That looks pretty nice as proof of concept (not sure if I use that phrase right), but I guess it will will stay a dream.
It would require lots of tweaking to put it inline, like you said: incorporating a set up time so that it cant just roll up and instantly clear a VP (Thus some sort of planning is necessary).
And then should it be able to fire out of the base sector if It can't move while reloading? So that off-maps have a chance to counter it or is it enough to be unable to move while set-up and reloading.
Also: Should it have the reload trigger instantly or should you be allowed to decide when to reload etc.
Even though right now is the best time for such big changes with having a long running beta, I doubt there will be a chance and thus the ST will most likely stay a fringe unit.
Unless they manage to somehow make it work reliable (on differing terrain) while still being able to punish units not moved in a certain time frame.
It's why I'm putting this out there, the time to test these "concepts" as you said is now while there's still the preview going on, see what works and what doesn't, what can and should be tweaked, fixed and so on and so forth because again as we've already established, we don't know when the game's support will be entirely cut like with the older CoH.
It looks cool, but I'd never want to have that it CoH2.
We're just getting rid of an overly survivable Calliope that was "just" a bad medium in terms of defensive stats. We don't need a movable and precise B4 that is basically unkillable shooting across half the map.
Getting this to a spot that is even remotely "balanced" while still feeling like a Sturmtiger will be next to impossible. We already have Sextons and Priests and those are virtually unkillable despite them having a longer barrage and what is basically LV health and armor stats.
If we're going to use the same logic here as the flares where "oh we're removing it from this faction so that means we should remove/not give it to the others" then the B4, Railway arty and the 240mm barrage as well as concentrated barrage should either all be entirely reworked or removed from the game as well then.
As far as your opinion goes on not having the Sturmtiger like it's shown in the video, again, that's just entirely your opinion and you cannot prove that it'd be impossible to balance in any sort of way until it's actually tested and people give their feedback on it like I've already said. These wild guesses and assumptions going off of currently implemented badly designed and balanced units I don't believe have anything to do with with this right now taking into consideration that it'd be something entirely new and unique, not to mention different.
Of course there's something wrong with it. Sure it looks cool and all, but having a mobile heavily armored B4 would be totally and utterly imbalanced.
Lots of units are map or area dependant. You can't use an Elefant or ISU properly in city maps either. That's nothing unique to the Sturmtiger even though people like to pretend that it is for some reason.
I'm already entirely and well aware of your stance on the matter and the fact that this will not even be attempted to be tested.
However I would dare argue that your comparison of the proposed ST changes to the B4 are not well founded when considering the balance approach that's suggested of it being extremely expensive, limited to only 1 and slow as it currently is and having a long delay between firing, reloading and moving and if the Calliope exists which is to the Land-Mattress what the ST would be to the B4 then I don't see why not at least try out as an idea.
As far as your map dependence goes, you're comparing a unit not being able to shoot through a shotblocker and a unit not being able to shoot over a fence or up a small hill.
I also am not pretending anything, I saw tighttrop's video but I doubt it'd would still perform well in a uncontrolled environment when it's in live and not be a meme unit anymore. Countless years now both Relic and the community team have been trying to make something out of it without much success and both also refuse to take any other direction with it so it's whatever really, it's doomed to be borderline useless or extremely situationally useful.
Which reminds me, on which rework/fix of the unit's lift time are we now on, 3rd or 4th at this point?