PDA

View Full Version : [DC 1.2] Eldar Tech and T0 -> T1 gameplay



WhiteDeVile
13th Apr 07, 4:16 PM
Its my first (and propably last) balance issue post, so please dont eat me alive, btw I think there's more then 2 solutions for this, so opinions may vary greatly, especially because this issue covers a bit of Eldar gameplay style in T0 and T1. And please forgive me for any grammar mispellz0rs and such, english isnt my native, Im trying to do my best :)

EDIT : One very important thing, THIS IS NOT A 'META' THREAD (even if it would seem so)
Changes that may fix issues stated in this post, WONT ALTER whole race gameplay style. And If it rather fits to the suggestion box (for some unknown to me reason) then Modg0ds please be kind to my little thready and move it safely :salute:

Backround:

Patch 1.2 was supposed to stop turret rush, speed teching, noob strats etc. and make T1 longer, more deciding about what will occur in future Tiers, and it almost did that.
How is this related to Eldar ? I came to this conlusion after playing VDoW, WA, and DC same day.
Eldar Tech Tree seems to be the slowest and the most expensive one of all races (not including Necrons cause of different economy)

The issue :

Balance issue cant be defined straightforward, so its gonna take a long one to clear things up.
First of all lets try to answers some questions, just for ourselfs :
1) Do Eldar tech slower then other races?
2) Do Eldar have economy problems in T0 -> T1 and so fort ?
3) Do other races really need to tech that fast as they currently do ?
4) Do Eldar need to get a simplier and cheaper tech tree, or other races need to have theirs more expensive/slower ?
5) Isnt T1 shorter then it was earlier ? (especialy in WA or DoW)

We've always wanted to emphasis more on T1, and thats currently hard for Eldar.
Now lets get straight to 'why', well its because :
1) Eldar still got their DoW 'leftover', the aspect stones. Two of them equal the cost of an additional listening post, that slows down your economy.
2) Soul Shrine seems a bit too expensive (I'll expand this later in the post, when I'll be comparing costs with other races)
3) Buying Fleet Of Foot is obligatory cause of weak Eldar armor and simply cause their gamestyle, it takes 50 energy, that either slows down :
- Gettin a Farseer
- Building the Soul Shrine
4) Farseer is weaker then others, and needs support of her troops, but how can you manage to get additional support for your FS if you pay 50-100 res more on the aspects ?
5) Both Eldar detector units (GU and harlie) are made at HQ, you have to choose : detection or Mobilize For War, that would make it VERY hard to play against Chaos if ppl used more cloaked CSM xP
6) Eldar are 'paper army' they desperately need armor and optics upgrades to remain a decent threat for their enemys, Shees are in a must to get CoW if they want to stay alive in T2 for more than 4 seconds. Getting some upgrades for FS is also obligatory if you want her to be effective in T2 up to T3.... but Anihilate The Enemy is in there, with all the other upgrades, this slows down no even tech, but whole research, you have to choose :
- upgrades for your units ?
- tech
Which other race has to choose like that ?
7) SM and CSM dont even have to build a gen, starting resources are sufficient for 1st HQ upgrade, while Eldar usually need two gens, one cause of FoF and for Farseer, second gen to get energy for Soul Shrine.

I guess this pretty much covers it up, I'd be very glad If anyone disagrees and posts some decent arguments why, cause this would change my view on Eldar's gameplay and propably give me some hope for my future as Eldar player >__>

The Solution(s):

Well, this would seem easy, but Im having a dilemma on this one. Mainly cause, there are two possible options, which divide into many other.
This could even a be a change so big that no one will ever agree to implement it (especially relic)


Alter almost all other races tech trees (SM and CSM mainly) Yes I am insane :screwy:

j/k, otherwise we could just fasten up Eldar tech tree, but who really wants that ? Other races already tech too fast,
we'd all like to slow down WHOLE DC dont we?
But its seems impossible, dont know why, but Ive got a feeling that this would NEVER happen no matter what we would post here. :spartaaa:

Real Solution:

Change Eldar tech tree with the following :

1) No more aspect stones, except for WS.
2) Move harlies to Aspect Portal, so Eldar can get detector unit while researching Mobilize For War, or take detection from harlies and give it to FS.
3)Move Anihilate The Enemy to Webway Assembly or to Support Portal (it would be very similar to Chaos Energies or HAD <<SM>> upgrades).


Now lets compare the costs up to Tier3 with space marines for example... not to judge anything but to get a clearer look at how things are suited in economical aspect.


Space Marines:

250/100 1st HQ Monastery upgrade
300/300 2nd HQ Fortress Monastery upgrade
Summary: 550/400


Eldar:

Soul Shrine 200/200
Mobilize For War upgrade 300/300
Summary: 500/500
(yes I do took under consiteration that Eldar have cheaper LPs and more expensive Gens)

Deunan
13th Apr 07, 4:32 PM
I like a number of your ideas.
But what is it with harlies and call to war?

