Blink

[ArnoldPalmer]

Exploit or not, I think blink is still overpowered. Just because something is beatable, doesn't mean it's not overpowered. To me, blink takes far too little ammo to use. It's just plain not fair that one unit can blink across a map, kill something, then blink all the way back to safety. There's only so many points you can defend mid-way into a game, and you can trust that anything that isn't well defended will be killed by a blink warrior. Aside from the gaping holes that it can open for the opponent's defense, it makes for a very unfair dogfights since scions can just blink away when they're hurt. When an ISDF tank is hurt in battle, you have no option to run away from a warrior, because it can just chase you down with blink. If blink used say 1/3 - 1/2 ammo to move long distances, then it's use would be forced to be more strategic than all the damned time.

As for the exploit, I really hope it gets fixed soon. I've seen players using it recently, and its just shameful.

[Feared_1]

You cannot blink across the map and hope to do significant damage while maintaining enough ammo to escape to a safe location. You really need to drive yourself to the location you are assaulting, blink down from a short distance away, do damage, and then blink out.

Even then, in 1.3 it is a lot easier to get caught while blinking because you can blink into buildings. Blink warriors are certainly not unstoppable by any means, and a few chain gun turrets along with Shadower Missile will make quick work of a clumsy Warrior pilot. That's not to say that there is any excuse for dying in a Warrior other than your own greed/lack of judgement/clumsy error.

If you are an ISDF commander and you allow the Scions to make their way all the way to Blink Warriors, you need to prepare for a long game.

[Zax]

We can agree on that point. Even more fearsome are those pilots that use the nearly infinite EMP to propel themselves even when low on blink. A blink/emp warrior is the king of the battlefield in terms of mobility.

[ArnoldPalmer]

I never said that blink warriors are unstoppable, just overpowered. "a few chain gun turrets along with Shadower Missile will make quick work of a clumsy Warrior pilot"-- basically speaks more to my point. A reasonably good warrior pilot won't die, and its going to wear down ISDF tanks. If both sides have an even skill level, the warriors have the edge. As for blinking across the map, I see it happen all too much. You can ride most of the way in, blink the rest, kill something, then still have plenty of ammo to blink to safety. Why should one team need multiple units of equal cost to defend against just one?

[Zax]

I never said that blink warriors are unstoppable, just overpowered. "a few chain gun turrets along with Shadower Missile will make quick work of a clumsy Warrior pilot"-- basically speaks more to my point. A reasonably good warrior pilot won't die, and its going to wear down ISDF tanks. If both sides have an even skill level, the warriors have the edge. As for blinking across the map, I see it happen all too much. You can ride most of the way in, blink the rest, kill something, then still have plenty of ammo to blink to safety. Why should one team need multiple units of equal cost to defend against just one?

Look at it objectively. A loaded blink warrior is the culmination of the Scion tech tree, as it requires every building built and upgraded to be possible. A chain turret needs an armory and a scrap pool. Shadowers are possible on the uber cheap missile scout (although against arc you would not want to face this 1v1) or through full scouts as a 20 scrap drop. A similar level of tech for the ISDF would be blast assault tanks, which require every building ignoring the training building. Blast assault tanks with MDM are fearsome vs single or even two blink warriors thanks to lack of mortar or projectile weapons, and getting in close causes death by mortars. You might not kill them due to blinking out, but strategically it gives the commander time to settle in for counter attack. Rocket tanks can be useful for this purpose in a pinch, but the lock range of shadower makes this difficult since blink + arc will nom it quickly. Blast.A has no qualms with the range, and even with absorb it still does some good.

Blink warp tactics don't work against such a machine because it depends on up close spamming to be effective.

The elephant in the room is that if you are able to make such vehicles, you probably are in the process of ending the game with a serviced assault anyway.

[Shadow Knight]

As someone who used to do exactly the tactic which is being described as overpowered, it's really not as dangerous as you'd think. More often than not I was getting maybe 3 or 4 good shots at my target before either being blown to smithereens or having to hot-foot it out of there. The sheer amount of complaints about Blink in this thread is incredible, given that it's scion end-game tech and you should have nigh complete coverage of gun towers or be in the process of steamrolling their base by that point.

[Cyber]

Seems like blink is now just as much an exploit as flying. Too bad people seem to want to pick and choose which exploits they want to keep. Or apply peer pressure to keep away from any and all exploits.

-- GSH

actually, I think he was joking about removing blink?

