what about something like a captured USF halftrack with the ability (boring but maybe the m5, since it works as captured from all factions then)? give okw another option with forward reinforcement and a tunable unit to deliver on timing. it suits the faction, as well as the ability's source material
beacons arent bad though, be even better if tied to an infiltration unit that has other abilities to sow discord (fake info, soviet scorched earth type ability ect) but thats a lot more work
A halftrack wouldn't be a bad idea for it.
Anyway, I take it the main thing here is making it non-global and tie it to say a (new) unit.
Because it divides players in two categories based on how they use mechanical game controls (muscle memory, years of learning the controls - not their playstyle/tactics) the ability to affect tactical map should be completely removed (even the minimap - but this could probably stay as its effect is less unintuitive/gamebreaking). If the above can't be done, e.g. due to technicalities, the ability should get scrapped (which would be a shame)
If the above can be done the ability should affect the voicelines only. Both armies should become "silent". No voicecues for a certain time duration. The OKW player would control it and that would be his/her advantage plus the speed buff. Such solution would retain the ability, retain its uniqueness and would add a cool feature to the game making it more enjoyable.
Don't know if just voicelines is possible, I know some people say grenade warnings and such don't trigger with Radio Silence, but never really had confirmation on that. With the coh2 tools you can only choose from a 'pool' of things to happen that have been designed by Relic, so some things aren't possible for us.
Considering you mainly want the icon thing to be different, what do you think of the camo idea that has been posted?
My first thought is an individual squad ability for 15-30 second stealth with no cover requirements but 40% speed, and maybe 2.5 seconds of a .75 damage multiplier on hostile de-cloak.
The idea is you can sneak behind lines for a positional advantage, but the squad is vulnerable if discovered during the stealth phase.
So also a stealth idea, but on a per squad basis. Can't really give a penalty if they're discovered though, but how you could implement it is by giving them a debuff during the duration which disappears if they fire first while camoed.
Ironically what's missing is a visual warning for the opponent that's the ability is used. The same reason why any off map arty barrage get a smoke alarm or rocket arty a loud sound.
I've been convinced by Lunvest's arguments that no ability should be able to mess up with the game UI so I imagine something similar to what JPA32 proposed
Instead of being an aggressive ability, could be a defensive one. And no more messing up with the player's UI.
Redesign, noted. I should've added this is mostly for the upcoming patch though, so not sure how much is possible for now.