Nerf / Remove Boulders

So I've just been in a game (DaviesPlains.png map) where the second hall is slightly underground and the other team has instant access to the roof of it. It has no doors, so if the other team rush quickly enough they can just take the hall. The game starts, I grab the hall and get double stone doors set up on both the side and top entrance.

I finish just in time as a player from the other team turns up as soon as I get it secured (carrying a boulder). I figure, "that'll keep him out for a few seconds while I go mine some more stone", but he drops a boulder straight through all four door blocks in the ceiling in one throw and he takes the hall.

Kudos on the guy for such an efficient tactic, but it's a little much for 200 stone worth of building to be undone in a single throw (unless it lagged and just looked like one throw). Even catapults and ballistas aren't that fast.

 

Boulders are pretty devastating in TDM as well. They could stand to be nerfed.

 

Yeah, boulders are pretty OP to the point that an archer with a boulder could (with a bit of luck) sneak past enemy lines break inside a hall and capture it while switching to knight. I've even seen a builder one shot a knight with a boulder (full health) simply by running towards the knight a bit then throwing the boulder at him.

 

Boulders are meant to be devastating, especially when used with a cata (they can EASILY break through several layers of stone like that).

Their devastating nature is offset by how annoying they are to transport (can't put in inventory) and how difficult it is to actually throw them properly. Frankly, if you manage to throw a boulder at close range without a height advantage and kill an enemy, you deserve that kill.

I don't think they should be nearly so destructive when simply thrown, yes, but I think if you nerf them, they'd likely become completely useless....

 

My bad for not being a bit more clear on the subject. When I said that a boulder is OP I was referring when a player grabs a boulder and throws it at the enemy player one block away and manages to kill the other player instantly (similar to how you throw tree logs only that the distance is shorter). In other words, using the boulder to get easy kills or break stuff by bashing them from a distance of 1 block.

Now don't get me wrong, I believe that boulders ~should~ be devastating but not as bloody ramming weapons as some people use them. Boulders thrown with catas? Yes, devastating as they should be. Boulders dropped from a height of 10-20 blocks? Yes, they should instant kill anything that they land on.

But... grabbing a boulder and dropping it on another players from a height of 1 block? That's just abusive and cheap. Hell, if you're on a flat map you can simply grab a boulder, run towards a wall then throw it, basically ramming the boulder in to the wall and destroying stone doors almost instantly. That's OP.

If you wanna see how cheap it is to kill with boulders, play some RTDM and you're bound to see one player that keeps running around with a boulder and making pancakes out of the rest.

 

Can you imagine someone throwing a 600 pound boulder someones head.

 

Can you imagine the waste of time and resources to make a tower with stone doors only to be melted by someone that is charging with a boulder?

Anyways, there is something called momentum, and acceleration, and 1 block doesn't seem to be adequate time to make a boulder move at instant death speed. It's why punching flies don't help your case.

 

Can you imagine having to lift and throw a 600 pound boulder at someone or run around with it? That would be a feat of strength if you ask me.

And I'll have to agree with Boea, the boulder costs around 30 stone? So for 30 measly stone I can not only destroy enemy stone walls/doors faster and cheaper than with a drill but also instant kill anything I throw the boulder at as long as it's from a distance of at least 1 block.

Boulders are supposed to be used as cata ammo or to be dropped on people from on top of a tower (no throwing it at people in front of you that are 1 block away) so why not make them slow down your character so they can't run around and get momentum and end up throwing a 600 pound boulder like it was some basketball of doom? Heck, make it so archers can't use a grappling hook while carrying the thing, it weights around 600 pounds right?

I don't have anything against boulders breaking through several lairs of stone when thrown from a cata but seeing players run around with boulders and throwing them at people like I'm attending a dodge-ball game screams 'cheap' in my book.

 

My message was ment towads you; it was just something to try and picture in your head. I agree with some of you points.

