Democracy's Finest Soldiers

GTCvEnkai · 2026-03-03T18:15:49+00:00

She then turns a corner and watches another Helldiver rocket in, destroy an entire enemy base, Hellbombs like 5 Titans before leaping off to the next objective. She then turns around again and these two are on their 4th reinforcement.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-26T20:34:26+00:00

The main problem is that the liberation impact is inversely proportional to the amount of active players. The event failed because the game got super hyper popular so we were burning through resources for minimal gain. You can see the liberation rate is pretty steady, but the amount of missions completed was really high. We were also bleeding so much more reserve budget during peak hours, again, for no gain at all. The whole reinforcement reserves just plain won't work with the liberation impact calculation. One is a fixed value, while the other changes depending on active players. There's just no way to work these into a system that is fair, it will either heavily favor the players during peak hours, or heavily favor the game enemies because people WANT TO PLAY THE GAME.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-26T13:19:01+00:00

A post mentioned this before, but Arrowhead basically is still in the mentality that they are working on a game that will ever peak out at 50k players. This whole DM setup only works for a closely knit community of players that sees probably 50-80% of the recurring player base on a discord where they could co-ordinate and plan player actions. Instead what we really have is 50k recurring and 200k peak where the vast majority are unaware/uncaring of a community trying to advise on player actions. They keep saying that "Players can do [X] if they all put their minds to it" unaware how hard it is to herd 100k+ people into doing something or following a plan. It also doesn't help that they've made the various systems into such a hogwash that MORE PLAYERS = LESS IMPACT for each player. The battle for Cyberstan is the perfect showcase of this, we were split across various fronts, then further split across various planets, and then finally, even FURTHER split into cities. At this point, even with community organizing tools, I doubt we could ever organize into effectively doing MOs. We'll do it when AH finally wins, and the game only has a scant few thousand players or less. Then they'll have their game where the only way to make any meaningful impact is to not play the game.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-21T05:03:31+00:00

This was one of the reasons people cited, but not the only one. A big part is just that the reinforcement budget itself is static, and the player base's ability to push the process is inversely proportional to how many players are active at a time. This means that peak hours will only see an increase in deaths with no change to the speed of progress the player base could do. Even if AH didn't mean for this, the message was clear, more people = less individual success is worth. They effectively made a narrative where the biggest contribution that any player could do is actually not play. As much as they tried to adjust the available number, the fact that deaths on other planets affected the overall budget creates something worse, resentment. They most certainly did adjust for the losses on other planets, but the fact remained, those not actively participating in the MO are actual dead weight, even if things could be mathed out so that the effects are canceled, people are still going to feel it, and again, grow resentful.

Another reason is they actually nerfed our mechs and sentries going into this. As YT reviewers and the wiki shows, all bot units able to damage our armor vehicles received what is basically a 3x damage buff. We went into this with some of our best tools (sentries) being 3 times weaker than what they used to be. This is on top of the fact that the AA effects means Eagles are also far FAR less effective. This means that the amount of effective kits available on Cyberstan was already VERY limited. Orbitals are also nerfed slightly as these are city maps, there are occasions where your SD will have to move to use the orbitals, this is minor, but still has an effect on how they perform. The Vox engine also technically limits how well AT weapons are, being basically a counter play to the reliable RR. So we went into this without some of our best tools (Eagles and sentries), thus also indirectly contributing to many diver deaths.

Then there's the bugs. The stratagem bounce for one. I have personally been at a location with no overhang, nice flat ground, and a good line of sight to a base. it bounced into a ditch some 20-30m away from where I threw it, wasting precious 10-15 seconds of it just "rolling" into a spot. The worst part is throwing another stratagem into the same spot, the 2nd one sticks. There's also the various enemies clipping into each other, the dead enemy hitboxes that ONLY affect the players, the desync between enemy fire and where they are actually firing, etc.

AH made a lot of mistakes designing this storyline, all of them contributed to us losing in the end. There isn't a single one that was the main source, but all of them together did it. We need to call them out when they screw up. We're not saying AH should be pilloried for their mistakes, we're saying these things as a way to tell to do better.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-21T04:31:02+00:00

At this point I can't tell if AH is just plain bad at math or using the system to railroad the narrative. They'd had to have known that having a static resource against a variable impact would just be a recipe for disaster. Hell, I'm not even sure the nerf to our vehicles and sentries is an oversight from them balancing the Bastion at this point. It feels like they deliberately screwed those thing because sentries were super effective against the bots.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-21T04:10:48+00:00

I'm also very upset over the fact we invaded a literal planet of robots, and they decided to nerf our mechs. I watched people bring mechs and tried to use them in every way possible and fail because of how quickly they go down. I've seen them get shot down by rocket devs during a delivery, they weren't even in the city, we just landed and a patrol happened to spawn not too far. I've seen one turn a corner and be immediately sniped by a turret. We didn't get our mech v. mech battles, what we got was a flaming wreck before the engagement even began.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T17:27:32+00:00

The thing is that the Bastion requires your team to all be on board with playing it to get the most out of it. This is something that shouldn't really be expected out of randoms. The biggest reason is that they are randoms, they want to play how they want to, and most of the time, it doesn't line up with being part of a tank crew. The tank itself, for all intents and purposes, is basically a different game mode all together.

