An important thing we forgot to acknowledge in the notes is the help we got from the following players to help shape the content of the patch. Given here in alphabetical order:
- AccountEliminator (A_E)
- Barton
- HelpingHans
- Luvnest
- Noganno
- Thanatos
- The Hooligan
- Theodosios
- Thunderhun
- Tobis
- Tomakaze
- Zarok
@OP would you consent if we moved your post to CoH2 gameplay/balance section? I think either section is more appropriate.
Maxim
Maxim will need a ton of attention from everybody to get right. The resulting values you see are the result of 5 testing iterations.
@Everyone
Feel free to invent a new Vet1 ability for the Maxim
Command Panther
Increase Command Point requirements from 10 to 11
Reduce Mark Target damage from +50% to +25%
Mark Target now also increases penetration and accuracy to 25%
Command point increase is good.
Coordinated fire damage reduction is good for 35 munis.
Increase in pen and accuracy by 25%. So specifically for the command panther it's pen is 220/240/260 respectivly. As far as the panther goes at the BARE MINIMUM coordinated fire will bring penetration up to 275 which against the heaviest allied tanks like the comet and pershing to my knowledge are the heaviest will all but destroy any tank that challenges the CP in a 1v1. Comet at 290 armor and persh at 300 that is an outrageous pen chance and damage and accuracy buff for 35 munitions. This nerf is far from effective IMO. I believe for 35 munitions the damage buff of 25% would be more than sufficient and maybe the accuracy buff, but definatly not the pen. Also does coordinated fire increase accuracy and pen of the CP or the tank affected. From my understand it's the CP, but it's just poorly worded and I could be mistaken.
I think it's OK if the Command Panther has the niche role of hunting down heavy tanks. Pershing and IS-2 are call-ins, and it's OK if OKW also has a call-in available to contest those tanks. Call-in meta is what it is, and we have to balance around that.
The absolute bullshit thing about Command Panther was how it was hardcountering tech-tied medium tanks. The only part of CP efficiency I will really miss is vs call-in Shermans. Hopefully the timer fix will smooth that out.
Emergency Warspeed
Speed modifier reduced from +35% to +15%
Acceleration modifier reduced from +60% to +30%
It is no longer possible to “tune-up” allied tanks with Emergency Warspeed
Maybe a bit overkill here, I havn't seen the brit tanks speed in action with these nerfs yet so we'll see how fast they really are. But as long as EWS is free, I think this is fine. I would've liked to see it maybe cost as much as bltizkrieg and combat blitz and maybe lower the nerf a bit but this is fine regardless.
The old values of EWS were equal to P4 blitzkrieg. The new values of EWS are equal to Panther blitzkrieg, so it's not completely an overkill.
A more-tailored nerf would be to give the new EWS values to Cromwell/Comet
which are still really fast, and give a higher value to the rest of the brit units.
AEC Treadshot
Unit has to be stationary to fire Treadshot
Ready aim time reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds (improves responsiveness)
Reload time between shots reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds
(the ability will only be refunded if no shots were fired before moving)
Good changes. This ability was so inconsistant but horrifying when it actually worked. A 20 second disable is just wow.
Immobilize was nerfed to 7 secs in WBP. In addition to the list of changes above, we also fixed a bug which caused AEC to occasionally derp around for 4-ish seconds before lining up treadshot.
The actual duration of the snare might need a closer look. However, I think it's a good idea for Brits to have access to a reliable, unique, snare, even if it doesn't last as long.
Cromwell
This is where you just fall over and say overkill. Now I havn't seen these changes in action, but the biggest thing glaring out here is the 0.5 moving accuracy modifier. That is an absolute massive nerf as it's exponentially more effective to have a higher value. I think 0.6 would have been fine, but we'll have to see how it plays out. Hopefully the crush is weakened enough and the fuel cost increase will at least delay brits a bit more before they can start getting vehicles out because their tech costs when rushing T3 are the cheapest of any faction. For upper level skilled players who use "glide shots" it just means that you'll be punished more or need to improve your micro to that level. I think this is just a bit overkill though.
The keyword for moving accuracy here is "Hold Fire".
Having higher amounts of moving accuracy is what facilitates players building X number of cromwells, right clicking behind enemy tanks, and generally A-moving. If you have to use stop-and-shoot to fire every shot, well, you can't spam Cromwell as effectively.
Note that Cromwell still has its characteristic racecar speed (though, now it should take longer to reach that vet level without crush and without dank commander bonuses).
Also, the keyword here is
"use hold fire while moving, and disable hold fire, when you're about to shoot". The other thing of note is that if you use glide shots, Cromwell still has the advantage over other tanks due to better acceleration.
Comet
Comet I'd say is probably overkill as well. Popcap now 20 and moving accuracy modifier from 0.75 to 0.5. I think 18 may be a suitable popcap for this tank, KTs and JTs sit at 21 and this tank while powerful for sure I don't believe it warrents 20 popcap but we'll see. Good to see crush nerfed here as well good job. Main gun range lowered, this is ok. I don't think it was required but is a pretty small change.
Range decrease is so that Panther now has an actual edge over the Comet (the Comet can still self-spot to range 45). Smaller range will also allow Raketens/Stugs to engage the Comet to some extent.
20 popcap, I think, is just the right amount of popcap. Especially if you use the fact that P4 (which is 12 popcap) as the golden standard. In addition to being a good tank, Comet is also kind-of the mobile indirect fire Brits get (white phosphorus).
Also, giving Comet a higher popcap value will help instil that degree of authenticity in that Brits didn't really fight in WW2 using Comet spam.
Sidenote: 20-21 popcap values for JT/KT are absolute bullshit. King tiger is easily a 26-popcap tank. For JT, this is contentious, as, it absolutely dominates teamgames; I'd say it should be worth around 28 popcap, given its footprint.
At least JT/KT are limited to one. Comets can be spammed. Thus, having an accurate popcap value for its worth will disentivise spam (I really wouldn't go above 2 Comets now). However, the very moment we are allowed to deploy our fix to USF popcap abuse (yes, it's fixable), heavy tank popcap be getting the right values, accordingly.
Land Mattress
Interesting change and very unique. However reducing the durability from 350 to 300 is actually a massive change because now due to AT rounds dealing 160 damage, the mattress will die in 2 hits instead of 3. I think it maybe to easy for it to die, but as long as you cover your flanks and don't overextend to much you should be able to protect it. This may also be an issue with the cloaking of rakattens.
Note that the Landmattress already currently dies if it reaches 0 HP. Personally, I'll be sneaking hold-fire raketens to take LM out.
Note that while the LM is now too easy to die, it's also too easy to get as well. Easy-come, easy-go, as they say.
Some context for the maxim suppression:
It still pins in one burst, but the burst is rreeeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyy long. You can dodge attack-moved maxims now.
I hope by "pins" you mean "suppresses"
Romeo
Mr Smith
Luciano
Mr Smith
Relic Entertainment
