Give the Kubel a smoke launcher at vet 1 so its more useful later! Functionally it would make sense since theres no way kubels having smoke could be broken, but its another way to support your infantry.
I agree luftwaffles getting smoke could be very good as well.
Not alot of units to give the ability to is probably the biggest concern.
Also Leigs are definately expensive mortars, They are basically worse or equal at killing things(especially in buildings) but have better range to compensate. Would be nice to mabye see a price reduction after DBP range nerf if they UP.
General Comment on 4v4s
If 1v1 is balanced That is the best you will get to having 4v4 balanced. Units that are broken in 1v1 are exagerated in 4v4s. Units that are UP in 1v1 are super bad in 4v4. They are more of what they always were not something different in teamgames.
Panther
will be better in 1v1, worse in 4v4 as it can do better outnumbered 2 to 1 with higher dps, but die more easily to 5 SU85s blasting it from the front.
Jagtiger
Having 1,2,3 Jagtigers on the field is clearly broken, theres no real counter to it, with this slight nerf you may be able to adjust Allied Tds being to strong vs nonJT armor later, but since they are all dying to JT Spam in 4v4s it would be difficult to asses what changes are necessary If it doesn't work in Live games against good opponents.
Patches creating new and unforseen problems
They are fixing a problems that clearly exist right now, You cannot fix all the problems that haven't materialized yet, balancing is an ongoing process and changes are all made with the intent of the game becoming better.
I think the biggest balance setbacks have been the additions of New factions/Commanders and the hotfixes to make these factions not broken, not from well intentioned solutions to current problems like are suggested in the DBP
What if the commander gave penals also access to ppsh and hit the dirt?
We could try reverting the ppsh nerfs, and se how they feel with more expensive oorah and lower cons RA.
Hit the dirt is tough, and ideas are welcome.
I think Penals having access to abilities and upgrades may help them get used in this commander when otherwise they may never be seen. They could also never work, penals don't have the best RA in this patch, so closing could be hard.
With Regard to the Upgrade(ppsh or suggested DP), i think one issue would be if its so good that people would just spam cons and upgrade them. To balance a stronger upgrade, removing Oorrah/AT grenade could be removed to justify making the weapon itself stronger.
Also as a replacement or supplement for Hit the dirt, something could be added that costs munitions and improves moving accuracy to encourage mobile conscript play. Alternatively give it as an ability to ppsh cons once they upgrade to help that upgrade. Seperatley it could be added to the hit the dirt CP slot? Kinda like a g43 style improvement where it won't do much stationary but moving won't really reduce squad accuracy.
Thematically another way you could do it is a reverse hit the dirt ability, like Increase RA and let them do more damage.
I kinda thought of most of this while i was writing not fully flushed out but hopefully something i suggested sounds good
I think the two abilities holding this commander back are Hit the Dirt and PPSH
Hit the dirt should be comparable in usefulness to ambush camo(new), Stun grenades, infiltration nades, tank smoke and other 2 cp abilities. Ex: now i can ambush enemies and scout better. I can counter buildings and cqb units or approach guys in cover and win, i can play agressively with tanks. Hit the dirt is "I can stand in cover and not be supressed" which was the purpose of using cover in the first place. Is there another way to really use it thats exciting or different or interesting?
Right now it doesn't have a real purpose or direction for the highly mobile conscript squad, and its the worst ever at synergizing with ppshes. When the cons are the assault force in the doctrine its just silly. Something like For mother Russia would make more sense at least stylistically.(not that they should get it)
Regarding ppsh's I think they are a pretty meh upgrade, going all ppsh with a higher price or trying another weapon might make it more desirable, or having some synergy with a replacement hit the dirt. Not that it needs a change but It would let a lot of commanders get a second look if it was more worth it. Again Compared to -Engineer/RE Flamers, Rifle LMGs, G43s on grens it doesn't look comparably effective and doesn't influence playstyle as much.
