What to do with Radio Silence?

Some of the above suggestions may, however, be a bit overcomplicated (selecting a unit to use radio silence, etc). Such ideas won't work imo.

what about something like a captured USF halftrack with the ability (boring but maybe the m5, since it works as captured from all factions then)? give okw another option with forward reinforcement and a tunable unit to deliver on timing. it suits the faction, as well as the ability's source material

beacons arent bad though, be even better if tied to an infiltration unit that has other abilities to sow discord (fake info, soviet scorched earth type ability ect) but thats a lot more work

A halftrack wouldn't be a bad idea for it.

Anyway, I take it the main thing here is making it non-global and tie it to say a (new) unit.

Because it divides players in two categories based on how they use mechanical game controls (muscle memory, years of learning the controls - not their playstyle/tactics) the ability to affect tactical map should be completely removed (even the minimap - but this could probably stay as its effect is less unintuitive/gamebreaking). If the above can't be done, e.g. due to technicalities, the ability should get scrapped (which would be a shame)

If the above can be done the ability should affect the voicelines only. Both armies should become "silent". No voicecues for a certain time duration. The OKW player would control it and that would be his/her advantage plus the speed buff. Such solution would retain the ability, retain its uniqueness and would add a cool feature to the game making it more enjoyable.

Don't know if just voicelines is possible, I know some people say grenade warnings and such don't trigger with Radio Silence, but never really had confirmation on that. With the coh2 tools you can only choose from a 'pool' of things to happen that have been designed by Relic, so some things aren't possible for us.

Considering you mainly want the icon thing to be different, what do you think of the camo idea that has been posted?

My first thought is an individual squad ability for 15-30 second stealth with no cover requirements but 40% speed, and maybe 2.5 seconds of a .75 damage multiplier on hostile de-cloak.

The idea is you can sneak behind lines for a positional advantage, but the squad is vulnerable if discovered during the stealth phase.

So also a stealth idea, but on a per squad basis. Can't really give a penalty if they're discovered though, but how you could implement it is by giving them a debuff during the duration which disappears if they fire first while camoed.

Ironically what's missing is a visual warning for the opponent that's the ability is used. The same reason why any off map arty barrage get a smoke alarm or rocket arty a loud sound.

I've been convinced by Lunvest's arguments that no ability should be able to mess up with the game UI so I imagine something similar to what JPA32 proposed

Instead of being an aggressive ability, could be a defensive one. And no more messing up with the player's UI.

Redesign, noted. I should've added this is mostly for the upcoming patch though, so not sure how much is possible for now.

How about instead of making it a global ability, it would only take effect in a targeted sector and/or adjacent ones? Sectors could highlight, informing other player that they should expect an ambush there.

Alternatively, it could only affect units in certain circular zone, leaving a custom marker on the minimap and tacmap, allowing other players to easily pinpoint the "danger zone".

Or, if we want to scale it down even more, make it an ability that targets a friendly unit, granting it temporary minimap invisibility, speed boost and camo. This would preserve it offensive nature and theme of driving deep behind enemy lines for a surprise attack.

It's not being considered much, because it needs to have another tangible benefit outside "your units will do something cool that may or may not confuse the other player."

Disagree, for 40 munis that one benefit is fine.

This is an issue only for few 10 players out of the thousands of the people that play the game. It is useful only when you know 100% that the opponent is using tacmap most of his playtime otherwise in 99% of cases it is just waste of munitions

I think it is not a issue and there are bigger priorities that are more important to spend your balancing energy on like figuring out a way to make UKF not a useless faction in 1v1s...

How about instead of making it a global ability, it would only take effect in a targeted sector and/or adjacent ones? Sectors could highlight, informing other player that they should expect an ambush there.

Alternatively, it could only affect units in certain circular zone, leaving a custom marker on the minimap and tacmap, allowing other players to easily pinpoint the "danger zone".

Think sector + adjacent sectors would be big enough to keep it usable in that case and the indicator for opponent would be nice yeah. I'll add it to idea list to bring up.

Or, if we want to scale it down even more, make it an ability that targets a friendly unit, granting it temporary minimap invisibility, speed boost and camo. This would preserve it offensive nature and theme of driving deep behind lines for a surprise attack.

Would be nice if voicelines could be split in that case. iirc it's something like this right now:

"Radio silence is in effect [pause] all units bla bla.."

"Radio silence has been lifted [pause] all units bla bla.."

Imo:

1) CD should be increased. Abilities with long duration should have a CD that start from the end of the ability instead of of beginning. Same goes for arty flares available to same commander.

2) Commander abilities that increase the speed of unit during combat should be removed since the increase the chance of wipes. The ability could provide speed boost that would be stop once the unit engaged in combat.

(passive sprint and active sprint for HMG should also be removed)

3) Ability could be changes so that unit start appearing in the map once they close a certain distance (20?) That would allow user to detect the unit earlier.


If one goes of redesign one could go a little further allowing a player to build Conscript/Riflemen/Tommie with an ability to become neutral (appear as friendly in enemy tec map) for a limited time or until he open fire.

That would be a historically accurate and reference to Operation Greif.

Why are there only options that still allow the 4th-wall breaking mechanic of the ability? No matter how to you time it, 4 seconds are still enough to move your blob of volks at 1.2 speed (while being able to fire which is unique) and take out a sniper or mg. If we have to keep this awful mechanic at least make it that as soon as units enter combat state they are visible. But I’d suggest removing it and replacing it with something similarly useful and more fitting to its theme.

