booby traps need to change

i didn't see this ability much until i finally see them work in propagandacast. now this ability instantly wipes out squads as soon as one man just touch the point. not even a one second dely just instant wipe. now although it is an expensive ability it's still unfair since the enemy player has no time at all to react to it.

people would propose a dely timer on it, others would argue that it would then be worthless. so i propose a different kind of change on it.

now the soviet union built artillery by massive numbers that surpasses the numbers of german artillery by large. yet, in this game you see more german artillery and more artillery abilities than soviet ones.

the germans also have an ability called sector artillery which first throws smoke than it completely annihilates soviet infantry and tanks within the sector. how bout we do the same with the soviets but a bit differently.

instead of an instant squad wipe as soon as the germans walk into it. how about as soon as a german squad walks into the sector a flare shoots up into the sky. then the germans will hear the roar of artillery as the artillery will then bombard everything inside the sector. this will gives the germans a few seconds to react and at the same time if they didn't react it will do far more damage than a squad wipe so the munitions is paid for.

since something like this is already done because of sector arty than no one should complain about this. this change would also be make things more exciting, since the enemy players reaction would be panicking as soon as he see the flare in the sky while the other player looks anxiously to see what kind of damage it will do.

what do you guys think?

Now, im speaking without actually having seen or used the ability. But there are points that could be brought up without that imo.

The boobytrap in CoH1 (on touching flags) had a very distinct tick. If you walked around to the other side of the flagpole when the trap sprung, you could avoid the trap. It would still explode, but not hur your guys (not that much). And another thing with the CoH1 version was multiple explosions. The first one was very unlikely to wipe a full health squad. But if you left your squad unattended, it would keep blowing up in their face, and you could loose a squad this way.

I think that this CoH2 ability should work in a similar manner. Giving you the ability to react, and if you are quick enough dodge by backpedaling (although Input-lag, auto-cover and poor AI would most likely make even that a nightmare) to 'safe territory'. Also a a series of smaller explosions that wouldnt wipe squads, but seriousely wound and surpress/pin (depending on cost) could be nice.

i was thinking about that but that would not be as satisfying. during 1944 it was the germans that were employing scorched earth tactics. the soviets no longer were doing scorched earth because they are on the offensive.

now for gameplay reasons, the capping system is coh2 is a lot more different than vcoh because all you had to do is cap in a big circle. either if that one spot they're standing on explodes or the entire point explodes it would just be annoying or not work. add that with input lag and the other things you mentioned would just piss people off.

it's just a boring addition to gameplay and it just doesn't make sense to the timezone of the multiplayer. i think my idea works best.

What I really find miraculous about these booby traps is that you can easily deploy them... WITH TELEPATHY!

Just click and point and the booby trap starts setting up without any human contact. hahaha

Atleast you could create funny mindgames if it had the same flare as the Tripwire

I was surprised that the new booby traps were telepathically triggered.

The problem with them as opposed to booby traps from vCoH is that points had to be actively captured in vCoH, not just by placing units in the capturing region.

It just brings me back to the mechanic of having units actively capture territory. If units had the option to stop firing and capture a point for the same kind of penalties as they did in vCoH but capture the point quicker and/or to prevent the capture 'freeze' that occurs in contested territory, then things like booby traps (and putting demos on the point, etc) would become much more viable. They'd make more sense as well.

i'd rather place 4 mines, if they ever nerfed this.

there is couples things it need to change,
1. require no man to setup. are we playing a ww2 game or a sci-fi ww2 game?
2. cost too much and have about same power of a mine
3. detection range, you know some flag point is not always in the center of capture circle. so if a engineer with minesweeper approach from the direction far from capture flag and touch the circle it will blow them up too. they should change it so as long as engineer enter the circle with minesweeper should be fine and detect the mine
4. not able to trigger from weapons or nades(this one still need testing) so far i didn't see any thing able to trigger it like rockets or barrage rounds lands in the circle, need test if attack ground at flag or nade at flag able to trigger it and destroy it or not

i still think my idea with solve about everyone's complaints. and yes, an infantry unit has to set up the trap.

Atleast you could create funny mindgames if it had the same flare as the Tripwire

HOLY SHIT THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY

They seem terribly OP as they stand right now.

HOLY SHIT THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY

i can't tell if you're sarcastic or not.

i can't tell if you're sarcastic or not.

I'm dead ass, that would be very cool for mind games, and it would provide an actual use for the trip flare.

Trip flare is fine by itself, but also highlights why making it infantry deployed is problematic.

People don't use trip flares enough because there is already a gobsmackingly large amount of micro needed to play this game.

Humans, despite what the media and society says, are not good multitaskers. In fact, the people who think they're most able to multitask are the ones who are the worst at it.

Most of how you win in CoH games is catching people making mistakes in micro/multitasking. Any ability that adds another thing to multitask tends to be used less because even if it is useful, it adds to the windows of opportunity for your opponent to make his move and really hurt you.

Heck, see anyone ever really use the Riegel half-track mine? It's very powerful, but again, no use because you need a specific unit to place it, then to micro that one thing out of your entire army to to do so, then pay a higher than normal cost.

Trip flare is fine by itself, but also highlights why making it infantry deployed is problematic.

People don't use trip flares enough because there is already a gobsmackingly large amount of micro needed to play this game.

This is probably true.

I did try to use the trip wire systematically in a number of games to see if it could add something to a strategy.

But I ended up concluding the same thing: the amount of micro spent is too high compared to the effect of the trip wire. I mean, most of the time noone dies from it anyway, but your micro is the same as laying a mine.

I also tried out a number of suggestions from the forums to see if the trip wire might have a specialised use, but failed to find it convincing.

This could just be me ofc. My APM isn't that good so have a go at it. I just doubt it will turn out differently.

I think that trip wire, to be worth while should either do more damage, give LOS for longer or be quicker to lay. Or a combo of this. Otherwise, no. I'll leave it in the drawer.

People don't use trip flares enough because there is already a gobsmackingly large amount of micro needed to play this game.

The irony being, however, that Trip Flare is actually an ability that will reduce micro load, when deployed.

Trip Wires are great but they should probably be easier to queue build so you can place several around an area with just a single infantry squad. This would reduce micro load to deploy the ability (great to do in downtime between battles).
10 munitions to reveal the area to see what/how many units are there so you can respond accordingly and have a good chance to kill one guy is actually pretty good.

I don't really know how we got from booby traps to trip wires. I guess it is the whole micro discrepancy thing. I think the ability would be better if it were cheaper (like 40 or 45) but also had a slightly smaller blast radius or would even be avoidable (e.g. step out of the circle quickly so it doesn't go off but stays armed, leading to increased use of minesweepers and rewarding micro). That way it'd be a bit closer to the CoH1 booby traps.

I think to balance those traps a slight delay (like 3 seconds) is needed and a "klick" noise, like in the original Coh. It´s simply impossible to avoid them. The only counter is a mine detecting pioneer, but if only that squad is allowed to cap, you´ve got a huge disadvantage.

Let´s face it: A Russian player can easily float some munitions. With a cache it is possible to spam them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iNncFdnoF0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iNncFdnoF0

Nice example. That is a completely unfair option. It's crazy to let it affect the entire capping circle. One grenadier barely touched the outside of the circle and lost 2 men anyway. At another time it was a complete pio squad.

so ... nobody came here to talk about my idea?