Patch: Panthers

[lordpalandus]

Panther patch poll.

[Freeza-CII]

panthers have been beating like a dead horse.

There is nothing you can really do to a panter to make it more appealing.

Its a ok units that is inbetween to great units. Speed and damage.

why use a panther when a tiger is a hop jump away. why use a panther when you can use a speedy unit at lower cost that does the same damage.

even if it were to get a damage upgrade it would still not be widely used in op of more speed of more fire power.  

[lordpalandus]

Well that's why I suggested remove the rare metal cost. By removing it you can build early on Laser/Microwave, EMP, Stickyform or Railgun/RPG Panthers without the need of a rare ore smelter. Mid-game this would be a very powerful and nasty combo, when you don't have a rare-ore smelter up, or a rare-metal mine, and save the metal for building GPs and such.

As you recall a tiger does use rare metal and usually a lot of it. Until you had a steady supply of rare metal a tiger is not practical. So early-mid game the panther becomes quite useful with its higher HP, and better armor. Could use it for a great base defender at that point... maybe not the greatest for assaulting a base but ya.

[Freeza-CII]

there is a research that adds rare ore cost to things if i recall correctly i cant remember if this applied to the panther.

[lordpalandus]

Reinforced Vehicle Constuction (Applies to ConVec, Cargo Truck, and Evacuation Truck I believe)

Reinforced Panther Construction (Dunno if it adds more rare metal cost to it)

[TH300]

The Panther's initial properties are:

Common cost: 400
Rare cost:125
Hitpoints: 500
Armor class: 2 (medium)

After "Reinforced Panther Construction" its

Common cost: 300
Rare cost:150
Hitpoints: 700

The teaser says: "The composite alloy developed in our Reinforced Vehicle Construction project may be beneficial for our Panther combat chassis as well.". Since "Reinforced vehicle construction" is about using rare metals, the Panther must require rare metals after that research.

Furthermore, after "Advanced Armoring Systems" the armor class is increased to 3. The description of that research refers to an alloy from the space program. Hence the Panther must require rare metals after that research.

Both research topics can be researched independently. That means, we cannot change the same unit property to different values in both.


A different question would be whether taking the rare metal requirement away (for the initial panther) wouldn't break the campaign. As far as I remember, there is at least one mission where you have to build a certain amount of panthers, which is hard because you need a rare metals production chain. Taking the rare ore requirement away could make that mission too easy.

[Freeza-CII]

ok so that means no to removing rare ore cost

[Norsehound]

After playing one of the pre-release demos for Eden I was kind of surprised to see Panthers produced without rare ore.

I used Panthers as a heavier combat unit than the lynx but cheaper than a Tiger. So if you wanted to produce a battle line that will actually last a while you can spam panthers and get them out quicker and cheaper than you would waiting for Tigers to be finished.

My favorite panther type has been the railgun panther when Eden.

[lordpalandus]

Not necessarily you can't remove the rare ore cost. You could remove the initial cost and when you get the improved panther construction you get the rare ore requirement back. This way, pre-Reinforced Panther Construction, you can get Panthers into the field with just common ore (maybe increase common ore cost by say 100 to 200). Afterall, you need Reinforced Vehicle Construction which is a Prequisite of both Dual Weapon Systems and Reinforced Panther Construction.