Like everything in live you get a better view on things the more you used them, so do i feel after all the games i played so far with the way commander powers are implemented.
Currently we have a set of commander powers that feel more useful than others, which started to make me thing why is it so.
Therefor i will take 2 simple examples on how they work and what in my opinion feels good or bad to them and what i would like to see change.
The main thougt i had was: Give some powers a cooldown with no cost and others nearly no cooldown but increase the cost.
First off there is the heal: Its a nice power i would not skip cause you can change the tides of a fight with it, it is totally understandable to give it a cooldown thats long enough that you cant use it more than once per fight. So timing the right moment is really how to pull the trick, so you could relief the ressource cost of it. On the other hand giving it nearly no cooldown but a high cost would only end in a perma healing run if you have a good eco running.
And now my counter example: The ODST drop, oh sweet mine how i would i love to rush into an enemy base and “surprise” him with a 10 ODST Drop Attack. Instead we are bound to a single troop every few minutes. Its nice and the impact can help but its not the game changing level a heal can have. So i played a bit with the numbers:
1 Marinetroop costs 180 minerals and take ~3 seconds to build
So how about getting every 15-30 seconds a “stack” of ODSTs to call in, with a maximum of lets say 10 stacks (maybe 5 and an upgrade to 10?) Sounds like a nice cooldown per stack. But how to calculate the cost? Lets assume in the current balancing 1 ODST Troop equals 2-3 Marine Troops, So we would end up at 500 supply per drop as a fair price. Now we have to cover the Drop, well lets say we need energy to master such a drop. How about saying 100-200 Energy per Drop.
So the new ODST Drop would work that way:
Every 15-30 seconds earns a stack to a maximum of 10
Per Drop the cost are 500 supply and 100-200 energy
Seems legit to me, would bringt it also to a gamechanger quality power and an added tactical move you can pull the trigger on.
Would like to read your thougts on that approach and if you see any other commander power that could use such a treatment?
I can see where you’re coming from, but for the most part I disagree.
For one, I don’t think abilities (like the healing field) should ever have no cost (whether it be supplies or energy) and just a long cool down. If you think about it, every ability should have SOME sort of cost to deploy, especially one as strong as the heal.
And as the for the ODST drop, I feel like the stacking of “charges” isn’t a bad idea, but having a maximum of 10 or even 5 charges is terribly overpowered. If this was the route to go, I feel 3 would be more than enough. You have to remember that Cutter already has a strong "troop deployment"ability, in his last tier of commander abilities. If you increased the strength of ODST drop to 10, it would be much much stronger than what is supposed to be one of Cutter’s strongest two abilities.
I think the best method might be to create a pre-pay stacking system, where you can stack somewhere between 2-3 of the unit drops Cutter has. You’d pay the cost of having additional units brought down(you could assign the purchase of it to the x button) while keeping a decently long cooldown. This allows a bit of scaling to occur, since later in the game you’ll have resources to make this work.
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> I can see where you’re coming from, but for the most part I disagree.
>
> For one, I don’t think abilities (like the healing field) should ever have no cost (whether it be supplies or energy) and just a long cool down. If you think about it, every ability should have SOME sort of cost to deploy, especially one as strong as the heal.
>
> And as the for the ODST drop, I feel like the stacking of “charges” isn’t a bad idea, but having a maximum of 10 or even 5 charges is terribly overpowered. If this was the route to go, I feel 3 would be more than enough. You have to remember that Cutter already has a strong "troop deployment"ability, in his last tier of commander abilities. If you increased the strength of ODST drop to 10, it would be much much stronger than what is supposed to be one of Cutter’s strongest two abilities.
Yeah thats why id prefer a long(er) cooldown on the heal instead of the cost. But hey even a minimum fee could do it.
The stacknumber was just a first thougt ( think if CA sees this and think this is something they could implement they get the numbers better then me). You are right that i forgot the “mass drop” in T6 Cutter already have, how about a global stack counter, lets say against a high number of 5 maximum stacks you only unlock if you unlock the T6 drop? So the “mass drop” consumes 5 stacks, Turret and ODST consume 1 stack and cyclops consume 2 stacks. So it would be up to you what to call in.