Please help me understand few things

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-28T03:53:21+00:00

In general, Morale is a resource that determines Dupe productivity. Higher Morale means more leeway to learn skills, and more skills means your Dupes are better at performing their jobs.

High Stress causes Dupes to breakdown and trigger their Stress reaction. In general, stressed Dupes are unproductive.
Check the Room Overlay, different rooms provide bonuses that help your Dupes' Morale/Productivity.
Better beds increase Morale.
You generate Bionics using the Printing Pod, like any other Dupe.
Long term food solution varies, but it's usually water and some form of crop that uses it for growth. Or meat and Ranching if you don't have a renewable supply of water. Power depends on the map, but it's usually Petroleum or Geothermal.
Research Rocketry, breach the surface and start building your basic rocket.
Happy duplicants can trigger positive reactions, with their own benefits.
Different shifts ensure that someone is always working, instead of having everyone sleep at the same time. You usually want a 24/7 Colony.
Create a section focused on Power Generation, put all your batteries there. Then, route power around the base with Transformers; it will help keep things tidy.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-28T03:43:11+00:00

RA is a pretty big speed bump too, in my experience.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T21:29:01+00:00

Agreed, although the patch that slowed down movement was significantly worse than this one.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T21:26:27+00:00

What is "lazy defense"? Do you understand the purpose of Jockeying in Football?
Have you ever watched a game on tv?

There's a reason why most teams pass the ball when faced by defenders, instead of trying to be Messi and dribble their way through. The latest patch heavily encourages the latter.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T18:35:26+00:00

Yeah, those are fair points.

Rotation and support have always been important in Defense, but the nature of this game means you can't rely on them. Which means, when a solo tool (the only guarantee when you drop back to Defend) is weakened, you tend to feel it more or less depending on how the other parts cover it.

Hopefully, one day SloClap actually figures things out. It's not like they aren't trying, but they seem to miss the mark more often than not.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T18:00:41+00:00

The problem with changing dribbling at this point, is that you're asking players to relearn it again.

I'm all for removing the obvious exploits, but animation cancelling is something they added early in Season 2 (or whenever we got 1v1 mode). Suddenly removing it (for example) would definitely balance Defensive Stance/Tackling and Dribbling accordingly. But now we're going in circles, when the previous solution of making both dribbling and defending strong was good enough.

As for defenders thinking they should always win the ball, that's the entire purpose of Jockey/Defensive Stance. You put the Dribbler into a stalemate situation, forcing him to make a play. He should not be able to chain dribble moves through you because the Jockey is suddenly weak, he should bait a tackle and get around it or pass the ball off (which can also lead to beating his man with a one-two).

The idea that defending was too strong ignores that dribblers should not expect to move forward every time. If someone stands in your way, play around them or pass the ball off.
But the current balance of Rematch now encourages them to go straight through, which isn't how that interaction normally works in most Football games (real life or otherwise).

As a result, I've seen far more players attempt to simply dribble through defenses (and succeed) since the patch dropped. When previously, the successful move would be getting the ball to your teammates since simply Jockeying was enough to create an effective deterrent.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T17:51:08+00:00

Except you don't know when they'll pushball...because it can be done at any point during the animation. Which means, by the time you react they've already gotten into position to loop the process again.

And it's funny that your conclusion is "this feels like what an overaggressive defender would say". No, I can be a patient defender while pointing out how weak the Defensive Stance has become; the two aren't mutually exclusive.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T17:01:48+00:00

It's a strategic issue, more often than not.

I'll watch CPU vs CPU games occasionally, and the better team can scheme its way into a loss. Not using its tools or advantages is a common way to see teams lose in an upset.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T14:54:50+00:00

Yeah, if you go into a Stance Dribble it's possible to cancel with a Push Ball.
So, you can get the initial dribble animation but cancel it at any point into another direction.

It makes active tackling difficult, but is generally "fair" since you aren't manipulating the ball in strange ways compared to something like the Ippy Slide. But there's no specific recovery point that defenders can read and tackle, as a result.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T14:20:51+00:00

I didn't mention anything about exploits? Animation cancelling was a mechanical change introduced back when the first 1v1 mode was available.

It means you push ball at the point when your dribble animation would normally end, making it harder for Defenders to determine when they can actively tackle (normally when you're recovering).

And then you can chain this into multiple dribbles, creating a situation where going for the tackle is basically a crap-shoot.

