Crazy Cyborg Super Melee v0.69 impressions

The AI should learn to defeat the player tactic of keeping the planet between you and them so the AI goes straight for you and slams into the planet.

The AI should not be so intimidated by my 2 Menkmack reinforcements that it goes and hides in the corner of the asteroid field while I stay on the opposite side of the arena where the AI cannot damage me.

I am not going to play the Dan'nath vs the AI because I am too poor at aiming the black hole.

Player Menkmack vs Dan'nath is too hard.  I call in my 2 reinforcements and all of our explosive barrels are useless against the Dan'nath gravity wave pushing them back.  It is cool that the black hole has gravity that whips the barrels around, but the gravity wave is going too far because the gravity wave can always push away the barrels.  Maybe the 2 reinforcements need to be more aggressive (they are replaceable so they could be suicidal) and shoot so many barrels that the Dan'nath runs out of gravity wave battery power.

Player Menkmack vs Earthling Cruiser is too hard.  My barrels are just so slow and I am bad at knowing the barrels' AOE because their explosion effects do not extend to the edge of their damage.  One time I hit the Cruiser with one barrel of damage before I died.

Player Menkmack vs Crazy Cyborg Menkmack is not polished.  You get 2 reinforcements and the enemy AI gets 2 reinforcements.  I can keep track of who I am and who the original enemy is because of the tethering camera and keeping track, but the reinforcements almost always appear off screen so I have no idea if they are friend or enemy.  Also I get surprise deaths because the reinforcements from off screen can sneak up on me and blow me up.  I think I should die as often as the AI does, but the AI actually dies less often because it knows who is friend or foe and it knows where the off screen reinforcements are and I don't.  I think the camera needs to zoom out to include the reinforcements immediately.

Player Menkmack vs Crazy Cyborg Measured is OP.  The Measured shoots Demotivators that never hit because they are so slow.  The Measured is a little dumb about barrels that have some momentum to them in the right directions which is the only way I could beat the Measured I guess because they are so fast and maneuverable.  But if I call in my reinforcements it becomes a curb stomp.

Player Menkmack vs Crazy Cyborg Scryve is a bit dumb but is balanced.  You have to learn to dodge the Scryve beam until your reinforcements can close.  I find the first beam to not take into account the Scryve becoming stationary, so swerve the Menkmack when you see the Scryve aiming at you.  The subsequent beams seem to try to shoot where you were in the past, so keep circling the Scryve and the beams will pass behind you.  The Scryve will ignore your reinforcements and try to beam you to death, so always keep the planet between you and the Scryve and you should win.  If the Scryve learns to go around the planet that would make this much more exciting.

Player Menkmack vs Plinthi is too easy.  Your barrels destroy contagion and damage the Plinthi significantly.  I can beat the Plinthi one-on-one and not get overwhelmed by contagion.  Once you call in reinforcements it is a curb stomp.

Player Menkmack vs Tywom is too hard for me to beat one-on-one because the Tywom is faster and its blasters are much more powerful than my barrels.  But once I call in reinforcements and herd the Tywom properly I can win easily.  The secret to herding the AI is to move my ship so my reinforcements are between me and the Tywom so the Tywom goes straight for me and my reinforcements get a firing pass.  Tywom turrets are useless because barrels destroy them.

Player Menkmack vs Trandals is ok one-on-one.  I can shoot my barrel mines where the Trandals will be or wants to be to shoot its helix.  The barrels don't seem to fire off reliably sometimes when the barrels are moving fast they pass right next to the Trandals and do not explode.  I think if the barrels exploded reliably I could beat Trandals one-on-one.  But once I call in my reinforcements all I have to do is wait for the Trandals to retreat from my reinforcements (does it retreat because 2 reinforcements is "superior firepower" to the Trandals?) and get stuck in the asteroid field.  The Trandals should use the boost to avoid my reinforcements.  My tactic against that would be to slowly whittle down the Trandals' health with smartly placed mines and the reinforcements getting the occasional firing pass.

