Some changes are still questionable and I am glad to see the modders evaluating these. I don't think the Stug E should have a TWP ability at all. This is an AI tank, with the ability to support against light vehicles, it should not function as a crappy AI tank with the ability to stun other vehicles. A barrage may be more in line with its actual design and would help it last into the late game by keeping it further back at times.
Noted. We have also seen a similar proposal by Vipper, and I think that adding a barrage ability is a very neat idea.
The only reason we really picked on the Stug-E is because its damage model and AoE is very similar to the T-70. Thus, finding the solution for the one means that we can immediately apply the same solution to the other.
Sniper changes are very powerful, will have to play and see how these work out. Significantly impacts Wehrmacht more since they have so much sunk when they go into an early sniper strat.
Guards may be a bit overnerfed here. They are clearly over performing for cost now, but this takes them back quite a bit and nearly demands the use of merge for them to stay cost effective.
Note that even though the call-in cost for the Guards has changed, their reinforcement cost has remained 27MP/model.
Personally, I feel it is alright if elite units cost more to call-in than they cost to reinforce (like the PGren pricing model). The idea is that you take a risk when calling the unit in, and your risk will pay off once you have achieved vetting.
If guards feel too weak, I doubt that this is because of Ostheer infantry scaling. There is a 5th faction in the game that hasn't received changes to their infantry yet. That's because we are trying to estimate where the balance will shift.
Our strategy is use Ostheer infantry as the gold standard, and adapt allied armies around that. If an army gets paper tanks, they should obviously get better infantry than wermacht.
Reverting armies' powercreep and rebalancing around the gold standard will take a bit of time, and it might be a bit painful. We also expect that this will lead to a temporary power spike, until we can adjust all armies' veterancy. However, once this is done, we are confident that this will take the game to a better place than it is currently.
PG's with G43's is a tough nut to crack. Does giving all of them G43's (as Machine suggested) work? The idea of a sniper squad was really nice, but predictably unfair, but good thinking to try. Could PG's with G43's also be offered an activated suppression ability at some munition cost? This would help them in their role of AI and infantry flanking, while also providing a more nuanced way to upgrade their power. [Thinking something along line of G43 from COH1]
Agreed. The changes to the G43's were one of the first changes we came up with. Even though, as I mentioned, we are rebalancing infantry scaling around Ostheer, we feel that Ostheer fans might be feeling a bit disappointed that their faction is receiving so few changes.
It is a very hard sell to try to explain to someone that a faction has been strengthened, because other factions have been nerfed. That's why our first thoughts were about, at least, doing a spring clean of completely useless Ostheer infantry-related commanders and abilities.
On the other hand, we realised that we were becoming to get overwhelmed by Light Vehicle changes. Due to the scope of these changes we expect a very bumpy ride as the meta realigns to the new role of Light Vehicles. Since this part of the game is receiving the biggest amount of changes, we want the people to actually focus on the early-mid game progression, so that we can get it right.
Thus, we decided to cut down all unnecessary doctrinal changes, unless they are touching an extremely OP unit (e.g., the Stug-E), or unless we are making a very conservative change (e.g., USF M3 halftrack, G43's).
Once all infantry veterancy is sorted, then I think we can jump back and redo the G43 upgrade so that it gives a true role-changer/edge at something. As things are, though, the ground beneath infantry balance is still shifting, and it's too early to make such an assessment. At least with the sight-range upgrade, G43's on PGrens will not be completely useless.
This is also, probably, why you aren't going to see any changes done to the Greyhound just yet.
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