Profile of Kothre

I've found myself missing the barbed wire fields from the alpha. In case you may not remember, they were just grids of barbed wire like below that slowed infantry down rather than blocking their passage entirely. I know Relic said they were removed due to technical issues, but hey, I'm going to bring it up again anyway because they were awesome. Does anyone else think it would be cool if they tried again?

For the 1000th time, do you feel micro taxed when you have to relocate manually AT guns or HMGs?
Why would it be any different to another weapon with displayed arc then?

Manually rotating MGs and AT guns serves a purpose in the structure of the game. They're largely ambush weapons that, by design, warrant flanking to counter them. Even the tutorials in the original game stress the importance of flanking machine guns. Removing autoface from them would eliminate that counterplay.

Removing autoface from light artillery pieces does not accomplish this. An le.IG or Pack Howitzer isn't a threat to either infantry or to vehicles within a few feet. This change adds nothing to the game; it only serves to make them more annoying to use so maybe people won't build them as much, which is a silly way of balancing them instead of just adjusting their actual stats correctly.

On a side note, automatic MG facing would be awful. It's one of the reasons I hate the damn kubelwagen so much, because every time it's shooting at something, it decides it want to rotate and lose its suppression in the middle of firing, and there's nothing you can do about it but sit there and mash S like a madman. Speaking of which, can the kubel please have a "hold position" button? Please, Relic?

Soviet tier 1 is garbage and should never be built. The fact that it costs only 10 fuel now helps, but that's really all it has going for it. Snipers are far too fragile. They're inferior to the German sniper in literally every way now. Soviet snipers just get wiped to any stray mortar shell or a breeze in the wind. The scout car is useful for all of three minutes, which might be fine if it weren't the only useful unit in the entire tier, and honestly, I don't even like them that much anyway. Penals are...penals. Penals aren't terrible per se, but there really isn't any reason to build them over conscripts. They certainly aren't anywhere near riflemen for only 10 manpower less. I honestly don't know why they're even in the game; they serve no real role.

Thanks for the response, Kyle! It's nice to hear from you. I totally understand that Relic thinks it would be more efficient to do this task in-house.

Now, when you say community-made ToW packs, does that mean actual community made-missions taken from the workshop and put into the base game? Or is this more of a direct collaboration with Relic to get ideas made into actual missions? Would community members work alongside Relic staff? I'm just curious as to how that would work. At any rate, I think it's a cool idea.

I think USF are in a great spot right now. I've been playing them more than any other faction lately, even in large team games. The riflemen vet buff, the Sherman penetration increase, and making the pack howitzer OP (lol) really help out a lot. I don't even feel a need for the Pershing. People really overstate USF's weaknesses. They are a very strong faction if you know how to play. There is one thing that really grinds my gears about USF, however: over-reliance on infantry company.

Too much useful stuff is locked behind this one commander. Without it, you can't build sandbags, can't build mines, can't even use a weapon rack that's sitting right there in your base, and you can't get any heavy artillery. Can't do all that without infantry company. I use infantry company like 90% of the time. I hate how much is locked behind it. Sandbags and the glorious new mine should be on rear echelon troops by default. I'd like to see Priests get put into the standard arsenal, though I'm not counting on that. The M1919 I could live with being doctrinal, though I hate that there's an inaccessible weapon rack in your base, mocking you for not selecting infantry company.

And here are some smaller grievances:

• They still need something else to build other than riflemen in the early game. I'd be happy with just a standard mortar. It would help a lot against MG spam, which USF have trouble with early. USF still struggle a lot against skilled kubel play.
  
• The Major is still a stupid unit that serves no purpose whatsoever besides a retreat point. Just get rid of him and let the ambulance serve as its own retreat point once the tech requirements are met.
  
• Riflemen got their vet buffed, but the lieutenant didn't. I find it weird that standard riflemen are now more effective than a more expensive unit that you're limited to one of.
  
• Many commander abilities are outright bad. Not that it matters, because infantry company exists.