https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect They are actually just so bad at the game that they don't know the difference between good and bad. It's... bad. The extremely low population means that there can't be any sort of matchmaker to try to ensure a fair matchup. The game has to just grab the first people to queue up and cram them into a match together. On the plus side, this means very fast queues compared to more popular games. On the more negative side, this also means that newbs and poorly-skilled players are being paired with and against veteran players, which can be frustrating for newbs/low-ability players. It's all well and good to simply say, "If you're bad at the game, just get better like everyone else did." The reality, however, is that it is incredibly frustrating as a newbie, and people are more likely to quit than to stick around. The general low quality of the game (I understand the low quality is the result of two massive technical setbacks during production, but the quality is still low) paired with the high price tag of the game also makes people feel like they got ripped off. When you get a B2P game for 50 dollars, frankly, you expect AAA quality, and you don't get that in Eternal Crusade. Furthermore, virtually all of the cosmetic customization outside of weapons is acquired through a cash shop, and the only way to get that currency through in-game play is incredibly slow with low rewards. It feels bad. Additionally, Eternal Crusade does not deliver on the horizontal progression that is necessary for balanced PvP games. Its progression is very vertical, to the degree where new characters for 3 factions have 0 anti-tank options. Anyone who believed the promises of EC being an MMOTPS will be disappointed, as presently it is a lobby shooter with progression systems whose only hint of an overall game world is a completely-pointless and very poorly-designed "world map" that is rigged to prevent any faction from making serious gains in any territory. While it may technically fulfill the literal criteria off an MMO, people's expectations will not be met if they were hoping for more than what a lobby shooter can offer. To add onto that, there are a wide variety of glitches, and much of the terrain is poorly-made. Players who explore multiple factions will quickly discover the disparity between the factions in terms of how much effort was put into developing them. If they have prior knowledge of popular WH40k games in the past, they will liken the overall conflict in the narrative to Dawn of War: Dark Crusade's campaign mode, which is not a flattering reference since it amounts to a game of Risk in terms of narrative. In summary, Eternal Crusade is a bad game, and it will struggle to keep its servers open, and it is unlikely that it will survive long enough to improve significantly. I had high hopes for it, but the reality is that it ended up being really, really bad.
I don't think it's balanced, but the next patch might approach such a status? Specifically I feel these things make it unbalanced: For Space Marines: The vengeance storm bolter is probably the most OP weapon in the game right now, but I don't think that they should alter it. It's their thing. However, it seems a bit unfair that the LSM have to rely so much on it. Being a lowlevel LSM facing the Eldar for example is nothing but frustration. Only having the heavy bolter doesn't quite compare to the autocannon in its current state. For Chaos Space Marines: The autocannon is unfair. It needs a correction. I think they should look towards the Ace Dakka, which is perfect balance wise. Just reduce the autocannon's damage by 10, penetration by 10 and make it cost 200 more LP. There, you've an Ace Dakka replica. Chaos need some more utility in hunting vehicles, if it wasn't for the powerfists it would be the worst faction at it. For Eldar: They've a few things that are unfair for them compared to the others. Their pistols need an overhaul, as they're inferior to what everyone else has. Their long range fire from the Dark Reaper needs adjustment. You don't necessarily have to increase damage or accuracy for the shuriken cannon, but at least give the reaper their lore-specific trait of moving and firing without an accuracy penalty. The reaper launcher needs a shorter time to fire, as it is the starshot has a longer firing time than the plasma cannon, with less AoE. The starswarm missiles are also in need of fixing, as the snapshot of the plasma cannon is just superior. Again it doesn't have to be identical, just make the weapons comparable in usefulness. Some melee weapon variety wouldn't hurt either. For Orks: The rokkits need a buff. They were fine before, now they're awful and the Orks rely on them for AV. Look at the plasma gun, or the felwrought. Why do they get such a small firing time, doing almost the same amount of damage, and not having to reload? That's very unfair. For the orks you also have the issue of melee reach, which is roughly half of the other factions making them the worst melee faction by far. That seems like an easy thing to fix. Then, the accuracy penalty on their weapons might be lore appropriate, but they should at the very least get a higher firing rate to compensate, or something else. They're just penalized right now. Kannon vs plasma cannon is an unfavorable comparison, same with the shoota's weapons compared to the other factions, and then there is the vehicle system. Perhaps many orks have gotten used to the difficulty of driving their vehicles, it's a rough learning curve, but they still bounce over at the smallest stone and if this is going to be kept the least they could do is compensate with something. Change the top-gun to whichever gun the loota inside has, for example.
Always thought they were faster for being harder to control and I got no problem with that but they should at least be faster.
Unless they bump vengance up to 130 pen next patch the 100 tough/pen balance will probably make a modded stormbolter better. Still, its like 1 less round in a weapon that fires 400 per minute so the TTK difference is quite minor anyway. I pretty much exclusively use the bolter anyway (with drum), you run out of bullets with the stormbolter far to fast for my liking especially with my lag where when you actually see them drop you've already done enough damage to kill their downed state. I wouldn't use the words perfectly balanced, however the autocannon is bugged.. it reads saying 133 damage but it actually does 123 just like the ace dakka on a body shot. However it still has the 266 headshot damage. Fixing that should make the autocannon more or less identical to the ace dakka, trading 10 pen for 50 less ammo. And why would you bump it up 200lp? They both cost the same (ace dakka being MC and thus 100lp extra just like abbadons grace) But the devs already said they are making some accuracy changes to the autocannon(and i assume ace dakka too) that will probably tone it down. Starshot is apparently getting nerfed (it kinda needs it) by giving it a cooldown after firing, with that change in mind i wouldn't mind a shorter charge, but without the lascannon like cooldown hell no, its already the most powerful AV weapon in the game imo like an unlimited (draw distance) ranged fist. Swarm is garbage though with the hold down mouse button trick its mediocre, i say give it a overhaul. The rokkits do not do even close to the same amount of damage as the plasma guns, its 1400 vs like 210 for charged shots, so yeah, no.
