CoH2's big gameplay issues

Probably, i am saying to much about it, but game really needs attention to visual part. It's not only about text and icons, it's about UI elements in general.

1. Same abilities, not always have same UI highlight (like AP rounds for MG34 and MG42)
2. Some abilities doesn't have proper highlight in general (like mupltiplication indicator of penals vet ability or spotting scopes for Ostheer)
3. Location of abilities and their order on ability bar totally messed.
4. Order of units in the buildings also messed for some tiers.
5. Not all actions have voicelines (this one probably not fixable)
6. Not all vehicles share skins support, even if we have solid skinmakers from the community, who was ready to assist (at least in the past)
7. Some actions don't have proper UI highlight (like call-in, which shows the area in vCoH and even in CoH 2 SP, but not in current CoH 2 MP)
8. USF base, it just bad.
9. A lot of stuff has non-coded text strings for them, so you can't fix them with localization mod. Aa well as a lot of stuff using same text strings, and information in this strings is not informative, because have to match with two and more things in the game.
10. Different design of assets for factions and their abilities (looks like they've be taken from different assets collections).
11. Not all icons are in good shape (that's my fault as well in very some cases)

And that's only what i remember right now.

If i was able to do something with the game in current state, i would have a look on polishing and improvements of UI in possible ways and QoL (very obvious to hear it from me, i know ).

Big issue is that Ost is forced to crutch on anything but stock grens: 5man, agrens, Ostruppen. Ost is bedridden to literally those 5 doctrines. I have said that the 5man upgrade is slightly too good though and the RA bonus is unneccesary.

However, what is NOT acceptable is pro players like Fire & Terror thinking pgren timing needs a nerf cuz ostruppen + pgrens is too oppressive. THAT'S THE POINT OF THE ENTIRE DOCTRINE: to be oppressive with the tempo and map control. Ostruppen + pgren can feel oppressive if used correctly, I've played against a rank 20 Ost player, think his name was Musk Weed. Both games, he used the Ost + pgren build and as a rank 300 USF player I almost crippled him the 2nd game by just outspamming his infantry with a combination of rifle + cav rifles. Eventually his ostruppen micro was overwhelmed and he only won because one of his railway arty shells scattered extremely wide and deleted 3 squads.

Unlike 5man grens, ostruppen actually requires a fair bit of micro while 5 man grens are superior to riflemen at almost all ranges and makes them on par with sections, effectively reducing the need of ever using an mg42. Basically Ost can play like OKW if they cap the munis for the 5man but with all the perks, like better team weapons and faster mediums.

The solution is to instead give grens a damage buff vs suppressed and pinned units. A rather hefty one like 15-20%.

And StuG TWP has been LITERALLY useless for a LONG time. A worse ability the RE volley fire. Any other ability would be better than the current TWP.

Manual reload button on all HMGs.

Flamethrower attack ground command doesn't fire through smoke.

You must be blind. Blaming Allies OP for Noggano throwing 2 Cmd PV in the final match and tourney having stupid rule of fixed spawns which gives allies advantage on Elst outskirts due to easier access to VPs. Also many of the games were super close with no clear winner until 50 minutes in, but according to you it was just a one-sided allies stomping axis and of course no misplays on axis side ever happened, no map favoring allied spawn was played and there were no close games, just allies stomping axis with its op units.

I think you look at tourney results alone ignoring all the factors that don't match your idea and as such you draw wrong conclusions.

I am happy I saw USF like 4 times or sth. Too bad it lost all the games. The inglorious Jackson OP, Pak Howie OP, Riflemen OP, USF ATG OP, .50 cal OP, OP faction that didn't win a game. How could that happen?

Yes Axis OP. Axis players just too bad and need to L2P. How dare they sometimes managed to make it a close game?

And yes USF lost every single game. Every game. In the whole tournament. There is no way they actually won a game and you are definitely not wrong.

TBH, if you want to see what is unbalanced just watch the top players stream and what doctrines they use, if you see a trend, then its patching holes or downright OP.

Yes Axis OP. Axis players just too bad and need to L2P. How dare they sometimes managed to make it a close game?

And yes USF lost every single game. Every game. In the whole tournament. There is no way they actually won a game and you are definitely not wrong.

I haven't seen Blueknight say anything pro Axis/anti Allies before.

I agree with OP that the game is fairly balanced as of the moment.
The only things I want changed are more personal bias than any real substantial balance suggestion. To participate though, I'll list what I'd like to see.

1) It might be me but I feel the conscripts are really strong now. Can't just be me, right?
2) I always thought Stg for the Volks as an upgrade is silly. I'd rather see MP40 upgrade like the first game and give them smoke as an assault package.
3) Hit the dirt is still terrible and should allow conscripts to crawl move rather than being completely immobile. That, or remove accuracy penalty.
4) Stuka barrage is the only artillery that's incredibly accurate. I would prefer it to have a cone scatter like the other artillery since it's way too lethal. In exchange, I would either reduce cost or allow it less cooldown.

Sections need a nerf. Ost is stuck with 3 doctrines vs UKF - ostruppen and 5man, OKW - only jaegers and mp40 volks.

Probably, i am saying to much about it, but game really needs attention to visual part. It's not only about text and icons, it's about UI elements in general.

