Kappatch - A minor rebalance mod

I have a suggestion a little bit apart from balancing.

Would it be possible to be able to target SPECIFIC entities through clicking at them?

Like for example at the moment every unit shoots at the unit which is located closest to itself.

A sniper for example wont shoot the gunner of the MG if theres one entitie in front of it.

It would be nice it you could target these entities manually.

Is there a possiblity for that?

Best regards!

Recon commander forward observer ability no longer requires rifles to be out of combat. Note that rotating to face a new target counts as moving so the ability tends to turn on and off constantly in combat. May end up removing "not moving" check as well due to this in a later patch. Or alternatively reintroduce not-in-combat but remove "not moving" check.

I think the "in cover" restriction mostly already covers "not moving" in most cases. In very late stages of the games with heavy artillery usage (yellow cover) this can be different but for early and mid game "in cover" and "not moving" seem to be overlapping a lot.

Another thing could be to only keep the "not in combat" restriction which would make the rifleman like a poor man's recon unit as long as they're not in combat.

Bug: Rifles will lose the extended line of sight ability when the entity to which it was bound dies. Reinforcing the squad will not restore the ability. Not sure if that's an issue in the vcoh2 version.

2.11.2014.1
Greyhound base gun damage from 40 to 80, aoe radius reduced to match Stuart 37mm. Greyhound cost from 280/40f to 280/50f.
Greyhound canister shot changed from guaranteed kill on all infantry hit to flat 40-60 damage on infantry in a larger radius. Freely targetable instead of squad targeting. Has 1 accuracy so is penalized against hitting things in cover and in retreat.

I like the changes here, especially that the ability is now skill based like a grenade. However the wind up time seems a bit too high for how the ability works now.

Hi all, I created a public steam group for players who wish to arrange games with others playing the Kappatch mod. Simply join the group and use the group chat room when you wish to play the mod.

Link here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Kappatch

Once you join, please invite others from your friends list who own the mod

Cheers

iirc in combat in dow2 was based on whether or not the squad itself was attacking another unit. This was an issue with scouts at one point because they were given an out of combat heal bonus and, iirc, it was active when they were kiting but not shooting. it didn't work very well either though.

In CoH2 a unit is considered 'in combat' if:

1. The squad is firing their weapons.
2. The squad is being fired at.
3. The squad is taking damage.

'In combat' seems to last at least 4 seconds after the last action before they're considered 'out of combat'.

Decreased usf mortar ht/stuka health to 240hp to closer match original coh2 faction artillery units durability wise.

Switched Recon Forward Observation to only require cover, delay on ability starting after entering cover 2 seconds longer to slightly reduce scouting potential.

ATgun camo speed max from 0.2 to 0.35 to make movement less sluggish so you can potentially reposition a bit without turning it off.

M42 atgun now comes default with camouflage.

PTRS weapon changed, now fires faster and is not totally ineffective against infantry (around as good on average as a guard mosin, worse at short and better at long range), damage to 32 from 40.

PTRS can be rebought on guards for 40 munitions each.

Increased guard vet requirements by 20% because they share the same feature as other antitank infantry of leveling really fast.

Net result: guards are generally a more effective ranged anti-infantry squad and will damage smaller vehicles more reliably at range due to no longer being able to miss against them. But now hate any kind of cover with a passion. Guards infantry don't hide behind stupid fascist stones! Unfortunately I don't think there's anything one can do to fix antitank infantry's tendency to do this.

For now I replaced the conscript PTRS package with the old PTRS so that ability hasn't changed.


Bugfixes/consistency/visuals:

Fixed LEFH/ML20 vet3 barrage range, it wasn't being increased properly after my changes previously (you couldn't actually target into the extended range).

I like changes, what about KT? its wiping out AT guns faster than a player can field them, can anything be done about that, AT guns shouldn't be countered by a tank at that level surely, it can destroy a bank of 4 Zis all firing at once without dying, I tried this and its actually true

what about obers raping AT guns on max distance with those changes? is it still hapening? Obers just A-move, start firing on max distance at AT-guns, crew gets killed so fast that moving isnt possible.

This may not be the kind of thing for the Kappatch, but is it feasible to switch the capture point flagpoles from indestructible tank-averting shotblockers into something more conducive to gameplay? There's no real need for them to be physical objects in COH2 and allowing tanks to drive through them would open up the pathing on a lot of maps (hi Ferma winter).

I really like the looks of the patch changes by the way, awesome work.

