Bramble fix - game examples included

[Alvendor]

(03-16-2013 11:57 AM)Giu-BR Wrote:  Alvendor and blckace, this looks like a very elegant alternative to just dropping thorns' HP to 2. With the added benefit that the veggie player probably needs to use other units rather than just spamming branches. Thanks for putting the idea to practice and generating the examples. I'll try to play a few matches like that and report the replays.

I wonder if you guys have also tried the alternative of allowing only the bramble (and not thorns) to have more than one child. While this would eventually allow for over spamming, having to start each branch from the bramble, might offer the time and wit-differential for the opponent to defend.

Finally, if the option of only one child for everybody holds, I would suggest allowing them to prickle the opponent's base, in a similar way that bombshell's splash damage can hit it. Thoughts?

I think allowing bramble to branch into several "strains" is the main reason it it so hard to balance. Take thorn gulley for example: allowing several branches, you put one bramble at your middle wit space and it can branch out left, middle, and right and you have all the thorns you need. On Reaper or Glitch on the other hand, branching to both sides of the map will block your snipers in one way or the other. So branching and not making more than one bramble viable makes it way harder to balance than the other races.

Now by only allowing one strain, any balances to the bramble will not cause these fundamental changes to the gameplay we've seen with the last update.

If it turns out one strain with the current rules are two weak I think your suggestion is good to think about of letting thorns attack the base. Other things could be allowing thorn to be receded after it has attacked, or the quite powerful allowing thorn to attack and spawn a child in the same round. But the main point is, these kind of changes are much easier to balance if only one strain is allowed.