains as it is (Cost first build, free afterwards). This would make double harvester extremely risky since they risk putting themselves behind in order to get ahead but removes how heavily the game could snowball since the player isn't heavily punished for the first harvester.
@Mavster07 I am unsure what design you are referring to. But I don't agree with that either. Just make the harvestor free to build upon death without the reward. The time it will take to get back to the ore field will result in the opponent yielding an extra 50+ Tiberium over the player who lost the harvestor instead of the 150+.
Developers,
If you believe this mechanic has a positive effect on gameplay, I must say you do not understand what incentive's you are creating here. 4/5 of my games opponents completely disregard the missile pads AND ME until they kill a harvester. If you make harvesters faster, then this mechanic is more manageable. But people straight up sacrifice attack bikes just to get the 1 single volley off. Despite my harvestor being almost 100% on the next tile over, it does not matter = He is rewarded the volley before my 2 laser rocket troopers can do enough damage to kill him.
And the fact he used 2-4 attack bikes is irrelevant. He is rewarded for his poor play and I am punished for successfully defending my harvester 3/4 times.
Please reread the last sentence again as I cannot state the results of this mechanic any more clearly.
This mechanic either needs a tweak, or to be removed. Here are some potential suggestions:
Does it not seem a bit off that the best chance to win is harvesters instead of the missile pads? Missile pads are irrelevant map wise. It is all about attack paths of the harvesters that dictate game play and unit decision.
If you want to argue that I need better positioning before hand, I understand. But realize when you are defending a pathway to your harvester and a well placed jade missile comes, your units don't move fast enough. At most you can save 1 or 2 units before it hits. And then he just rolls in and gets the 1-2 volleys he needs to down the harvester.
This is the game's biggest fault game play wise. Because of this mechanic, strategy goes out the window. It is not an RTS in it's current state. I do hope the dev's will play this game enough to realize this.
I have uninstalled the game as I wrote this, but should the devs remove this mechanic I will come back running. But until then this game is nothing more than at C&C Harvester Hunting Simulator.
Best of luck to all the devs and everyone else involved in this project. Thank you for letting me partake in the closed Alpha. Also thank you to all the players on the forums I got to banter with. Peace & love to you all.
- JPie_
