Alpha Build Testing: Balance Updates (Part 3)
Previously when we have looked at balance and changes leading up to the beta we have for the most part adjusted raw numbers from elements like damage modifiers to mountain spawn rates. These are all critical changes for the good of the health of the game. There is however more than just adjustments to stats going on right now and today we’re going to look at two examples, both of which are actually really exciting and have improved gameplay. First of all we’re going to talk about melee unit identity and then taking tiles in battle when killing enemy units.
The Challenge:
Melee squads feel too similar to TwoHanded squads.
Often, it feels like offensive benefits given to TwoHanded units outweigh the defensive utility of Melee.
Melee feel like they underperform in their main role.
The Solution:
We reworked how melee take damage allowing them to be the tanks they look like.
Typically when a squad takes damage, it is subtracted from both the health and the armour through a 50/50 split. If you’re not aware, damage done to a units health will weaken the squad over all making them less potent in combat. Melee troops are able to stack armour at a significantly higher rate than other troop types, although as they used to play, prior to this change, it felt like a player would reach a level of diminishing returns with armour rather quickly. Often, melee quads were very useful for the first turn or two but then simply ran out of steam as although they were bulky, they didn’t pose much of a thread after tanking a hit or two.
To correct this we have made the change that melee squads will now take 30% of damage received from their life while 70% of damage will be subtracted from their armour. As you can imagine this makes them a much bigger threat as they will be able to tank multiple hits and still return decent damage.
We tested this over a few games and suddenly melee felt not only better, but more fun to use, particularly when combined with newer mechanics brought in that we will discuss in future articles.
The Challenge:
Players are able to hold high priority tiles for too long in a battle.
At times, killing an enemy squad can put you at a disadvantage.
Mid-Late game, movement often slows down creating slug fests.
The Solution:
We introduced a mechanic where upon killing a squad, the victorious squad will move up and take position on that tile.
This is quite a simple change that we feel positively impacts the flow of battles. Previously, we often saw situations where Player A positioned a squad on a hill. Player B would carefully fight this squad trying to trade as best they can given the terrain disadvantage. The issue that reared its head was that as soon as Player B removed this unit, Player A would retake the high priority tile with a fresh squad putting player B at a permanent disadvantage which may have been because of unfortunate RNG with map generation.
Another issue we saw was once players had positioned troops at the start of a battle, movement because less important or needed which sometimes resulted in squads taking it in turns to smash each other. Although this felt ok, it removed a very important part of the game and also put a priority on using AP for attacks only.
To fix this, squads now move into the tile from which their defeated foes once stood. This promotes a more fair battle while also forcing players to move up with their winning units and making the battles more strategic. It also allows players to potentially sacrifice a weakened squad on a low priority tiles in order to gain a terrain advantage, yet another way to outwit your opponents in CS:M.
Both of these changes have really helped keep battles fresh and fun, and most importantly, added a layer of unpredictability that must be played around. We have introduced a few other changes too which we will publish later that we’re sure you will love!