Player Menkmack vs Drenkend is ok.  I cannot win one-on-one but when I call in my reinforcements I can win.  The Dernkend is good at dodging barrels during firing passes, but near the planet the gravity is so strong that the Drenkend cannot maneuver very well, so again I use my tactic of keeping the planet between me and the enemy and letting my reinforcements pound the Drenkend with barrels in the planetary gravity well.  The Drenkend is actually much faster than the Menkmack, but has terrible acceleration and maneuverability so the Drenkend is bad at dodging the slow barrels.  The only thing I don't like is the barrels simply will not explode if they can kill only one boarding party.  The barrels will explode if they will kill like 3 at once, but never just for 1.  So if one boarding party is left over when a barrel explodes and kills its comrades, then I have no weapon that can kill the boarding party I must run.

Player Menkmack vs Scout is not polished.  The barrels fly by and do not explode, which is a big problem because the Scout is so fast.  Reinforcements are mostly pointless because the Scout is so fast, but if my barrels exploded properly I would have a chance to win.

Player Menkmack vs Mowlings is balanced but dumb.  The barrels still don't explode reliably.  The Mowlings is not very smart at dodging barrels.  Jeff is a good summon that can kill me.  My two reinforcements can arrive before Jeff does and help me finish off the Mowling.  This all balances out, but I don't like the barrels being unreliable.

That's all for this post.  I will take a break before flying the Measured. 

Great feedback.  Thank you.  I've been incorporating some of this in preparation for this week's beta.

Measured vs Dan'nath is balanced.  The AI shoots its black holes well and even though I dodge their AOE still damages me.  My AOE damages the Dan'nath too.   I kill the Dan'nath about as often as it kills me.

Measured vs Earthling Cruiser is impossible, as I described in my first post.

Measured vs Menkmack is balanced.  I kill the Menkmack about as often as it kills me.  Paperwork has an AOE slightly larger than the barrel.  But if the barrels were launched with momentum the barrel is actually faster than the Measured ship and that is what kills me.  The Measured is so maneuverable that the 2 Menkmack reinforcements are not a problem for me.

Measured vs Measured is too hard for me personally but might actually be ok.  It is too hard for me to know exactly precisely where my Paperwork AOE is and the AI is pixel-perfect with firing off its Paperwork.  At best I fire one Paperwork and put the AI at half health before I die.  I cannot think how to improve this matchup.

Measured vs Scryve is impossible, but ok.  With more practice I think I could dodge all of the beam shots.  The flak is what kills me every time.  At best I get the Scryve to half health (but that means I damaged the Scryve a lot more than they did me).  I cannot think how to improve this matchup.

Measured vs Plinthi is too easy.  I can fire off one Paperwork to kill the 2 Contagion the AI spawns (the 2 contagion are between me and the Plinthi), then by the time I get to the Plinthi I have enough battery to two-shot the Plinthi.  Usually I am not damaged, but sometimes I am damaged a bit because the Plinthi projectiles are pretty large.

Measured vs Tywom is good.  I kill the Tywom about as much as they kill me.  But I think if I practiced more I could improve enough to dodge the Tywom blaster shots and reliably win.  I cannot think how to improve this matchup.

Measured vs Trandals needs more polishing.  If you dodge the first Trandals boost and helix (shooting a de-motivator at the boosting Trandals helps) then you can win.  The Trandals flies away from you without using boost so their battery can recharge for another helix and you can get a few Paperwork in, but the Trandals helix is ready before your last Paperwork and the AI is good at hitting you with that second helix and one-shotting you.  But I found an exploit.  The Measured de-motivator is so cheap to fire that you can distract the Trandals by shooting it and the Trandals gets so scared they don't turn around and so they can't fire the helix.  Actually, the Trandals is in general too scared (maybe it's really scared of my Paperwork and that I have a slightly higher top speed so I can close with the Trandals?).  Maybe the Trandals should try a retrograde to fire its second helix (just turn the ship 180 degrees and fire off the helix while its momentum is still away).

Measured vs Drenkend is ok.  Paperworking the boarding parties is a great way to whittle down the Drenkend health, but takes so long you also need to include a few firing passes and hit the carrier with Paperwork.  Just be careful of the De-energizer bolt once you learn how to dodge that then you can win more often than not.

Measured vs Scout is good but not quite polished.  The Scout is too scared of my De-motivators.  If I don't shoot De-motivators I win and I lose, but if I shoot my De-motivators then the Scout suddenly becomes inaccurate with its shots and its self-destruct.  Also if you do a flyby in the right way, the Scout will self-destruct but miss you and you win.

Measured vs Mowling is ok.  My Paperwork consistently out-DPSs the Mowling laser, but that's OK because Jeff is also a threat.

