Author Topic: Brawler & Sniper - Purpose?  (Read 4523 times)

Offline Shrugging Khan

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Re: Brawler & Sniper - Purpose?
« Reply #15 on: October 22, 2013, 02:04:21 pm »
One suggestion on my part would be making loot boxes of all sizes more vulnerable to AOE. That might make people think twice before nuking half the map  :P
The beatings shall continue
until morale improves!

Offline PokerChen

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Re: Brawler & Sniper - Purpose?
« Reply #16 on: October 23, 2013, 08:27:15 am »
 I think the comparison of these choices to standard rogue-likes would be fairer if we are talking about 4 exos amongst 10, than 4 exos amongst 6.

 I could conceivably be happy romping with Brawler/Ninjas on normal. You don't have to think much there. Jump into expert with bot-awareness radii that out-range everything you have including upgrades... a tedious affair.

 But then I might just prefer my units commando-style: you see it, and then it crumples. No need to lure bots around the corner and negate their range advantage.

Offline licker

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Re: Brawler & Sniper - Purpose?
« Reply #17 on: October 23, 2013, 11:21:06 am »
I think the comparison of these choices to standard rogue-likes would be fairer if we are talking about 4 exos amongst 10, than 4 exos amongst 6.

 I could conceivably be happy romping with Brawler/Ninjas on normal. You don't have to think much there. Jump into expert with bot-awareness radii that out-range everything you have including upgrades... a tedious affair.

 But then I might just prefer my units commando-style: you see it, and then it crumples. No need to lure bots around the corner and negate their range advantage.

That's a fair point.  And yet do you feel that you have to play the game with one specific exo at all times?  Of course it depends on personal preference and play style, but if you want to impose some additional challenges then it's nice to have differentiated exos, some of which may be 'worse' than others.

That's to say if you want to play a game without sniper or siege and rely on turrets and mines and virus and stealth.  Go for it.  You build out your ninja/science differently and have a brawler/assault to do some shorter range gunning.

Just saying that the plasma cannon is OP isn't a reason to nerf it or to buff other exos/weapons.  It's a reason to choose to not play with the siege.

Not to say that I think the balance is perfect or that there isn't room for some tweaking of stats and even adding new exos to the mix.  Just that I don't think it's necessary to spend too much time worrying about how individual exos compare to each other.

Offline PokerChen

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Re: Brawler & Sniper - Purpose?
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2013, 07:04:16 pm »
That's a fair point.  And yet do you feel that you have to play the game with one specific exo at all times?  Of course it depends on personal preference and play style, but if you want to impose some additional challenges then it's nice to have differentiated exos, some of which may be 'worse' than others.

That's to say if you want to play a game without sniper or siege and rely on turrets and mines and virus and stealth.  Go for it.  You build out your ninja/science differently and have a brawler/assault to do some shorter range gunning.

Rather than one-bot, I feel that at least one radius template weapon - plasma rifle or missile launcher - and/or a long-range choice, is required to feasibly play the game to finish.

The reasons are mainly fun-factor related. For example, bots with evasive movement patterns kind of just mill around at range 8 to 12 generally being ineffective. Well, Blunderbots is a chief culprit that turns out to be not-so-fun-after-a-while - you either slowly plink them with laser rifles or charge in and potentially eat a GG-rocket. Good for the first 50.
The current game does not include mechanics such as charging (except for AP-increasing command bots), run-and-gun or range-based damage, so there is no particular reason for any bot to close in from maximum effective range. A Brawler experience turns out to be more sitting around a corner waiting for the 12 bots to file in rather than an Assault experience, who has the better shield stats to barge in (although it ironically doesn't need to at range 8, just sit tight and fire-fight). This is sometimes due to the potential map layout, which churns out plenty of large rooms with no lone pillars, say, to block LoS.

Arguably, the Brawler might do better with double-movement or movement+attack, or some other thing that helps him to, well, brawl in.

= = = Addendum: these are individual play experiences, since I've finished one game but started a couple.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2013, 07:16:56 pm by zharmad »