This may not be the kind of thing for the Kappatch, but is it feasible to switch the capture point flagpoles from indestructible tank-averting shotblockers into something more conducive to gameplay? There's no real need for them to be physical objects in COH2 and allowing tanks to drive through them would open up the pathing on a lot of maps (hi Ferma winter).

Quite like that, vehicle pathfinding is so annoying around some particular points.

5.11.2014.1:

Territory points no longer block shots or movement. Victory points remain solid as before.

Vehicle crit changes:

Removed all nonkilling/nonabandon crits at 0% health. Units should no longer survive any hits from attacks that leave them below 0% health.

10% Maingun destroyed chance added to below 50% health vehicles. Didn't want to remove the entire maingun crit from the game. Feedback very much welcome on this part, bit undecided on it myself, as it effectively gives a 10% chance for heavy tank duels to get decided on every penetration after 50% health which is rather meh.

Engine damage (same crit as on faust/atnade) chance on rear armor hits increased from 2%/4% to 8% for below 50% health vehicles, mostly to give a bit more chance of reward for firing at vehicle rear armor.

Made the crit health check 49% instead of 50%, so a 320hp vehicle can't get crit from the first atgun shot if it was full health, a 640hp can't get it on second hit from a 160 damage attack if nothing else hit it, etc.

Only random non-death crit available to small arms fire is now MG gunner killed, previously could also cause abandon. Felt the early game small arms abandons were a bit too much.

Mines are now "small arms" so they are unable to cause abandon. Can't add new damage types for now so this is the next best choice (damage type should only affect what random crits are possible).

Fixed USF Sherman pintle MG gunner death rate, was 20%, now 4% like every other killable gunner. Added in MG gunner killed crits to vehicles missing it.

Instead if making the gun damage dependable of the percentage, how about making it dependable of the total health left?

Like under 100 health points you get the said chance. That way heavy tanks wont be affected for such a long span of health.

Best regards

A mod of this gravity should really have a name more indicative of what it's trying to achieve..

It sounds like the title of a VonIvan wet dream atm.

Besides that, I watch this very closely. I'm a bit curious as to how the success of each change is measured though, both in terms of how it contributes positively towards overall balance and also in relation to every other change being made.

Maybe you should post a list of changes to be made by a certain period of time and then allow a certain amount of time/play after that to ascertain some feedback. Not doing this would be pretty foolish for future improvements.

Fixed USF Sherman pintle MG gunner death rate, was 20%, now 4% like every other killable gunner. Added in MG gunner killed crits to vehicles missing it.

purely out of curiosity, can one make the top gunner require reinforcement if he dies after the gun is bought?

A mod of this gravity should really have a name more indicative of what it's trying to achieve..

It sounds like the title of a VonIvan wet dream atm.

I honestly think this title is appropriate for what it's worth considering Relic's balance reputation. In the spirit of things this mod is achieving what Relic cannot, hence Kappa. Also if I had any say in a title for this patch, I'd probably name it MVPatch.

Besides that, I watch this very closely. I'm a bit curious as to how the success of each change is measured though, both in terms of how it contributes positively towards overall balance and also in relation to every other change being made.

Maybe you should post a list of changes to be made by a certain period of time and then allow a certain amount of time/play after that to ascertain some feedback. Not doing this would be pretty foolish for future improvements.

Each change is done professionally and done with the advice of highly educated individuals in this community, balance wise, who aren't biased, and aren't Orks of Daneland/Fanbois. Cruzz can do what Relic takes a month to accomplish in a day, so if there are any problems, he immediately fixes them(I've seen him do it too), thanks also in part to a vibrant community of individuals participating in the Kappatch, which I highly advise others who are interested in better balance for the game, join. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Kappatch

Also, for those worried he doesn't allow for constructive criticism, do not fear, as he responds promptly to suggestions in this thread(as you've already seen...)

Cruzz, fantastic work on this mod. I've been playing it with a friend lately but we mostly only have played bots to see what's different so take my feedback with a grain of salt. I love most of the changes and while many of them are only minor tweaks, the game remains true to it's core design but all around just feels better. I especially love the changes to many of the USF units and most of all recon company.

Some points of (hopefully) constructive criticism:
I'm not a fan of the most recent main gun destroyed change. I understand wanting to keep the mechanic but currently it kind of feels like it just replaces the death crits style rng mechanics you worked to remove. If main gun destroyed has to remain in, maybe just add it back to ram as a possible crit when the rammed target is below a certain amount of hp?

