Factions!

Tactical advice, How-to, Post-mortem, etc.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Here's how I feel about each of the factions and how powerful they are:

(Grades use the typical tier convention, with S-A-B-C-D where S is above A)

Giga
Rix
IC
Belters
OH
Dregh
GT
TF
Bios
Drac
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Gigacorp:

Gigacorp may be the most underrated (and poorly played) factions this game has ever seen. Gigacorp is quite insane and there's a reason that it's my preferred choice of faction to command. It has very strong game against everyone, a myriad of powerful end-game options, and a robust economy to back it up. Its weaknesses, the relative softness of its bases to sup for example, are easily overcome by tweaking the style of play you go for: it's very reasonable to trade, for example, op-for-miner and if you do you end up way ahead.

Economy - S

Gigacorp has the best econ. Yes, there are factions like OH which have comparatively inexpensive technologies and factions like Belters which have similarly-costed bases that are a little tougher, and IC's ripping miners make it a pretty defensible economy, but Giga has an extra $150 per minute in payday (after 30 minutes of play, giga has just naturally accrued almost $5k), starts with a BOATLOAD of extra cash, and since their ops/tps are cheap as @#(! basically spends no money taking the map, which means that they have the money to get a second tech as reliably as OH does (though OH can full rainbow better). Access to spec mines for Giga also creates a robustness to the econ that lets them thrive on any money settings. Giga will lean on you with money.

Early Game - A

Giga's opening scouts are, of course, super mediocre but people consistently underestimate the power of patrollers. Patrollers are actually just TF scouts, but on steroids. Same 2 gat configuration, but with more hull, and instead of plasgens carries prox and missiles, which can be seeker 1/2 or dumbfire. Seeker patrollers are easily the match of, for example, Dregh lt ints, and will do some seriously consistent work against the fig factions. IC and Drac lt ints are a little tougher nuts to crack, but careful play using prox and/or just wolfpacking down miners are both excellent options that you can use to beat IC. Bonus: patties carry probes, so the only reason to EVER fly a scout over a patty is if you are nanning something. But the really scary part about Giga's early game is you don't actually know that they're going to go patties: they could open with a home spec that makes their econ > yours for the entire game, they start with enh miners which are tougher to kill, they start with enh cons which get to places faster, they can easily start with their cheap carriers to take more map... Giga will spread across the map and be in your face before most factions are ready to defend.

Mid Game - C

Giga's midgame is a little soft, since their enh tech ships are kind of weak. Between the accel nerf and the hull nerf (things which go away when you use lxy versions of their ships) they're not the greatest at a straight up fight, and there are many situations in which projecting the sort of force that, say, rix mini2 ints project ("oh @#(! we can't actually fight them") is important. But with proper expanding and the cheapness of their bases, good commanders can make sufficient sacrifice plays to keep the miners mining and make it so that gat2/seeker2 enh figs never have to go too far to put some work on the opponent.

Late Game - S+

Giga has the best lategame. It is the only faction that can go toe-to-toe with Bios late game bull@#(!tery, and it can do it because lxy figs are the highest damage ship in the game (take your pick between quickfire3, seeker3, and df3) and lxy ints ripcord around, so all giga really has to do is put $2250 teleports in every sector... and did I mention they make $750 a minute? That's without accounting for Giga's literally infinite money econ with specs where if your opponent can't get to one or two of your backsectors you can easily make 2-3x their income for as long as you need to get literally all of the tech and roll them.

Best Maps:

Gigacorp likes wide open maps with multiple avenues for attack and the ability to have a safe sector or two. Gigacorp is insanely strong on Blender and Hihigher, pretty solid on Limited and IO, and pretty bad on maps like Polished. Somewhat controversially, I believe Giga is actually excellent on Star, so I want to take a moment to talk about that: Giga on Star has the ability to secure 2 of the 3 "lanes" of expansion on Star (high, low, middle) and through securing the middle lane can gain access to at least 1 of those special safe sectors. The only major problem with Giga on Star is that two factions that love Star, IC and Dregh, are naturally very strong against Giga.

Best Settings:

Gigacorp does great on any settings. The higher the starting money, the more advantage Giga has over their opponents not named Rix. As a general rule of thumb, giga will always do better with more money, but is hampered far less than the average faction by not having high money.

Matchup notes:

Belters- Heavily Belters favored. Against Belts Tac, switch into specs. Against Belts Exp, just go sup and win. Against Belts Bombers, use patties to prox the runs, go exp for prox2 and mini2. Against Belts Carriers/Sup, try to use patties to stop them from eating your miners, go expansion, and pray.

Bios- Heavily Giga favored. Against exp go specs and get every tech in the game. Against sup, uh... go specs and get every tech in the game. Against tac, I guess you can bomb? Or you can go specs and get every tech in the game.

Draconium- Giga favored. Just go sup, pressure their miners, and take the map off of them.

Dregh- Giga favored. Watch out for specmine shenanigans. They have the weakest miners in the game, so make sure to abuse that and you'll be fine.

Giga- Mirror. In the mirror here you want to be the person with better access to miners, so just spend a lot of time getting carriers/cons into position. I would recommend going sup. Going a home spec is also a good option, even if they go sup.

GT- Giga favored. Go sup and kill their miners in the midgame, use patties to clamp down their rushes. Don't go expansion: you'll get whored on by the pulse laser/zeus end-game and you can't actually stop enh/adv pali cons as exp.