That's some great analysis, but you keep comparing each ship to each ship and saying "this ship versus that ship is too hard for that ship because blah" as if you expect every ship to be roughly balanced against every other ship.

They shouldn't be. Even if two ships have the same point value they don;t have to be balanced against each other, because it's a rock/paper/scissors situation. It's OK for 20 point ship A to be able to defeat 20 point ship B most of the time as long as there are other ships that B can defeat that can in turn defeat A (or whatever; you get what I'm saying).

But as I said, I love the care you're putting into your analysis, it's awesome.

Thanks for your encouragement and I already agree with you (I am just seeing how far player skill or AI ineptitude can affect the rock paper scissors).  See this I posted before:

"Measured vs Scryve is impossible, but ok. With more practice I think I could dodge all of the beam shots. The flak is what kills me every time. At best I get the Scryve to half health (but that means I damaged the Scryve a lot more than they did me). I cannot think how to improve this matchup."

"Earthling Cruiser vs Trandals is ok. The Trandals could always use boost to dodge the nukes but don't always. That is like back in SCII the Arilou AI had to be dumbed down because it could use the teleport to never take damage from the player. It's really annoying that the Trandals need 3 nukes to die and so I almost never win against them, but I think we know that the Trandals are meant to beat the Cruiser because their boost is too good against nukes."

Trandal is pretty much SCO version of Arilou.

Great if you are good player against many other ships.

Poor if you are not a good player.

I especially like ability to "slingshot" the bolas, by firing them doing the boost, to increase their range.

Scryve vs Dan'nath Crazy Cyborg is ok except for a cheap exploit.  If you keep your Scryve stationary and wait for the Dan'nath to approach, then it is much easier to aim your beam and I can win almost every time with no damage.  But if I move my Scryve around the match is ok because it is then hard to aim my beam.

Scryve vs Earthling Cruiser is ok.  The Cruiser moves rapidly through my beam so it takes 2-3 beams to kill the Earthling while their nukes usually leave me at half health before I kill the Cruiser.

Scryve vs Menkmack is not polished.  The Menkmack is too dumb at dodging my beam, especially when I lead my target (shooting ahead of a moving target) or trail my target (if the Scryve is moving so the beam needs to be aimed behind the Menkmack to hit it) the Menkmack just keeps flying and gets obliterated without trying to dodge.  Basically the AI in general might be bad at dodging beams that are not aimed directly at them but instead are aimed ahead or behind them but with the two ships moving relative so that the beam will close in and hit the AI due to the relative motion.  That might be ok because that relative movement is also how the player can dodge the Scryve AI.  But I feel that the Menkmack AI's only strategy should be to dodge my beams well and call in reinforcements.  Right now the AI does not live long enough for the reinforcements to matter, so the AI should be more difficult.

Scryve vs Measured is good except for an exploit.  If you fire the beam at close range while the Measured is trying to hit you with the De-motivators then you can one-shot the Measured (the Measured does not try to dodge) before the De-motivators hit and come off with only minor damage from the one Paperwork the Measured might have managed to send.  The Measured is otherwise pretty good at dodging my beam.

Scryve vs Scryve is balanced.  But oh man that beam can one-shot you if it hits you long enough, which is a bit of a learning curve for the player but that's fine.

The AI is dumb in both Scryve vs Plinthi and Plinthi vs Scryve matchups and could be polished.  Scryve flak kills Contagion but does not kill all Contagion within range due to the randomness of flak, which is good.  But my beam can kill the Plinthi really hard when the Plinthi moves in to close range and tries to shoot at me.  My beam is so much more powerful and faster that I take no damage from the Plinthi before they die.  If the Plinthi was more scared of my beam that might help.  I just checked Plinthi vs Scryve and there are 2 strategies: spawn Contagion to overwhelm the Scryve or get behind the Scryve and shoot it down.  The Contagion are not aggressive enough to hit the Scryve except in overwhelming numbers, which flak makes impossible (unless the Contagion AI is changed to group up and wait for overwhelming numbers before attacking).  But dodging the Scryve beams and using your superior maneuverability and speed to get behind the Scryve works.  Then the Scryve AI gets confused and flies away from you shooting flak not even trying to turn around and beam you.  Which is a good strategy except Plinthi projectiles are a bit faster than a Scryve, so the Plinthi following close behind can fire lots of projectiles and actually kill the Scryve before the Flak takes you down.  The Scryve keeps flying directly away from you even though a slight tilt to its trajectory would cause all of the slowly approaching Plinthi projectiles to miss.