 

Boulders should be nerfed a bit, but guess what? I also think it'd be super awesome if they maybe made like 6 kinds of giant block items such as, you know, erm.... Oh, okay, I just thought of a few. How about giant wood statues to chuck? Hamburgers three times their normal size, that can be eaten 6 times? -Normal boulder-. Hay bales to hide behind? Stone wheels? Gold spike pillars? Just a few ideas.

 

I understand what you mean and I've got your point, but.
Can you imagine a land of shining armors and knights parachuting with a shield?

Stuff's not supposed to be realistic. Maybe logic, but not realistic.
Logic, to be working in the altogheter of the game and to be fun and useful without breaking the balance.

So yes, boulders definitely need to be nerfed in my opinion.

E: This was to get back on tracks, why did you guys go OT again ;-;

 

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I've pissed about with boulders on the whole single player Save The Princess shiz because it allows me to fuck with all the stuff and use chat commands to spawn, and I don't think I've ever been able to kill anyone from 5 tiles away (without a height advantage), let alone ONE tile away. I think some people are being a bit overdramatic about how OP they are. The only devastation I've seen from boulders is when catapulted. That shit is like a hot knife through butter.

 

I didn't mean my statment to be directed to anyone. I agree with your points. "What if you dropped a 600 pound boulder on some ones head, lol" It was a funny statment.

 

"Can you imagine someone throwing a 600 pound boulder someones head."
Doesn't sound very funny to me.

 

Its not the part of the guy getting crushed its the fact that someone picked up a 600 pound boulder and threw at someone, as a weapon.

 

....Then you make a completely irrelevant statement. This is why I stray away from the kag forums

 

As it is, Boulders are overpowered. You can break doors, you can instakill horizontally, you can kill idiotic noobs, but are they really useful? Nope. Here are my qualms.

If you hit someone with the boulder and it falls ANY distance (even if it's miniscule), it will instakill.
So truly, why not get boulders for everyone so they can instakill by throwing a boulder at their hip instead of their head?!

And then there is the Door-break glitch. Yes, people, it is STILL here. It's been here since the Steam release, (aprox. November 20th, 2013) and it is broken as heck. You just lost 200+ (implying you had more than one layer of stone doors) stone to a measly 30 stone. 30 > 200 ? It shouldn't be that way.

And then there are traps. Useless traps. You can press C and pick it up easily at any time, and I believe, so don't take my word for it, that if you make contact with the boulder WITHOUT it moving down, it won't hurt you! So those boulder-fall traps don't work. Sure, there might be one idiotic nub that thought there might be cake up there in that dark 2x2 hole, but you won't fool them afterwards.


And those are the only uses for boulders.
Instakills that make no sense, infinite door-breaker (and at quick speed too), and useless traps.
See? The only uses are either broken, unrealistic, or useless.

I request that the Boulders get removed for reasons above. Discuss below or just leave something on the poll.

EDIT: I have been told that they fixed the door-breaking thing and that they actually do good in cata's, so a nerf would be better than removal.

 

Boulder drilling was removed this build, the only way you can damage buildings with them is to fling them from a catapult.

By the way, catapult-flung boulders can destroy up to 9 blocks. Stone blocks. 9 of them. Per boulder. Why does nobody take advantage of this!?

 

Hmm. Coulda swore I saw it a day or so ago in a match.
If I knew how to do it, I could test it, so gotta go research some.

 

Nice poll with an obvious bias...

Anyway:
1. Boulders can't break doors anymore, unless I'm mistaken. I was trying just yesterday and it wasn't working, and I've done it hundreds of times before that.
2. Boulders can instagib when thrown right beside someone, it depends on how far out your mouse is from your body.
3. Boulders can and will gib someone who is directly above you.
4. Boulder traps are generally stupid, but so are dirt spikes and the like. It really depends on the builder. You can't remove something from the game because someone doesn't use it properly. (see kegs, bombs, etc. that can fuck your team over).

I would propose that a boulder's velocity be nerfed so that it isn't fast enough to insta-gib someone in close proximity to you, but still deal a good amount of damage.
Boulders that fall a good distance and pick up speed should insta-gib.
Boulder health is balanced and should stay how it is.