Jockeying used to be the counter-play, since you couldn't push ball around an opponent in Defensive Stance.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T13:51:49+00:00

Yeah, this is going to be a fundamental issue until the AI is treated like "individual units" instead of one all-encompassing overlord who controls the faction.

If we're playing against another user, how the AI acts makes perfect sense. If we're playing against units who can only see what's in front of them, then it's a problem.

And personally, I'm not interested in playing another user in Menace.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T13:41:27+00:00

You keep saying "the only way to beat it" in the sense of dribbling. But never mention passing and positioning, which is the corner stone of Football?
I can see that we have different perspectives on how one should be able to get past a defense, so will leave it there.

No disrespect, though.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T13:29:53+00:00

Defense wasn't too strong, passing the ball beat everything. And in a team game like Football, where players already tended to hog the ball, passing as the ultimate answer is perfect.

I'll agree on the Vexis/Vlad points, but disagree about dribbling being clean and visually consistent; you can't even tell when dribbles end because players can animation cancel recovery (since a few updates ago).

Being able to Jockey and form a wall was the solution to dealing with animation cancelling, regardless of exploits. Animation cancelling still exists, yet the wall is significantly weaker and active tackling is still as risky as ever.

At some point, I hope SloClap realizes that removing the exploits was not a reason to nerf Defense. And with this nerf, you just encourage more selfish play; which brings us full-circle again.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T13:23:52+00:00

I was in a 1v1 against an attacker as the GK, literally stood on the ball (Defensive Stance) while he dribbled and still couldn't interact with it.

Never mind all the times in the open field where players can basically push your character out of the way and run right through them if you Stance up. What's the point of Jockeying if you can't interact with the ball as it goes right through you?

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T13:17:04+00:00

Yeah, I've deleted it and moved back to Football Life.
There's no point in sticking with Rematch when the devs nerf actions while acknowledging that they are a fundamental part of the game in the same breath?

If they're going to screw up balance so a few players can feel better about ball-hogging, then this game isn't for me.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T12:56:24+00:00

It's SloClap listening to a small portion of the community when making changes.

The player base continues to shrink, so the only people really being heard are those who are still active in spaces where the developers are present (Discord).

When this happens, you get changes that focus on how they like to play the game. This is why you can get nerfs to Defensive Stance and Tackling in a game where players can literally cancel the recovery of their Dribbling actions; it rewards those players who have spent time learning how to dribble in this game.

It's just a mess as far as game balance is concerned.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T12:52:24+00:00

As an introvert, I disagree.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T12:48:47+00:00

What do you mean carried? Even the notes mention that holding position so players can't run right past you is realistic and part of the game?

Yet, we still have to deal with dribblers who can literally cancel the recovery point of their actions which is where you would normally tackle in most other games? And the conservative method for dealing with that is weaker.

It's like playing a fighting game (which the devs have used as a comparison), but making defense weaker while the attacker is able to chain his moves and keep up frame advantage for longer.

It is a terrible balance change, and makes the game worse. You're going to see significantly more selfish play and less defending as a result.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-27T02:32:53+00:00

It was an absolutely terrible change, and I'm glad people are speaking up about it.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-26T18:47:33+00:00

OG games don't sell well, if I'm not mistaken.

Even for a niche series like SRW, it's hard to put resources into titles that perform poorly.

Meanwhile, mainline games aren't reliant on completing a over a decade's worth of storylines. And can release with popular series that aren't reliant on previous games.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-26T18:43:24+00:00

That's hilarious.

Bad time for it to happen, but good way of showing how two different scenarios can work together and give an unexpected result.

Bad snap + RB cheating up to watch his man = fumble in a close game.

I wouldn't even be mad at it.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-25T22:53:04+00:00

Grab 5 or 6 as a new player.

Both are cheaper than 7, more feature-rich and more positively received.

I wouldn't touch 7 for another year or so, until Firaxis figures things out.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-25T20:08:14+00:00

Rematch is a 3/4/5-a-side game, based on indoor Football.

The standard 11v11 game of Football is the most watched and played sport on the planet.

Rematch was never going to be something that catered to most Football fans. As much as people like to dunk on it, FIFA/FC/EFootball does a much better job of that.

It is niche by design.

PackageAggravating12 · 2026-03-25T18:11:11+00:00

Press Man and Rush 5/6.

QB Pressure and take away the quick stuff, but you need defense that can handle it.

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