Scryve vs Tywom is balanced.  The AI is a bit dumb dodging my beam, but only some of the time.  Pretty often the Tywom can close into short range and those blasters are so powerful.

Scryve vs Trandals is almost impossible, but that's ok.  The Trandals usually boosts right into your face, so if you line your beam up right it can one-shot the Trandals.  Maybe the Trandals should not boost to point-blank range, or only do so when it can follow up with a quick helix.  After the boost it will be impossible to line up another beam.  It is hard but not impossible to dodge helixes and your flak does not do much damage, but you can win sometimes.

Scryve vs Drenkend is balanced except for a player tactic.  Boarding parties do a lot of damage, so you can't rely on flak to kill large groups of boarding parties, but you can move the Scryve perpendicular to the boarding parties and sweep your laser across them killing them all.  Once you do that several times the Drenkend gets timid and sends out fewer boarding parties at once (due to its low crew, I assume) and then you can get aggressive.  Fire both your laser and your flak at mid-range to both damage the Drenkend and also kill any boarding parties it launches that would be hard to react to in time.  I win consistently this way.

Scryve vs Scout is weird.  How is it possible that the Scout is not dodging my beams?  It has maximum turn rate and good acceleration!  I know you have to make the Scout dumb like that so I can hit it with beams, because flak is no good because the Scout can just detonate at that range.  The scout shots also actually do a lot of damage at close range, so detonation is not a requirement to win, which is good.  But please improve the Scout's beam dodging abilities so it is better at dodging beams than the other ships are.  The Scout should be better at dodging beams than the Tywom or other ships are.

Scryve vs Mowling is OP.  The Scryve and Mowling have the same top speed, so the Mowling gets trapped in the asteroids and I can close into close range and flak it to death.  Yes even just using flak I only take 1/5 damage and the Mowling dies.  The flak actually seems to discourage the Mowling from using its beam.  If I use my beam expertly I can take no damage and kill the Mowling in 1-2 beams.  The Mowling should circle the battlefield and call in Jeff, or be hyper aggressive and beam me to death (while avoiding my beam) regardless of the flak damage.

Overview:

The Contagion are too slow because they only hit the enemy ship if it's Scryve.  The Contagion can catch up to the Drenkend but somehow miss when they shoot at it.

Infection is very slow, which makes some matchups impossible but not all of them and that's OK.

Plinthi vs Dan'nath is impossible.  I complement you on your Dan'nath AI it uses gravity really well to keep me at bay and kill my Contagion.  The Plinthi projectiles are just so slow they almost never hit.

Plinthi vs Earthling Cruiser is impossible.  I can put out a bit more Contagion than the AI throws nukes, but I am so slow I cannot approach the Cruiser before it can nuke me (and it only needs 1 nuke).  My Infection is also so slow the Cruiser never gets hit.  Maybe if Infection destroyed nukes I would have a chance.

Plinthi vs Menkmack is impossible.  The Menkmack slow barrels win vs my slow Infection because the barrel AOE gives them much more reach than my Infection.  And once Menkmack call in reinforcements there is no way my Contagion will survive.

Plinthi vs Measured is impossible because my Contagion cannot win a chase with a Measured and my Infection never hits because the Paperwork AOE gives it more reach and the Measured has no inertia so it can always dodge my Infection.

Plinthi vs Scryve is balanced but the Contagion should be faster.  The only way to harm the Scryve is to evade and build up Contagion to make the Scryve scared, then get behind the Scryve and blast lots of Infection at various angles so when the Scryve hits the asteroids and turns around it gets hit with Infection.  I still die but I hurt the Scryve significantly.  If you don't build up Contagion, then the Scryve is too good at beams and flak and you die fast.  I think this matchup would be improved if Contagion are faster because they never seem to catch up to the Scryve they always get close in the firing pass but miss.  The Scryve has flak so it would be ok if the Contagion can catch up to the Scryve.

Plinthi vs Plinthi is balanced but annoying because the Contagion are slower than the Plinthi.  It is too easy to dodge them.  Right now the Contagion wander around falling behind the dueling Plinthi and the only reason for the player to make Contagion is to control the enemy's Contagion population, never for actual offense.  If the Contagion were an actual threat to the Plinthi, then the player could use superior human aiming with the Infection to kill enemy Contagion and turn the tide in the player's favor and overwhelm the enemy AI with Contagion.

