You weren't talking about any kind of flares, you said "no restrictions is the point of the ability"
All other flare abilities have restrictions, the recon abilities that don't can be shot down. It's pretty simple...
In fact i was talking about flares in general.
You brought this up to yourself. At the post
#15, it says that there is a reason why people focus on arty flares, because they
have no restrictions. Its not fair to set up an uneven scale for comparison. Each flare skill has differences and not many people seem to care about it.
A PM41 mortar is just
a team weapon with a flare ability, even if you only care about the flare and not the unit, you first have to get a PM41 mortar before getting flares. In this case the flare is the
bonus feature not the whole unit function, it can still shoot mortar rounds. The morar itself is not that good, but its flare is intended to provide cheap vision around the mortar, to selfspot or scout, its a frontline skill. Makes no sense to sneak a mortar behind enemy lines just to find where the enemy Wstukas are parked...
Riflemen flares is a
doctrinal upgrade that allows riflemen to scout ahead without risks, not a omnipresent FoW removal skillshot. Again, a cheap enough
bonus feature instead of a main function ability.
UKF flares are a
defensive oriented flare skill, simple as that, you dont go capturing territories to be able to light up that pesky LeFh...
SU sniper flare is the only one that really fits the 'give vital vision' flare skill, because it can sneak up behind enemy lines if its well micro'ed. But a sniper is also able to bleed MP and provide vision by itself, otherwise snipers should cost only 15 muni and only be able to launch flares (which is absurd)
And now the villain in this movie, the OKW arty flares, its whole purpose is to give in depth, uncounterable vision (because its a flare), it takes a doctrinal slot all for itself, it only serves one function, deploy a flare in the given position, i could dislike that design too but it is what it is.
Each flare is different on its own, i didnt write the rules of the game, i just read them. TBH im ok with the skill being reworked to simply enable LeiG's to be able to use flares like PM41s, or to raise its muni cost that can somehow balance the ability,
Because you can counter the unit who needs to deploy the flare or you are limited to specific scenarios.
Old trip wire flare for Overwatch? Only on points. Early warning? Only on territories bordering yours.
You don't need to rework a whole mechanic when there is only 1 outlier.
Even though i brought some discussion, i absolutely agree with you in what you just said.
I just disagree with some technicalities on how people compare the arty flares with other flare types.
A restriction is either a balance issue or a design issue, one or the another, but not both, because the way i see it, each flare is designed differently and because of that there will be 'balance' discrepancies, but anyways i think a whole flare rework is a viable solution as it would be to just nerf OKW flares to be deployed from LeiGs.