Call in units

Seeing that call in units an issue that is attempted to be solved in EFA revamp I would like to propose some idea that might be worth trying.

One of the issue with call-in units is that it allows the player not to invest in tech and thus field a larger army. So imo steps could be taken to make teching more attractive even if one plans to use mostly call-in units.

Suggestion:
1) For units limited to 1 I would suggest that CD for using the ability start when the unit is lost and not when the unit is called-in. The would mean that if a player attack with all it force to kill such a unit (an Elephant for instance) he will not be facing another one in matter of second if the game has drugged allot and fuel is available. The CD could be long and get sorter for each tech that is unlocked.

2) This is a more radical approach. Introduce a call-in pop limiting the number of call-in unit available any time on the field (the value of call-in unit does not have to be the same with pop value). The limit can the increase with the number of tech unlocked.

3) Have tech provide bonuses to call-in unit. For instance Ostheer's infantries mu abilities and some weapons upgrade are tied to tech making these unit less effective without tech. The some could be done for all call-in units and one could even apply some penalties to this unit that could include accuracy, speed, population...

Call in's in my opinion are a very bad game mechanic reason being they can be so easly abused/spammed, just allow call in's to infantry and super heavys and everything else should need tech. I mean look at the T-34-85, it needs tech and is still pretty spamable... there is no need for kv1's, elephant, m4c shermans, tigers and so on to be call in's. But if these would need tech their price and performance should be looked at and adjusted accordingly.
This requires a simple solution, lets not overthink and complicate things with tech providing bonuses or tech changing the price of the unit, simple and consistent is the way to go here guys.

Call in's in my opinion are a very bad game mechanic reason being they can be so easly abused/spammed, just allow call in's to infantry and super heavys and everything else should need tech. I mean look at the T-34-85, it needs tech and is still pretty spamable... there is no need for kv1's, elephant, m4c shermans, tigers and so on to be call in's. But if these would need tech their price and performance should be looked at and adjusted accordingly.
This requires a simple solution, lets not overthink and complicate things with tech providing bonuses or tech changing the price of the unit, simple and consistent is the way to go here guys.

It does not have to be complicated. Take for instance the rotation buff for the JT that could be locked behind truck 3. All these units could come with upgrades requiring tech similarly to Ostheer call-in infantry.

Another aspect of call-in strategies is that one can establish a early field presence due to less investment in teching.

So a simply penalty as suggested in Revamp mod might not be enough. A manpower toll should also be introduced.

In order to achieve a state where call-in are viable but not spamable there a few changes that can be made:

1) Have increased pop for call-in units without tech
2) Introduce a Tiger ACE style penalty for excessive use of call-in without tech.

1) For units limited to 1 I would suggest that CD for using the ability start when the unit is lost and not when the unit is called-in. The would mean that if a player attack with all it force to kill such a unit (an Elephant for instance) he will not be facing another one in matter of second if the game has drugged allot and fuel is available. The CD could be long and get sorter for each tech that is unlocked.

I really like this approach. It's the most efficient one, there you don't have to change much and achieve a great effect. If the cooldown is something around 2 min, call-ins would remain potent and sort of a comeback mechanic, but still heavily punishable. This would only work on heavys, limited to 1 vehicles.
I would not try to implement any other hidden system (popcap, etc), because it overcomplicates the problem.
Also adding bonuses to teching sounds great, but introduces way more stuff, what needs to get balanced.
I would go for the easiest solution and see if it works.
Simply implement 1) and bind all medium call-ins to the tech structure (like its already done with t34/85).

Suggestion:
1) For units limited to 1 I would suggest that CD for using the ability start when the unit is lost and not when the unit is called-in. The would mean that if a player attack with all it force to kill such a unit (an Elephant for instance) he will not be facing another one in matter of second if the game has drugged allot and fuel is available. The CD could be long and get sorter for each tech that is unlocked.

This suggestion is really good in my opinion. As a mostly 4v4 player I had a lot of games where resources did not matter much (sometimes for me, sometimes for my opponents). In that way indeed nothing have stopped us from just instantly calling in units as they ocassionally die.

It is also quite easy to implement.

I would not try to implement any other hidden system (popcap, etc), because it overcomplicates the problem.
...

This does not really have to be complicated. Tech building could have a simple upgrade lowering the pop of call in units.

Having a 4-6 pop penalty in call-in units can seriously deter people from spamming this units without tech while still allowing this unit to be viable if one has 1 or 2 of them.