Mabye I'm alone but I find the Live Sturmovik to be pretty good. I pick armored assult more often than not to use it in 4v4s right now for its effectiveness at pushing Ostheer off the field, not as good vs OKW b/c the infantry blob retreats and comes right back and the AA capacity they have but still engagement changing in an attack. Have not been able to test patch version rn.
TLDR: If the doctrine actually made cons feel stronger as it should, people will pick it up
Kinda Hard to use SU85 and SU76 ambushes due to the inability to turn. May be good to give them extra bonuses compared to t34s when using the ability or let them turn with the same bonuses. (suggest penetration for more likely to damage not more likely to instagib)
I Agree the assault grenades seem too good for their cost rn. Would also help to limit spam of multiple cons rushing tanks and instantly killing them. The significant 80 muni upgrade cost and orraah increase might limit that though.
Same thought on vehicle detection, the tank hunters for brits get it free and 30 munis seems like alot for a limited duration when there are so many other drains in the doc.
Overall nice changes, lots of ways to use it. Only reason not to use this is if you don't think you can't handle infantry spam without another doc, so it will be dependent on the new maxims, new penals and or new cons
USF Infantry changes are subject to a change. The most important question we want answered is whether the changes make the faction more interesting to play as (and counter). If the answer is that it makes the game more boring, we revert changes and balance from there.
Yeah. The rationale is that when you use Smoke Raid, all units receive hold fire (which is on H). We could have given hold fire a non-standard hotkey, but trust us, it would feel awkward.
Smoke:
thats a decent way to look at it. If that is your goal I would suggest giving the Captain and Major smoke to balance out what is lost on rifles. That would also support more varied builds since you will have officers with say rangers paratroopers or pathfinders. LT still has smoke as well so captain not having it will make LT tech even more favored.
Captain:
The On Me change is much harder to micro, I think adding defensive or received accuracy bonuses to the target would be cool, even if it had a cost. Saving an at gun or MG from blobs would be a cool usage making him a defensive compared to the LT's offensive nature.
I think these two changes would make officers alot more core to USF playstyle. and interesting as a result.
USF
-RE troops volley fire is still not very effective, probably not worth it, I cant see a reason not to just save that munitions and buy a bar later. Its not going to help 1v1 unless they would win anyways and 2v1 (squads) shifting targets from your opponent will still allow them to perform better.
-RE mine: Seems to do about 50? damage and slowing the vehicle down it doesn't seem worth 15 munitions, Probably should cost as much as the soviet stun mine since they seem to do about as much. 100 damage and 2 slows isn't even close to damaging an engine in terms of value. Especially if it's a specialist Anti tank mine Not worthless but certainly could be cheaper or made more effective.
-Smoke Changes: It seems like your just nerfing rifles, You can't afford to not get 3 rifles as your starting units and compete for map presence against a good player in 1v1 so no matter what your first 3 units don't scale as well anymore. May encourage more usage of the Heavy cav commander. If rifle smoke is OP and not easy to counter or too cost effective this change is ok. If you want to increase build diversity as stated this is not going to help IMO.
Officer changes will definatley help alot with MP bleed for USF, probably allow the major to be used on the front lines more.
Brits
Was the hotkey on standard changed for british medkits form H to q?
Storytelling
Age Of Mythology definatley hit the mark spot from a storytelling perspective
-Very much a journey you take with the characters as they try to figure out whats going on and how to do right
-Well developed charachters
-Plot was interesting
-Good gameplay with 3 factions. Multiple mission types ect.
Also Starcraft 2 was AMAZING from the story telling perspective, but that had already been mentioned.
DOW 1 had a pretty good story arc as well, simiar to AOM
Definately would like to go on a journey with the protaganists
GAMEPLAY
Diffuculty definately has to be there. Most recent relic campaigns have been super easy, DOW2 retribution, ardennes, Coh2 still crashes on me so ig that ones hardest
Stronghold crusader extreme trail was super difficult and a lot of fun as a result. Pretty much impossible at some points but that makes you more invested in the outcome rather than a cakewalk.
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