Plinthi vs Drenkend is not fun.  The Contagion are fast enough to catch the Drenkend (don't ask me how the Drenkend has a high top speed, maybe it's the poor acceleration) but even when they bump into the Drenkend they don't fire their Infection properly and miss.  I can whittle down the Drenkend's health by shooting down its boarding parties, but that only gets me so far and is risky.  I cannot close with the Drenkend to use my high-damage Infection to out-DPS the Drenkend because then the Drenkend would hit me with its De-energizer bolt and board me (I think 1 boarding party kills a Plinthi).

Plinthi vs Scout is impossible.  My Infection is inferior to the Scout shot in every way.  The Scout is so fast it can dodge my shots.  Only when my Contagion get a lucky shot is the Scout damaged.  I got one lucky Contagion shot before I died (and the arena was getting really small by then).

Plinthi vs Mowlings is actually balanced.  Ignore making Contagion they are useless.  Close the distance with the Mowling (but not close enough for it to use its beam carver) and shoot Infection as fast as possible at various angles.  You can kill the Mowling before Jeff shows up.

I just played the Earthling Cruiser in the new patch.

I like how slowly the nuke turns now.

I would like a discussion about whether the point defense is worth anything.  I think that the point defense is great at shooting down other nukes and against the Tywom or Scout it helps if you are really close to them in a flyby and want to shoot down their projectiles so you can back away and try to nuke them again.  Should the point defense also shoot down contagion, boarding parties, and turrets?

Tywom vs Dan'nath is OP.  The Tywom Bolt is so much more powerful than the black hole (and the Tywom costs less than the Dan'nath!).  Dodging the black holes is easy enough because you just have to stay away from the Dan'nath's front.  To improve this matchup, I think the Dan'nath Crazy Cyborg needs to try to hit you with the black hole itself (for double damage, without the accretion disk) if you are too close that releasing the black hole and creating the accretion disk would damage both ships.

Tywom vs Earthling Cruiser is OP. There is a good chance that the Cruiser can hit me with one nuke before I get to close range and kill it with my Bolts and turrets, but one nuke hit does not kill the Tywom so I win a bit too often.  The Earthling Cruiser does OK firing nukes from long and medium range but does really poorly at close range.  I think the Crazy Cyborg should understand that firing nukes at close range is just fine.  Rotate the Cruiser and fire the nuke off and the enemy does not have much time to react.

Tywom vs Menkmack there is only one way to win (not necessarily too hard).  The only way I can win is to immediately close with the Menkmack and fire my Bolts far enough away that they Menkmack does not shoot its barrels.  I have gotten pretty good at firing my Bolts while sliding my Tywom (and not rotating my Tywom much) so that enough Bolts hit in one pass to kill the Menkmack, but I do not like that rushing the Menkmack is the only way to win.  I can lose if I get too close before shooting my Bolts and get killed by barrels.  Once the Menkmack reinforcements come in I cannot win because it is too hard to kill or avoid the reinforcements without taking damage.

Tywom vs Measured is too hard.  The bolts' range is about the same as the Paperwork, but the Paperwork can kill you in one pass and the Measured is too good at dodging my bolts.  At best I can get the Measured to half-health (2 bolts?) before I die in one or two passes.

Tywom vs Scryve is too hard for me, but might be ok.  It is surprisingly hard to hit the Scryve with my bolts while I am dodging its laser and it is dodging my bolts (the Scryve weapons hit instantly, which is an advantage over me.  Also I am too busy dodging to get really close to the Scryve).  At best I get the Scryve to half-health, but someone better than me that can get all of the full battery of bolts to hit can do better.  But the Tywom battery recharges so slowly that I get only one pass at the Scryve before the laser or flak get me.

Tywom vs Pinthi is too easy.  If I zoom up to the Pinthi and shoot my bolts right in its face at range zero then I can kill it in one or two passes.  Without this exploit it would be much harder to hit the Pinthi.  Maybe the Crazy Cyborg could be better at not letting you get so close.  The Contagion is still irrelevant (far too easy).

Tywom vs Twyom is balanced.

Tywom vs Trandals is balanced.  It is so hard to hit the small and agile Trandals ship that it is a good challenge to win.  The Trandals obviously does not fire its helix often enough nor does it dodge anywhere near as much as it could, but that makes it possible to beat.

