An idea for nerfing RPG rebels.

[Mr. Darkness]

You will probably notice how easilly RPG deal with armies in a small amount of units (6 vs 20).
Having spectated rushed and tried rushing RPG's, I noticed that it deals with anything with ease.

I was thinking for quite a while on how to ballance RPG out. RPG had the purpose of dealing with Synth (mostly striders) in the first place. When I saw RPG taking down armies of soldiers - that was probaly what made RPG the strongest unit in the game.

So how to ballance it?
Before I display my idea I want to provide a list of ideas that I previously seen and think wouldn't be good:
-Adding friendly fire = Would turn the game into chaos
-Reducing HP = Wouldn't change a thing, the RPG dudes would just die faster.
-Increasing cooldown between shots = 1 shot of an RPG army already destroys everything.
-Reducing damage = Would make RPG pointless
-Reducing speed = Wouldn't change a thing, RPG still takes everything down.

Some few good ideas I saw:
-Making stand position for RPG similar to Combine Sniper's = Would make it easier to kill them while they get ready for shooting.
-Making rockets not follow the target with laser navigator, instead fly past it if the rocket misses = would miss moving targets, it's something like throwing a grenade or shooting combine energy balls.

My idea:
-Reducing the area of damage (explosion radius) to 0.

Yes, yes. To 0. That would make it easier on armies since all RPG will shoot at one same target while dealing all that damage to only that one target. The purpose of this is exactly for Striders, so you can take down striders and hunters only, otherwise striders in a stack would also receive all the incoming damage.

That's about it.

[JJ]

The RPG is kind of boring vs synth and groups of units, and scrap isn't that hard too get with the 5 engineer harvester limit on scrap and scrap drops. I think making it a spell caster would make it more fun. 0 radius I think it would still be boring vs synth units.

It would be a point and click ability that would cost 3 scrap. You could target anything--units, the ground, walls, buildings. It would paint the target with the red laser dot, then fire the missile after the RPG soldier finishes reloading. The missile should move slightly slower, do friendly fire, and have a larger, stronger explosion. This makes it so you just can't attack move and easily kill everything, but it's still powerful and entertaining.

I think the main way to balance is with resources. Now, I think scrap and power is too easy to get compared to requisition. Basic units that just cost req should be cheaper and more expendable, so losing a bunch of them isn't too devastating. Higher tech units like the RPG, should be more expensive in scrap, so you can't make too many of them.

[Cozy]

There should always be a "counter triangle" imo, like rock-paper-scissors.

Example: Bullet, Synth, Explosive. Bullet beats Explosive, Explosive beats Synth, Synth beats Bullet. The synth's heavy armor makes bullets less damaging, but they are a big wide-open target for explosives. Infantry are less damaged by explosives (they can get down and take cover) and are also cheaper units. For aforementioned reasons, explosive units do great damage to synths and buildings but are ineffective against infantry.

So my suggestion would be to reduce rockets' damage to infantry units and increase damage to synths rather than just having a flat damage rate. Only problem I see in this case is that Rebels don't really have any "synth equivalent" right now, so in a RvR match explosives' only use would be to quickly destroy buildings and control points.

[JJ]

I don't know if RPG needs to be buffed or nerfed in a certain way. It's similar to the sniper before it had steady position. It was too easy to attack move and win when you had enough of them, so the sniper was changed to attack differently instead of having its damage changed.

I think unit counters like that reduce strategy. They spell out what units to use against each other for you, so there are less things to figure out.

[Shapeshifters]

I like the idea of requiring manual targeting with RPG's, like what Ji said. Maybe a bit more scrap to fire than 3, though. Say like 10-15 scrap. Also, I like the idea of adding friendly fire to it. I mean after all we're talking about a Rocket Propelled Grenade here. I believe it should work with similar mechanics to a grenade, and basically being the Rebel equivalent of the new combine mortar. Possibly increasing blast radius or damage output to help counterbalance this change. Perhaps it shouldn't be a "target ground" ability, but a "target unit" ability. Using half life RPG physics, and showing the little red dot indicator on the targeted unit and having "soft" homing capabilities. Allowing for counter micro to possibly dodge the RPG round and force it to turn around, and/or move the targeted unit away from his squad to reduce casualties.


In terms of half life 2, the RPG rounds were never easy to obtain, and you had to think about where you were going to use them. I'm not really opposed to the idea of using RPG's to blast balls of troops down, either. In fact I like that mechanic, as it defeats the traditional RTS style of making "death balls", and forces you to think more tactically. As opposed to just making clump of units and Attack moving over your opponent, which I feel Lambda Wars is really opposed to. But I see it as the main problem is how unrealistic and easy to use it is, and how easily spammed RPG rounds become. RPG's should never be used casually, but with great thought put into where you want to paint the target they should be a fairly viable and crucial asset to rebel forces, and have devastating effect on your opponent.

Also, as a side note I wouldn't mind trading off more range on the RPG for less unit health. I like the idea of picking off RPG's from a squad with my combine snipers, but as of current they just slightly annoy them before getting blasted away shortly after. Though this wouldn't be as much of an issue any more with manual targeting put in place for RPG's.

[Astralnaut]

when rpg hit synth group, synth units could take 0 splash damage.