RA3 Patch 1.11 Proposed Balance Changes

[Sonic 297]

Straight from Greg Black, here are the current proposed balance changes for the upcoming Red Alert 3 1.11 patch.

 

Below are a set of balance changes that we are considering for the 1.11 patch. Please give us your thoughts on them over the next 48 hours, at which point we will lock the changes. We had four goals in changes below:

• Remove some unintended, strange and exploitative behaviour around walls, vision and line of sight
• Re-arrange the powers menu to create more interesting choices for players on their 2nd, 3rd and 4th point
• Encourage use of underused units
• Fix bugs

The inevitable outcome, of course, will also be to shake up the metagame. When you respond, please keep your posts succinct and targeted to the changes you have comments on or issues with. The bug fixes and exploit changes are not reflected in this list, but there are many.

 

Global Changes:

• Garrison Range bonus reduced to 75% from 100%.
• Walls / Structures no longer block line of sight while being constructed.
• Parachute drop time increased.
• Oil Derricks now explode when destroyed. Keep your distance.
• Observation Post health increased to 10000 from 3000.
• Due to the recent downturn in the global economy, all Super Weapons are now half price.

Faction Balance Changes:

• Allied Javelin Soldier cost reduced to 300 from 400.
• Allied Aircraft Carrier drone speed doubled.
• Allied Aircraft Carrier reload time halved.
• Allied Assault Destroyer Black Hole Armor bonus increased to 50% from 25%.
• Allied Outpost now gains additional health when upgraded. 25% per level.
• Allied Athena Cannon no longer requires line of sight to attack. It can fire over walls now!
• Allied Cryocopter health reduced to 650 from 750.
• Allied Chronorift cast delay reduced to 1s. Rift time changed to 5s , 10s, and 15s, depending.

• Soviet Hammer Tank’s can no longer leech while moving.
• Soviet Apocalypse Tank grinder DPS halved.
• Soviet Flak Trooper Cost increased to 400 from 300.
• Soviet structures will no longer refund 100% of their cost if canceled after taking damage. Refund value reduction is equivalent to the damage taken by the building.
• Soviet Super Power Plant energy production reduced to 350 from 500.
• Soviet Stingray health increased to 450 from 360.
• Soviet Dreadnaught Missiles now scatter against units.

• Japan Jet Tengu now much less deadly against each other in air form.
• Japan Tsunami Tank now auto-heals while it’s secondary ability is active.
• Japan Honorable Discharge power no longer deals any friendly fire.
• Japan King Oni health increased to 3000 from 2250.
• Japan Emperor’s Rage powers now limit the speed debuff to 75% for all levels.
• Japan Wave Force Artillery no longer requires line of sight for attacking. I.e. it can shoot through walls, buildings, and anything else dumb enough to get in front of it.
• Japan Naginata Cruiser Spread-Torpedo damage halved.
• Japan Naginata Cruiser health reduced to 1200 from 1400.
• Japan Shogun Battleship speed reduced to 50 from 75.
• Japan Shogun Battleship cannons now properly scatter against other units.
• Japan Shogun Battleship rate of fire now reduced by 40%.
• Japan Point Defense Drones now have an expiration date of 2 minutes.

Vision Changes:

Vision changes were incorporated from Red Alert 3: Uprising in order to improve unit behavior.

• Allied Multigunner Turret Vision Range increased to 310 from 300.
• Allied Prism Tower Vision Range increased to 360 from 350.
• Allied Hydrofoil vision range increased to 325 from 300.
• Allied Javelin Soldier vision range increased to 200 from 175.
• Allied Guardian Tank vision range in Target Painter mode increased.
• Special Agent Tanya Adams’ shroud clear range increased to 500 from 400.

• Soviet Apocalypse Tank vision range in Harpoon mode increased.
• Soviet Hammer Tank vision range in Leech mode increased.
• Soviet Terror Drone vision range in Stasis Ray mode increased.
• Soviet Base Defenses vision ranges increased slightly.
• Soviet Bullfrog vision range increased to 325 from 300.
• Soviet Sickle vision range increased to 170 from 150.
• Soviet Commando vision range increased 175 from 150.
• SovietCommando shroud clear range increased to 500 from 400.

• Japan Seawing vision range increased to 225 from 200.
• Japan Tengu vision range increased to 225 from 200.
• Japan Commando vision range increased 175 from 150.
• Japan Commando shroud clear range increased to 500 from 400.

Player Power Changes:

Japan player powers have been updated. These are best explained with images. Have a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37863688@N03/

 

Thanks for your feedback!

 

Sincerely,

Greg "Platinum" Black

Once your done studying these proposed balance changes your invited to share your feedback about them in this thread on the Official C&C Forums. And if you need some mrore patch 1.11 news, APOC has made a follow up post detailing some of the more critical fixes and exploits. Click here to read through it.

[Malevolence 6]

Keyamoon, time to update on that lists of yours!

[Nmenth 292]

Due to the recent downturn in the global economy, all Super Weapons are now half price.

 

Soviet Super Power Plant energy production reduced to 350 from 500.

Only ones I disagree with.

 

Now I'll be able to have my super weapons constructed 30 seconds into the game, but won't have enough room on the map for all the power plants required to operate it. RA3's power plants seriously suck, if the super reactor is too much of an improvement over standard ones, increase the rest of them, don't decrease it...

Edited May 1, 2009 by Nmenth

[Malevolence 6]

Yea I find the slashed half price on SW sounds very... weird. Maybe its a new approach to promote more SW usage.

[Gben 20]

I dislike SW coming into gameplay early. I fervently believe they should be uber powerful, expensive and slow to build.

Leading to the classic choice of attack/defend.

 

We should be afraid that half our base is going to be taken out, so much so that we launch premature, suicide attacks to stop it.

[Inferno 22]

Well it's probably because they think SWs don't play a large enough role in MP.

[hapkido112 0]

I like the half price supers, I may build them now.

 

They still need to do something about making the defense burea more useful.

Trying to force tanya on it is not a good idea.

I still wont make this useless building.

[Gben 20]

I hadn't thought about that... but if the building was a pre-requisite for max security?

[Renamon 0]

and we're working on a variety of other technical issues such as the "Zoom-Out" bug

 

This is the only thing I object to and wish they would leave alone =(