Make weapon upgrades consistent!

Pgrens - if a guy with Schreck dies, the Schreck gets dropped/destroyed. You need to pick it up or re-buy.

Guards - if a guy with DP lmg or PTRS rifle dies, it gets dropped/destroyed. You need to pick it up or re-buy.

LMG Grens - if the guy with the LMG dies, another LMG spawns in the hands of another squad member.

It get so far that when you kill the squad one by one like this there are FOUR LMGs lying around...mental (just for the record the final member has a chance of dropping it, btw if you upgrade Grens with LMG and G43s, then 3 upgraded members die and the one with kar98k retreats, the reinforced members get another LMG/G43s.

I assume the same nonsense works for Cons and PPSHs but I am not sure.

It is inconsistent and it makes zero sense.

Fix this, it will help to solve the OP LMG issue naturally as well.

I agree even if i play more on the Ostheer side. They should make it like the way they have it for flamethrower engineers. When the model with the flamethrower explodes in flames from a crit, the flamethrower does not get respawned. The same should apply for all weapons. The post by sevenfour makes so much sense.

It is actually consistent.

Pgrens - if a guy with Schreck dies, the Schreck gets dropped/destroyed. You need to pick it up or re-buy.

A 4 man squad has 2 shrecks, if for example 2 guys holding the shrecks die they get passed over to the 2 remaining pgrens. If the 3rd pgren dies there is a chance the shreck drops because there are 2 handheld weapons for only 1 person. The first and second death of a pgren squad NEVER drop a shreck.

Guards - if a guy with DP lmg or PTRS rifle dies, it gets dropped/destroyed. You need to pick it up or re-buy.

Same as for pgrens, it is just that guards have 2 handheld weapons (or 4 with the dp upgrade). This means that when the 3rd guy dies there is already a chance to drop one weapon. The first and second death never drop a weapon again.

LMG Grens - if the guy with the LMG dies, another LMG spawns in the hands of another squad member.

LMG only takes up one weaponslot, so only the final death of a gren squad has the chance to drop the LMG. This makes it a very safe upgrade as well.

It get so far that when you kill the squad one by one like this there are FOUR LMGs lying around...mental

No, there is just one LMG

(just for the record the final member has a chance of dropping it, btw if you upgrade Grens with LMG and G43s, then 3 upgraded members die and the one with kar98k retreats, the reinforced members get another LMG/G43s.

Yes because weapons get transferred over when the holder dies. G43's can't drop but I don't know if this means the LMG can get dropped already when the 3rd guy dies.

PPSh and g43 dont drop.
The only inconsistency is the chance of the flamethrower blowing up regarding weapon upgrads.

It works like this:

A pgren squad has 2 schrecks and will then only drop schrecks if there is less than 2 soldiers in the squad.

A guard squad has 6 soldiers and 4 droppable weapons. So if there is less than 4 soldiers remaining, weapons will be dropped or destroyed.

A grenadier squad with LMG has only 1 droppable weapon, so it can only drop on a squad kill. If they had 2 LMGs, the extra LMG will drop or be destroyed if the 3rd soldier in the squad dies.

It makes perfect sense the way it is now.

At the first 2 Posters who think this is a good idea: Sure why not? But then the munition cost has to be rebalanced Lets say LMG 20 Ammo? Deaaaal.

I know how the weapon transfer works.

The thing is, when that lone model unit with the shreck dies, the shreck magically gets transferred to a squadmate even when they are a bit far away. What the OP is trying to say is, when the model unit carrying the shrek dies, the weapon should get a chance to be dropped instead of the magic that's happening right now.

Even on retreat, when the model unit with the weapon dies, the squadmates automatically produce a shreck from thin air when they reach HQ.

It works like this:

A pgren squad has 2 schrecks and will then only drop schrecks if there is less than 2 soldiers in the squad.

A guard squad has 6 soldiers and 4 droppable weapons. So if there is less than 4 soldiers remaining, weapons will be dropped or destroyed.

A grenadier squad with LMG has only 1 droppable weapon, so it can only drop on a squad kill. If they had 2 LMGs, the extra LMG will drop or be destroyed if the 3rd soldier in the squad dies.

It makes perfect sense the way it is now.

Jup this is how it works, only the drop doesn't always happen, it is a certain chance (would need to look up how high).

On topic: I think this is a horrible idea.

Horrible how? You mean to tell me that if a T70 gets that lucky kill on the PG carrying the panzershreck, you wouldn't like to get the chance to be able to pick up his weapon? Instead you want to have to wait to get 3 kills or kill the whole squad to get a chance for that weapon drop?