Tywom vs Drenkend is balanced.  I can get it to half health and with practice I think I could do better.  My difficulty right now is I cannot once be hit by the de-energizer and I must avoid all boarding parties.

Tywom vs Scout is too hard.  The bolts have such short range and I cannot kill the Scout in one pass.  Once the Scout's health is low it can self-destruct and kill me when I try to finish it off with bolts.  And my turrets are easily avoided by the Scout.  So I always get killed by the self-destruct and never win (and the Scout costs less than the Tywom so I lose point-wise).

Tywom vs Mowling is balanced.  It takes a surprising amount of bolts to kill the Mowling, the Mowling dodges pretty well.  My turrets are actually useful because they can hit the Mowling (unlike the Scout, which always stays away).

Trandals vs Dan'nath is too hard.  The crazy cyborg Dan'nath can fire so many black holes at you and the gravity wave makes it impossible to aim the bola because it jostles the Trandal.

Trandals vs Earthling Cruiser is too easy, but that's ok because the Trandals is the counter to the Cruiser.  Speed burst to dodge the nukes, then hit the Cruiser with a bola.

Trandals vs Menkmack only one way to win and it is boring.  Speed burst so the Menkmack has no time to call for reinforcements (which would have made it much harder for you to win) and get a good bola off.  If your bola does not hit and kill the Menkmack in one pass, the canisters can severely damage or kill you.

Trandals vs Measured only one way to win.  Get close to the Measured so it fires off Paperwork and de-motivators, but the Paperwork must miss you.  Wait until the Measured battery is low, then speed burst in, fire bola, speed burst out.

Trandals vs Scryve is too hard.  3 flak can kill you and theoretically 3 bola can kill the Scryve if the bola cover most of the Scryve when fired.  But dodging the laser makes it too hard to get close enough and aim the bola.

Trandals vs Pinthi is balanced.  One bola can kill the Pinthi, but the bolas are hard to hit with because the crazy cyborg is so scared and moves whenever you rotate the Trandals.  One exploit is to get behind the Pinthi so it gets too scared and tries to turn away from where you are aiming.  So if you sweep where you are aiming you can get the Pinthi never turns around and fires at you.  It is still very hard to hit the crazy cyborg with your bola but not impossible.

Trandals vs Tywom is balanced.  If you are good at speed burst you can dodge the bolts and bola the Tywom to death.

Trandals vs Trandals is balanced except for an exploit.  If you can get close and behind the other Trandals it gets too scared and tries to turn away from where you are aiming.  So if you sweep where you are aiming you can get the other Trandals to never turn around and fire at you.  It is still very hard to hit the crazy cyborg with your bola but not impossible.

Trandals vs Drenkend is surprisingly balanced.  Speed burst can let you dodge the boarding parties and even the de-energizer bolts.  2 helixes can kill the Drenkend.  The Drenkend is easier than the Scryve because it does not have Scryve flak that can instantly hit you and the Scryve laser is also instant.  If you get good at dodging the de-energizer bolts you can win.

Trandals vs Scout is too hard.  Once the Scout gets damaged it self destructs and kills you.  The bola is too short ranged.  Maybe if I was better I could kill the Scout in one bola and avoid a self-destruct?

Trandals vs Mowlings is too easy.  One or two good bola can kill the Mowling and the speed burst means the Mowling cannot run away.  The Mowlings does not use its beam carver very well, especially since I can dodge it so easily with Trandals.  At best the Mowling can call Jeff once, but speed burst means I can dodge Jeff.  It just seems too easy to speed burst a little bit so that I can get a good bola shot off.  The Mowling should be more scared like the other ships (eg. Pinthi) because its beam carver is far less effective against the Trandals than it is against other ships.

Drenkend vs Dan'nath is impossible, but that's ok because the gravity wave makes it impossible for boarding parties to hit and the black holes do much more damage than the de-energizer bolts.  The Dan'nath is the counter to the Drenkend.

Drenkend vs Earthling Cruiser I always defeat the Cruiser.  But that's ok because the boarding parties counter the nukes because the boarding parties are much better at long-range combat, so the Drenkend is the counter to the Cruiser.  I do not know what would happen if the point defense could shoot down the boarding parties, but maybe that would only force me to release a lot more boarding parties.

