It's been a long time since the last major GPP Phase has been made, for the most part the last major phase to significantly change the balance (I'm referring to combat changes, not the less dramatic and exciting phase 6 & 7 releases which mostly fixed bugs, I'm not saying that they don't matter, they just aren't all that relevant to what I'm going to bring up.) The point being is that a lot of time has gone by, a lot of time for seeing exactly what's wrong and what's right- The things that are "wrong" should be examined for possible fixes. As an avid 1.2 supporter, I personally believe that most things are right, but there's some issues that leave me grinding my teeth at times.
Now let's prioritize, what's really wrong, and what's kinda/maybe wrong.
Major Offenders:
The Dragoon:
When it comes down to it, the new Dragoon is very quirky to say the least. The new pounce specifically is a major issue, take a quick look at tremstats and you'll see that the majority of players have more kills with pounce than slash. This isn't inherently an issue, just a statistic, what is an issue is how it works out in-game. The pounce doesn't make slashing redundant, it makes it nearly pointless with very little room for practical use. Aside from slash, all too often can someone spam pounce and kill someone wearing light armor + the helmet in less than 3 seconds, no matter how well they can dance, or how much they dodge. You can also kill the Reactor faster by sitting on top of it pounce spamming, than simply slashing- not only does this not make any sense (magikarp's splash attack should do more damage,) but it's a great example of "what's wrong." Another note, it's fairly often that I pounce someone, and due to the knockback the human is out of slashing distance, this just encourages the spam even more.
Possible solutions: I've been thinking (and you guys really should too, the more people coming up with ideas, the more likely we are to find one that's "right.")
1) Lower the pounce damage, give the slash a slight buff. -Lowering the damage would not only make spamming it less of a problem, but it would also make the knockback less of a problem as well (by lowering it,) giving a slightly buffed slash a new place in this world. A possible problem with this being that it could make light armor in stage 1 pointless, as pounce likely wouldn't kill them in one hit.
2) Lower the pounce range, lower the pounce knockback, and give the slash a slight buff. -This would make the pounce more difficult to spam, and once again give slash a place in the world. Problems? Well, it wouldn't fix spamming it against buildings, but I suppose increasing the delay between pounces could fix this, but possibly bring other issues.
3) Increase pounce range, lower pounce damage, once again buff slash. -I personally don't like this idea, but thought it'd be fair to mention. Too much like 1.1 goon imo, but it would fix the problems present in 1.2.
4) You guys come up with more ideas, if you wish.
*Personally, I think the 1.1 and 1.2 Dragoon are pretty impossible to compare, they're very different animals now- but that's not exactly the issue here.
The Basilisk:
The 1.1 Basilisk was almost completely inaccessible to newbies, so I completely understand the need to buff it, but as it stands now the changes are more than overkill. The main issue being the reversal of the slash and grab ranges, which indeed does make it accessible to newbies, but in the hands of anyone who isn't completely inept (exaggerating a little bit here, the little bit is the sad part) it can become annoyingly overpowered. I'd also like to give a friendly reminder that the basilisk is worth 1 frag, with this value there isn't much of an excuse for them to be this deadly/boring to play as. I know I'm not exactly the average player, but the fact of the matter is that I can get 9 frags with a basi (in many cases) faster than I can with any other class. One fun experience I had was in a 1v1, I had 150 ping and turned my cg_unlagged off from the start- I played as a basi the entire time (save for when I didn't have any frags) and still won (Okay, yeah this isn't the ideal testing spot for a basi, as humans should attack in groups but still.) IMO, the basi is absolutely no fun, and for the average player usually annoyingly difficult to deal with (or in some cases, pretty impossible.) Oh, also it really doesn't make sense that you can grab something, but be completely unable to slash it.
Possible solutions: Honestly, I don't see too many options here, maybe you guys can come up with more.
1) Average the grab and slash ranges, providing a nice medium. -Well, I personally like this idea- It would still be newbie accessible, but at the same time grab wouldn't be so overkill. Also, this would increase the effective range where you can grab and slash at once, making it easier to move around the target (say, if you're being shot at) while still doing damage. So in many respects it's not a complete nerf, more of a re-balance.
2) Well, uh, tinker with the values some, find the golden spot for each, we certainly don't have it now.
3) You decide.
*EDIT: Keep in mind the Basilisk in 1.2 is intended to be a support class, not a one man army.
Regular offenders: Not quite as annoying as the above.
Dodge:
Don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue with there being a dodge command. Hell, I use it quite a bit mixed in with my dancing, it's just abused a bit. There's really nothing more annoying than that one guy who backpedal-dodges constantly to the point where he's impossible to kill.
Solutions:
1) Make back-dodging less effective. -Well, this makes sense logically too, I mean can you jump backwards as far/fast as you can to the side?
2) Make dodging cost more energy. -This could fix the spamming issue, but penalizes more legitimate uses of it. Could make dancing popular again though.
3) Make dodging have a cool-down timer. -Pretty much the same comment as idea #2
4) If changes to the Dragoon get rid of the need for it, then remove it. -Ehh, dunno about that. I can do without, not so sure about newbies. Besides, it gets me down slopes/stairs faster than running.
Jetpack: Oh what better fits the definition of love-hate. It's great for getting places, it's easy to stay out of harms way... Sometimes a bit too easy depending on the map. There's plenty of ideas on the forums for this already, no need to be redundant, I'm already fairly certain that they won't be implemented.
Minor/Maybe offenders: Stuff that either doesn't matter that much, or doesn't matter to many.
Lasgun/Rifle: Maybe offender.
When it comes down to it, the lasgun is a redundancy. It's like the rifle, without the spread, and it costs 250 credits... Plus armor. What I'm getting at is that for the average person there's little incentive to use the lasgun, the rifle is a perfectly decent gun, so why pay 250 credits for something only marginally better?
Solutions:
Eh, just one idea really: Lower the price to 200 (Maybe less?), decrease damage to 8, increase speed to compensate. -Making it cheaper increases incentive to buy it, the damage and speed would be changed to reflect the price change, it's as simple as that.
Marauder: Maybe offender.
I'm only putting this in "maybe" because it's debatable. It's just that unless the humans have a really good builder (which realistically, when 1.2 is released and more players migrate to it, good builders will become harder to come by.) A human stage 1 or 2 base can be destroyed in a very short period of time, or even a stage 3 base that just plain isn't perfect enough. Debatably, zap is overpowered, and honestly I'm still not sure where I stand on this issue. If you have any ideas for improving it, go ahead and post below.
Hovel: Minor offender.
Grangers need homes too. Also, there's a hovel icon for a reason. Grangers put it there because they want their home back.
Solutions:
1) give it back.
2) Bring it back, shorten it (to the point where a human could jump on it,) keep the limit of 1, make it cost 8 bp, and make the spikes do damage. -I don't see anything wrong with this, but maybe I'm just too much of a granger fan. Yeah, probably that.
The Mysterious Beyond: Any other creative solutions to the above? Thought of another problem that I didn't list? Go ahead, post below. No, really. Post below. Even though I just know this will turn into a flamewar in no time, figured I'd at least make my voice heard. Kudos to anyone who reads this text.