This is probably why we're losing them. I think it's good overall, because it opens up a discussion for choices.

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PS3 & PC casual player. Hope to see you around.

it gives the illusion of choice.....the best build will still be boots/health/piggy, and if for some reason it isnt, there will still be a theoretical best setup for the 4th row.

Sort of a big problem i have with the game tbh, the loadout system is kind of counter-intuitive. theres no room for creativity in the 4th row, boots are mandatory, piggy bank far outclasses everything else, and health is needed to survive.

You dont truely decide what to bring for upgrades, the game decides for you.

Lonestars dynamite for example, you HAVE to get extra stick, otherwise your dynamite is useless. Then you need an upgrade for explosion on contact to make it a viable weapon against other nauts, so you HAVE to get rubber sleeve or contact detonator. You are left with one upgrade in which you actually get to make a choice completely your own, of which the best answer is usually the other contact detonation upgrade to dramatically increase its area control / range.

Leon's tongue is similar. The basic damage upgrade is too inefficient, the solar magnet is a waste of money, so you are left with range, lifesteal, big damage, and silence. Of these, lifesteal requires the big damage upgrade to get much mileage, so if you bring one, you pretty much need to bring the other. Range is mandatory, so you are left with damage/lifesteal or silence/X. since neither of these options is all that appealing, most players end up getting the range and spending money on better upgrades in the stealth or attack rows.

I feel the free health upgrade will again provide the illusion of choice, as it doesnt change the balance between the 4th row slots much.

On a random note, didnt they mention a while back that the starting solar is bugged, and that we are supposed to start with 300 solar? That would soften the blow from the loss of the 270 pills slightly.

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"They should just nerf his selection button, too. Half the time it should just select Clunk and tell you that other players might get sad if you play as him."

-Auburok on balancing Derpl

I agree on the lack of choice in the loadout. If we could get 4 upgrades on each row I think we could see some more different builds. I think the idea behind the 3 upgrades was to force players to differ from each other but the end result is basically 1, 2 or in best case 3 choices per row. With 4 upgrades per row I can see far more combinations.

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Prestige 5, Level 45, Rank 61 - - Xbox Tag: AwakeningSE - - Lonestar or Yuri (flash-heal)

I personally think the 4th row should be gotten rid of all together, and replaced with an item shop with a large variety of re-sellable items (with a lesser return of course) like other mobas have. It would make the game much more strategic without the limitations the fourth row gives and all the available options, but I realize it probably wouldn't be implemented at this point sadly.

I also think another feature we could use is buffs for killing boss creeps, but we would need levels designed around this first of course. Just trying to list more ways to turn the game more strategic as it sort of lacks on that at the moment sadly.

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R.I.P. Awesomenauts, 08/01/2012

Toning down the overall health sounds like a pretty good move.

At worst it will slow down the early game a bit. In the long run, it will probably speed up the mid game. Players use to dropping 270 for 90 HP will now only get 60 for the same price. That 30 HP can be pretty significant when dealing with some of the high damage early builds. That's 1 less double missile volley you can survive from Lonestar.

Knowing that it will be harder for players to massively extend their lifebar in the 5-10 range makes me a little more willing to try more glass canon builds, particularly when using an early reward set up like Free HP, Piggy Bank, and Speed. Just enough extra durability to eek by early game... but if the push fails and the other team gets their HP up, I'm going to have a bad time.


Also, players that want to up their HP aren't at as large of a solar disadvantage if they haven't made it to 35 yet. Being neck and neck with someone and having a good skirmish, only to be stuck getting 60 HP when they just got 90 for the same price really sucks.

I'm actually excited to see how this plays out.

I think it was just the text saying it wrong, and that the 200 solar are normal. Otherwise it would be weird that it has never been spotted while playtesting

As for the choices thing, at least there are multiple strategies to use, resulting into the characters being way less boring to me then if they only had 3 upgrades per row, meaning you have no choice.