TBD Balance Discussion

[Winters Ark]

So before I start this discussion I'd like to point you guys to this thread. DDP posted it earlier and I feel this thread should be made sooner rather than later. In this thread I'm going to point out what I feel are the strengths and weaknesses of each plane in TBD as well as any changes that I think could be made to make things more balanced. I will not go into specific perk set-ups or anything like that in this post. I'm just going to talk about the plane in general terms.

Loopy

Pros:
- High mobility
- EMP
- Good bomb runner

Cons:
- Rather fragile
- Weak primary fire

Suggested changes:
- Reduce the amount of energy that is removed when hit with an EMP
- Reduce the time you are effected by EMP's debuff
- Increase the primary fire damage by 5-10 points, depending on the red perk

Bomber

Pros:
- High damage
- Can attack in multiple directions at once
- Great at controlling space and pushing

Cons:
- Rather slow
- If you miss your shots you're pretty much dead.

Suggested changes:
- Increase the damage radius of the primary explosion by 5%
- Increase energy regen by 20-30

Biplane

Pros:
- High burst damage
- High health
- Good speed

Cons:
- Loses speed when firing (Excluding Recoilless)
- Not as strong a runner as Loopy/Miranda; if you aren't killing then you aren't being useful to your team.

Suggested changes:
- Reduce the speed nerf when carrying the bomb

Explodet

Pros:
- Ability to alter how planes move
- Can control large areas
- High health
- Great energy management

Cons:
- Susceptible to assassination due to poor turning speed
- Weapons sacrifice damage for utility
- Extremely slow

Suggested changes:
- I think that Explodets are the most balanced plane in TBD right now. I don't think any changes need to be made.

Miranda

Pros:
- High burst damage
- High mobility
- Great bomb runner
- Warp does damage

Cons:
- Very fragile

Suggested changes:
The change I'd like to suggest isn't one that changes the way the plane plays. Now, while I did say I wouldn't talk specific red perks this is the one plane that I need to. This change is only talking about Laser. I'd like to see another stat added to the plane code: light and heavy. This value can be determined by their base health; if their health is over 200 they are a heavy plane, otherwise they are a light plane. (This would mean that Loopy and Miranda are light.) When a Laser attacks a light plane they do less damage, otherwise they do full damage. I would also like to see the Laser duration increased to 1.1 seconds from the current 0.9 seconds.

[Ribilla]

I just want to re-emphasise this:

If you make the laser duration longer then this make it easier for low-mid level players, because if they miss the start of their laser they can correct and lose less damage.

Laser should be nerfed either by a tiny tiny range decrease (and I mean small - this will make a huge difference). Laser is a mid-range plane and sucks in very short range. As opposed to trickster or biplane which excels in very short range fights because they only need to track the target for an instant, rather than a full second.

Or when firing the laser energy regen should be zero for it's duration, again this will make a huge difference as it will make escaping after a kill much more difficult.

I still think Trickster/killing TA is are strongest planes by far, but 99% of of players lack the mechanical skill to use them properly.

I know I don't play much anymore, but (provided the 'meta' hasn't changed) what I'd advocate would be:

Double (or maybe triple) the energy cost of EMP
Refend half the energy of EMP on hit (this means skilled players can still use it, but you can't spam it into chokes all day.

Give bomber it's turning back

Make the animation of secondary fire more visible on biplane, so people can actually use it's full range.

Nerf the remote mine slightly (mainly due to whales being OP if laser is nerfed)

Reduce Warp damage by 20%
Revert laser 'nerf' (arguably a buff)
Shorten laser by 5%
Increase charge time for trickster and TA shots by 10%
Remove energy regeneration while firing laser.

[Duck Duck Pwn]

Sorry that I havent been too active in this thread although I would very much like to!

I believe this has been asked before, but does anyone know if it's possible to set up servers to test out some of the changes suggested in this thread or any other thread? If so, I think that would be really awesome. I know with league of legends, they have the PBE to test out some of their changes, so I think it would be helpful if we could simulate something like that.