IC- IC favored. Poop out teleports $#@!ing EVERYWHERE. Put TPs at their sup, at their TPs, at their op, at their garrison: never stop pushing @#(! INTO their sectors. You want to force them to spend time shooting at your lt bases so you can shoot at their miners. Make sure to have a forward techbase before they start organizing to galv your TPs.

OH- Giga favored. OH is going to rainbow, but their opening ships are woefully bad against patrollers and they don't get real offensive tech for at least 10 minutes (5 minutes to build a techbase, 5 minutes to get tech, and that's ASSUMING they went techbase first). Perfect faction to go specs against and rainbow right back. Kill their miners early. Keep in mind you won't stop them from getting to adv tech, so prepare for the mini2 hvy int onslaught.

Rix - Slightly Giga favored (here come the REAL flames). Ok this one takes some explanation. It's conventional wisdom that the Rix sup rush is ABSURDLY powerful, and it's conventional wisdom that Giga is specifically weakest against sup, so it would seem like Rix's sup would just roll Giga. There's a couple of weird things that happen in this matchup though which make it a lot more even. First, the Rix sup rush is powerful, but its adv sup is decidedly not. 15% damage buff on guns doesn't quite make up for not having seeker1/df1. It certainly doesn't make up for not having df3/qf3/seeker3 on your adv figs. Second, while the rix SR @#(! can really pounce on miners quickly, giga's bases are so cheap that it's pretty easy to just constantly show up on defense, at which point you're trying to take down a miner with 2 figs against a fig and a nan... and that's not easy. Especially since giga miners are surprisingly tough: being enh miners gives them extra hull, and their shield buff matches up very well to rix's offense: gat is relatively bad against shields, especially when compared to, say, dumbfires. Two dumbfires takes out a miner's shields. A third of a rack of gat2 takes out a miner's shields. Which comes out faster. "But Rix's damage buff means they can kill giga bases faster!" Yes, but. Yes, but in order to kill a giga base consistently through D you need 4+ fighters to go on it at once. That means you have to have a base next to it or use six pilots (2 SR scouts, 4 enh figs) to kill a base. Killing giga bases is not a winning strategy (because they're so cheap to replace), and if you're using 6 pilots to hit my op, and I'm using 3 to hit your miner, we are going to trade a miner for an op. The miner costs $3500 to replace and the op costs $3250 to replace, oh, and also by the way, the miner is a miner. If the Giga team clamps down on defending miners (I've played with a couple of really safe mining strategies that work really well for this), then Rix has basically dumped $20k into an offense that might get a miner or two. But Giga can a) take gat2 (by the way, "patties don't beat rix figs" correct. But 2 patties vs 2 rix figs will typicaly end up with a very damaged rix fig and a dead rix fig. You can pick gat2 off of the corpses of scouts, too, which gives you a bunch of free money off rix) and b) their patties TRASH rix basic figs. It's like they're flying the same ship but one of them is smaller, has access to seekers, doesn't need scout support...

TF- Heavily Giga favored. TF exp meets up against Giga specs. TF sup meets up against Giga ac3 lxy bbrs with nan3 hvy scouts coming out of giga specs. TF scouts lose heavily to Giga patties.


Overall: S

Giga is probably the best faction. They only have a couple of weaknesses which can be addressed and are doing some substantially powerful things. Their ability to take the map early, coupled with having easy access to the tools necessary to pressure miners, makes Giga a very difficult faction to command against.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Rixian Unity:

Rix is a faction that is probably a bit overrated by most of the players here. They have a suprush that's very strong against unaware teams and can be levaraged for cheap/easy wins, but everything that Rix does is at least somewhat counterable, or not as powerful as something another faction is doing.

Economy - C

There is nothing impressive about the Rix econ. They have $600/min paydays: bog standard. 1.0 mining time, yield, and capacity. 1.0 speed and .9 hull and 1.0 shields means their miners aren't particularly hard to kill, either. About the only thing that can be said for Rix's econ is that you can't actually kill their miners on their op green doors.

Early Game - S

Hands down the best early game belongs to rix. If they have a home sup rock, there's a good chance the game is simply over as they have gat2 enh figs ripping everywhere by minute 5-6. Even if they don't, in versions of the core where people don't panic about the basic fig offense, it's still scary that one scout can suddenly be the entire team if rip-ins are managed properly.

Mid Game - S

Once Rix gets in stride they are an incredible force to be reckoned with. Sup rush switch into mini2 rix interceptors is terrifying. The Rix ints are genuinely the best interceptors in the game and the only ints that come close are OH ints. Between the 15% damage buff and the 10% range buff, rix ints hit you first and hit you harder, and with proper positioning and roll mechanics turn faster than everyone.

Late Game - B

Rix's biggest weakness is that its lategame is pretty meh. The only reason I give it a B is because their SBs are genuinely terrifying, but otherwise they don't have a long-term sustain econ option, they pay full retail for their tech, and their bbrs/HTTs can't even be reliably rammed. Basically the only thing you can do with Rix is throw your (insanely powerful) hvy ints in their face and hope it works. Rix's hvy ints (and ac3 gets there too, and hvy bbrs + gat3 adv figs works somewhat) are good enough to make this a reasonable plan. Plus their ops are well suited to pushing.

