Most vet bonuses and armour would have to be turned into a reduced-received-damage thing. Things that shouldn't penetrate/hit other things should be given special rules (e.g, bazookas never damaging infantry, 50-cal not shredding king tigers).
I also have no idea how you can possibly implement front-armour vs rear-armour things (i.e., giving a flanking tank bonus to damage when attacking from behind).
In such a mod, a certain weapon should either always penetrate or never penetrate a certain target. To achieve that, armor "tiers" could be used: A Kübelwagen could have 10 armor, a 251 halftrack 1000, a StuG 100000. A T-70 with a penetration of 1000 would always penetrate the Kübelwagen and 251 halftrack, but never the StuG, because low penetration chances (lower than 3%?) are automatically discarded.
The big question though, is how do fix squad-vs-squad target acquisition. In the live game, it can make a world of difference whether you have 5 Riflemen picking out a single sturmpioneer model, or have their DPS spread apart.
I haven't seen anything in the modding tools that would let you do anything like that.
Adopting a single-entity squad system might be the only solution. Company of Empires 2!
It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it would be fun to play. It would be a completely different game!
Yes, it should be possible: Giving infantry weapons 100% accuracy with much lower damage; giving bigger weapons 0 accuracy and 0 scatter, so that they always hit exactly where they're aiming but shots do not home in; and so forth. Would be a lot of work though!
I even added the "..\\..\\german\\weapons\\smg_mp40\\smg_mp40" line to partisan_male_random.abp and partisan_male_01 and partisan_male_02.abp separately. And still to no avail.
In these specific Partisan ABP files, the path should look like this instead:
I am going to use your advice to implement the most British of Brit abilities ever conceived!
WHAT HAVE I DONE?!
Why not just add a "set facing" ability that calls a victor target for the 25-pounders, forcing a barrage ability that doesn't do anything? It might be the simplest solution and can add a lot of value to the howitzers because barrages will come faster with some additional micro.
You could have the ability temporarily spawn an invisible entity at the targeted position. Then add two requirement actions with near_entity requirements: If the squad is within 20 units of the entity, use the smoke grenade throw. If the squad is not within 20 units of the entity, use the flare pistol. As the squad won't be moving and the target is a static position, it's fairly unlikely that both will execute!
All of the doctrines look good now. The main issue with most of the doctrines in the live game is that, even when the doctrine comes with unique units abilities, they lack a coherent identity. E.g., what is supposed to be the preferred playstyle of UKF Tactical Support (except free recon and artillery cover spam).
I agree! A (somewhat) coherent identity is exactly what I tried to give the commanders. With an empty buzzword like "Tactical Support", it's a bit difficult to think of something, though! Also, as I'm working on a complete overhaul for the Brits, I'm a bit hesitant to include some of their commanders in this mod.
- Zis truck (though, it would be nice with Sturmpioneer-like medkit crates)
Great idea! I'll add it in the next update. I didn't want to add an ambulance to a doctrine that supports Con spam, but single medpacks that cost ammo should be fine!
I wanted to get rid of the half-assed Airborne theme for the Recon Support Company. Instead, I plan on making Airborne Company more attractive by letting Pathfinders spawn from ambient buildings and enabling them to call for MG/Mortar/ATG drops to free up space for one or two new abilities.
Do people actually use Hull Down? I'm not really opposed to including it in Defensive Doctrine, but I'm not sure which other ability to remove.
The USF M3 halftrack was... just bad. And with reinforcement available from the ambulance and the WC51 making for a decent clown car, I didn't quite know what else to use it for!
PS:
1. Forward observers: It might be best to copy-paste the Tommy version of increased sight (vet1, under their cover bonus), than to rely on USF forward observers. The latter feels a bit wonky.
2. Elite Troops could use the King Tiger instead of Tiger I, if you want to keep it unique, without it being cheesy (I've seen the KT idea used in many mods already)
3. Unless Marksman flares also reveal camouflage, he will get picked off by the sniper quite easily
4. Is there anything special that the KV-1 can do animations-wise?
- Carrying troops?
- Throwing grenades?
- Smoke?
- Hull Down?
- Make it shot/sight-blocking?
Rather than leave the KV-1 as an ability-less block of HP, we might be able to at least impart it with some swag points. (No; auras don't count!)
1. I had a quick look and USF Forward Observers is indeed implemented somewhat strangely. I replaced it with a custom ability and will give that some testing.
2. Good idea - I'll include that in the next update!
3. It's a copy of the Soviet Sniper's flare, so it doesn't. I'll change that! I'm not quite sure about the unit itself though. It's intended to be used for countersniping, but that might not go so well without camouflage. Definitely needs testing!
4. It doesn't have any special animation states, which makes it difficult to add something unique. I could try to enable carrying troops, but it's probably gonna look pretty bad, if it works at all. In its current state, it's supposed to be a slow, but cost-efficient meatshield that's effective against infantry and medium tanks. Any ideas for special abilities?
Since the "Lack of viable commanders for Soviet & Wehrmacht" came up pretty high in Relic's balance poll, I decided to do some shameless advertising for a mod of mine. It started as a rework of the very terrible Soviet Defensive Tactics back in February, and I have since added many other Commanders that I felt were severely underperforming.
I would like to stress that this mod is, in its current state, not balanced at all, and I don't think I'm a skilled enough player to have a valid opinion on game balance. Instead, the mod is intended to be a collection of ideas made playable in order to evaluate their potential.
I appreciate constructive criticism, but please actually test a commander before complaining about it. Suggestions are also welcome, of course!
Please note that you can only see the changes once you're in a match, not in the lobby or loading screen. When several commanders share a unit, all of them receive the changes, regardless of whether I listed the commander or not. For example, I buffed the KV-1 and added it to Defensive Tactics, so it will have the same buffs in Counterattack Tactics.
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VonManteuffel 
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