• Damage from 9.9 to 10
• Far accuracy from 0.37 to 0.2
• Near cooldown duration modifier from 0.5 to 0.6
Ok, a tiny damage buff that should make little difference. But the far accuracy is not the problem. The problem is a flamer in a halftrack does immense damage from the gun up close. This is how you kill MGs before pack-up can be completed. The near cool-down change, well, maybe it'll help (what is this value anyway, seconds?).
Adjusted the risk vs. reward aspect of unit garrisons within vehicles.
• 50% chance for each entity inside halftrack to die when the garrisoned vehicle dies.
Oh boy...This is good. But it's not what we needed. I don't want to play a crapshoot game. Units should take damage when the vehicle is destroyed, not play Schroedinger's cat. Still, a good change, as only the gamblers will be sticking snipers in clown cars anymore. I am of the school that that's the more OP use. Flamers are ok. Annoying as shit, but ok.
German halftrack buffs seem well deserved. A lot of folks are adopting a strategy on the larger maps of making one even if not turned into a Burger King on wheels to reinforce.
Soviet Weapon Teams
• Soviet PM41 82mm Mortar Barrage shoots slower: 2 to 3.575 seconds.
• Maxim HMG deals less damage: 12.9 to 9.5.
• Maxim HMG setups slower: 1.375 to 1.5125 seconds.
• Soviet HM-120mm Mortar shoots slower: 7 to 8.9 seconds.
• Soviet HM-120mm Barrage shoots slower: 2.5 to 5.175 seconds.
German Weapon Teams
• German Granatewerfer 81mm mortar shoots faster: 4.5 to 2.4 seconds.
• German HMGs, Mortars and AT Guns have 4 entities instead of 3.
Oh boy...Thank god for the Soviet mortar nerf. That thing is ferocious and while you don't see the mortar spam in 1v1 or 2v2 much, larger games really show the power of the Soviet mortar.
Great changes....But it's really going to start to feel like a different game with 4-man Axis weapon crews. It's just not COH anymore. And I think it might make the Axis MG a bit too powerful early game. Since conscript and gren small-arms fire does jack to units anymore, and flanking without flames or Molotovs is already an exercise in futility, this only seals the deal.
Why, oh why, can't we go back to the small-arms fire damage tables from COH? Your MG is flanked by a vanilla rifle squad, you lost a squad member almost instantly if you didn't pack up and retreat and the whole unit was lost 10-15 seconds later. Rifles and volks fights were fast and furious and the guy with the better cover ALWAYS won (if no upgrades had been researched). That just isn't the case in this small-arms fire allergic game. I want the pace of early game COH back, as do most competitive players, and this increase in MG squad members is NOT going to help.
What really needs to happen is to have the HEALTH of the Soviet squads lowered to compensate for their huge numbers! In fact, go ahead and lower the damn health of both MGs really, if this will make flanks possible and for some unknown reason, we can't just have better small-arms fire damage all around.
What I and I'm sure other players resent is that we're forced to get upgrades or specialized units since flanking without a flame ability is dead. This limits our strats and simplifies the game. Ie., we could go for a fast T70/M8 but WE CAN NOT because we MUST get Molotovs or MUST get a clown car/flamer to deal with MGs, and we HAVE to faust the damn clown cars, so we can't get a fast Flamenwurfer.
Don't you see how you're simplifying the game Relic? Reducing the wonderful complexity that was COH? And thereby reducing its lifespan? Everyone HAS to do the same things in competitive games. Otherwise they lose. And the number of possible strategies and gambits seems to be slowly diminishing instead of expanding!