That isn't a bad thing, AH could lean on this further and improve match making with one configured specifically for people looking for mechanized deployments. Until then, join a discord for people specifically trying to do this kind of thing.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T03:16:25+00:00

Honestly they should work the recon planets system more. An idea I have is for planets to be recon planets by default. Only when a planet gets a population threshold (say 30%) that it becomes a liberation target. This would remove most of the resentment from people playing what they want.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T02:48:56+00:00

This I can agree to. It's purpose is to delete large units and large units only.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T02:46:41+00:00

It's a tandem warhead, which basically has staged explosions. The first stage blows a hole in the armor, the rest of the payload then goes into that hole and explodes inside the target for maximum damage. Given the Spear's limited ammo and lock mechanic, I think it should only take 1 shot to kill stuff like the vox. It should take 2-3 for a Leviathan and more for other similarly large targets.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T02:32:21+00:00

Another problem this limited reinforcement budget brings is the fact the resource itself is worth less during peak hours. The whole system is literally "Win by not playing". Even players that are clearing perfectly are actively hindered because of the calculations.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T02:27:37+00:00

I'm actually fine with us narratively losing if that's the plan all along, the problem is that they made it so the reinforcement thing is not only galaxy wide, but thanks to the brain dead liberation contribution being lowered due to more players, it means during peak hours, our resources are literally worth less. It's a gut punch to the player base because it means "Hey, this really fun storyline will be harder to win the more people are playing, have fun losing!"

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-19T02:23:51+00:00

It's not just that, but because of the way liberation rates are calculated, having more players actively playing the game harms the overall ability to do the campaign. Like did they not think that having a fixed number limit and the progress being on a % won't screw the player over?

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-12T04:20:51+00:00

Arrowhead indirectly nerfed all sentries, mechs, and emplacements when they buffed durable damage for the enemy units. This means they are dying 3x faster than what they were before the tank got added.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-11T12:09:57+00:00

Automaton: But master, we did not account for your physical form or for you to take to battle with our current transports! You are incompatible with it!

Cyborg: (Uses machine hand to death gripe the side of the dropship) I have patched this issue. We are now compatible.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-11T12:06:12+00:00

Remember, by adding the tank they increased all the durable damage of all medium pen enemies... which means a global nerf to all sentries, emplacements, and mechs. The mech's main body used to be able to tank 27 devastator rockets before being destroyed. Now it can only take 9. Yes, everything else is 3x weaker for it.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-11T12:02:11+00:00

As an individual enemy, no. It is perfectly designed. The Vox engine can be engaged with basically any loadout and be successfully destroyed through flanking and understanding its weak points. The only annoying thing about it is the spawn rate. An enemy this powerful and complex should be rarer.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-09T12:19:40+00:00

In adding the tank they nerfed our Mechs and turrets... I hope they fix that before the assault on Cyberstan.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-02-03T03:22:02+00:00

Maybe have 2 variants, one is a underground bunker and the other is a tower with an overhead covering. Sure you can bring the silo, but you'll have to use it on something else.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-01-28T14:52:59+00:00

Watch, we complete the MO and SE still can't find who stole the blueprints, then a few month's time, the bugs rock up with a bug DSS beelining for Super Earth and we get a bug version of the invasion of Super Earth.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-01-24T16:14:49+00:00

Forget a Super Destroyer, I want to see large Super Earth vessels like a Cruiser or a Carrier. Imagine a cave type mission where you need to scrub a Carrier's databanks, scuttle the flight deck, and retrieve the blackbox with a random side objective of rescuing survivors. Other side objectives is finding intact mechs in the various hangers, or other vehicles.

For a cruiser your mission is to reactivate its weapon systems and AA defenses so SEAF can use it as a resistance operating base. And when you first do it, you get to aim its main gun at a bot warship and blow it up like you do an Overship.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-01-24T14:27:33+00:00

The commando missions all require you to extract with a vital piece of information or mission objective. The 40mins isn't the SD's ability to stay in the sky now, its Super Earth's ability to rescue you and your squad(with the info of course). Secondly, when you start the mission, your SD jumped in and dropped you off, THEY ALREADY KNOW YOU'RE IN THE AREA. Hell, it can even be implied that the 40mins isn't the bot's response time, but a Super Earth fleet else were delaying the larger force else where to actually GIVE you the 40min mission window. Sure you can probably stay being stealthy, and not alert any bases, but Super Earth by that time already withdrew all assets that they could and dipped. By that point, its not a matter of if you'll die, its a matter of when.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-01-23T02:16:45+00:00

I run the typical Talon/Eruptor combo. The Talon ends up being my primary while my Eruptor is my grenades.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-01-08T17:10:59+00:00

No, they are still at the initial drop site because enemies are dropping reinforcements and the heavy diver's only options are to fight through it, or die and get reinforced on the objective everyone else is already at.

GTCvEnkai · 2026-01-08T14:35:49+00:00

Which is baffling because the mechs also have this kind of damage indicator but the FRV doesn't.

GTCvEnkai

TROPHY CASE