On the topic of heavy turrets: Am I the only person who feels that the heavy beam turret is a major change to the game? And not necessarily to the better? I see no one else complaining, which I find odd. In earlier pre-releases they were a major pita, now they are nerfed a bit, so that you seldom meet more than three at the same planet, and they are in effect just a minor pita. But a pita nonetheless. So much, that I am contemplating not to update my 3.060 version of the game, the one I am using for multiplayer.
I have tried the heavies out now in several different setups, against different foes, on different maps, with different bonus ships, etc. Always I reach the same conclusion: The heavy beam turret is a piece of superior weaponry, that is a real joy to have in your own inventory. But in the hands of the enemy, it is a source of constant frustration. I have abandoned several games, simply because it is not funny to get your fleet butchered by standard heavies on a standard no-mark planet with otherwise standard defenders. When I try to take out a mkIV planet with mkII ships, I expect to get butchered. When I try to take out a standard no-mark planet I only expect to get butchered if I make major mistakes, so either I am all of a sudden making a lot of bad decisions, or something has changed to the basic game balance. I really don't believe that I have gone from a relatively decent commander to a total failure overnight, rather I think the basic game balance is flawed, due to the introduction of heavy beam turrets.
This may all be because I haven't yet come up with a useful tactic against heavies. Or rather, I have developed a tactic, but this tactic simply isn't funny, and what is worse: It is forcing me to always approach the game in more or less the same way: I now buy dreadnoughts, as many as possible as early as possible, as this ship (together with bombards and beam frigates and perhaps a few other long-range types) is the only means to take out the heavies without too heavy casualties. If anyone else has found a useful tactic, that does not involve slow long-range units, please tell me about them. For the time being I feel very much like the generals in WWI: there simply is nothing to do against this new weapon, except waiting for the technical guys to invent something like the tank to get past the machine-guns. This, or accepting losses on a scale unprecedented by the earlier versions of this game. So far I live with the losses, and as a consequence I have allowed myself a free handicap of +30%. I don't consider this positive handicap as cheating (as I have done until now) because the game has turned from balanced to unbalanced, and this is one way of somehow rebalancing things. What this positive handicap does not solve, though is the immmmense frustration, that accompanies the game nowadays. Today I actually decided that I didn't want to play a game of aiwar, as it is not funny to fight all those heavy turrets. Like when I decided that the devourer golem is not funny except after the first few encounters, I simply turned it off, except that I cannot turn off heavy turrets. So as a result I have from today stopped playing aiwar prerelease versions. But I loved experimenting with aiwar until recently, therefore: please take this complaint seriously. I still play the game, though, I have a 3.060 version, and that one is still a joy to play. Perhaps I shall just stay with 3.060, and abandon all the coming goodies? Hopefully not.
I must admit that I was a proponent of heavies in the first place. After putting up all the different turrets available in the game, I felt that something was missing: A super-turret. Now I have got one, and it performs almost exactly as I expected it to do. Except that in my naiveté I didn't expect the enemy to get access to this weapon. And this is what spoils the fun now: The ai is using, actually over-using, the heavies. Still is, after the 3.087 nerf.
If I encounter two planets, one with an Ion Cannon and no turrets, the other with no Ion Cannon but three Heavy Beam Turrets, I am no more in doubt: All else being equal I would always choose to attack the planet with the Ion Cannon, as it is an overall lesser threat than the one with three heavies. In effect the heavies have dwarfed the Ion Cannon; was that the intention with this new unit? In an early game, you know that a rush for an Ion Cannon will give you losses, even heavy losses, but you also know, that once it is killed, it stays dead. Not so with heavies: I can kill the same turret several times over, because the ai somehow manages to rebuild it, even when I bring along lots of Clean-up Drones. In one situation (before the nerf) I attacked a planet with 17 heavies, and after I took out 10 of them, I saw in the planetary summary, that I still needed to take out another 20 (?!?). I have no idea how many turrets I killed during that whole battle, perhaps 50? This is somewhat reduced now after the nerf, but not enough: Yesterday I took out a planet, nominally equipped with three heavy turrets, after taking out six heavy turrets in all. And I even brought 20 Clean-up Drones along with me.
The best solution to this problem is to deny the ai any use of heavies. I believe the ai has access to weapons that humans have not, so why not the other way around? The next-best solution is to deny the ai the right to rebuild heavies. The third-best solution is to make heavy turrets a lobby option, like astro trains or mining golems and the like. So I can choose not to play with them.
The worst solution is to just implement the heavies as is in the official release. In that case I will not upgrade my 'classic' install, the one I use for mp with a friend. And he agrees with me after trying out the new weapons: If the heavy beam turret goes official in the state it is in now, none of us will upgrade our games, both of us will stay with version 3.060. This can be considered a threat (no smiley).
