First Quarter 2021 Balance Patch

Lol @ the axis bois who think the only precision rocket arty in the game is the worst one and the Calliope is too stronk

The fact it is "precision" is precisely the issue with the Stuka for the main role that Rocket Arty is expected to fill, which is blob removal. The Stuka is really only "good" at killing team weapons (less so for Soviet ones), it's far less effective against infantry, as it requires precise aim, and can be dodged by moving a few feet to one side (Assuming you predict correctly). It also lands slowly.

It's a good unit, but its role is drastically different to that of conventional rocket arty.

What if the damage/scatter of all rocket arty was nerfed but all got longer suppression time (and maybe vehicle stuns on direct hits)?

So rocket arty has more of an active suppression/degrading role during engagements, not a tool for continuous bombardment. (I've just been reminded IRL the biggest effect of rocket arty was psychological)

This is how rocket arty and howitzers should have been designed - with all factions having (stock) access to both. Rocket arty should have dealt major suppression in a large area but little damage so that it could be used to stop an enemy advance or to reduce the effectiveness of enemy defences while launching your own assault. Howitzers should have brought precision killing power with a zeroing mechanic (every consecutive shot becomes more accurate). This way there would have been two distinctive types of artillery each with their own goals/uses and strengths. This is how howitzers and rocket arty were done in the Wargame series and it worked very well. Sadly, it's too late to implement this in CoH2.

Lol @ the axis bois who think the only precision rocket arty in the game is the worst one and the Calliope is too stronk

Did I even say the Stuka zu Fuss was the worst one in the game? Although, I will explicitly admit that the Calliope is too stronk. Way too stronk. There is no reason for it to be a 3 shot kill.

Core faction changes for all factions or just some? This is going to be a huge amount of work to balance.
I hope some "members" of the actual "balance team" aren't part of the project.

What's wrong with the panzershreck?

What it need is less dmg and faster reload

What it need is less dmg and faster reload

And less pen? Cause even with less damage the guarantee to frontally pen all allied stock armour with the exception of comet/church would be a bit much. Reliability always needs to come with a drawback.

This is how rocket arty and howitzers should have been designed - with all factions having (stock) access to both. Rocket arty should have dealt major suppression in a large area but little damage so that it could be used to stop an enemy advance or to reduce the effectiveness of enemy defences while launching your own assault. Howitzers should have brought precision killing power with a zeroing mechanic (every consecutive shot becomes more accurate). This way there would have been two distinctive types of artillery each with their own goals/uses and strengths. This is how howitzers and rocket arty were done in the Wargame series and it worked very well. Sadly, it's too late to implement this in CoH2.

Ah I play wargame, must be where I got the idea from.
Why is it too late to change now?

Ah I play wargame, must be where I got the idea from.
Why is it too late to change now?

Because reworking all of this would take a shit load of balance tweaking plus factions have different howitzer types (UKF and USF only in one commander, the rest only have static ones). The units have been balanced in their current role within their faction (that is, the StuKa for example is meant to be a wipe machine because OKW is built to need it more than a rocket suppression platform). Throwing that overboard will not only lead to reworking "just" the rocket arty and howitzers, but probably larger parts of the all factions and especially late game units as well.

We don't know if Relic will support the game further after this one balance patch, meaning we'd have a 99% chance that a lot is broken in the first implementation and then there will be no hotfix afterwards.

...

The Burratino would like to have a word with you.

The Burratino would like to have a word with you.

Touché. Most of Wargame's howitzer/rocket artillery design worked very well.

The Burratino would like to have a word with you.

BM-24: hold my beer

Because reworking all of this would take a shit load of balance tweaking plus factions have different howitzer types (UKF and USF only in one commander, the rest only have static ones). The units have been balanced in their current role within their faction (that is, the StuKa for example is meant to be a wipe machine because OKW is built to need it more than a rocket suppression platform). Throwing that overboard will not only lead to reworking "just" the rocket arty and howitzers, but probably larger parts of the all factions and especially late game units as well.

We don't know if Relic will support the game further after this one balance patch, meaning we'd have a 99% chance that a lot is broken in the first implementation and then there will be no hotfix afterwards.