A harlie is made in the Hq and call to war is made in the souls shrine.

Also now, even marines need a gen to tech up, nevertheless their tech is still cheaper in a way.

santiago4ever
13th Apr 07, 4:59 PM
There would be several problems with making eldar teching even easier then they made with patch (SS cost reduction with 50 req and Mobilize for War moved to HQ to make it easier to get more upgrades from the SS)

Eldar tier 0/1 is really strong. Guardians is quite likely the most useful tier 0 unit in the game, including the main unit of the IG army the guardsman. Rangers is still obscenely powerful for their cost and the time they arrive.

Reapers is also really strong and I fear that removing the aspect stone would open up for double AP 2xreaper opener which would be quite hard to counter. Only why I see that you could remove the aspect stones for reaper/banshee would be to increase the cost of the AP itself to compensate, this would allow the eldar to more readily mix his army.


5) Both Eldar detector units (GU and harlie) are made at HQ, you have to choose : detection or Mobilize For War, that would make it VERY hard to play against Chaos if ppl used more cloaked CSM xP

Chaos Tactical Marines cannot infiltrate until tier 3 as of 1.2.

I am glad you mentioned Harlequins though, since they are one of the major reasons why Soulshrine really can't be reduced in cost any more then it already has. It would be ridiculously easy to rush for Harlequins which would then in a few moves lay waste to the enemy tier 1 army. Having a Harlequin out in 3 minutes or less would be very easy. Another issue would be fast Fire Dragons. I would not like them to run into my base around the 3:30 mark and start taking down generators/LPs. Also vehicle tech would be made easy for the eldar again.

Also, you took into consideration Eldar cheaper LPs and more expensive gens, you forgot that the SS doubles as armory (not a cheap building for most races) and that even with banshee/reaper aspect stones researched the AP is cheaper then most other barracks, if going for FS/ranger/guardians only it's the cheapest barracks of them all.

SM/CSM no longer has enough resources for tier 2 straight away, they increased tier 2 cost to 105 power for that very reason.


6) Eldar are 'paper army' they desperately need armor and optics upgrades to remain a decent threat for their enemys, Shees are in a must to get CoW if they want to stay alive in T2 for more than 4 seconds. Getting some upgrades for FS is also obligatory if you want her to be effective in T2 up to T3.... but Anihilate The Enemy is in there, with all the other upgrades, this slows down no even tech, but whole research, you have to choose :
- upgrades for your units ?
- tech
Which other race has to choose like that ?

You are correct, the other races has to chose between building vehicles and teching whereas eldar has to chose between getting upgrades or teching. The upgrades for the FS really isn't mandatory and sticking her in the Seer Council will keep her alive without them. Eldar must get their upgrades to stay competetive yes, but so does other races which scales into tier 2, and some of them needs to buy heavy weapons on their units as well as getting upgrades, eldar doesn't. Mobilize for War was moved to HQ for the very reason of making eldar researches more available, moving Annihilate the Enemy to Support Portal is always a possibility to make it easier to get tier tier 3 upgrades while teching I suppose.


Space Marines:

250/100 1st HQ Monastery upgrade
300/300 2nd HQ Fortress Monastery upgrade
250/0 Chapel Barracks
175/50 Armory (a must building for SM)
Summary: 975/450


Eldar:

Aspect Portal 200/0 (assumed both aspects researched)
Soul Shrine 200/200
Mobilize For War upgrade 300/300
Summary: 700/500

Too tired to count in the tier 2 buildings needed for tier 3 research. My point is that you can always find numbers which seems to support your position, but so can other people.

In summation:

I wouldn't mind removing banshee/reaper aspect stones in exchange for a more expensive Aspect Portal. 3xguardian/ranger and 3xguardian/FS builds are a bit too strong as it is so nerfing it while keeping spam of one unit the same cost (stones are 50 req each so increasing AP to 150 req cost would be suitable imo) and making it cheaper to mix your army up with both reapers/banshees.

I also wouldn't mind moving Annihilate the enemy to Support Portal.

Pretty much anything else making eldar teching easier would imo not be a good idea balancewise.

Vipus
13th Apr 07, 7:33 PM
i don't like the idea of removing detection from harlies, their detection has saved me many times.

but i really like some of your ideas, they are quite extreme. Moving some of the tech & upgrades around could be good. And yeah the soul shrine is so expensive.

Ruonim
14th Apr 07, 1:33 AM
Well grey knights can be pulled less that in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. How comes?

The_Guardman
14th Apr 07, 2:12 AM
Hu, people here are forgettin that in 1.2 patch SM require 250/105 and CSM require 300/105, meanin they HAVE to build 1 generator to tech to T2.

Ruonim
14th Apr 07, 2:23 AM
U have to make generator to pull out gk so, whats problem, 1 survitor build gen other baracks. And tech up. Gen is building faster than baracks.