Assim Avatar

posted on July 8th, 2011, 10:59 am

Just to say, I agree with and back up everything Myles has just posted. I also play as Assimiliation quite a lot, so I too would like to avoid Assim becoming a one-track avatar. The avatars should allow more strategies, not reduce them.

posted on July 8th, 2011, 2:19 pm

I still don't see a valid argument that assim loses many strategies. Maybe massing small ships in favor of capturing enemy ships. That, on the other hand, is pretty much what Myles wants for the avatars...slight changes in strategy...summing up:

Assim might not be able to use massive amounts of small ships (only when boarding !would! be to powerful in early game). Instead they get assimilation in early game as a valid strategy allowing to capture single ships or weakening multiple ships.
Larger ship strategies are not affected in a negatvie way. Instead you can use Spheres to capture stuff - you could make better use of holding beams in combination with boarding, for example. I see various strategies that are enabled by this idea and only one that might be restricted for balance reasons in early game.

fine, do you have a debating trophy

No, but my job in international research requires me to use arguments in a good manner (i.e. give numbers, examples and such). And yes, I am quite successful there in case you ask me.

posted on July 8th, 2011, 5:24 pm

I play Assimilate and the only problem I have with him is the speed of the assimilator xD. But that is balanced because the assimilator is just so powerful.

posted on July 8th, 2011, 6:14 pm

I still don't see a valid argument that assim loses many strategies. Maybe massing small ships in favor of capturing enemy ships. That, on the other hand, is pretty much what Myles wants for the avatars...slight changes in strategy...summing up:

then you arent reading properly.

your idea: assimilate gets boarding from start.

only way to stop it being op: balance with much higher costs for chassis (your idea, not one i think is palatable, but it technically balances the strat)

consequence: current strats that dont involve boarding, such as using ships for combat, are no longer effective due to increased costs. therefore you have to use boarding all the time.

posted on July 8th, 2011, 7:32 pm

Well, as the races get more aggressively balanced, Assimilate's poor ability to spam small ships really shows.  I think it's already pointless to try regular combat as Assimilate, if you wanted to do that you should have used Optimize.

So I actually agree with Drrrrrr that Assim needs a new early-game strat.  I would actually consider moving the costs around (perhaps scubes, probes, and dodes cost the same as the Optimize avatar and only larger ships are more expensive.)

What about simply giving all Assimilate ships the Transporter Assault ability?  It would simply make it a bit easier to board during conventional combat as the borg like to do sometimes.

posted on July 8th, 2011, 7:38 pm

Well, as the races get more aggressively balanced, Assimilate's poor ability to spam small ships really shows.  I think it's already pointless to try regular combat as Assimilate, if you wanted to do that you should have used Optimize.

who said spam small ships? that shouldnt be your first thing to do as assim. make a couple small ships to tide yourself over until you can get to your strength, the assimilator. spamming assims will get you countered, but moving up to assims with some small ships to handle things like mons/s2 spam, and building a mixed fleet serve you well. assim can afford less small ships than opti, but still can make non spam numbers of them. thats the problem, that even with a perfectly reasonable (for assimilate) fleet of probes/scubes/dodes can board amazingly if they have boarding.

What about simply giving all Assimilate ships the Transporter Assault ability?  It would simply make it a bit easier to board during conventional combat as the borg like to do sometimes.

this i think deserves more investigation, leave them on high auto and they will auto beam. the only micro it removes is putting the mouse over an enemy ship and pushing t when the shields drop. which isnt a huge amount.

[Tyler]

posted on July 8th, 2011, 7:44 pm

Last edited by Tyler on July 8th, 2011, 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I like the idea of all ships having auto-board, it would fit with all Borg ships being designed to assimilate and only ones under the 'Assimilate' directive having the command active.

Only question is; which ships? I could imagine all combat ships and the Detector transporting onto an enemy; canon shows even small scouts are programmed to assimilate.

posted on July 8th, 2011, 8:17 pm

The directive is to assimilate so auto beaming would make sense

posted on July 9th, 2011, 7:02 am

How about moving the research of assimilation to the incubation centre? Inc centres are quite expensive to afford them in early game, however, if you invest it to get a strong special, it may be worth the cost. An Inc centre costs about two small Borg ships, so you'll be left with less ships, however, those you have will have the ability to get you more ships fast . The Assim avatar Inc centre has already a passive that assimilates, it doesn't seem to be inappropriate to give it an assimilation research as well.