Okay, I was recently discussing this with a buddy of mine and I decided to make it a thread.
Here are several solutions, to somewhat nerf, Giant massing.

Solution 1:

Solution 2:


Solution 3:


Solution 4:


Solution 5:


Solution 6:


Solution 7:


Solution 8:




All the numbers in here are only examples and can change.
These solutions are also only suggestions, parts of them can change.
I like solutions 1,4, & 7.

I like 7 the most. All though, they are all well thought out. Thanks for this great list :)

Ghost Giant is OP. But that dosnt really change the fact that people shouldn't giant mass? (i know it says giant balancing, which includes ghost, but i always think of balancing giant massers :P)

These are all really good solutions, honestly Tecness. But just so you realize, this isn't going to prevent "giant spamming" whatsoever.
AND
This isn't going to help players who are losing to "giant spamming" because they aren't losing to the giants... as discussed in my thread.

Also beating an opponent that has castle archer level 3+ plus flyers/giants/archers/mage/ will be super super difficult without some fully upgraded giants to tank the dmg.

I think one of my ideas would be better than "Solution 3" or "Solution 8" in the OP.

It was to make the giants always be created at level 1, but to get to level 2 or 3, they have to use an ability to grow. Each growth costs some mana (Maybe 250 or 500) and has a cooldown of 45 seconds. This makes it so to get FULLY grown giants you need to use 1000 more mana. In the end, 130 seconds (2 minutes 10 seconds) is needed to make a fully grown giant along with 1500 gold and 1000 mana. This ignore the cost of the actual research for the upgrade.

Of course, the person could still spam level 1 giants, but those are useless. I've never used them and have only faced one of them backed with some speartons. They're useless compared to the higher levels.

would make the cost a lot lower. Like 200 and 300.

Quote from Tecness2

Okay, I was recently discussing this with a buddy of mine and I decided to make it a thread.
Here are several solutions, to somewhat nerf, Giant massing.

Solution 1:

Incrementally increase the price of giants with a reset. That means, the first giant is 1500, the second giant is 1600, the third giant is 1700. If you have 3 giants, and two die, then the next giant you build, will once again, be 1600. The prices are just an example.

Solution 2:

Incrementally increase the price of giants without a reset. That means, the first giant is 1500, the second giant is 1600, the third giant is 1700. If you have 3 giants, and two die, then the next giant you build, will be 1800. There of course would be a maximum price, in this example, it would be 2500. That means, the giants are worth more, so don't let them die.

Solution 3:

Remove the third tier of giants. Very simple.

Solution 4:

Increase the price per level. A normal, level 1 giant, is 1500 - 0 - 7. A giant, after the first upgrade, is 1750 - 75 - 8. A giant, after the third upgrade, is 2000 - 150 - 9.

Solution 5:

Decrease the effects of the tiers. Miami has suggested that the maximum giant has 70% more health, and I believe he also has around 10% more damage than a standard giant. Make it, so the maximum giant only has 40% more health and keep the damage. Making them more of a support & tank unit, rather than the main army.

Solution 6:

Nerf the numbers! Do the opposite of Pack Mentality. If you have two giants, then their health & attack are both reduced by 5%. If you have three, then it's 10%. Four is 15%. Five is 20%.

Solution 7:

Make the ghost giant, either stay at level 1, or a maximum of level 2.

Solution 8:

Drastically increase the price of the tier upgrades.

All the numbers in here are only examples and can change.
These solutions are also only suggestions, parts of them can change.
I like solutions 1,4, & 7.

Great ideas Tec.

I like 1, 4, 5 and 7 best.

4 is great, but could be complex, I buy several giants then I buy the upgrades. I get high tier giants at low teir prices. But thats not a bad thing, as it exposes me to the risk of losing a giant or two before they are upgraded - if he attacks me and I need to use them to defend.

5 is a great way to make the unit a tank and stunner (supprt the army rather than be the army), which is suposed to be its main role.

Question; how would this work with chaos giants, which are much weaker to begin with - I am sure we've all played hundreds of E-gaint massers, but I bet not a single chaos giant masser :)

Anything is better than nothing, but I think its a great way forward - put out some ideas and listen to feedback from the players. Thumbs up for the methodology.

Personally, I think the giants are fine the way they are currently. It's easy to kill giant massers in small maps and in larger maps, all you have to do is make them take over the center and then rush their statue.

i like 8 (am i the only one here who thinks the upgrades are way cheap? u never see a level 1 giant -_-)

Quote from RUMMAKER

i like 8 (am i the only one here who thinks the upgrades are way cheap? u never see a level 1 giant -_-)

True that. Yes, number 8 is good.

Quote from RUMMAKER

i like 8 (am i the only one here who thinks the upgrades are way cheap? u never see a level 1 giant -_-)

Yes, way cheap and also way quick to research too!
If I recall the buffs are quicker or as quick as, say, the runspeed buff for crawlers or the pack mentality buff for crawlers.
Speaking from memory, I think giant growth 1 is both cheaper and as fast as either of the two buffs for crawlers.
FFS! how does that work...

Quote from WyzDM

Giants are fine the way they are. Instead of complaining about how op they are, just practice methods of eliminating his economy and PREVENTING this "giant-mass-of-destruction-I-haven't-seen-since-I-played-with-another-1500-ranked-player."

Totally agreed. I'd just like to add that most of these research times and upgrades are the way they are because of the campaign mode this MMO is like. If you take away one of the giant upgrades, the campaign would have been incredibly difficult to beat.

2,3,6,7 is what i like lolz

Unless you're chaos, you can't really complain about E giant spamming. I mean I'd think Chaos has the best counters to E giants anyway but since Tec has it and I don't well I'd take his word over mine on that topic.

But, I mean, you've got the same units available, right? You started out with the same gold, right? So when they beat you it's all of a sudden the game's fault?
They played the better strategy. It's not as "intricate and orchestrated" as yours, but they won, right? They used the better strategy.

As for 7, no. It costs 2000 gold and 1000 mana. Basically, if you've let your opponent spend that much on the ghost without repercussions for himself, it's because you willingly turtled up, or you got beat up into turtling. The ghost giant is the implicit way of saying, "I have outplayed you. Why have you not surrendered yet?"
The ghost giant is what enables people to beat turtles. If it was nerfed, the next thing people will bitch about is that castle archers are too OP and how they can't get past "n00b turtlers!1!!", because the game is imbalanced.