glossy cipher
Early-game improvements for new players.
The Recon is a fun and important early-game introduction to Vehicles, Oil and high-damage units, but it is also surprisingly fragile and expensive to repair, costing up to 203 Oil at a Repair Bay, at a time when new players mainly only have access to Recoil Ridge or friends for a bit of Oil.
This means players who accidentally lose the Recon in a battle (which is very easy to do, especially when Raiders start fielding Indirect and Precise attacks) might not be able to use it again until later levels, by which point it might have become obsolete.
Considering the Recon only needs 30 Oil to repair in Missions, making the early repair cost around this value would be much more forgiving for new players, and ensure they get to fully enjoy this key unit.
The Scout Bike is another important early unit, being the first vehicle players can build. It has an Iron cost of 825, which is quite high considering the Factory is 2000 Iron and players at this stage will have just 1-2 low-level Iron Mines.
Reducing this Iron cost to something like 400 means players that finally saved up for the VF will not have to wait too long for their first Scout Bike, and will be able to make more than one for the fairly short time this unit is viable.
Additionally, the TF2 Scout could be greatly improved by removing the Bar healing cost. Similar to the Recon, it has nice but not amazing damage, is reasonably durable but easy to injure, and has a prohibitive healing cost (new players can't get Bars easily until much later) that means they will end up in the Hospital for a long time.
Training multiple Scouts at the Barracks to replace the injured Scouts will often make the problem worse.
Without the Bar healing cost, TF2 Scouts will be a fun early-game option for new players and better fit their theme (frontline, good damage, fragile, respawns).
Suggestions and changes are welcome!
bright snow