Best Maps:

Rix likes maps that are tight and open because Rix really likes going expansion and pumping minigun fire into people's faces. Hihigher, Limited, and Polished are probably Rix' favorite maps, though thanks to SRs they do well on maps that are big and closed like Constellation (this map should probably just never be played tbh) or IO, because they don't have to worry about getting sealed off from miners.

Best Settings:

Rix thrives on higher money settings. 1.25 starts let them get enh cons which helps them expand faster, and higher starting money lets them sup rush with less overall impact to their economy.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- Rix favored. Just go expansion. Don't fuss around with sup rushes: between the size and mobility of the belts scouts and the fact that belts tac is so pervasive and strong (especially against sup), you're just tossing away $20k. Instead, get hvy ints, htts, and xnan your way to victory.

Bios- Rix favored. Again, just go expansion. Unless you're very lucky and you have a home sup rock, your suprush isn't exactly terrifying here since Bios really just needs to get 3 rocks total, and can almost get that in their sleep. But showing up with mini2 ints and threatening their techbase makes it very hard for them to stop you from getting to adv tech, then a simple push with rix hvies will seal the game.

Draconium - Slightly Rix favored. Your damage output matches their increased hulls. Again, avoid the sup rush, just go hvy ints and push their face in. They can't really pressure your miners with ints thanks to the low damage, so you'll get to hvy ints lightning quick. Their HTTs are still scary though.

Dregh - Slight Dregh favored. Sup rush is effective here, but you do have to be at least a little careful to defend your own miners because Dregh figs are pretty damn good at popping miners. Also Dregh ints are pretty damn good at popping SRs, so you have to be careful about the sup rush.

Giga- Slightly Giga favored. Sup rush works here and is probably necessary, but much like Dregh, a good Giga team will weather the storm, and you'll want to get mini2 ints up ASAP.

GT - Heavily Rix favored. GT is cold to sup rush.

IC - Even. IC sup has a lot of play against Rix exp, and the early lt ints are a powerful defensive option against Rix sup rush. It's especially rough because you don't have a 15% damage buff over IC, but rather a 4.5% damage buff over IC who has an 11% hull buff over you.

OH- Heavily Rix favored. OH is cold to suprush and your ints are genuinely better than theirs. Suprush 'em, force them into a bombing posture, then clean up with the mini2 ints.

Rix- Mirror. Dittoed sup rushes are boring as $#@!.

TF- Heavily Rix favored. You may be noticing a theme that factions which don't have good safe mining options have troubles against Rix.

Overall: A+

Rix is a very powerful faction when played and commanded properly, but it's a bit of a one-trick pony and if you can answer the sup rush and hvy ints then Rix doesn't have much left in its bag of tricks. Their strenght lies in the fact that as shallow as their bag of tricks is, the tricks they do pull are incredibly powerful.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Iron Coalition:

Iron Coalition spent a fair bit of time as being the #1 faction, and remains a top-pick faction in terms of its raw power.

Econ - B

The ripcording miners is really quite nice in terms of being able to mine around the map and not worrying too much about losing miners to random scouts, but low mining speed, low miner capacity, and low paydays make IC's econ a little slow. They also have to wait an additional 30 seconds for their first miner to pop out, and this typically means that they're getting their second load in a minute and a half behind other factions (thanks to their low mining speed). Their adv tech is very cheap; however, and the fact they get enh tech with techbase is very strong.

Early Game - D

IC has a reputation for a strong early game. IC does not deserve that reputation. In a 15v15, it's true that their furball of 10 lt ints will beat anything it comes across, but in order for that to work you have to have 10 ints in a furball, which means your opponent has to accept that fight. Worse: on RC, the lowered starting money means you only just barely finish enh cons and the opening cons/miners without tempo loss (you have to use both paydays -.-) and then you don't have leftovers to start your third miner, so you're left with 2 minute construction time small bases. It is very possible that your opponent has their second round of cons out by the time you have your second round of cons paid for.

Mid Game - A

On the other hand, IC gets to start their midgame quite rapidly, and thanks to hull, damage, and missile damage buffs is very well positioned to shoot enemy miners while its own stay relatively safe.

Late Game - A+

IC has ungalvable bases which means that 1) galvs for them are free, they can just buy them and galv everything and laugh, and 2) you can't actually stop them from shoving bases wherever they like. It's basically the end-game all int factions dream of, and thanks to the raw power behind their figs (afformentioned damage perks), they can do it with their sup too.

Best Maps:

IC likes small, tight maps like Polished. The more sectors they can control without having to travel very far, the better. IC also does reasonably well on maps like hihigher or IO because it's less important to set up a "mining chain" with them because their miners can ripcord places. One of IC's strengths as a faction is how raw powerful it is on basically every map. The only map I don't like IC on is Constellation, and that's because Constellation is a terrible map.

Best Settings:

IC likes high opening money because enh cons are basically the only way they're getting any of their tempo back from slow techbase builds. Otherwise, IC doesn't really care about the settings, they're going to punch you in the face.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- IC favored. Belters can do some work with early carriers, but a fast sup or exp followed by mini2 or gat2 will make short work of the Belters offense. Pushing an op to their techbase and bombing early is actually very difficult for Belters to deal with against IC in particular, making the popular Belters Tac a little weaker than normal against IC.

