azaciphius
Larva
Hello,
I played 3.1 and 3.2 a lot especially in insane, I tried a lot of strategy and I came up with some suggestions for balance to allow more strategy to be viable
1st let's sum up the main stats of the ants
minor:
HP:25/35/45
dmg:0.6/0.6/0.8
carry:7/8/9
media
HP:90/105/120
dmg:3/4.5/6
carry:15/17/20
major
HP:200/240/400
dmg:12/15/22
carry:16/16/16
total heal(taunt major): 20/25/30
some noticeable creatures:
Big mantis 900HP 80atk 500heal not stunnable
Big cricket 650hp 30atk not stunnable
medium cricket 500hp 25atk stunnable
taunt vs stun:
I think taunt is the better option as it seems to me to be always as good as stun or better and the level 3 passive seems better for taunt than for stun majors.
most threatening creatures aren't stunnable and vs small packs the taunt allow your major to save your media's life while remaining healthy.
the only advantage for stun majors is that it allow them to kill medium cricket without allowing them to use their AOE and as you can see medium cricket are nearly as powerful as big ones
minors:
I think minors are way too weak they carry only 7 leaf and they are slowed when they do it, anything can 1 shot them, they are only useful at the start and to build the nest/egg replacement, it is the least usefull class of ants sadly.
the upgrade aren't worth it you only get +1 to the capacity and they remain weak and slow anyway.
I suggest to buff minors and especially their upgrade, for example removing the slow from carriage at lvl3 and increasing their capacity to something like 7/13/19 would give them a lot more utility
Media:
lvl 1 Media is the strongest ant you can get right now, it's a decent fighter and the best harvester by far. However upgrading them isn't worth it IMO because you better build more of them instead to increase you harvesting power and snowball the game
I suggest to nerf the level 1 media carriage and maybe buff slightly the lvl 2 and 3 media carriage.
Major:
same harvesting power than a media, but a lot stronger for fighting, their upgrade lvl 2 isn't worth it but the lvl 3 upgrade is really good and balanced compared to just build more lvl1 Major because the stats gain is huge and they get a nice ability to tank for your precious media ants.
Army composition: I tried full media, full major, and mix with differents proportion for both 3.1 and 3.2 and the best strategy seems to build as much media as possible with a few majors to be able to kill what you need to kill which lead to around 10-20% major for 3.1 and 30-50% majors for 3.2
with full media you lose too much ressources while fighting
with full majors you lose too much harvesting power early on but you gain in efficiency, you spend less ressources in respawn overall and mantis can't heal off from your army. However Majors are big and bodyblock each others so without media you lose dps because media/majors do not bodyblock each other.
Last thing: it is a bit sad that the army ant in 3.2 is so weak in insane, the difficulty comes mainly from the OP bugs that become unfightable really fast, maybe it would be more enjoyable if running through the army ant was more challenging forcing you to get more food and a bigger army to defeat them. I often end up stacking my army on their spawn while waiting for the end of the day and then hide in the nest at night because the night bugs aren't contestable after night 3.
Conclusion: I think upgrades need a buff overall to compete with the startegy of just building more ants, minors need a big buff because they are nearly useless and this buff could be compensated by nerfing lvl 1 media which are way too powerful. A slight buff for stun major would be nice as well, like giving them increased dmg at level 3 to compensate for the lack of tankiness compared to taunt majors and the immunity to stuns from most threatening creatures.
Sorry if it feels focused on the downsides, theses 2 levels are crazy good and really really well made, thank you very much for your amazing work, i can't stop going back to play them over and over again!
I played 3.1 and 3.2 a lot especially in insane, I tried a lot of strategy and I came up with some suggestions for balance to allow more strategy to be viable
1st let's sum up the main stats of the ants
minor:
HP:25/35/45
dmg:0.6/0.6/0.8
carry:7/8/9
media
HP:90/105/120
dmg:3/4.5/6
carry:15/17/20
major
HP:200/240/400
dmg:12/15/22
carry:16/16/16
total heal(taunt major): 20/25/30
some noticeable creatures:
Big mantis 900HP 80atk 500heal not stunnable
Big cricket 650hp 30atk not stunnable
medium cricket 500hp 25atk stunnable
taunt vs stun:
I think taunt is the better option as it seems to me to be always as good as stun or better and the level 3 passive seems better for taunt than for stun majors.
most threatening creatures aren't stunnable and vs small packs the taunt allow your major to save your media's life while remaining healthy.
the only advantage for stun majors is that it allow them to kill medium cricket without allowing them to use their AOE and as you can see medium cricket are nearly as powerful as big ones
minors:
I think minors are way too weak they carry only 7 leaf and they are slowed when they do it, anything can 1 shot them, they are only useful at the start and to build the nest/egg replacement, it is the least usefull class of ants sadly.
the upgrade aren't worth it you only get +1 to the capacity and they remain weak and slow anyway.
I suggest to buff minors and especially their upgrade, for example removing the slow from carriage at lvl3 and increasing their capacity to something like 7/13/19 would give them a lot more utility
Media:
lvl 1 Media is the strongest ant you can get right now, it's a decent fighter and the best harvester by far. However upgrading them isn't worth it IMO because you better build more of them instead to increase you harvesting power and snowball the game
I suggest to nerf the level 1 media carriage and maybe buff slightly the lvl 2 and 3 media carriage.
Major:
same harvesting power than a media, but a lot stronger for fighting, their upgrade lvl 2 isn't worth it but the lvl 3 upgrade is really good and balanced compared to just build more lvl1 Major because the stats gain is huge and they get a nice ability to tank for your precious media ants.
Army composition: I tried full media, full major, and mix with differents proportion for both 3.1 and 3.2 and the best strategy seems to build as much media as possible with a few majors to be able to kill what you need to kill which lead to around 10-20% major for 3.1 and 30-50% majors for 3.2
with full media you lose too much ressources while fighting
with full majors you lose too much harvesting power early on but you gain in efficiency, you spend less ressources in respawn overall and mantis can't heal off from your army. However Majors are big and bodyblock each others so without media you lose dps because media/majors do not bodyblock each other.
Last thing: it is a bit sad that the army ant in 3.2 is so weak in insane, the difficulty comes mainly from the OP bugs that become unfightable really fast, maybe it would be more enjoyable if running through the army ant was more challenging forcing you to get more food and a bigger army to defeat them. I often end up stacking my army on their spawn while waiting for the end of the day and then hide in the nest at night because the night bugs aren't contestable after night 3.
Conclusion: I think upgrades need a buff overall to compete with the startegy of just building more ants, minors need a big buff because they are nearly useless and this buff could be compensated by nerfing lvl 1 media which are way too powerful. A slight buff for stun major would be nice as well, like giving them increased dmg at level 3 to compensate for the lack of tankiness compared to taunt majors and the immunity to stuns from most threatening creatures.
Sorry if it feels focused on the downsides, theses 2 levels are crazy good and really really well made, thank you very much for your amazing work, i can't stop going back to play them over and over again!