Weird.

@Isda - the flamethrower critical system right now is extremely silly and punishing. Losing the flamethrower holder has a 10% (IIRC, could be 5%) chance of losing the weapon permanently, which means a 60 muni upgrade can just go up in smoke with the first 80 damage a squad receives. It makes doing any strategy with a flamer as a consistent part a gamble with the RNG. Personally I'd rather other weapons operated more like the LMG instead.

Works good as is. Any 'random' drop because the carrying model died, would be even more RNG-feel and less predictable gameplay. Wouldnt enjoy that one bit.

Very punishing indeed. But that's why we're throwing suggestions out there so that the game can move forward, improve and make sense instead of a world war 2 theme with a touch of magical weapon wizardry. By bringing out the obvious flaws, we're hoping that some people might have an idea for it to work and that the devs might act on it.

Horrible how? You mean to tell me that if a T70 gets that lucky kill on the PG carrying the panzershreck, you wouldn't like to get the chance to be able to pick up his weapon? Instead you want to have to wait to get 3 kills or kill the whole squad to get a chance for that weapon drop?

Horrible as in: Those weapons are very expensive and it offers nothing to the game while having the potential to heavily unbalance it, inspiring people to forego existing and working game dynamics and even damage the core of the game.
The current system has some randomness in it, especially with explosions but also limits randomness and lets you avoid the weapon drop by simply retreating on time (slight skill component). Your system on the other hand is based purely on random chance, not only for explosion weapons but also for small arms deciding to shoot some soldiers over others.
The only skill component your system would have is a test of who of the two players can click all the weapons dropping everywhere the fastest. Some would call this "micro" (the worst kind of "micro"), I'll just call this whack-a-mole. This will also deincentivize the use of cover, positioning and support weapons just so you have a better chance of grabbing the weapon.

And of course there is cost. This idea would require a massive cost decrease to reflect the increased risk as well as to make repurchasing the weapons possible. This change alone would completely overthrow balance and dumb the game down because people will either use even less mines etc. to prevent the enemy completely snowballing them with captured weapons vs. squads who lost their weapons but can't repurchase them whereas the other player can easily snowball into squads upgraded both with captured weapons and upgrades, defeat more units (potentially leading to even more weapon drops) and capture the map (leading to even more munitions for the snowballing side).

It can be an interesting thought and maybe it might work for another game, but for CoH2 you could as well just suggest that support weapon crews turn into a useless "weapon crew squad" and need to manually recapture their weapon every time the gunner gets killed. It would lead to the same mix of destructive whack-a-mole gameplay.

Pgrens - if a guy with Schreck dies, the Schreck gets dropped/destroyed. You need to pick it up or re-buy.

Guards - if a guy with DP lmg or PTRS rifle dies, it gets dropped/destroyed. You need to pick it up or re-buy.

The weapons are never destroyed.

LMG Grens - if the guy with the LMG dies, another LMG spawns in the hands of another squad member.

It get so far that when you kill the squad one by one like this there are FOUR LMGs lying around...mental

This is not how the system works at all. When you upgrade a Grenadier squad with an LMG that squad gets one, and only one, LMG. If the man carrying the LMG dies it magically appears in the hands of another squad member. If the whole squad dies, the LMG can (always?) drop. They don't duplicate.

But.. but.. magic..
There has to be a better way to make sense out of it than weapons magically reappearing on another squad member hehehe.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game and the current mechanics, but when you stop to think about it.. Magic is just a bit weird and misplaced. The suggestion by the OP may not be the best one so maybe a better one can be arrived at by the community?

This song is obviously a dialogue between an LMG and a Grenadier squad:

What's inconsistent is that in order to get 1 shrek upgrade for example, you have to deliberately lose men to achieve this.

A lot of things don't allow for player control and are inconsistent, like:

• 
  decrewing weapon set ups and recrewing with less manpower units.
  
  getting a hold fire ability ONLY indirectly if you get the doctrinal cammo ability
  
  to make halftracks not auto/turn to attack (stay still, to possibly provide green cover for example) you need to get the flame upgrade so its range is decreased, etc.
  

the flamethrower critical system right now is extremely silly and punishing. Losing the flamethrower holder has a 10% (IIRC, could be 5%) chance of losing the weapon permanently,

its actually much higher than this. from small arms, flame or ballistic weapons, the chance is 33%. from explosive weapons, the chance is 63%. thats why i never use pio/engi flamers. theyre far too risky and not worth the investment typically.