1. Same abilities, not always have same UI highlight (like AP rounds for MG34 and MG42)
2. Some abilities doesn't have proper highlight in general (like mupltiplication indicator of penals vet ability or spotting scopes for Ostheer)
3. Location of abilities and their order on ability bar totally messed.
4. Order of units in the buildings also messed for some tiers.
5. Not all actions have voicelines (this one probably not fixable)
6. Not all vehicles share skins support, even if we have solid skinmakers from the community, who was ready to assist (at least in the past)
7. Some actions don't have proper UI highlight (like call-in, which shows the area in vCoH and even in CoH 2 SP, but not in current CoH 2 MP)
8. USF base, it just bad.
9. A lot of stuff has non-coded text strings for them, so you can't fix them with localization mod. Aa well as a lot of stuff using same text strings, and information in this strings is not informative, because have to match with two and more things in the game.
10. Different design of assets for factions and their abilities (looks like they've be taken from different assets collections).
11. Not all icons are in good shape (that's my fault as well in very some cases)
And that's only what i remember right now.

If i was able to do something with the game in current state, i would have a look on polishing and improvements of UI in possible ways and QoL (very obvious to hear it from me, i know ).

+1, there are a lot of UI elements that need to be fixed.

resources having no cap, causing possibility of having outnumbering resource reserves and winning the game, by having 2000 mp and 500 fuel in reserve. Giving it a limit really would only affect bigger team games and leaves 1v1 and 2v2 untouched.

1) The game is in desperate need of veterancy overhaul, veterancy has not been touched in year.

XP values are no longer in line with price and performance

Veterancy bonus are not inline with one another or faction design.

Units are balance at vet 0 and not at all vet levels.

Vet abilities need to be look since some are too common, do not fit current unit role, are inconstant in cost, duration, CD...

2) Game needs to become more player friendly and have consistency in mechanism. Over the year a large number of "band aid" solution where applied. These "solution" remain even when they no longer served their original propose making the game unnecessarily complicated.

For example sniper got 82 HP to avoid wipe from mortars and they retain the 82 HP even now that mortars can notshot them.

At the same time, recent automatch 1v1 stats (based on 315k games compared to a few dozen) show a completely different picture with all factions being within 1% of each other except for Soviets being slightly worse.

Please don't quote those stats as if they have any value, they're from all ranks/levels and are mired with L2P issues. They should not be used as indicators of balance. Tournament stats are much better indicators since L2P issues play a smaller role.

Sections need a nerf.

L2P issues.

For example sniper got 82 HP to avoid wipe from flare mines and indirect fire hits, which is still a good feature

fixed that for you

Also, grens should be in T0.

A Grens/MG42 switch is something I had in mind as well.

...
fixed that for you
...

No it is not.

Please don't quote those stats as if they have any value, they're from all ranks/levels and are mired with L2P issues. They should not be used as indicators of balance. Tournament stats are much better indicators since L2P issues play a smaller role.

Both are useful for different reasons.
Depending on the tournament setting, they are also plagued by a different kind of bias as well. For example, maps and fixed spawn location.

In automatch people get matched based on their elo rating so WR will always be close to 50%. Not sure how that says much about balance.

lol, this is a very brazen statement indeed!

You are showing some blue sky thinking.

Truth is, you need a large population for ELO matching to work out ok, and coh2 hasn't had that for the longest time.

coh2 is NOT an example of a game with good ELO match-making, and by 'good' I mean fitting the example you made above.

None of these issues are big issues (which is OP’s point )

The game is very balanced imo, and it needs something to spice it up, like some commander reworks, and after that maybe another set of community commanders? That would be awesome.

None of these issues are big issues (which is OP’s point )

The game is very balanced imo, and it needs something to spice it up, like some commander reworks, and after that maybe another set of community commanders? That would be awesome.

Read op again, is about gameplay issues not balance issues

Read op again, is about gameplay issues not balance issues

Well actually I was often referring to balance issues as well.

But unless someone wants to add a new idea, I think we can safely bury this thread.

Big issue is that Ost is forced to crutch on anything but stock grens: 5man, agrens, Ostruppen. Ost is bedridden to literally those 5 doctrines. I have said that the 5man upgrade is slightly too good though and the RA bonus is unneccesary.

However, what is NOT acceptable is pro players like Fire & Terror thinking pgren timing needs a nerf cuz ostruppen + pgrens is too oppressive. THAT'S THE POINT OF THE ENTIRE DOCTRINE: to be oppressive with the tempo and map control. Ostruppen + pgren can feel oppressive if used correctly, I've played against a rank 20 Ost player, think his name was Musk Weed. Both games, he used the Ost + pgren build and as a rank 300 USF player I almost crippled him the 2nd game by just outspamming his infantry with a combination of rifle + cav rifles. Eventually his ostruppen micro was overwhelmed and he only won because one of his railway arty shells scattered extremely wide and deleted 3 squads.

Unlike 5man grens, ostruppen actually requires a fair bit of micro while 5 man grens are superior to riflemen at almost all ranges and makes them on par with sections, effectively reducing the need of ever using an mg42. Basically Ost can play like OKW if they cap the munis for the 5man but with all the perks, like better team weapons and faster mediums.

The solution is to instead give grens a damage buff vs suppressed and pinned units. A rather hefty one like 15-20%.

Calling me a pro player lol. I just suggested panzergrens to either require t1 or t2, hardly a big nerf. I just feel like when playing soviets you just get stomped becouse 3min panzergrens can hardly be dealt with+ the flamer truck forces you into zis and this is basically insta loss becouse of no mapcontrol.

I also talked to other players like CN and seeking and they suggested that the only way to play sov against osttruppen is Dshk since it can push away both FHT and PGs.

This feels like the same way 5 men grens need to be played against brit IS, which i dont like and thus suggested the change.

Pgs with t1 is hardly an Issue IMO just the fast rushes are hard to deal with (without dshka) since you cant go schocks becouse of FHT

The biggest (non-fundamental) gameplay issues:

0. Bad maps (soon to be fixed hpefully)

1. Light vehicle timing

2. Weak retreat modifieres

3. Mainline infantry sandbags