[Ded10c]

Like I said, Cyber, had you bothered to read my post, removing the exploit is most certainly not the same as removing the feature. Thinking GSH actually intends to remove blinking is laughable and shows the incredible narrow-minded, blinkered vision and thick-headed stubbornness that those few who continue to cause trouble for 1.3 have come to be known for.

[Zero Angel]

Exploit or not, I think blink is still overpowered. Just because something is beatable, doesn't mean it's not overpowered. To me, blink takes far too little ammo to use. It's just plain not fair that one unit can blink across a map, kill something, then blink all the way back to safety. There's only so many points you can defend mid-way into a game, and you can trust that anything that isn't well defended will be killed by a blink warrior. Aside from the gaping holes that it can open for the opponent's defense, it makes for a very unfair dogfights since scions can just blink away when they're hurt. When an ISDF tank is hurt in battle, you have no option to run away from a warrior, because it can just chase you down with blink. If blink used say 1/3 - 1/2 ammo to move long distances, then it's use would be forced to be more strategic than all the damned time.

As for the exploit, I really hope it gets fixed soon. I've seen players using it recently, and its just shameful.

Your concerns are valid. However, blink itself is not the issue, but these are:

1) Weapons like Arc Cannon that have disorienting effect (aka: kickOmega) cause additional warp on players hit by the weapon, screwing up their aim more than expected. (this noticably stacks dogfighting in favor of the Scion Arc Warrior, when it should otherwise be relatively even between the Arc Warr and Blast Tank)
2) Blink bugs (intentional or unintentional)
3) 20 scrap empty canceling (as scion)

The best, current way to beat a Scion team with blink is to play very defensively when blink is on the field (avoid combat, turtle on 2 pools and stay in base if you have to), build up assault forces, then make an assault army comprised of rocket tanks and blast asstanks.

I'm developing a mod called VSR which has until this point tested out all sorts of tweaks to balance, and I found that if blink is nerfed too heavily it leads to boring stalemate games. So here's some tweaks we tried that worked:

1) Scion empty canceling returns 15 scrap instead of 20 (turtling on 2 pools + fast tech to blink/arc warrs is less effective, and puts scion teching on parity with ISDF teching)
2) Increase the usability of lancers and sentries
3) Blink cooldown of 2.5 seconds implemented, with base ammo cost lowered. Blink self-damage halved.
4) Prox mine increased effectiveness

These alone seem to make for more balanced lategame ISDF/Scion games; adding an element of riskiness to panic blinks (blink incorrectly, die by shads), while still being fair to the Scion teams who can still blink short distances on low ammo, not die from blinking away on 2hp -- as well as employ mixed arms more often, especially as a midgame defense against ISDF m-curtain missile scout/laser scout domination.

The big killer of balance though is the blink bug, and i've tried my hardest to work around it to no avail.

[Red Devil]

Thumper, too. i remember when i made that Pseudo-Thumper™ using an invisible arc stream and tons of kick how player-driven walkers would go flying off the map, their brains permanently scrambled from the warping and bouncing inside the cabin.

[Feared_1]

...shows the incredible narrow-minded, blinkered vision and thick-headed stubbornness that those few who continue to cause trouble for 1.3 have come to be known for.

That was unnecessary.

If the extra, resynch-like warp is fixed for Arc Cannon and Blink's OmegaKick, I wouldn't mind seeing that re-implemented. It does make a difference, but in 6.2 it almost makes the game unplayable.

As for the Blink bug, I think it was present in 1.2 as well, but instead of actually disappearing like you do in 1.3, enemies just saw a green explosion that wasn't actually there. The player wouldn't vanish.

[Ded10c]

...shows the incredible narrow-minded, blinkered vision and thick-headed stubbornness that those few who continue to cause trouble for 1.3 have come to be known for.

That was unnecessary.

I said they are the same attributes they show, not that Cyber is one of them.

[Mortarion]

Funny that Ahadely, it seems like you ARE stating that cyber for thinking GSH would remove blink is incredibly narrow-minded, has blinkered vision and exerts thick-headed stubbornness.

Thinking GSH actually intends to remove blinking is laughable and shows the incredible narrow-minded, blinkered vision and thick-headed stubbornness that those few who continue to cause trouble for 1.3 have come to be known for.

[Clavin12]

Good job quoting him, Mortarion. Not so good a job comprehending what he meant in his latest post.

[Mortarion]

See the reason I made that reply is because he's latest post seems to contrast with his previous one in a way that shows that he's disagreeing with himself... If there's some sort of misunderstanding I'm sure we can settle it with a race to kill a statue or first to 20 kills against bot interceptors or ISDF pilots.