You ppl don't realize that the devs could make whatever game they want the way they want it, either help or shut up... and the ppl who don't like the changes are much more vocal about it, so there are more posts from them. There will probably be a 1.1 balance mod anyway so stop crying about that. The devs are making the changes to classes/buildables that were under/overpowered, and saying that there are too many changes just means you haven't kept up with the progress. They didn't add all of those 1 week/month/year even.
There are some minor changes I don't fully agree with, but most changes are good imo and I support what the devs are trying to do. Camping can't delay games for as long any more, bases can't be rebuilt that fast, rants are more balanced, basi and mara have been improved, etc.
I would like to use this post to reiterate, illustrate, and enumerate a couple of misunderstandings that people keep having about our position as protestors.
We object to the fact that it has taken three years to compile a list of jury rigged QVM values (modified damages, ranges, modifiers, etc.) which the developers believe are some kind of everywhere-hailed perfect update for Trem. "they can do whatever the hell they want" is actually a damaging mindset for players to have about developers when the developers can't justify their huge set of balance changes, and it is a damaging mindset for developers to have because it makes them totally blind and unreceptive to what people are actually saying about their "work."
Let me elaborate about the balance changes. The changes do not simply fix specific imbalances in the game. The reason there are so many changes is because they are interdependent; that is, you can't justify the changes without referring to the other changes. The balance changes are a
total shift in gameplay, not just tying up a few loose ends. This is why we can't accept them as a
universal 1.2 update. We don't believe the work should go to waste, not only because of the time that was put into it, but also because there are people who like it and they should get to play it. Yet we keep getting stuck with these figures about the vast majority of Trem users salivating and getting erections whenever they review the change log, and this simply isn't true. If it were true, there would be a statistic rather than just the conspicuous narcissism of developers. (I don't claim to have a statistic. Some people like 1.2, lots of people are indifferent/unaware/waiting, and lots of people don't care for it - what it does to gameplay, I mean. The repository of useful cvars, bug fixes, new textures, etc., are great due in no small part to the fact that the cvars are options and the rest are legitimate updates or fixes.) We think the set of unjustifiable* balance changes ought to be removed from 1.2 and forked into its own mod, of course so that people can play it if they do want to.
*The reason I keep saying the changes are unjustifiable is that they drastically affect gameplay but have a mild to nonexistent effect on overall balance. It's not as simple as a developer observing that the lucifer cannon is perhaps slower than it should be and fixing it. It's very convoluted (and to be honest most of the observations people make about balance are misinformed - because of the nature of the game, it's fallacious to look at the strength or weakness of any one class and call the imbalance an error) because what happened is essentially something like this:
1) It looks like humans camp too much, so we need to restrict the offensive capacity of the aliens.
2) Decrease their hp regen and specifically weaken the dragoon. (?)
3) Make human armors more effective against alien attacks so they don't feel like camping as much (?!)
4) Give the basilisk a healing aura to make up for the decreased hp regen (...)
5) Decrease the basilisk health because it is too powerful now (:\)
6) Decrease tyrant hp because it's too strong when it gets buffed by a basilisk (###)
7) Make the luci faster so it is more effective against tyrants in the hands of a Polack
Decrease the utility of the luci by making secondary fire not cancel charges
9) Make the adv goon S2 to make up for the nerfing of the regular goon
10) Give goon barbs splash damage to discourage human camping
11) Add dodge mechanic to fight earlier adv goons ("I can't dodge alien attacks" argument)
12) Add tyrant crushing attack because it's ridiculous
13) Change the pellet count and pellet damage of shotgun shots, but keep the total damage per shot at 56 so that nothing actually changed
As you can see, the more steps that are taken, the more distant and unjustifiable the changes become. And all this nonsense was started just because someone observed that noobs camp, spam, and feed just as you would expect noobs to do. This is called treating the symptom, not the cause.
As Ozzy and I have stated and will state, good players know how and when to use all classes and weapons in the game. Our tricks are elegant and numerous, and if we can do it, Joe Polack can learn, too, and we can keep increasing the skill ceiling.
I can't stress this enough: there is no point in the balance changes. In a far shorter time than 3 years, I could come up with my own new set of modifiers, speeds, damages, ranges, hit points, and so on, and it would be just as invalid as the 1.2 "balance changes." They are different. They are not better. They are collectively a mod, not worthy of being a universal update. Change for change's sake can't be justified.