I love that you're working with guards but they still don't seem quite right to me. They feel very strong as a long range anti infantry squad now when upgraded (because of the ptrs change) but they seem almost too good in this role, especially vs grens and still not that great in their AT role. I know you don't want to make major changes but I'd like to see guards provide the soviets option for hand held AT while shocks remain the elite infantry AI call in. That said, sovs could use a long range infantry unit and Penals already overlap largely with cons so... Why not swap the penal carbines with the guard's rifles and give the dp upgrade to penals. Then you'd be free to buff guard's ptrs rifles in their AT capability without fear of them being spam able jack of all trade units. This would provide the Sovs with scalable core infantry as well as a doctrinal infantry based AT option that might actually help against anything other than light vehicles.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more feedback but I need to play more games (and I'm on my phone so this is tedious to type).

Some points of (hopefully) constructive criticism:
I'm not a fan of the most recent main gun destroyed change. I understand wanting to keep the mechanic but currently it kind of feels like it just replaces the death crits style rng mechanics you worked to remove. If main gun destroyed has to remain in, maybe just add it back to ram as a possible crit when the rammed target is below a certain amount of hp?

Yeah...I'll just disable the entire crit for now, can just put it back in again if there's some actually good idea what to do with it.

I love that you're working with guards but they still don't seem quite right to me. They feel very strong as a long range anti infantry squad now when upgraded (because of the ptrs change) but they seem almost too good in this role, especially vs grens and still not that great in their AT role. I know you don't want to make major changes but I'd like to see guards provide the soviets option for hand held AT while shocks remain the elite infantry AI call in. That said, sovs could use a long range infantry unit and Penals already overlap largely with cons so... Why not swap the penal carbines with the guard's rifles and give the dp upgrade to penals. Then you'd be free to buff guard's ptrs rifles in their AT capability without fear of them being spam able jack of all trade units. This would provide the Sovs with scalable core infantry as well as a doctrinal infantry based AT option that might actually help against anything other than light vehicles.

I know, guards are even more spammable in my mod right now than in the proper game. Though I'm not sure if they're good enough to actually be an issue, especially with their tendency to destroy their own cover I'd say grenadiers will come out ahead of them cost performance wise fairly quickly, and compared to conscripts and shocks they do poorly against HMGs because the only ability they have against them is grenades. Synergy with snipers remains an issue, wouldn't say the PTRS changes really affect it. Probably too good against OKW not using MG34s or fusiliers due to the Kubel not really working on them that well. Not gonna adjust for now, need to play with them more myself.

Swapping unit roles like that opens up so many issues. You will now have shocks with long range infantry supporting them in 1vs1. You'll have button with IS2. And so on. It could work, or it could be an absolute nightmare that can't ever be balanced.

PTRS as credible AT is unlikely to happen, rapid fire low damage on infantry just isn't good against tanks in current game mechanics. Increasing the number of PTRS up to 4 might make the squad atleast somewhat scary to vehicles, but beyond that any change to make them more credible AT is going to make them seem less like at rifles and more like schreks.

Small fix patch:

6.11.2014.1:

Fixed Recon Commander Forward Observers being permanently disabled on a rifle squad if the "leader" model got killed while the ability was active.

Removed maingun crit from all vehicles for now.

Is the main gun crit also removed from the ram ability of the T34?

Because if so I feel thats a terrible descission.

Best regards

Is the main gun crit also removed from the ram ability of the T34?

Because if so I feel thats a terrible descission.

Best regards

No, this is about random crits that have a chance to occur on every penetrating hit, which are defined for every vehicle receiving them rather than on weapons like ram crits or faust engine damage.

Mind you ram weapon crit chance is around 2% on a penetrating hit, so to be honest removing it would make like no difference. But it's still there.

purely out of curiosity, can one make the top gunner require reinforcement if he dies after the gun is bought?

Seriously doubt you could do this with the normal reinforce code, but it wouldn't be that hard to make a new ability that does the same thing. Don't see the point though, you already paid for the gunner, not like you have to pay extra to replace LMG users for infantry either.

Exactly how does the call-ins work? Do you have to tech to last tier and do you actually have to build the building? Do Tigers and Pumas get unlocked on the same tier? Adding this information in the unit description would be very useful.

I think any tank that gets abandoned should have some sort of other crit on top of that. After all, why would the crew abandon a perfectly good tank?

So when a tank gets abandoned you could add main gun destroyed to it. I think that would be a good way to keep it in the game.