Bios- IC favored. The key to this game is SPEED. One must be consistently in Bios' face. If IC backs off just a little, Bios will start taking back the map, and IC will lose.

Draconium- Drac favored. Weirdly enough, Draconium matches up quite well against whatever IC is trying to do. Go sup, hit their miners, and hope for the best.

Dregh- Heavily IC favored. Go sup, push TPs EVERYWHERE, eat their miners. Weak Dregh hull makes them suscepitble to DF2 spikes so not even bombing works. Then you get to galv them and they get to just stare at you helplessly.

Giga- IC favored. Go sup, push TPs everywhere. Don't try to dis down the enemy's TPs though, that's generally a waste of time: just sit back, defend your miners, kill theirs, get galvs, and THEN push them off the map. When you plant a TP at their TP, *you* control that sector, it's Giga who can't do anything in that sector. And with the way your econ works you don't even necessarily care about having sectors to mine in, just having sectors from which to kill giga @#(!.

GT- Slightly GT favored. Galvs aren't good against GT, so I'd probably just go expansion and shove bases to things that I then bomb. Unfortunately, GT is almost as good as IC in terms of being able to straight up nose-to-nose fight an enemy. IC damage buffs here slightly outweigh GT's cheap tech.

IC- In this mirror you're best off going sup and killing miners with gat2 figs. Expansion is viable as well, but this will basically turn into a slugfest where the team with the better pilots wins and the commanders contribute very little.

OH- OH favored. OH just goes expansion (perhaps tacspan, perhaps straight rainbow) and gets to hvy ints before you can blink, then uses their absurd hvy ints + HTTs to show up and pop you on the nose. Try to slow them down economically with sup and/or just go expansion and prepare for an uphill battle.

Rix- Even. Between your damage and hull buffs, you have a very good defense to all of the shenanigans Rix is trying to do. The downside is that you have a very hard time taking the kind of map position necessary to slow down or stop rix. Pushing cons and bombing is how you win here, as usual, and I would stick to just straight exp, MAYBE tacspan.

TF- IC favored. Lt ints beat scouts, your figs will eat their miners, and you'll just bomb them in the end. Or beginning. TF is awful against bomb runs before adv tech.

Overall: A

IC is a very powerful faction that has a fairly straightforward gameplan with the teeth to back it up.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Belters:

IMO Belters is one of the least-understood factions in the game. They're very flexible with a lot of different options available to them, but each option fits best in the correct circumstances... with the exception of their deliciously overpowered tac. People consistently pick the wrong option with them when commanding and also fly them VERY poorly. Belters has this weird thing going on where their ships are heavier, so boosters are less effective, etc. etc. which basically means that you've got some issues with mobility on the figs and ints, though their sfs and scouts are more mobile than normal, so people think that's the standard for all the ships. Kind of a shame really.

Econ - A

Belters econ is robust. Their miners are slow as molasses which is annoying to deal with, but they're also just bricks that can't easily be killed and their yield perk really helps them rake in the money. Cheap bases/techbases/upgrades/ship researches also help them save some money here or there by following whatever tech their opponent goes.

Early Game - S

Oh, the Belters early game. Their scouts will make fast work of any fig faction and let you eat their miners for free. Their carriers will make fast work of any int faction and let you eat their miners for free. Their cheap cons that are hard to ram (since they have more mass) will plant basically wherever you want them to.

Mid Game - S

The only thing better than the Belters early game is probably the Belters mid game. Enh figs + carriers will eat the enemy whatever. SFs will eat the enemy whatever. Even Belters ints have a nice little buff in that df1 compliments their mini1 quite well allowing packs of belters ints to be astoundingly effective at eating miners. Also with belters ints, you can mount gat. Gat is so much better against util that it's not uncommon for me to get a sup for boost2 and also get gat2 for my belters ints, because BAM. Belters also have some amazing bombing options in the midgame which can win the game: by going real fast they can bypass a lot of the d you would expect to be present for an important bomb run.

Late Game - A

Belts hvy int nans are absurd. Belts hvy scout nans are (somehow) more absurd. Belters bombers go incredibly fast. The only downside to late game belts is that their SBs have higher sig than normal so it's easier to find them. Also, tricking out belts ships is very expensive.

Best Maps:

Belts really likes tight-in maps like Polished where they can show up and blow @#(! up.

Best Settings:

Belts likes low starting money because they have no good options to spend large amounts of starting money, and really doesn't care about the total money. Their yield perk will mostly handle whatever needs to be done on that end.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- This mirror match is cancerous and the actual worst thing that has ever happened to Allegiance.

Bios- Belters favored. Get a tac, whore down their defense, then bomb their exp and win. Not much else to say.

Draconium- Belters favored. Get a tac, whore down their defense, bomb their tech and win. Alternatively, get HTTs and basically be too fat for drac to handle.

Dregh- Dreg favored. Getting a tac is reasonable here, but their high-speed bombers and ability to quickly push cons will make you somewhat weak to their bomb plans. I would go expansion and look to find ways to sneak miner kills before HTTing.

