Soldiers, did they buff them?

[Archmage MC]

I remember them being worse than rangers at every step of the game, and you'd just skip them for Snipers, then later you'd use thanatos and snipers for defense while your rangers or a group of snipers just cleared the map.

[Guardian1996]

No buffs, soldiers were always better than rangers, but more costly. Stupid to mass them compared to snipers, as the snipers have 2x damage output.

[Pappa Nappa]

Nope, soldiers still crap.
They do a tiny bit more dmg, but are slower, have less range, are much louder (pull to many zombies) and do cost more.
Just ignore them, like everyone else.

[Quineloe]

1 soldier costs as much as 5 rangers to support while also requiring an iron quarry which you can delay for 10 days if you only use iron for snipers and later tech.

The only map where soldiers are not *that* expensive is peaceful lowlands because food is not your restriction there.

[soulguard]

10 "vet" soldiers by mid game along side snipers clearing a map. Set soldiers to closest and snipers to high priority.
Try it.

Yes. Base soldiers are crap.

[Morphic]

Pretty sure Gomez stated the Dev team is looking into changing/buffing Soldiers...

Could be wrong though.

[[para]dox]

Originally posted by soulguard:

10 "vet" soldiers by mid game along side snipers clearing a map. Set soldiers to closest and snipers to high priority.

This is how i always used them. Worked for me at least on brutal pop-challenging duration. Only problem is - you cant just sent them to clear map, because lacking of unit formations and different speeds. If devs would simply add feature to slow down all selected units to the slowest unit speed in the group, soldiers would be much, much more attractive in any game.

[Archmage MC]

Soldiers really need a buff. Removing the food resource needed for them, or nerfing rangers/snipers is really the only way to do it. Pushing snipers behidn Stoneworks would be a great step, as I don't think you get any useful units in stoneworks. I mean, by the time you have access to iron to build your soldiers, you are a day away from researching snipers or there about, who unlike soldiers can carry you through the end of the game.

[Madix]

It'd be cool if each unit had a special attack on a timer. Soldiers should get something like a grenade, snipers could get a temporary speed boost, rangers get an arrow that reveals part of the map, etc. -It might be easier to balance them this way, soldiers would then be a little better at dealing with crowds.

[Wese]

Originally posted by Teralon:

Nope, soldiers still crap.
They do a tiny bit more dmg, but are slower, have less range, are much louder (pull to many zombies) and do cost more.
Just ignore them, like everyone else.

There is one more stat which people including you frequently forget, armor. Farnkly, soldiers are still the weakest in my opinion too. But they have higher Armor than Rangers or Snipers which makes them good Tanks.

That said, you don't really need a tank role in the game right now. I only found it useful to tank if I accidentally attract 2-3 runners early game. The soldiers can take quiet the abuse, I think around 3 runners while not moving away.

Soldiers really need a better reason than that to be in the game tough.

[Archmage MC]

I will say that starter soldier you get is great for the early game, but like I said, making additional soldiers is pointless since snipers are right around the corner and you want vet snipers over vet soldiers.

[EpicMadness]

in my opinion they should swap soldier's weapon from an "assault rifle" into a "shotgun".
this shotgun would be like a short range splash attack with high-damage but slow attack speed, simply put an inferior Titan.

this way in earlier parts of the game we'd have an effective means on dealing with swarms besides relying on shocking towers.

[herrerik]

It's called a smg (submachinegun) ingame but nevertheless (also it doesnt shoot automatic/burst fire so the naming is a bit strange).

The change that the soldier should have a shotgun (small area of effekt to deal with trash mobs) has been proposed before and I agree it's an interesting idea. A little more dmg would help him become a valid choice in some situations (and also nerf the sniper 150 hp at the same time, why is the glass cannon so tanky?).

[Gomez]

You will recieve soon good news about soldier.

Thanks.

Regards.

[[para]dox]

Originally posted by Gomez:

You will recieve soon good news about soldier.

[Quineloe]

Originally posted by herrerik:

It's called a smg (submachinegun) ingame but nevertheless (also it doesnt shoot automatic/burst fire so the naming is a bit strange).

The change that the soldier should have a shotgun (small area of effekt to deal with trash mobs) has been proposed before and I agree it's an interesting idea. A little more dmg would help him become a valid choice in some situations (and also nerf the sniper 150 hp at the same time, why is the glass cannon so tanky?).

You do realize that you can fire single shot with pretty much all SMG?

The soldier is already fairly good vs infected fresh and infected executives. It's his terrible performance against venoms and the long time it takes a soldier to kill a chubby that makes them useless.

For example a sniper has one attack for 100 damage every two seconds, the soldier shoots his gun four times in that time for a mere 60 damage. A veteran sniper does a 110 damage attack every second, a veteran soldier gets 2.5 attacks out in that time for 62.5. And every second the tower units spend shooting chubbies, they're not shooting the venoms that are melting your walls with staggered acid attacks.