Balancing the Romulan faction

posted on October 31st, 2011, 7:17 pm

By the way I know it's off topic, but can somebody tell me what the speed of the old Generix was?  I thought it was 130 with the spectre doing 110, but that would mean they were the same speed as the Leahval so I'm not sure...

Frigate and stock were 100, Specter and Support were 80 

posted on October 31st, 2011, 7:41 pm

Huh, how come the new generix feels so slow then?  Does it have a slower turn speed?

posted on October 31st, 2011, 7:47 pm

Nope, all speeds are derived from the base movement . Like many things in balance and game mechanics, 'feel' plays a large role in how people perceive things 

[Nebula_Class_Ftw]

posted on November 1st, 2011, 12:11 am

Last edited by Nebula_Class_Ftw on November 1st, 2011, 12:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

The new Generix is facing cloak-detecting borg ships that move at 120 for probe and some number above 100 for Adaptor. That's why it feels slow. The size of the ship and its torpedos make it look even slower.

Regarding some stuff about trading miners as Roms: you're biggest advantage is that you do more damage at the beginning of battle. You should intercept a fleet and tear it a new one. If you do find yourself unable to intercept in time, then you should rip the enemy miners to bits and intercept the enemy fleet while it is returning to base.
This playstyle is very very difficult and I think it could be better off being less intensive.

posted on November 1st, 2011, 1:19 am

This playstyle is very very difficult and I think it could be better off being less intensive.

That's why there are 5 factions!

You want less difficulty but still cloaking?  Klingons
You want less stress overall?  Feds
You want more stress and more macro?  Dominion
You want to just piss people off?  Borg

You want to be a micro-management god?  Romulans

posted on November 1st, 2011, 3:46 am

You want to just piss people off?  Borg

LOL so true, but i feel this should be feds to 

but really, as boggz said, rommies take insane ammonts of micro to win againts the borg(which i belive this is where people have the problem). most other races have strong counters or good strats that if pulled off right, can put tthe borg outta commision, whereas the rommies have no such stronng strat, you must use smarts, timing, micro, specials, and good countering to defeat the borg, and that is somthing a lot of people can't master. which make the rommies apear a lot weaker, because any gap in mirco skill is amped up because of their playstyle.

Everbody wants the romulans power without their weakness, which just happens to be micro.

romulan gamplay is uniuqe in that it also requires that you always must set the pace in the game. it was said the the rommies don't have a way to really defend their expansion now, and thats how it should be. as romulans you should always be attacking, always. you must force your opponet to retreat his ships to protect himself, instead of playing fed-like and just waiting till they come to you.

posted on November 1st, 2011, 5:16 am

lol borg... romulan... those generix torpedo hurt borg a lot..
they make me cry

posted on November 1st, 2011, 5:30 am

Even the one moon where the Romulans put their yard is still vulnerable to attack though, their miners can be killed just because they're attacked on the other side of the moon.  The difference between 428 hitpoints (Klingon miner) and 274 hitpoints (Romulan miner) is just too big.  Several times lately I've predicted the enemy attack and pulled back to the starbase and I still lost one or two miners.

Now I'm just repeating more things I've suggested before: make the Rom miners faster, or make them go faster when they're empty and slower when they're full, or let them cloak longer than 9 seconds with the cloak generator because that's not long enough to save them...

@Arash lol, scubes can kill all of the Rom's mining except for one moon if he goes generix.

posted on November 1st, 2011, 6:05 am

Romulans HAVE to have weak mining or they'd steamroll everything .  Romulan cloak and self-preserving abilities means that you're frequently put in the position of having to kill miners simply to avoid them massing too much.

  While I agree that the Scube-rush suicide run on Rommy miners is a huge bitch ... that's really only an issue on maps where the moons aren't fully protected by the SB (Like Duel II).

posted on November 1st, 2011, 8:34 am

I agree with tryptic there in that even when you put a staryard above your DI mining they still die due to speed, and can really set the rommies back with building ships. 

[beserene]

posted on November 1st, 2011, 5:48 pm

Last edited by beserene on November 1st, 2011, 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This isnt meant to be off topic, but when you talk about these spams being difficult to counter, remeber its only on Duel II.  And however good that map may be...... were only testing these things on one map.....

I think this pretty much sums it up.

You can't really compare dis- / advantages for race vs race if we only test it on the same map with the same strategies all over again. It just proves that a specific strategy won't work on Duel II, doesn't mean Romulan game mechanics are flawed overall.

Basically what i only see by romulan players in duels and team games, currently, is fast and early small yard spam, mostly Leavahls and Griffins. Plus of course they rely heavily on micro management and offense gameplay. You can't sit in your base as klingons either, even if it's not that harsh for them.

That's why there are 5 factions!
...

Good one 


Overall i would still agree that the Scube / Probe rush needs to be delayed a bit. I would suggest increasing the build time of scubes or better the conduction matrix.

And yes, in the past weeks romulans felt quite weak as enemies. Not sure if they're really that weak, or people finally adapted to all their small yard spam.


Just my 2 cents.


Edit & P.S.: would still be nice to have minor patches with slight balances to get a better feeling for everyone about what's balanced and what not.

posted on November 1st, 2011, 6:07 pm

And yes, in the past weeks romulans felt quite weak as enemies.

many of the good ppl are not playing currently due to boringness...

posted on November 1st, 2011, 6:11 pm

That's why there are 5 factions!

You want less difficulty but still cloaking?  Klingons
You want less stress overall?  Feds
You want more stress and more macro?  Dominion
You want to just piss people off?  Borg

You want to be a micro-management god?  Romulans

WOW Boggz! I never saw it that way! thanks man! ;D

[Nebula_Class_Ftw]

posted on November 1st, 2011, 8:04 pm

Last edited by Nebula_Class_Ftw on November 1st, 2011, 8:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

many of the good ppl are not playing currently due to boringness...

Partially boring same-old same-old strategy is to blame, but I mostly am not playing due to college stuff, Minecraft, Team Fortress 2, and ponies (fanfics, images on ponibooru, etc.). It all takes up so much time and the wait for a good game on FO can be hours, with another 30+ minutes for the match itself.