I do not like this idea since I play CoH2 from a basis of playing for the teamplay fun. Making teamplay effectively reduced by having allied effects removed would greatly discourage players from playing as a team. Sure that already happens but that's not a good thing. I think a suitable compromise is that teammates get reduced effects compared with your own units. That way you still get the teamplay effect but with the additional "I'm helping you but not as much as it would me" vibe. Which is fair, that pretty much happens in the team games I play, where allies achieve their own goals which I benefit largely as a side effect (re they prevent a flank attack) more often than being their main objective (they break push back against a direct attack, which happens to result in flanking me if it succeeded).
In additional, some factions utilize these effects more than others.
1. Ask yourself the following:
Just how OP would it be if only one USF player had to tech nades/gun racks for all teammates (regardless of faction) received access to their respective racks/grenades?
This is exactly how OP aura units are teamgames.
(You could argue that we could increase the cost of tech unlocks in 4v4s. However, what happens if matchmaking makes it so that no USF is present in a match-up?)
2. There already exist multiple mechanics in the game that lend themselves to a friendly teamplay atmosphere:
- Sharing healing abilities with your allies
- Building reinforce bunkers/HTs
- Building green cover if the teammate doesn't have access to it
- Coordinating flanks
- Specialized on a particular type of role (e.g., one player focuses more on AT while the other on AI)
- Building caches
- Using your units to provide recon
- Repairing your teammates' tanks
- etc...
Each of these abilities help strengthen communication within one team and award teams that try to coordinate their attacks.
3. Aura units, instead, only promote megablobbing. The nature of their buffs also bestows a ridiculously OP advantage to the team that has them, and severely punish the team that has to fight against them.
4. Nearly all of the aura units are locked behind a specific faction/doctrine which limits the synergy provided by the aura so that we don't have over-the-top combinations.
For instance; none of the OST doctrines contain both a Command Panzer IV AND a Tiger in the loadout. That would be OP as hell. Instead, teamgames regularly have to contend with Command Panzer IV's & King Tiger combos (or other tanks as well).
5. Restricting aura units to only benefit the controlling player will not make them irrelevant. Each aura unit will remain competitively strong, but they will no longer be gamebreakingly-OP.
In fact, this might promote even better teamplay.
One guy could build a Command Panzer IV for their Panther herd, which would make them more resilent (and more suitable as a damage-soaking unit), while another guy with the Command Panther would specialize their armour for a more aggressive flanking-oriented role.
Besides UKF Command Vehicle recon (which cost nothing and lengthy duration despite rather long cooldown), don't the list you have already have drawbacks? Spotting scopes cost munitions and the best units are the worst combat units, IR halftrack need to be positioned correctly and doesn't fight at all, and IIRC Kubel's recon makes it move slower?
Currently, the player pays an X amount of resources to unlock a recon ability up front. Then, for as long as the unit lives, the player can still benefit from passive (and micro-free) recon without any additional cost.
What I had in mind is that if we force the player to pay-per-use, the up-front cost could be reduced/removed. The rationale is that no matter how expensive the recon units become, the call-in cost will be trivially amortised by the (extensive) game length.
For instance (prices/changes are indicative, just to give you an idea):
- UKF Command Vehicle conversion could cost 30 munitions, and pay per recon pass could be 20-30 munitions.
- Kubel 360° scan could cost 20 munitions for 20-ish seconds (with reduced speed)
- Spotting Scopes/IR halftrack could be limited to giving vision in a fixed cone in front of the vehicle (as opposed to nearly the entire front, as is currently the case).
- IR Halftrack/Valentine could have a free-to-use recon ability that has a cooldown (e.g., 30 secs active, 45 secs cooldown after that).
PS: The Kubel can currently instantly disengage recon mode and run away from danger if needed.
)
Romeo
Mr Smith
Luciano
Mr Smith
Relic Entertainment