Nothing asymmetrical will find easy balance. That said, when you can play any faction as a new player and think every opposing faction is better than yours. Then as a more experienced EC player you find that all the factions can win against any other faction on any given day. It's not that far out of balance is it. Certainly it isn't fully and completely balanced - but there is nothing so badly out of whack that it can't be played around and beaten by the right tactic. Obviously there are matchmaking issues that allow high skilled full teams to play against new players who don't get s full team.. But that's not a game balance issue - it's a matchmaking issue. Salt is salt, the salt flows in all games. The difference here is in most games you get a trickle of salt throughout a match, but in EC you have to wait till the end to release all your salt at once! Just let the salt flow
Alright LSM fanboy, let's go at it shall we? 1.) Your preference or not does not matter. The VSB has the best TTK for the tacticals, between two equal players the VSB player always win. Since most of the killing, and fighting, is in relative close quarter fighting, the VSB is the king of the hill. That could change with the patch, we'll see, but there is a reason most of you LSM players are running around with this instead of something else. Unless, of course, you don't have it yet. 2.) First of all, the Ace Dakka isn't mastercrafted. Check the stats, it has 0,62/1.69 recoil, exactly the same as an autocannon. Having played extensively with both, they are not comparable on bodyshots. The extra damage isn't illusional, it's real. Subjective, yes, but it's noticable to most that play heavies a lot I would think. 3.) Starshot is relatively fine as it is. It's not a lascannon. Lascannons always hit, the starshot veers off slightly and has less range. It's advantage there is that it doesn't require giving an advance warning to the enemy. I believe it's 6 starshots in the rear of a rhino, 4 lascannon shots. The TTK are comparable, but it doesn't tell the whole picture. Starshot is less useful against moving targets. All in all, it's a solid weapon on the weakest class in the game. It doesn't need another nerf, it needs to keep the statuo quo if anything, and fixing of its other weapons and/or modes. 4.) It's comparable. Rokkits kill on a direct hit, otherwise it does less damage than a plasma in its Aoe (slightly less). A felwrought will stun them at 5% wounds left. That's pretty much instant death. Yet the plasma guns fire much faster and doesn't require a long reloading process. Sure, rokkits can be used against vehicles at close range, but the rokkit nerf hurt the weakest faction quite a bit and since we're talking fairness, it's way more skill intensive than plasma guns while being placed on the slowest faction to boot. Something is off there. Another thing that wasn't mentioned, now that we're on the subject even more, is that they should bring plasma grenades and stikkbombs up to the same AoE as the frag grenades or adjust the costs.
My biggest gripe currently is the Ork dbash. The range on it is too short, especially compared to the SM dbash, which reaches through space and time.
So i am a LSM fanboy because I don't agree the VSB is the best most OP weapon in the game? right. 1. If you die from a VSB 90%+ of the time you'd have died if it was a normal one anyway. It's objectively better yes but less then 0,1 shorter TTK or whatever is hardly gamebreaking for 100 extra lp over the standard. Whether the base stormbolter is too good or not is another thing, personally i find most of my encounters taking place outside of a range where the stormbolter actually hits well to beat the pinpoint accuracy and long lasting ammo of a modded bolter, if you can land some headshots atleast. 2. Since its a named unique and priced as such I assumed it was a MC I also just learned something new checking out garrison now, legs have a different damage model, so my bad, the autocannon actually does 133 damage if shot at torso and ace 123, 123 vs 114 to legs. 3. Starshot does not have less range, i can hit quad cannons on fortresses that are just one step away from disappearing from draw distance (max settings), lascannons do not always hit either but they do have better accuracy yes. Starshot does 2000 damage, the same as a fist. Lascannon does 1800. It also fires waaay faster then a lascannon, about on par with a heavy attack spamming fist actually. So yeah, its basically a ranged fist and the minor accuracy "penalty" is moot against vehicles, it only affects hitting infantry targets that are braced really. Non eldar vehicles are quite predictable to hit when moving too and by lightly reducing your attack speed you can just guide them instead, and since you'll never have to deal with eldar vehicles as a dark reaper I don't really find that to be much of a drawback as its made out to be. Starshot is the best AV in the game imo not taking into account anything else like infantry killing viability (which then fist wins). View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DoHiJmIkBE&feature=youtu.be 4. Rokkits are AV plasma gun is not, maybe the rokkits need a buff I don't know but comparing its infantry killing capability to a infantry only killing weapon to justify one is not the way to go.
The thing about Starshot is that it is the only thing keeping Reaper Launchers viable. Nerfing it is like kicking the crutch out from an old man with a broken leg. ESPECIALLY next patch. Because we all know the devs won't fix Starswarm.
I assume you would also give the Autocannon suppression, as the Ace Dakka has, right? In the current version of the game there is one target that the Ace Dakka needs more shots to kill than the Autocannon and that is a Mark of Nurgle Chaos marine (Or an Ork, but you probably shouldn't be pointing your Ace Dakka at them). Against virtually every other target it is not 'perfect balance wise' it is a better Autocannon as it kills in the same number of shots at the same rate of fire, except it has suppression. If the Autocannon is to receive nerfs the same nerfs need to be applied to Ace Dakka.
