Volcanoids | The Combat Update
Good Morning, Afternoon, or Evening, My name is Alex and I am the Public Relations Manager for HammerTechnik. I am also one of the few Closed Testers for a game called Volcanoids. Today I will be talking about the pros and cons as well as all the other fluff that makes an article an article for the combat update that hit the preview branch a few days ago. This article will be devided into sections that will be pretty self explanitory so without any further rambling, here we go. Also thanks to the community for the images I use in this article
Pre-Drillship
The First Section I will cover is Pre-Drillship or the time before you claim your first drillship. Since there isn’t to much to cover in this section it won’t be too long.
Early Combat
Since this is the combat let’s open with early combat in Volcanoids. The first town, in my opinion, is a little to complex for a new player. The goal of the beginning is to very briefly introduce combat as well as explain early production. In testing the Early Cogs are just too powerful. Your pistol, while a decent weapon isn’t enough to combat these at a beginner level. I think either a reduction in Cog power before your first drillship or an increase in pistol power, I will talk more about the Pistol later, is needed, at least before your Drillship.
The Submarine
Ok, I love the Submarine but in reality it isn’t a great thing to have that early on. You can use it’s production tables even past Tier 1 things. I don’t think the Sub should be useable after the Drillship has been claimed. If you run out of power? Make it happen, Find more coal, close things, make it work. Relying on something that’s basically creative mode, isn’t a good idea to have let alone use.
The Good Things
I’m gonna light the game on fire in the beginning and then give the positives afterwords so here is the happy stuff. The early game quests are amazing and well built to introduce someone into the basics of crafting and the game in general. The Location of Resources in the beginning is also very well done, it makes you notice the locations things are placed in while at the same time, not swaying from the further locations of parts in tiers further on.
Tier 1 | Pre-Drillship Core 2
Probably the most inclusive section of the game is Pre-Drillship Core 2, There is so much for us to cover here that I won’t cover every plus of the game, just the changes from the combat update. Also Pre-Drillship Core 2 will now be refered to as Tier 1.
Combat
Oh boy, Combat. The point of this update was combat, and while it was a massive combat overhull, it’s not done yet. Obviously, I wouldn’t write this all otherwise. I want to split this into sections as well so enjoy this.
Combat | Turrets
Turrets, Neat idea, Properly Executed, Poorly Balanced. The point of the turret is to protect your drillship while you are away. I’ll speak about turrets in each section so for now let’s talk JUST the pistol turret. It’s way overpowered, I still use it in my game completed drillship because it is just that good. In 3 shots I can take down a Tier 3 Military Cog. These turrets are insane or, the Cogs aren’t? We will talk about Tier 3 later. For now I think the Pistol Turret is just too good. The Cogs don’t stand a chance if I have one on each side and my drillship becomes invincible. Ammo costs for them are really cheap as well and the other drillships hand them out like they are candy, It’s really not hard to have a crazy powerful drillship in about 5 minutes if I slap some pistol turrets on it.
Combat | Weapons
As I hit on in the Pre-Drillship Section, The Pistol. It’s insanely weak. I get that it’s your starting weapon but I can barely take a single cog down in 6 shots. Let alone an army of them from a drillship. The pistol needs a serious buff. It’s damage is really low, it’s reload time is very long, and it just doesn’t have the power that any of the other guns have. Even the health kits show it up and they can’t attack anything. Now the fancy gun. The Shotgun, My personal favorite. It’s pretty powerful let’s be honest. I solo’d the game with purely the shotgun. It’s possible. But it has a shortcoming, I need to be right next to enemies to hurt them, and that’s not a problem. But I feel like their DPS is a bit high. As much as I don’t want to see it nerfed, for the sake of balance, at least the buckshot needs a nerf. I never need to upgrade my ammo or weapon if I have enough buckshot and a shotgun.
Combat | COGs
Ok the Cog Situation is out of hand. I’m sorry but when I’m over 100 meters away from them and they can shoot me or target me, that’s insanity. The Cogs, almost across the board, need a nerf. Speaking purely Tier 1, They don’t have a very strong resistance to… anything. I mean, a pistol is like a nerf gun so it doesn’t do anything as is, but the shotgun turns them into copper scrap. Although the Shotgun needs a nerf, the Cogs need a complete rebalance. Their health needs some help while their targeting range and gun range need a serious nerf. These poor Tier 1 cogs are just play-dough to some of my weapons and honestly I think that if they stay this weak, there won’t be any challenge to Tier 1 if you have a shotgun.