Drenkend vs Menkmack is surprisingly balanced.  You have to charge at the original Menkmack and fire both the de-energizer bolts (they don't cost much energy) and the boarding parties.  You take a lot of damage from the canisters, but you can win.

Drenkend vs Measured is too easy.  So long as you hit the Measured with a de-energizer bolt, then your boarding parties can kill the Measured (and it only takes one boarding party to kill the Measured).  The Measured will destroy boarding parties with Paperwork, but it will run out of battery and the boarding party will kill it.

Drenkend vs Scryve is surprisingly impossible.  I am not sure if flak can kill boarding parties, but the laser at long range and the flak at medium and close range means I am never safe from taking damage.  Also, the crazy cyborg Scryve is good at killing my boarding parties with its laser.  My boarding parties do far less damage than the laser, so time is not on my side.  Even though I can hit the Scryve with my de-energizer bolt, that does not really help much.

Drenkend vs Pinthi is surprisingly balanced.  The Infection really do a a lot of damage to the Drenkend Carrier and the Contagion are useful for once and are good at killing my boarding parties.  I can win taking almost no damage if I don't get too close and get hit by an Infection.  I have to use both boarding parties and de-energizer bolts.  But I can also easily lose or take a lot of damage if I get hit with Infection.

Drenkend vs Tywom is too easy.  At the start of the match, launch enough boarding parties.  Then once the Tywom gets close enough fire de-energizer bolts and if you have spare battery, even more boarding parties.  Also sometimes the boarding parties can hit the Tywom without your help.  The only thing you have to fear is the Tywom bolts, but the Tywom is too busy trying to shoot down your boarding parties to try to do a lot of damage to you.  Sometimes the Tywom does do a lot of damage to the carrier but that is rare.

Drenkend vs Trandals is surprisingly easy.  Fire the de-energizer at the start to discourage the Trandals from boosting and hitting you with a helix, then keep firing the de-energizer and launching boarding parties while trying to stay at medium range.  Then you win easily, so long as the Trandals does not hit you with the helix.  Then again this might actually be balanced, because the penalty for slipping up and getting hit with a helix is great.

Drenkend vs Drenkend is surpirsingly balanced.  You usually either win with almost no damage or lose with almost no damage to the enemy.

Drenkend vs Scout is surprisingly balanced.  The Scout runs into your boarding parties when it really shouldn't.  The de-energizer does not halt the Scout long enough for the boarding parties to catch up (because the Scout is so fast), but wait long enough and boarding parties will eventually hit the Scout.

Drenkend vs Mowlings is too hard.  The Mowling beam carver is too good at shooting down boarding parties and your boarding parties have a hard time hitting the Mowling without a de-energizer bolt.  Then Jeff comes in and damages you.  But I think being too hard is OK because Mowlings seems to be the counter to Drenkend.

Scout vs Dan'nath is almost balanced.  I am just not good enough with the Shot.  I lose and the Dan'nath is at half health.

Scout vs Earthling Cruiser is surprisingly balanced.  I can dodge the nukes.  But the point defense is really good at shooting down my shots.  I cannot just spray and pray because the point defense will only shoot down any shots that would have hit.  But I have gotten good at shooting the shots so more than one will hit and then I win.

Scout vs Menkmack is surprisingly balanced.  It is pretty hard to hit the Menkmack with your shots, but one or two hits kills it.  If you want to do self destruct you do not always win.

Scout vs Measured is surprisingly balanced.  Your only hope is a perfectly timed self destruct that kills the Measured before it can hit you with too many paperworks.

Scout vs Scryve Battlecruiser is surprisingly balanced.  You are so fast that you can dodge the laser and the Flak does not do too much damage.  But I am not good enough to kill the Battlecruiser entirely by my shots, I need to take it to 3/4 health then self destruct.  But I still win, ship points wise.  Maybe dodging the laser is a bit too easy, or maybe not.  Getting hit by the laser is an easy way to die.

Scout vs Pinthi is a bit too easy.  You are so fast that you can dodge everything (both Infection and Contagion).

Scout vs Tywom is balanced but the Tywom wins more often.  The bolts are stronger than the shots I think.  The turrets also help.  But I can always get a self destruct out and win, points wise.

Scout vs Trandals is too easy.  You can circle the Trandals and almost always avoid their bola.  Then whittle them down with shots.

Scout vs Drenkend is too easy if you are willing to self destruct.  Whittle down the Drenkend with shots, then self destruct and come out ahead points-wise.