Giga- Heavily Belters favored. Get carriers and a sup. Throw carriers with 2-3 enh fignans in every one of giga's sectors. Make giga put in all their effort trying to contain your carriers. Once all the miners are dead, bomb their techabse. Don't bomb the lt bases though because giga literally gives 0 @#(!s about their ops. Seriously, if you buy bbrs even with Belters' discount, you have to kill 2 ops to make it an even trade in terms of resources. How many of your miners does giga get in the meantime? And you're not ACTUALLY bombing giga techbases easily: they prox in patties, not scouts. So many people play this matchup and lean heavily into the belters bombers and then are suddenly at 0 miners, there's teleports in all the sectors they just bombed five minutes ago, and lxies just came up.

GT- Belters favored. Get a tac, whore down their everything, then bomb their tech and win. HTTs also work here.

IC- IC favored. Good early work with a carrier to slow down the IC is vital here. If you can get a reliable tech advantage on them, you're in the homestretch. If they go gat2 enh figs and kill off your econ then bomb your @#(! with ac2/ab2, then you're in big trouble.

OH- OH favored. Tac is just a little too slow at hitting the miners against OH, and OH can come back with some really powerful HTT runs that make your life miserable.

Rix- Rix favored. You're probably priced into going expansion here and hoping your opponent doesn't invest in mini2/mini3. The tac play is reasonable but rix mini2 is soooo powerful that it's difficult to make much headway against rix mini2 ints.

TF- Heavily belts favored. This is bombing heaven, get early bombers, get a tac, bomb everything they build, and whore everything they have in SFs.

Overall: A+

Belters combines the right amount of raw power with an absurd flexibility across their techpaths. Between bombers, carriers, tac, and hvy int nans, belters has an answer for basically everything and as a result is a very powerful and effective faction.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Omicron Hive:

The Hive is a weird one. They don't have as much raw power as an IC, Belters, or Rix, but their hvy ints are the second best in the game and their good econ really helps them out a ton.

Econ - S

OH has nondescript miners and IC-costed tech. They are 6 rocks from the beginning of the game to getting to hvy ints. The goal is to stop them from rainbowing, not from getting adv tech. Their econ is not quite giga-powered in terms of "we're going to have more money than you," but they are so much cheaper in the tech that they get to have more tech than you.

Early Game - D

Early game, OH is not particularly threatening. Their scouts are reasonable, but their figs kinda suck, they're stuck with basic cons (and their TP is a TPref which means it's not good to plant it forward at your op for combination homerip and forward platform to push from), and they take 5 minutes to even build a techbase, at which point you have to wait 5 minutes before getting the tier2 guns.

Mid Game - C

OH has some struggles getting up their tier2 guns as mentioned before. They also don't expand particularly rapidly so it's hard for them to have a dominant map position at this point of the game, though they can make up for it by starting to rainbow out.

Late Game - A

OH hvy ints are the second best in the game. OH rainbows out super easily. Their ability to secure a tech advantage and drive it home is basically second to none. Their SBs are also insanely powerful out of the tacspan, being non-missile SBs. The only downside is their figbees are pretty weak and they aren't particularly adept at pushing techbases, having to wait 5 minutes for them to build.

Best Maps:

OH doesn't particularly like any maps. Their game isn't about positional play, preferring instead to simply outtech you and roll you over.

Best Settings:

OH likes medium money, 1.0/1.15 is probably ideal. They want enough money to be able to afford a full rainbow, but they're not mining faster than other factions or really putting a lot of pressure on other faction's miners (without going tacspan), so making the other factions feel a bit of a money crunch is good.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- OH favored. Getting up an early exp makes your mining safe. Then push something next to their techbases and win off of HTTs and powerful hvy ints.

Bios- Slightly Bios favored. Bios and OH are playing the same game, but Bios gets to play the game with hvy cloak HTTs and bbrs, allowing them to keep you just a little further away from the important techbases.

Draconium- OH favored. Rainbow into HTTs and win.

Dregh- Dregh favored. Rainbow into HTTs is still strong here, but Dregh can do some work on miner offense to slow down the rainbow, and dregh specs are REALLY annoying against HTTs.

Giga- Giga favored. They can open with specs which makes you want to get a sup before exp, but if you go sup before exp, they can do enough damage to your econ that HTTs can be delayed, further making their specs (which with their map taking speed can be nestled in the back corners of nowhere) a powerful option. Plus, your figs are so bad that giga honestly doesn't need patties for this matchup.

GT- GT favored. Pulse lasers and zeus are absurd. GT scouts will roll your opening right on up into a tight little joint and then smoke it leaving yuo to be all "woah man like check out the lack of map and miners we have man."

IC- OH favored. OH's cheap tech and powerful ints let them walk into IC's face and win the game with hvy ints and HTTs.

OH- In the mirror, tacspan wins. If you can safely go to SBs before hvy ints, you should.

Rix- Heavily rix favored. Your only hope is to rush an expansion, mine as SAFELY as possible, and hope that you can somehow HTT them before they HTT you.

TF- OH favored. You can bomb early enough and powerfully enough to stop TF from getting to the lategame. Your ints > theirs. Your ints are ALMOST the equivalent of their adv figs 1 on 1, that's how powerful OH hvy ints are. And TF scouts are actually bad against scouts using seekers.

