After people bashed this patch like a rabid horde yesterday without even properly trying it, I have to say that I tried it and it is a godsend.
All my games have been perfectly doable, in diff 10 and with lots of fun. The spore strain is probably my fav strain right now, while before they were kinda...meh?
All I think it is missing is a Spore Alpha Commander. Otherwise, it is perfect.
Regarding the new balance:
PROS:
- Hive Guards are hella cool now. Brainless shooting no longer works. Now you have to either flank, or use passive damage like fire or gas to deal with them, or aim to the armpits like some people mentioned.
They are nowhere near a problem, but they are more interesting to fight. Kinda what we need in the game. I welcome this change.
- Mechs are hella useful. Turns out that not simply because they buffed the enemies against vehicles does that mean that the mech buffs are irrelevant.
Almost like we need to TRY THE PATCH before passing a veredict.
Both new mechs are amazing. I specially like the lumberer because the cannon is great against heavy units.
- Missile Pistol is amazing at dealing with Alpha Commanders. Usually, they are a tricky unit that even if you can kill it with almost everything, they tend to soak a lot of damage and they are hard to stop. One missile from the pistol and you kill them. You can also use the pistol to close holes. It is like a grenade launcher pistol, but with more strenght and less ammo.
- Not a bif fan of the new SMG, but I have to try it more. Right now I have been having so much fun with gas.
CONS:
- For turret players, it seems like their turrets are worse. However, I need to say that I always found the turret meta to be awful. You are basically letting AI play the game, and turns most battles into a breeze (specially defenses).
Evidently they need to find a sweet spot of not being an auto-win button but also not irrelevant.
- Explosive meta is still strong, and changes like the heavy armor for the hive guard leave them in a better place.
I don't know how to fix the explosive meta because I think explosive primaries are a problem to begin with. A explosive crossbow or the eruptor should not be this powerful (hell, I don't even think the explosive crossbow should exist, but that's a subjetive opinion).
DOUBTS:
- I don't know how the other vehicles work right now. I have yet to try them.