Scout vs Scout is balanced.  You can either self-destruct or let them self destruct on you and tie, or be really good at shots and kill them (this is hard).

Scout vs Mowlings is too easy, but that might be OK because the Scout is the low-point counter to Mowling.  The Scout is so fast that the beam carver does not lock on for long (the longer the beam carver hits the more damage it does).  You have to be super aggressive and keep firing pass on the Mowling, which is easy because you are so much faster than it.  You can even dodge Jeff.

You might consider playing on Basic Cyborg, since that is where the balance is supposed to be.

All of these are my Mowling vs Crazy Cyborg.  The only time the beam carver seemed to matter was against the Dan'nath.

Mowling vs Dan'nath is surprisingly possible at Crazy Cyborg.  Jeff can hit the Dan'nath for half its health.  But the critical thing is you have to get right up in the Dan'nath's face and sweep your beam carver back and forth over the Dan'nath over and over.  You are so close to the Dan'nath that it does not want to fire its black hole and activate its accretion disc because that would damage the Dan'nath too.  So your beam carver can kill the Dan'nath.  Maybe if you are too close like that the Dan'nath should shoot its black hole (I heard a black hole that is still traveling and does not yet have an accretion disk has a small hitbox but does double damage) at you and only activate the accretion disk later when it misses either just the Dan'nath or both of you.

Mowling vs Earthling Cruiser is balanced at lower difficulty because Jeff can actually hit the Cruiser.  But at higher difficulty he cannot.  I survive a while against the nukes by circling the planet (apparently the Cruiser does not take gravity into account when firing nukes) and my beam carver can only do 6 damage.  And I die to 1 nuke hit and it is really hard to avoid.  So at higher difficulty the Cruiser becomes impossible.

Mowling vs Menkmack has only one way to win.  Jeff must come the first time you call.  Jeff must target the original Menkmack.  Then the Menkmack dies.  I cannot kill the original Menkmack with the beam carver because I die to canister before then (though I do reduce the Menkmack to half health).

Mowlings vs Measured is balanced.  You cannot approach to fire your beam carver because paperwork will kill you.  The Measured has less acceleration but a higher top speed, but the Mowlings can still keep away from the Measured.  I guess a bit more acceleration is more important than a bit more top speed.  I actually won by calling Jeff 2-3 times and he killed the Measured.  A human player playing the Measured must have a chance to catch the Mowling before then for this matchup to be balanced the other way too.  I just checked and the Crazy Cyborg Mowling is bad at avoiding the Measured (even though a human player is not), so you can win.

Mowlings vs Battlecruiser is hard but OK due to their point difference.  You would think the beam carver would be perfect against such a large ship (the longer the beam carver hits a target the more damage it does), but I can only do 6 damage at a time.  Also I die to 3 flak shots.  So I have to dodge the laser and call Jeff.  And I actually won once or twice when I did that.  The Battlecruiser is so slow that it cannot dodge Jeff at all.

Mowlings vs Pinthi is hard but OK.  Jeff still has problems hitting ships like Tywom and Pinthi, but he does significant damage.  Also my beam carver kills Contagion, which is nice.  But Infection can hit me for a lot of damage.  Maybe if I was better I could survive to call Jeff a second time and kill the Pinthi.

Mowlings vs Tywom is hard but that's OK because Tywom counters Mowlings.  Tywom bolts are so powerful compared to beam carver and Jeff does not quite kill the Tywom in one pass.  So I die a lot but that's OK because Jeff does significant damage.

Mowlings vs Trandals is impossible.  Jeff almost always cannot catch up to the Trandals and my beam carver is nothing compared to a bola.  A human player would always dodge Jeff.

Mowlings vs Drenkend is impossible, but that's OK because of the point difference.  The Drenkend have such a high top speed that it takes Jeff a long time to get a firing pass.  With the keyboard I have trouble aiming my beam carver, but maybe if I was better I could do more damage.

Mowlings vs Scout is hard but that's OK.  If I fire my beam carver a lot it scares the Scout and makes it fire less.  If I damage the Scout enough it self destructs and I gain 2 points.

Mowlings vs Mowlings is too hard because on the keyboard I cannot aim the beam carver well

Ok I'll try to find the time to do that.

The ships aren’t supposed to be balanced for each other. Some ships are supposed to hard counter other ships.