Profile of AEF_Appleseed

Jump back to quoted post26 Mar 2016, 05:46 AMSvanh

So we've reached the fifth page of yet another Advanced Emplacement Regiment balance thread without any useful balance suggestions.

First, Relic has put substantial time and money into modeling and creating the Mortar Pit, Bofors, and 17 Pounder and integrating them into the UKF (not to mention Pak43/Schwerer/2cm Flak). The chance of Relic replacing any of these with more mobile options outside of a doctrine is so close to nil that asking for it may as well be whingeing.

Secondly, heavy defensive and artillery-focused play provides a low-skill introduction point for new players. Whether or not they move past this phase is up to them but the playstyle should still be supported for this reason. It should, of course, be slightly less potent than more micro-intensive strategies.

Thirdly, calling something "cancer" is an intellectually lazy way of articulating a problem. These aren't the official forums and you should be able to clearly express why a given strategy is a problem and what should be changed about it.

Let's move on to some balance suggestions:

Emplacements in General:

Mortar Pit:

- Mortar Pit Auto-fire range reduced from 115 to 80
- Mortar Pit cost reduced from 400mp to 350mp
- The 2nd mortar weapon used for the barrage now has the same kill radius as the other mortars (bugfix)

The auto-fire change means that you must actually use micro to use the Mortar Pit to its fullest and the cost reduction helps offset the new micro requirement.

Bofors:

- Health reduced from 1000 to 720

The Bofors is currently slightly too cost efficient at 280/30.

17 Pounder:

- Pop cost reduced from 20 to 15

I think this change speaks for itself.


Advanced Emplacement Regiment:

Improved Fortifications:

- 30% health bonus removed
- Cost reduced from 75 munitions to 45 munitions

The armour bonus is significant enough on its own, requiring you to use grenades or artillery against emplacements if you don't have tanks. At the same time, 75 munitions is slightly too much for just the armour boost.

Counter Battery:

- Counter-Battery initial delay increased from 0-5 seconds to 10 seconds
- Counter-Battery cooldown between salvos increased from 4 seconds to 10 seconds
- Counter-Battery range increased from 250 to 1000

These changes will equalise Counter Battery performance across all map sizes while ensuring artillery has sufficient time to move before and between salvos.

Further adjustments could be made to Counter Battery and the Forward Assembly engineers is this commander is still too strong after these changes.

Do you agree or disagree with these suggestions? What would you change (and why)?