Tier 2 | Pre-Drillship Core 3
This section has the least complaints from me so it’ll be pretty short and boring so get comfortable.
Combat
The Fun of Tier 2 is… There’s no combat… I need to raid a drillship, once in Zone 1 and I’m done. Like really, there is no combat in Tier 2, and there really needs to be, See my suggestions at the end, I have some ideas here.
Combat | Turrets
The Holy Grail of all turrets is in this level, the enemy hated, Mortar Turret. Holy Crap is this thing insane. It’s range is damn near infinate, it’s power is unrivaled, and it’s cost, Nothing? Something this powerful needs to be toned down. It’s damage and range need a nerf, and it’s cost needs to be upped. And the ammo for it? We will get there. Now the Intermitent Turret before the Gatling… The SMG Turret. Honestly, no complaints, short range, low power, high speed. Seems pretty balanced to me, except its ammo is CANDY. Reduce the drop chance please, I will craft enough to last just don’t make me never need to craft it again.
Combat | Weapons
Hammer is going to kill me for this but that SMG is just way to insane. It’s range, power, cost. Geez give me a break. I didn’t use another weapon from the time I got the SMG to the Mission Complete screen. This thing is a high rate sniper. I shot down all 3 laser drill legs from one leg and an SMG. It needs to be nerfed something horrible. I have no need for the sniper as long as I have a SMG. The Damage on it can stay put it’s pretty good. It’s range needs a serious axe. It’s way to good for it’s tier. And it’s cost is ok but I feel like something this good needs some reinforced parts, See my suggestions :)
Combat | COGs
To be perfectly honest, I have nothing to say here, I have no data, I had no reason to fight them to be honest so I didn’t have anything to write about. I’d say if anything they need some more damage but that’s about it.
Tier 3 | The End?
The End, The dream of every Volc player and HOLY CRAP I CAN’T DO IT
Balance
Yeah that’s right, a new section, It needs it. Tier 3 is INSANITY. It’s like I took minecraft, put it on hard mode, Gave myself a wooden sword, put it on hardcore, and entered the end. It’s not possible. I have done it, but it took me more hours than I am willing to admit. Tier 3 COGs are a joke, their so insanely powerful it’s not even funny and the flagship? Your dreaming if you think you can take it on solo unless your me. I do believe I am the only one to date that has solo’d a flagship. With that rant out of the way, here’s whats wrong, I’m not doing a combat section, It’s all going here. I covered almost everything before. Look, I don’t want the level of difficulty to change here, it’s a lot of fun and takes me some time to finish. BUT I think there needs to be some player improvements, All of this section will be talked about in my Tier 3 of suggestions, Check them out for the rest of this section.
Suggestions
Tier 2 Combat
I have been thinking about Tier 2 Combat for… 5 minutes, Joking, more like 5 days. Tier 2 just doesn’t have much combat to it, Honestly the only suggestion I have for this is to make the Tier 2 Laser Drill harder, Add more enemies, more drillships, Something, But please give me some more combat, I want something to do other than crafting.
Tier 2 Parts
Look, Guns are too easy to make in Tier 2, for how powerful they are that is. I think another version of Iron is needed here. Maybe some coal to make steel? Some steel parts seem like the perfect way to build the guns, it’s strong and withstands things like it’s nobodys buisness. Really we just need something else here other than, grab iron, be powerful.
Tier 3… All of it?
Your player is too weak. Armor is useless, Guns can’t hurt the cogs, and the Flagship? Oh lord. All of this can be fixed with a few things. 1. Players need some better armor, they all do the same thing, eat some damage, the same amount for each from what I can tell, and then break. For how expensive they get, I have no reason to craft any. They need to either eat more health. Or be removed and rethought. The guns in this tier need some buffs to damage, their ok on everything else but their really weak. I would also like to see and upgrade to both the hand mortar and the shotgun to revitalize them in the Tier. Given some redone powers they would be amazing. This would pretty much fix Tier 3, It just needs to be done.
Overall Thoughts
Volcanoids is obviously not done, it has a long way to go, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It has some amazing aspects but as a Closed Tester I have a job to bring up the bad, so they can become the good. I’m sorry if this article seemed harsh, but I needed to present this all. Volc devs if you read this, Dm me, I am happy to explain anything you have questions about, honestly I would be happy to write a better one of these that isn’t done at 1 AM, or work with you all directly to better the game. Thank you to everyone whos reading…
-Alex