Overall: A-

OH is a powerful faction that has a lot of play against many factions and is definitely, therefore, an above average faction. Its only real "weakness" is that it lacks the raw power of IC or Rix and doesn't have as diverse a set of strategies as Belters. Also it's not Giga, but Giga's pretty $#@!ing stronk.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Dregh:

The lizards with an unpronouncable name are fast, blind, fast, expensive, and mostly fast. Your goal is to consistently be running around so they don't catch you and to string out the enemy so you can lean on your yield perk to win.

Econ - D

While it's true that the yield buff overtakes the pay nerf, that leaves dregh in the unenviable position of having a Rix econ. Except the miners are a lot slower (their mining speed is AWFUL), the miners are weaker, and their paydays are worse. Dregh has easily the weakest economy in the game and is only really helped out by the introduction of helium special mines, which are so expensive and slow-developing that they leave you quite vulnurable to simply losing.

Early Game - B

With lt ints, high speed, and excellent missiles, the Dregh opening is pretty solid. You can get basic cons to wherever you like about as fast as Bios, Giga, or TF, and if you enh your cons you get to wherever you like first. Lt ints suck for miner offense, but the ability to dominate a sector to put cons wherever you need them is quite strong.

Mid Game - B

Dregh can take basically the whole map on any map with their second wave of cons, and their 1 minute research time gives them a pretty solid advantage on getting out the gate with enh tech miner offense. The BIGGEST weakness that Dregh has here is their rough transition from the mid to late game. Money is hard to come by for this faction.

Late Game - C

Dregh's late game is reasonable, but not exceptional. With specmines they can do a very good job of getting a tech advantage... but specs are pretty easily cleared by galvs, are expensive, and remove helium rocks from your side of the map. Perhaps the biggest problems Dregh has is they are a) loud and b) blind. Their sig is higher than normal, which is already bad, and their sensor range is lower than normal, which is REALLY bad in the late game when you're all about trying to figure out what your opponent is doing.

Best Maps:

Dregh likes maps that allow them to exploit their speed and lt int start. They WANT to meet your team and WANT to make you either lose your con or move your con somewhere else. Dregh is probably best on Limited, Star, and IO. Having lt ints makes them reasonable on maps like Blender, but in general don't take Dregh if you're expecting a brawl because the weak hulls put them at a serious disadvantage in straight up fights.

Best Settings:

Dregh likes low starting money and high total money. Their econ layout makes them rely more heavily on mining than other factions and they make more efficient use of taken helium, and low starting money makes it harder for other factions to get a sort of "leg up" on the slow-mining dreg.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- Dregh favored. You can deal with their scouts using lt ints pretty effectively and specs+sup is a very natural counter to what belts tac is trying to do.

Bios- Bios favored. If Bios can wall you off long enough to get mini2, you basically have no way of winning. The best option here is to lean super hard on early miner defense while setting up a con to try and bomb their techbase. Fortunately, bios figs/scouts are pretty easy to hit so you're not going to have too much trouble mining.

Draconium- Even. Drac toughness is a good counterpoint to dregh speed.

Dregh- In the mirror, specs win. You want to push them off of as much of their econ as possible, they'll do the same, and specs are your best source of income.

Giga- Giga favored. Specs isn't an option here because they'll just galv you off the map and massively out econ you. Their cons are faster than yours (unless you enh yours), are almost 50% discounted to yours, they have a higher payday, higher starting money... faster miners... the only thing saving Dregh in this fight is that you have figs that are better and they can't dis down your bases.

GT- GT favored. I'm not sure how Dregh is intended to beat GT expansion, which is fast enough that by the time your specs get you to adv sup they've already got an armor-plating HTT barrelling towards it. You could lean on mining, but GT is pretty tough and dregh miners are weak, so the mini2 ints will pose a significant problem.

IC- Heavily IC favored. IC has a better sup and a better expansion and a better tac and a better econ and and and and. The big problem is if you go sup, they just go sup and kill your everything and galv you off the map. If you go exp, their enh figs will kill your ints and then your miners and then they will galv you off the map.

OH- Dregh favored. Get to enh figs and then go into specs and spend every waking moment boosting at enemy miners.

Rix- Dregh favored. Do the thing you did for OH, but be a little more judicious about killing every $#@!ing scout you see. Boost2 lt ints are pretty $#@!ing great for this tbh, so don't be too proud to occasionally launch something other than a fig even if you're sup. Don't try to dm figs in lt ints though that's just embarrassing lol.

TF- Dregh favored. Dregh is just too damn fast for TF to really deal with, and TF's early miner offense with the 2 gat scouts is nice, but crumbles to your lt ints. Here you can go basically whatever you like: mini3 hvy ints and HTTs are very strong, QF3 figs are very strong as well.

Overall: B

Dregh is a solid faction that lags behind some of the better factions in terms of staying power. Also the things that Dregh does well aren't as broken as some of the other things: having 1.2 speed is great, but it's not nearly as powerful as sticking prox and a 4th gat on your figs or ripping miners around or ripping to scouts or *general waving in the direction of belters* whatever the $#@! is going on there.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Ga'Teraan Federation:

GT is my favorite player-made faction for a few reasons. 1) They do things that are powerful, but that are different from other factions. 2) They have a coheisve theme across their ships and playstyle (all concrete all the time, rock solid, etc.). 3) Their models are very good Allegiance models, though the scout is a little suspicious. 4) They actually bring something new to the game in their extra tech. GT is the only non-MS faction that I feel is up to the design quality of the MS factions, which isn't to say that I don't love the other player-made factions, but it is to say that GT does not feel like someone's pet project, it feels like something that could be shipped with the game.

