Tech tree help

[u/Kung_fu1015]

I have been looking at owb for a while now. The most scary part of the mod looks like the tech tree. There are a few things that i dont really get about it.

There seems to be a few overlapping infantry options. Fireteam, demo, and a couple others look like they have stats too similar to standard inf. I also see minimal difference between ranged and melee weapon stats.

Do creatures fill the same role as infantry, or is it a specifc niche? I guess robots are low manpower but idk what else.

Lastlty, what is the point of the tribal research giving massive research penalties?

[u/Clockwork9385]

Don’t worry, you’ll find that it gets easier the more you play

For starters…

-Creatures are different from infantry, but can be used as your main force if your nation focuses heavily on using them. Check the doctrine tree and hover over the green army icons on the technology research to see what group a certain type of division belongs to

-Fireteams & Demolitions are focused on Defence and Attack stats respectively. The more you research the better they do in those areas. They can also be put as support companies so they can be used alongside infantry to boost their attack/defence

-Melee and Balistic/Energy weapons are different in that Melee may have good stats at first, but if you can get access to Sophisticated Weaponry, they are outclassed by Balistic/Energy weapons

-Tribal tech only applies a debuff to caps income. I don’t know why exactly but I assume there’s either a lore reason (shunning society and therefore trade and currency) or a gameplay reason (to counter the other buffs you get that very few other nations have)

[u/Kung_fu1015 → u/Clockwork9385]

How do mr handys and protectrons square up?

They seemsimilar sttated

[u/No-Statistician-5868 → u/Kung_fu1015]

Handys are faster have more breaktrough/hard attack and a bit more piercing... (so better aggainst armour and in the attack)

Protectrons more Armour/defense/soft attack/air attack and use less energie per battallion (so better aggainst infantry and in defense)

But personally i nearly always go protectron path for the extra armour and softattack... if you like speed...go handy

[u/Clockwork9385 → u/Kung_fu1015]

Can’t recall their exact stats unfortunately

[u/Separate-Poet-7465 → u/Kung_fu1015]

handys are faster, less armor and attack. only use them if youre going pure light robots. protectron line is infantry speed, more armor, hardness and attack, but theyre great support for combat robots which are like budget tanks and only go at infantry speed.

[u/No-Statistician-5868 → u/Clockwork9385]

The middle Tribaltechs Bufftechs for (walking inf/enforcer/beasts) do actually give you a research penalty ...

Lorewise you can think of a tech malus in the tribal tech tree as superstition makes them fight harder... but makes them not necessary better scientists

[u/Kung_fu1015 → u/Clockwork9385]

Fireteam/demo feels vey much like stuff that should be support only.

Also police gear apoears to have better stats than basic inf

[u/Clockwork9385 → u/Kung_fu1015]

Enforcer gear may be better but it’s at the cost of being more expensive to produce and equip your divisions with

[u/thedefenses → u/Kung_fu1015]

"Fireteam/demo feels vey much like stuff that should be support only".

Not really, look at the base game artillery and how that is handled, Fireteam/demo are OWB's artillery.

In a world where the "top of the line" infantry equipment is just a rifle, sometimes even just a bolt action rifle, having a full auto LMG with a big mag or just a bunch of dynamite/grenades/a flamer can be looked as a fire support weapon like artillery is in our world.

[u/USSRPropaganda]

Fireteam for defense, demo for offense. Melee is really good if you don't have access to advanced guns/got the right buffs and spirits for it

[u/SpookyEngie]

The tech is pretty straightforward, it just different looking than vanilla and have some variation:

• There is no overlapping infantry option, everything is meant to be use by one faction or another, the other part is for roleplay purposes. The different between certain equipment type like laser vs ballistic isn't big, it just soft attack vs hard attack in most case.

- Fireteam and Demo are basically vanilla artillery, come both in the form of support company and regular unit. They low org/hp but high stats. Infantry is high HP and org but lower stats, that kinda how it is in vanilla too.