For people who worry about the theme of the commander: it’s already not fitting anyway. Enemy troops are charging you with full-auto STG fire at ubermenschen-speed (even For Mother Russia got that speed buff in combat removed) but you still can’t see them on the minimap which is quite hilarious. I’m sure the fact that they don’t use coms is overshaded by the fact that are firing their assault rifles in front of you. The whole aspect of keeping radio silence is already thrown overboard.

A mechanic that is vastly superior to how radio silence is implemented currently is camouflage. It doesn’t awkwardly mess with your UI in a forced way. Camouflage also hides units from the minimap and even plain view but there are many drawbacks like standing idly by not doing anything if you wait for a countersnipe for example and ways to counter it. It also requires heavy micro taxation by moving your units from cover to cover. You can use recon plane, you can use scout cars with higher detection radius or even avoid the area. It also features a psychological aspect. With radio silence there are no such countermeasures or even restrictions to your micro, hell you don’t even see the enemy on the map when he is right in front of your face. You click the magic button once, and you can keep doing what you are doing with little effort while your opponent struggles to get the blanket off his screen.

I already posted an alternative implementation that balances the ability and also better fits the theme. I also like the idea mentioned here of an improved raid operations. The ability should be about advancing sneakily and if it has to with more speed in the cover of night (the original inspiration was the infiltration tactics used by the Axis during the Battle of the Bulge). All of these things should disappear as soon as you enter combat though.

is there a possibility to implement audio into the game?

if so, why not implement a short radio static/jamming noise whenever for the opponent when the ability has been activated 1-2 seconds long, so that the opposing player now knows that he/she needs to keep an eye out.

but if this was possible, i would buff the duration to 2-3 minutes-ish, giving the opposing player a warning, but not knowing when the strike will come

For all of those who don't know how OP this ability can get, check out Luvnest vs. Isildur matchup in ML4 when Luvnest was playing Soviet and Isildur was playing Special Op Commander.

It looked like as if Luvnest threw the game, but he just didn't know his tank and infantry were in danger.

Genuine Proposal:

What about whist ability is active the units cloak while in cover and can move at 1.2 movement speed.

This way it adheres to the voice line, but offers an interesting but counterable playstyle, I'd have a tooltip pop up for enemy too so they knew that there was infantry moving along cover points at 1.2x speed to flank you.

Would certainly be more interesting than removing unit icons from the map.

While i appreciate the creativity of this commander, luvnest does make some good points

as a rank 1000 2v2 wehrboo, lucky i wont encounter this. But i imagine it is not fun to fight sprinting stg volks, obers and sturms out from no where.

I will vote to revert and remove sprint. the missing mini and tac map ui is very good already. the opponents are kept on their toes to tab space on their units under attack.

no need for global sprint.

Increase cost(slightly)
Decrease duration(a lot)
move to 6-10 cp

Since the ability unfairly punishes minimap players, I suggest that it makes enemy players' cursors invisible.

But really, I think the bonuses being lost in combat are fair and offer counterplay which is currently missing.

Genuine Proposal:

What about whist ability is active the units cloak while in cover and can move at 1.2 movement speed.

This way it adheres to the voice line, but offers an interesting but counterable playstyle, I'd have a tooltip pop up for enemy too so they knew that there was infantry moving along cover points at 1.2x speed to flank you.

Would certainly be more interesting than removing unit icons from the map.

I like that idea.

+1 from me. Fixes basically all of the issues that this ability has.

Luvnest's activity on forums usually:

Luvnest's activity on forums when something threatens his playstyle in tournies:



Just messing, everyone's the same tbh

Speed boost needs to be removed altogether. Even if you completely remove everything from the ability but the speed boost, being able to blob on retreat paths for 40munis with it will still be toxic to fight against.

Don't know if just voicelines is possible [...]

... but imo that would really be a great change. I wrote it earlier but if both players heard some classical music/propaganda/radio interference instead of all voicecues.... I also believe it should happen to both players.


If it cannot be done at least the name of the ability should be changed into sth like "radar jamming (operation)" so that it really does what it says.

With the coh2 tools you can only choose from a 'pool' of things to happen that have been designed by Relic, so some things aren't possible for us.

Understood. Yet, it does not seem to be that difficult to just delete all voicecues for some duration.

Considering you mainly want the icon thing to be different, what do you think of the camo idea that has been posted?

Yeah. Why not - the only problem might be making it overly complicated. So a sector or some ring affecting some units. But then I would see it more as a defensive measure. You could make it camo all not combat engaged units in a certain area until they move. Offensive camo for a group of units is a bit risky imo as it seems too arcade at least to me (units walking into enemy camoed are not sth I would like to see in the game - I already sort of hate crater exploiting commandos and falls)

Radio Silence:

• Available CP 0
• 40 munition cost
• 60 second duration
• Infantry can fire on the move
• x1.2 speed bonus on infantry squads
• Hides all your units on the opponent's minimap and tacmap



Meanwhile in the Wehrmacht camp…


Tactical Movement:

• Available CP 2
• 40 munition cost
• 20 second duration
• Infantry cannot fire on the move
• x1.2 speed bonus on infantry squads (correction 1.33)

Tactical Movement
• x1.2 speed bonus on infantry squads

Speed bonus =/= sprint

Infantry with Tactical Movement run much faster.