Econ - A

Docking at techbases is insanely powerful. It doesn't get mentioned much when IC is the faction doing it because IC ripping around makes it somewhat moot, but the fact that I can roll with a single miner sitting at my techbase, a single miner sitting at my pali, and a pair of miners following a soft chain? Insane. Absolutely absurd. Plus their tech is cheap?!

Early Game - A

So GT's early game relies on their scouts, which are probably too good. The ability to instantly switch between nanning and gatting while carrying an extra rack of seekers (see, you don't always have to bring a nan on your scout, because sometimes you're not going to be around something that needs to be nanned, but if you MIGHT have to nan, then the nan takes up a slot, so having the option to nan AND the extra rack of seekers is just *chef's kiss*) coupled with their insane head-on hitboxes makes 2 GT scouts a terrifying threat. You can kill lt ints. Like you can kill lt ints easily and without proxing: two scouts will probably kill the lt int if they each land a single seeker, and 2 scouts will easily kill a lt int if you xnan properly.

Mid Game - D

On the other hand, before adv tech GT does stone-cold nothing. Their figs are too easy to kill, and ints don't do nearly enough damage to be a serious threat (except in large numbers, of course).

Late Game - A

But the late game for GT is where they really shine. Armor plated HTTs are basically "what if we had HTTs, but better?" Palisade pushes are basically "what if we pushed a garrison?" Zeus and pulse laser are basically "what if our figs had hvy int damage?" Very strong late-game faction.

Best Maps:

The best map for GT is IO. The second best map for GT is Star. GT is fine on all other maps, but GT will absolutely crush you on these two. Oh, wait, GT is also stupidly absurd on Constellation, because $#@! that map.

Best Settings:

GT is just about equally good on any setting, though I find they are really ahead of the pack on the 1.0/1.0 start. 1.0/1.0 GT on IO will consistently make Giga do work.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- Belts favored. Belters scouts are the equals of GT scouts in head-to-head combat, and Belters tac is going to make your pilots cry for the entire midgame. Try to set up for quick HTTs. Also, avoid sup because while GT sup is insane, it's insane when it gets zeus and pulse lasers, which involves getting $18k extra, which is hard against tac.

Bios- Slightly Bios favored. GT has a hard time putting enough pressure on Bios to get them out of the game, and pulse laser shenanigans are soft-countered by cloaking ints. Your best bet is probably just to go PTs and hope your opponent doesn't know how to probe and/or prox.

Draconium- GT favored. GT has a better sup, has better expanding, etc. etc. Just go sup and beat Drac.

Dregh- GT favored. Get an expansion, be in the enemy's face. If they go specs, don't panic, and just HTT $#@!ing everything. If you take their garr early they can't build more specs. If you take their sup it's trivial to take their garr.

Giga- Giga favored. Patties can beat your scouts. Patty packs crush your figs. Giga enh figs are faster than yours and less blocky. If you go sup and get galvs, you can push giga back, but you have to do this without losing too much money because giga hvy bbrs with sundry is pretty strong against your figs.

GT- In the mirror, go exp. PTs beat figs pretty easily and have a harder time against ints, the figs don't beat ints until pulse lasers are up, and they're going to get lasers/zeus at the time you're HTTing them.

IC- Slightly GT favored. Your ints and figs are slightly worse than theirs, true, but your econ is slightly better and you have the trump cards of armor plating HTTs or zeus+pulse.

OH- GT favored. Whole team should be in scouts, you should pressure down their @#(! and slow their advance to HTTs, and then get zeus + pulse and clean them up.

Rix- Heavily Rix favored. Your only option in this matchup is to steamroll forward and kill opening miners. If rix docks both of their opening miners, they will get enh figs + gat2, and they will eat your econ.

TF- GT favored. Your scouts beat theirs pretty heavily in a 1 on 1. Zeus was one of the few counters to gat3 cheese. Do the thing you always do and win.

Overall: B+

GT is a very, very good faction. They have a lot of very strong options for ending the game, just the right touch of cheese, and a powerful enough opening to make many factions stay on their toes.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Technoflux:

Technoflux is the second Veggie faction (the first is Dregh) and the 3rd player made faction. In terms of design, it is by far my least favorite faction. While it isn't weak, it's just... ugh. $#@! everything about this faction, from the way its models are tiny piles of bull@#(! tothe way its econ is finnicky and requires a lot of attention, it's just poor design choices all the way down.

Econ - D

Christ. This econ is as bad as Dregh's in every way... and doesn't even have specs to lean on. Their 75% tech cost makes commanding TF not the most miserable experience on earth, but being forced to have a dropoff everywhere you mine because your miners take 2 trips, the miners being slow and picky about which rocks they'll mine from, and their payday nerf really makes this just not a fun experience.

Early Game - B

Being able to rip back to miners in the early game is a nice little trick that lets you save on a homerip, and 2 gat scouts are very powerful. Lt int factions will chew your bacon up and spit it out though. Enh cons (ugh) makes their opening expansion as fast as dregh's non-enh-con expansion, which is yet another example of a design choice that was made for TF that is just like, the $#@!? My "slow ships" faction starts with some of the fastest opening cons in the game?!