The Burratino would like to have a word with you.

Nobody knows but you know many companies that upgrade their game after so many years just to let them die the months after?

Coh2 could be the Coh3 everyone is hoping for.

Nobody knows but you know many companies that upgrade their game after so many years just to let them die the months after?

Coh2 could be the Coh3 everyone is hoping for.

There are even companies out there that publish a game and then let it die in the months after.

CoH2 probably does not generate a huge amount of revenue, which is also supported by the fact that officially no one at Relic is responsible for the whole CoH franchise anymore (plus having transferred patches to the community in a first step). Furthermore, people on the balance team apparently also have no information about long term commitment by Relic, otherwise otherwise I assume we'd know it somehow. The 64 bit version is likely due to Microsoft wanting to make their game pass more attractive. Obviously no one knows what the future will exactly bring, but chances are high that after 7 years there will be no major support for almost any game out there. It is already surprising that Relic provided patches for so long, even if they heavily reduced their involvement.

And the CoH3 everyone is hoping for is more than just a couple of stat changes, we'd need some actual coding for that plus modding and workshop support, all of which we are unlikely to get.

Things that need to be adressed imo:

Off meta commanders BUFF

I talked with luvnest and he agree with me that soviet defensive commander need bunker.

It is unforgivable that soviet is the only faction without bunker.

There are even companies out there that publish a game and then let it die in the months after.

CoH2 probably does not generate a huge amount of revenue, which is also supported by the fact that officially no one at Relic is responsible for the whole CoH franchise anymore (plus having transferred patches to the community in a first step). Furthermore, people on the balance team apparently also have no information about long term commitment by Relic, otherwise otherwise I assume we'd know it somehow. The 64 bit version is likely due to Microsoft wanting to make their game pass more attractive. Obviously no one knows what the future will exactly bring, but chances are high that after 7 years there will be no major support for almost any game out there. It is already surprising that Relic provided patches for so long, even if they heavily reduced their involvement.

And the CoH3 everyone is hoping for is more than just a couple of stat changes, we'd need some actual coding for that plus modding and workshop support, all of which we are unlikely to get.

And you can't imagine that coh3 couldn't simply be an enhanced coh2? I don't know if Relic or Microsoft are willing to build a new game from scratch when they can simply take back the development on coh2 and build around it.
As we know the RTS community is small and anything that can reduce the development cost will greatly help to have something at the end.

THe 64bit development for coh2 and release of coh1 on mobile show that Relic or Microsoft are willing to continue the COH franchise's adventure but not from a new perspective. They'll take what they already have in stock and use it to propose to their audience new contents or find new audience on different supports.
They already have a great engine that need a serious polishing (we all agree on that), what they lacked in the past was a game design and community vision. And from a year or two they're starting to acquire both of them, they used us to learn to build a game design that suit us as players (community patches) and put in place the elements to build a community and provide relevant content to it (championship, tourney etc...)

I'm curious to see what they'll propose, and if I'm right about their on-going strategy.

More modding support is always welcome...

You simply cant build great overhaul mods with new factions, etc, in CoH2 like ypu could in CoH1

Remember it's not all about balance in the sense of statistical tweaking, there are likely going to be a reshuffle of core army units and teching as well which will breathe new life into the game.

Pog

Hopefully we can get some reworks/new dynamics instead of just buffs and nerfs

I hope they buff USF doctrinal armour. Namely E8 and Rifle comm. Wouldn't mind a slight calliope nerf since that thing is slightly OP, remove 2-4 rockets from the barrage and make the cooldown a couple seconds shorter maybe.

OH and make pershing non-doctrinal. Its not even that great to warrant a doctrine slot.

Wouldn't mind a slight calliope nerf since that thing is slightly OP, remove 2-4 rockets from the barrage and make the cooldown a couple seconds shorter maybe

That thing need cp10 to popout meantime stuka zu fuss is available at cp4 of course if we talk about teamgames.

That thing need cp10 to popout meantime stuka zu fuss is available at cp4 of course if we talk about teamgames.

Putting the Stuka anywhere other than Mechanized HQ is a giant buff to the unit and the faction.