WALL OF TEXT ALERT, WALL OF TEXT ALERT

TL;DR in the bottom

For anyone who PvPs actively, it is clear that the new patch is going to introduce dramatically meta-altering robot reworks. On one hand, it is a good thing that devs are trying to take an active participation in balance, and personally for me, new balance changes are always exciting to follow as to how the balance meta progresses and how I can actively participate in it. Another intention of devs seems to be lessening the gap between newer and older players.

On the other hand, the new balance changes, as it stands right now on PTS server, will bring a lot of, perhaps, unwanted or overseen changes, making not only several robot types, but even some layers of combat, quite obsolete. It means either further rebalancing to more or less equalize play styles and robots (read: more work for devs), or abandonment of certain combat styles by players. To me it seems like an unnecessary step at the current stage of development, as changes of such magnitude will INEVITABLY create extremes and will definitely need more polishing - this seems like throwing away all the balance changes that happened in last 3-4 years. Balance changes itself don't attract new players either, so I'd rather have devs focus on creating new features rather than spending time going through the combat balancing phase again (sorry for playing couch dev here, but this is how I see it).

On top of that, current balance is quite good anyway, so wouldn't it be logical to rather boost current lacking bots to the playable level, rather than make another huge unnecessary step that will lead to more work load?

Look, combat in Perp has several aspects of it: DPS, EWAR confrontation, armor and repairing, accumulator management + EnWAR => all of them have also sublayers to it, and of course there are other factors on the battlefield (such as terrain management, speed, interference, etc, but let's not talk about them for now). Right now, a smart distribution of robots between each of those roles can help players defeat larger less organized or less prepared groups of players, as many playstyles counter some other playstyle, hence there is no 'cookie-cutter' playstyle currently present, aside from several robots who perform certain roles better than its analogues (I'm looking at you, waspish).

WITH the new patch, following the changes on the PTS server, it would be a lot more convenient to substitute nerfed robots/playstyles with other more effective robots - for example, the nerf on ictus means that any group of players would be better off fielding a more effective robot instead (such as healer/energy transferer bot), so the group can maintain maximum efficiency for the numbers it has on the field, rather than suffering from having a unit that doesn't bring much to help the group win. That is why there are a lot of posts and topics asking for EP refund, as the whole ROLES of players are being abolished, meaning that 600k+++ EP that you spent into something are going into nothingness as they could be much better off spent in some other, more useful role instead.

It is important to understand that this has NOTHING to do with how overpowered or underpowered bots are - because the new changes affect the effectiveness of playstyle as a whole against other playstyles present. When playstyle or role becomes nonviable to field and it is better to have anything else in that position rather than this bot, no one will ever even think about prioritizing this nerfed role.

It doesn't affect only new Ictus - it is absolutely clear that other bots like Zenith, Waspish, Tyrannos, all of them become nonviable to field. Like Zenith, for example, doesn't do anything better or anything more useful now than Vagabond, or in that respect any other bot you can bring instead of zenith. It is better to have pretty much anything else rather than them, because they don't have anything special or strong to bring to the fight, no matter how much you play around with their fits. Also because other new alternatives are much better.

In the current system, every role/playstyle is quite strong in its own area. However, there are a few bots and roles which have better stats than its analogues. Couple of examples:
- waspish vs other assault bots (arbalest and baphomet are quite weak, mainly because of Waspish's range bonus coupled with better terrain handling of rockets. Arba's and bapho's bonuses are useless compared to that)
- utility of light bots vs other bots in general
- industry bots might use some helpful combat bonuses to increase their presence on the field, but this one is debatable

Current system also offers good tradeoffs such as "range vs DPS", or "range vs tankiness". New changes will also affect those tradeoffs and it will need another balance review, as for example for mechs choosing to pick range or dps is not gonna be a question at all, when assault bots will be better in any case irrelevant of what you choose (that new bapho).

Overall, currently still we're in the phase of recovering from the speed change and terrain change (more trees) fixes. For example, yesterday's fight was a fight like I've rarely seen before - very close range, face-to-face, long chase on heavies vs heavies (even though admittedly both fleets were more or less medium range fitted), as a result of those recent reworks. Personally I haven't got used to that yet, especially to the new pace of combat.

Rather have EP gap decreased by introducing better premium system (AT LEAST 2x EP gain instead of 1.5x) - it both nets steadier income and helps new players. Also there are many other ways of rebalancing the gap, instead of screwing over the work of previous several years and entering another back-and-forth balancing cycle. New changes are scary as they change the whole equation of combat, not just making something more or less powerful. TBH, in the beginning I was pretty excited to see new changes after reading the blog; however, after reading the actual % changes and trying it on the live server, I was quite surprised.

I feel there is a lot more to be said about that topic, but these are just some basics to thinking about.

TL;DR new combat changes too dramatic. Rather slightly boost/nerf current underused or overpowered bots and roles, rather than enter another balancing cycle. If changes are done, too many unsatisfied vets who would rather play a different role because nerfs are too severe. Find new ways to decrease EP gap, and focus on features that bring new players and help them stay, rather than spending working hours on balance.