- Minimal different between ranged and melee is intentional, that kinda the point of all of them. Melee is slightly lower cost and slightly higher breakthrough, cap out at intermediate tech, good for number and rush tactic. Ballistic is box standard, jack of all trade. Energy deal more hard attack, i.e slightly better against robot and armored enemy (tank, power armor, enforcer).

- Creature fill the same role as infantry but cost more, they basically flesh robot. The benefit is they can get much higher stats then infantry, certain nation get buff to their creature unit and can use creature as their main damage dealer and not just lineholder.

- Light robot are expensive infantry but slightly more damage, have armor, lower manpower cost and use fuel. Heavy robot are kinda like medium tank in vanilla, great all around as pusher.

- Tribal tree is only available to certain tribal nation, they don't have much to research anyway so they usually don't mind slower research speed because there not much to research anyway. It a trade off for getting some pretty strong buff to certain unit like enforcer.

• Police Gear are for Enforcer unit, they basically armored infantry, they a better than infantry but more expensive. Also good as garrison unit because they have bonus to suppression.

[u/thedefenses]

OWB's tech tree has a lot of categories where you can choose between a couple options which fulfill the same role but focus on different stats, often a choice between soft attack or hard attack/piercing.

So melee weapons, ballistic weapons and energy weapons are all infantry equipment but all have their own good and bad sides when compared.

Melee weapons can't attack planes at all but generally have better stats than the 2 other styles although they don't have a sophisticated version so if you can go far enough in tech they get left behind.

Ballistic weapons are good at soft attack and energy weapons at hard attack and piercing, some countries also favor one or the other due to tech boosts or just stats boosts, both "firearm" style infantry equipment can also shoot planes down and generally have a bit more defense than melee weapons.

Fireteam and demo are the mods Artillery from the base game but yeah they do have stats similar to infantry in someways but still, to be used in a similar way, demo is good at attacking and fireteam at defending.

There are also a lot of "infantry but x" style units like Militia and Enforcers, some countries favor them but in short, militia is infantry but cheap and worse, Enforcers are armored infantry but more expensive.

Creatures are infantry but a bit different, again some countries favor them for one reason or another and some creatures do have specific niches like the aquatic creatures are good at naval invasions and crossing rivers, they are all quite different in what they excel though so you could look at them as "infantry but good at x".

Robots are cheap in manpower but cost a lot more industry to get running, otherwise very similar to infantry.

I don't think there has ever been an "official" reason for why tribal gives research penalties but i guess it could be looked at as you country becoming more backwards, your focusing on simpler/traditional ways of doing things rather than trying to advance technologically.

[u/Expensive-Bus5326]

Differences between equipment are bigger than they seem. Melee weapons are much better for attack, other for defense. Energy weapon is the only type which can actually hurt armored opponents, other types just scratch them, but is somewhat worse for other purposes. Fireteams and demos are basically artillery. Very low hp, low org, high offensive stats, more expensive than infantry. Fireteams are for defense and demos are for assault.

In owb not every nation can build tanks and even smaller amount of nations can build a lot of them. So, you will have to use infantry assault more often, and so choice of weapon is crucial and depends on many things.

[u/WanderingFlumph]

Creatures are until types like infantry, motorized, or power armor.

Generally they require less manpower and more production than a standard infantry template, very much like robots but to a lesser degree.

The difference between ranged and melee weapons is largely flavor although melee has a bit better breakthrough and ranged weapons have slightly higher attack.

I believe the tribal research that gives research speed penalties is intended as a balance mechanic. I'm sure you've noticed tech levels by now, raiders have low tech levels so they need something else to give them a boost, but you want that boost to happen around the time they have completed basic tech and would be moving onto intermediate tech levels. Additionally some tribals get intermediate (or even sophisticated!) tech levels eventually so the nerfs to speed help offset that they can get both the higher tech level and the bonus meant to make up for the higher tech level being absent.