Mid Game - D

TF at the enh tech level is the pits. SFs can't kill miners. Ints can't kill the D and the miners: they run out of energy. Their figs can't kill miners either: the miners just sort of walk away and the figs can't catch up. About all you can do is bomb, and since no one buys lt boost for TF...

Late Game - S+

Ugh. Lead indicator gat3 adv figs with those tiny-ass hitboxes? The hitboxes on the ints? The fact that they move all over the place with their mass perk? Adding lead indicators to $#@!ing everything on 0 spread guns is such a boneheaded idea. 2-nan adv scouts? 3 sniper adv sfs? TF is a carefully designed faction wherein at least one team is just having the absolute worst experience of their lives for the entire goddamn game.

Best Maps:

TF does about the same on every map. They prefer bigger maps against bombing factions and smaller maps against factions that are going to focus on miner offense.

Best Settings:

DO NOT PLAY THIS FACTION ON LOW STARTING MONEY. Somehow a rumor got started that TF is great on .75/.75 because "wow they have a techcost nerf" but seriously when you HAVE to buy refs and HAVE to buy lt boost and HAVE to buy bbrs and have a payday/starting money nerf AND pay $500 more for your miners? Total money doesn't matter to TF, but starting money is best at 1.25, even 1.0 and you're going to feel a pinch.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- Heavily Belters favored. TF has no prox. Belters bombs them. It's funny.

Bios- TF favored. TF gets to pick a cheese like 3 sniper2 adv sfs and get there. Bios can't deal with that level of cheese.

Draconium- Slightly TF favored. Drac can't kill TF's miners, so TF gets to get their cheese.

Dregh- Heavily Dregh favored. Dregh is fast enough to just show up and murder all of TF's miners, so TF can't get their cheese, and no prox or missiles means yay bombing is easy.

Giga- Giga favored. Giga has to bomb though which isn't what Giga really wants to do.

GT- GT favored. GT scouts are better than yours and it's a pain to fight against that.

IC- IC favored. Good bombers against no prox, one-sided galvs... very strong matchup for IC.

OH- OH favored. You have good play against OH, but eventually them just rolling on you with hvy ints and HTTs is going to be a problem.

Rix- Heavily Rix favored. That sup rush is going to eat your miners and you are going to "defend" with scouts.

TF- In the mirror I hope you both lose because $#@! TF.

Overall: C

TF is a dog in almost every matchup and doesn't do anything but cheese well enough to matter. All you really need to do to beat TF in any matchup is just have reasonable bombers that kill stuff with reasonable AC.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
zombywoof
Posts: 6522
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Post by zombywoof »

Bios:

Bios is the stealthy little troll faction, not quite good enough at anything to really shine, but good enough to be a threat. Think everything annoying about TF, but since the hitboxes on every ship are reasonable, flying against them doesn't suck.

Econ - S

Lmao 50% tech costs on top of paying a total of $15k for adv techbase when other factions pay $35.

Early Game - A

60s build time on cons gives you SUCH an advantage heading out, and the sig/scan of bios ships is super strong for sneaking around and wolfpacking things.

Mid Game - D

You've got an 8 minute window from the raising of your techbase (which takes 3 rocks minimum, probably 4 or 5) until you have enh tech. Good luck.

Late Game - S

Cloaking everything means they can just buy mini3 and prox3 and sneak their ass to victory. Very little is as terrifying as late-game bios.

Best Maps:

Bios likes open-as-$#@! maps where you can't get at their opening miners.

Best Settings:

.75/.75. Bios doesn't want *anyone* to have money: their enemies need it, they don't, and the longer it takes for the opponent to end the game the better.

Matchup Notes:

Belters- Belters favored. Belters bombs you quite well and losing your techbase is the end of the game.

Bios- In the bios matchup, it's just a matter of whose HTT pilots get there.

Draconium- Bios favored. Draconium doesn't do enough in the opening stages of the game to really hurt Bios.

Dregh- Bios favored. You don't get to see bios ever and if dregh loses one miner dregh is in a huge hole.

Giga- Giga favored. Giga matches each dollar you make with three dollars, and then just casually leans on you with adv $#@!ing everything and TPs/refs on every aleph with caltrops and towers everywhere and carriers waiting at the important places and ints that rip and figs that have extra gats and hvy bbrs with extra hull and missiles... it's not good for bios.

GT- Slightly Bios favored. GT has some solid late game options but can have a tough time closing the game out early if they don't pressure the miners enough.

IC- IC favored. IC can just shove a con to the bios techbase and bomb the bios techbase.

OH- Slightly Bios favored. OH can do some work with their scouts and figs against bios scouts and figs, but overall the two factions are playing the same game, except Bios' endgame (if it gets there) is a lot scarier.

Rix- Rix favored. Rix needs to push early and rush into HTTs, probably even skipping hvy ints, and Bios doesn't have a lot of good options for that.

TF- TF favored. TF cheese > bios, and bios can never mount enough offense to slow down TF.

Overall: C

Bios is, like TF, a dog in basically every matchup. The key to commanding/playing Bios to victory is leaning on its early game for long-distance offense, then clamping down on defense and holding on to a techbase until you can win.
Last edited by zombywoof on Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
Cookie Monster wrote:QUOTE (Cookie Monster @ Apr 1 2009, 09:35 PM) But I don't read the forums I only post.
Post Reply