[DBP] Riflemen smoke survey

I can see the majority voted to keep the smoke nades on rifles. However I notice that according to the patch notes RE and USF officers get smoke.

Will riflemen keep their smoke?

That's not the majority. That's the plurality of the votes. The majority actually voted for not keeping smoke on riflemen.

There were only meant to be two options on the poll:
- Nerfed riflemen smoke
- Current smoke but on RE and officers only

Thus, the proper way to read the results is:
- 46 + 2 votes in favour of riflemen
- 7 + 15 + 31 votes in favour of not riflemen

That's narrow. However, given that USF now actually has a late-game, super-high-available smoke would almost certainly cause issues.

I've also given some thought as to possible changes to smoke grenades for USF infantry.

Problem
Axis MG placement is not rewarded when riflemen use smoke to cover them self while suppressed

consequences
USF riflemen can walk stright into an MG's firing arc with little consequence when carrying smoke nades.
The axis player is left with a dilemma: Reposition the MG and hope it can be done before more enemies show up or stay and hope it and supporting infantry can deal with the enemy once the smoke clears.


After brainstorming possible changes I've come up with a suggestion:

Suggestion

Change the way rifle smoke works. Rather than creating a cloud in which the rifle squad can hide in
the new smoke grenades create a narrow but dense line af smoke from point A to B
A being the point from which the nade is thrown from, and B being the nades target.

in short: From cloud to curtain

This effect mean riflemen can no longer smoke them self when caught in an MG's firing arc, yet smoke can still be used to block line of sight when thrown from the right angel. This rewards the USF player for using smoke more intelligently and the axis player is rewarded for his MG placement.

Maybe that could work. However, I'd still throw my smoke grenade directly on top of the MG gunner to block him from shooting anything.

That's not the majority. That's the plurality of the votes. The majority actually voted for not keeping smoke on riflemen.

There were only meant to be two options on the poll:
- Nerfed riflemen smoke
- Current smoke but on RE and officers only

Thus, the proper way to read the results is:
- 46 + 2 votes in favour of riflemen
- 7 + 15 + 31 votes in favour of not riflemen

That's narrow. However, given that USF now actually has a late-game, super-high-available smoke would almost certainly cause issues.

looooooooooooooooooool

what a joke muahahahhaha

if the pool is wrong, then make a new one, but accomodating the results to preference is not the way to go....and you know that...but hey!! it´s your game so....oh wait!!!



Using your words:

* The majority actually voted for not putting smoke on REs. (46 + 2 + 31) and this is quite higher than your "- 7 + 15 + 31 votes in favour of not riflemen" but these figures are not what you want, so let´s play with numbers until I have what I want....


* That's narrow. However, given that USF now actually has a late-game, super-high-available smoke would almost certainly cause issues. ---> yeah having smoke in 3 rifles could cause issues, but having smoke in three officers + one or two RE is not an issue???? I see more super-high-availability in the latter.....3 versus 5...but ok.

lol

Core issue here. i would wait some time after the patch has landed and review it with a global balance perspective in mind.

Maybe it deserve a change maybe not we will see.

This patch has enough changes, it's time for the live test.
Let review it at the end of January.

Time to go live !!!!! no more changes !!!

Because USF really needed an excuse to have more infantry squads pushing the front...

Giving officers smoke I had no problem with, but the only scenario I can think of where rifles losing smoke isn't a bad idea is if their at nades were unlocked with research instead of vet.

And even that seems a little drastic. (Lul, who am I kidding this patch as far as drastic changes are concerned...)

People don't get it yet, we will will have a fresh new COH2 to play with !!!

It's marvelous ! No more of the same old stale meta !!!

Add a ladder reset and it's Christmas day !!! (Dreaming still not a sin)

Thanks to Relics and the modders !!!

P.S There is not many games that permit it's community to have a saying in the matter of tuning... just that is already great.

Adapting is new the meta !

I say officers only reason being that right now officers feel just like rifleman with a fancy icon to tell them apart. While they shouldn't be that, they could and should be some sort of support infantry to boost your frontline rifle's with cool abilities like "focus fire" for the captain or "on me!" for the liutanent and both having smoke to even further support the rifles.
The reason I dont think rifles or rear echelons should have smoke is because right now this faction has too much smoke sources (rifles, possible officers, mortar, pack howitzer, sherman's, scott's) it feels too much. The ideal would be only for officers, mortars and pack howitzers to have smoke, even if necessary lower the ability recharge time a bit. Smoke for the shermans would be very welcome if it was locked behind a commander such as armor or tactical support and since I talked about the officers abilities to boost your rifles maybe moving the supervise to the major would give this unit more roles other than act as a foward retreat point making the player opt for faster building units or foward retreat points.