Additional COH2 improvements

All everyone has been talking about is UI, tracers, blizzards, ram, flamer HT, Panther armor, etc. so here are some other less talked about things that if changed would make a huge improvement.

Game Design

Winter Maps: It would be nice if there was a chance to have snow maps with(out) blizzards in automatch, it wasn't storming every day snow was on the ground.

Random faction search: I want

Replays: Is it just me, or does the fast forward button seem broken? The 8x can't possibly be faster than double speed.

Unit icons: They are so glossy/transparent looking, make them bold. Its hard to tell how much health a unit has especially on snow maps.

Crew weapon health: You cannot see it unless it is decrewed. We need to know this information so we know how badly our AT guns need repairs before they get instantly destroyed.

Intel Bulletins: most of them are useless. 2 and 3% bonuses on accuracy/damage/health do nothing. If this was SC2 and everything hit 100% of the time it would matter, but between two similarly matched units, the dice rolls are more likely to determine the winner than some bonus that small. When we first heard about intel bulletins I thought it would be a cool way to strengthen your units and create some diversity on how games played out- I have 3 units or abilities that have decent but balanced buffs, and so does my opponent. Not the case. There is even a intel bulletin that gives -3% cost from satchel charges. 3% savings on 50muni is absolutely pointless, should be something like a 25-50% discount to actually be worth using. I'm not saying give units +25-40% bonuses for damage/hp because that would make huge imbalances, 15% should be the maximum amount for that type of buff. Make them impact the game or just get rid of them, I only check my unlocks once a week or so because chances are anything I unlocked is such a insignificant improvement its not worth the effort changing it out.

Gameplay Mechanics

Faust/AT Nades: Cannot be interrupted. HUGE problem. In CoH1 the animation actually had to complete before it is thrown/launched, now if you come in range just long enough to hit they hotkey they will successfully finish every time even if your vehicle has kited halfway across the screen before the animation finishes.

Flamethrowers: So often they get critted and will explode with multiple people left in the squad, lately I don't even bother getting them unless I can't think of something better to spend munitions on.

Guards dropping PTRS: I know the same problem existed for COH1 Rangers but I hate the fact that units can drop weapons that they spawn with. If a shrek or DP drops then you can pay munitions to replace it, but you cannot replace a PTRS and that squad is just permanently worse at anti tank for the rest of the game. It also happens far too often because they have 4 possible weapons to drop, it didn't happen nearly this much with Rangers because the Thompsons were not able to drop and you couldn't drop a zook with 2 or more squad members remaining.

Capping while inside of buildings: Not sure if it is a good or bad change yet, but did Relic intend for this?

Hand held LMG troops (Guards+Grens): Very buggy, they usually take a few seconds to figure out how to get in a firing position and even then they still try to move around every 2 seconds. They seem to lose a lot of engagements they should definitely be winning because they rarely shoot when you want them to.

Pripyat: It won't be so terrible if the northern bridge is repaired at the start of the game.

Balance

Molotov Cocktails: They seem really inconsistent. Sometimes they explode instantly killing two men, sometimes they burn for 3-4 seconds before actually killing anybody. Either increase the damage of the initial explosion or make the burn over time effect work much more consistently. Also decrease the animation time, it feels like a really weak investment vs good players since they can see it coming almost 3 seconds in advance.

Ostwind: Cost a fuckload of fuel, it should be around 60-70.

SU76: Most awkward unit in the game. It isn't good at killing any vehicles tougher than a Scoutcar or unvetted halftrack, and the auto attack is shit against infantry too. The barrage ability is good, but the cooldown is really long. A 120mm mortar could do the same role with more shots per minute, no fuel cost, and available much earlier in the game. Get rid of the barrage ability altogether, and make it function like a faster moving but very delicate Brumbar.

SU85: Cone vision ability needs to be a vet 1 unlock, German tanks have huge disadvantage since this last patch.

ISU152: It stomps infantry so hard, I don't think it should scratch anything heavier than a Panzer 4. And it cost too much fuel now, same goes for IS2.

Russian sniper team: Right now its almost impossible to countersnipe them if they are being used by a good player, he just runs away after the first guy gets shot and comes back after reinforcing. Three possible changes A) When the model holding the scoped nagant is killed by an enemy sniper, his escort retreats off the map in fear like the last man from a ATG or Mortar. B) The reinforcement cost is much steeper to replace a countersniped casualty. C) A sniper team is two men carrying scoped rifles, not just 1 sniper and his spotter escort. They have 200% weapon cooldown, so that their dps is identical to the current setup. However when one man dies you are left with one slow firing sniper that cannot be reinforced.

German Scout Car: Buff the 20mm cannon vs infantry, and increase mp cost. If it was actually an improvement to effectiveness vs vehicles and infantry, there would be a lot less bitching about Soviets being OP.

Soviet Scout Car: buff the MGs, remove the ability to fire while garrisoned entirely. Increase manpower cost.

I'd add increasing Ostheer Support teams to 4 man, if I may.

Kinda funny all you list is nerfing Soviets when in pro games, it's mostly Axis that win. ISU is nothing late game.... I had 2 in one game die to Elephant shots I couldn't even see coming and Panthers surrounding me. I played as Axis, everything seems so easy.... You can set up defenses...Soviets can't. You got decent mgs....Soviets have terrible mgs....even with the bulletin, 5% range...will that even help? They get killed by PGs all the time because they aren't suppressed even though they are in the cone. I'm pretty sure same skill lvl and Axis win most of the time. I think it was this way in COH1 as well.

Decreasing IS2 and ISU cost isn't nerfing the Russians, neither is my proposed change for the SU76. And the IS2 does need some buffs I didn't comment on that since I hadn't used it since the big patch but since my last few games it clearly still sucks ass.

Most wanted change:

Faust/AT nades
SC and clown car
weapon crew should be both 4 and 4

@TheShape: What game mode do you play? Are you a highlevel-pro player?

Sounded like 3v3/4v4... 2 ISU152 and a Elephant? Bunkers?

On the HMGs matter: 3 man is super easy to kill with snipers. Orah! and Molotov? Mortars/Arty? And the Soviet HMG is not so bad. Mostly you don't need a bigger Arc of fire, and they can reposition way faster! +6man. Aaaand... you can just put a Maxim in front of an already setup MG42 to kill it.