Xyra Arien wrote:There will always be less defenders in a _GAME_ than attackers. Attacks throughout time have traditionally had the mobility advantage, while defenders have emplaced defenses that while not mobile, give the defenders an effective numerical advantage.
Attacking is fun. Sitting there fully alert waiting for an attack is not. In 'real life' people do it because they have to eat and aren't given a choice.
The middle ages would have looked a LOT different without castles, armies regularly marauded up and down the countryside slaughtering peasants and burning villages with impunity because they outnumbered the defenders. But if they wanted to hold territory they had to take a fixed position, a castle.
In this game as it seems to stand from all the QQ I read....(I'm barely on newbie island, let on beta) It seems that in slightly superior numbers the light bots will win while in equal numbers the heavies will win.
Read what I said about attacking being fun.
What matters is not that heavy bots are better than light bots, but that they aren't better enough to compensate for the simple fact that there's less of them.
Either add a rock to complete the triangle, or just buff heavy bots up so that the ratio of effective manpower actually being used in the game is the same for attackers and defenders.
Hard balance to get right, but if you know what to look for you can get close.
As you've said, you've barely arrived at the Alpha islands and you've never stepped foot on the Beta islands. In short, you don't really have any practical experience and the only references you have for your conclusions are based on topics/posts from the forums, which are usually composed in effort to make the Devs turn the game balance to an individual corp's taste.
Thus, you have AXE talking about Mechs requiring more buffs when their main advertisement to new players is getting them into mechs fast, you have 62nd talking about Light Bots requiring more buffs because thats all they're bringing to the table in PVP, etc etc the list goes on.
Take it from someone who's spent the last 6 months on Beta, and actually bothered to adapt to the game instead of trying to adapt the game to myself; Mechs will ANNIHILATE light bots because:
a) If they're plated, they have a lot more armor, firepower and range
b) If they're speed-fit, they have the speed, range, firepower
While Light bots can indeed, zerg a lonely Mech 5:1 or 10:1 and kill it with semi-clever use of terrain, under the presumption there is more then 1 mechs they will have a much harder time utilizing the terrain advantage, provided the Mech pilots have the basic comprehension to set up overlapping lanes of fire. That is FINE. If you outnumber someone 5:1, you pretty much have to put a gun to your head and suicide yourself, because that's the only chance the enemy has of winning the fight.
And that is balanced. Because Light Bots cost X to produce, and Mechs cost Y to produce. Buffing Mechs at ALL at this point, would be stupid. What would you buff? Armor? That's what heavy mechs are there for. Firepower? Again, thats what heavy mechs are there for. Speed? Thats what light ewar bots are there for. Utility? Again, thats what light ewar bots are there for. Range? Heavy mechs.
A competent Beta corporation will include 1. Mech pilots, 2. Ewar pilots. The first category breaks off into the Mech and Heavy Mech bots for different roles, and the second category breaks off into the Light and Mech bots for their respective roles.
Assaults and Light Bots have their ROLE. The role of the Light Bot in defense is to act as a scout, thats why they have 120 signal detection and good speed when fitted properly. Assaults role is the crux of the matter, their range is currently too negligible for them to be counted as "valuable" and not "waste of time".
IF you really want to talk balance, Assaults need their range brought in line with the Waspish, which is roughly 1/2 of basic Mech range. Until that is achieved, they will simply be useless because they're more expensive to produce then light bots, and only marginally more useful then light bots.
ANY of these bots can be adapted to serve in the roaming/ganking role. Light bots are cheap & expendable, so great first stepping stone for new players to get their feet wet. Assaults are relatively cheap & expendable, they bring a bit more oomph and locking range to the table. Light ewars, they used to be THE roaming bot of choice, before the radar system got changed. Mechs and Heavies are already being adapted for roaming, the only drawback is heavies are too slow to keep up BUT they do bring more oomph to the table.
So, it is always a matter of trade-offs. And that is just scratching the surface of the PVP in perpetuum, it takes quite a lot more to assemble a competent effective fleet then "ZOMG INCOMING X UP" or "LOL WE R PIRATE, ALL JUMP IN LIGHT BOT". It takes a LONG time to train people up, get them experience in their roles, and on top of that begin working as a cohesive force.
That is the prime reason why M2S is lightyears ahead of other would-be pirate/PVP corporations in this game, because they went through the effort to:
a) plan their characters EP
b) get their players experience
c) make sure everyone is working as a cohesive force
So naturally, when they run into a corporation whose idea of PVP and/or living on a Beta island is "lol I gunna go mine guis", or "undock in whatever you got!" they roflstomp them.
The only place where tanks and number saturation works, is in intrusions.
