Profile of Hannibal

Most of this I noted down couple of months to weeks ago, since I had it lying around I thought I'd just follow up on this original post.

Ideas for the Soviet faction

These changes are supposed to be implemented with the proposals in the original post. Where they are contradictory, the “newer” proposals should be considered (e.g. I previously said all engineers should be 3 men squads, here I say Soviets should have 4 etc).
Again, I can’t write a super exhaustive list on ALL changes I can imagine, which features/abilities should be retained on every single unit and how exactly costs etc are going to change. This is already long, no one would bother to read it if it got any longer. When in doubt, please cut me some slack and view these proposals as a general design idea.

General:
Late game techs:
I personally love the UKF hammer/amboss decision, although I’d like to give it a bit of a different twist. Instead of unlocking units and abilities, I’d rather go with some economy boost. Might be dangerous for balance, but I like the idea.
For example, there could be (mutually exclusive) research for +5 max population, discounts on vehicles or infantry etc. These could also be made faction specific to increase asymmetry.

Teching costs:
I don’t know why the main gate for techs fuel is only. I think it would be beneficial to include munitions cost in addition or at least for some tiers. This would prevent fuel rushes in team modes where holding double fuel is basically all you need while you can neglect the specialized munition points.


Redesigned teching:
Soviet tech is now linear, Penals move to T0 to abolish the Soviet infantry duality. I hope both units work better together in more diverse builds if they are also available together. This in turn would potentially open up commander changes for elite infantry, however they are not a concern at the moment.

Restructured Tech:
T0: Conscripts, Penals, CE
T1: M3, Sniper, Maxim (building within 3 min)
T2: ATG, Mortar, M5 (building within 5 min)
T3: SU76, T70, (Katy)
T4: T34, SU85, (Katy)
I hope this gives more proper timing to the M5 (upgrade might need tweaks) which should come at around 5 min. Maxim and mortar might be switched if necessary. Katy goes T3 or T4. All costs changed to fit timing windows.

Combat engineers:
Squad size 4
Get normal mosins

Upgrade paths:
1. Anti-tank -> gets 1 PTRS, sticky satchel, +1 model, light AT mines; MAYBE after T3/4 they could get a second one
2. Sweeper -> increased repair speed and build time

Conscripts:
Aim is to use them as “fill up” troops to fill gaps in the front line. Bad combat stats, short range weapon profile, scale through abilities. Damage scaling will probably be bad at mid-long range and see a steeper increase at very short ranges. Changes:
Start at 7 men, MR does not grant another model (need new usage for MR)
Molotov gets impact damage buff and maybe cost buff
RA nerf (about 10% nerf), maybe MR will be used to remove this nerf
Damage nerf, especially mid-long range

Penals:
Redesign intended to slightly mirror the German Gren-PGren interaction, however with slight twists. Penals are not elite infantry and rather in between line and elite infantry. Although doctrines are not taken into account yet, I think this should also create some room for Guards and Shocks. Mid range profile.
4 men

Upgrade paths:
1. flame thrower
2. 2x DP28 (increases squad size to 5)
The squad size to 4 is a slight band aid because I’d like to move the flame thrower for some asymmetry between the factions. Also, it would fit Penals’ role to do the dangerous jobs. However, 5 men flamers are often not a great idea, especially early on. I hope the merge with Conscripts will create the staying power needed.

M3
Retains its current sight radius, maybe even a slight buff. Potentially slightly lower top speed to nerf cheesy strategies of just running the M3 with a satchel squad into tanks or similar.

Maxim, ATG, mortar
All become 4 men squads with RA buffs as needed. As I said previously, I want them to be more expensive in general but more effective at the job. Especially with the changes to mortars and MGs, they might become too effective, thereby high MP cost should prevent spamming. This should make repairing team weapons more worthwhile as well as create more interesting play around defending them. Issues could come with wipes due to late game arty.

M5
Hopefully improved timing at T2. Changes as needed to fit the new timing. Slightly above average sight (~40 range). Maybe the truck should come with a “medic truck” upgrade that unlocks the reinforcement and healing, potentially healing as AoE.

SU76
No huge changes. I like the unit itself, I hope the changes to the Soviet infantry system will create enough room at this phase to get an SU76 instead of a T70. Sight changes as previously described.

T70
The backbone of the Soviet early-mid transition. No larger changes overall, maybe a tiny penetration nerf mid to long range so that a Luchs has slightly better chances.

T34, SU85, Katy
I’ll sum these up. Again no huge changes apart from the general vehicle proposals since I don’t fully know how those will turn out. If possible, the SU85 might be changed to fit better vs heavier armor, but this will require more changes on the Ostheer side of things.
Katy could go T3 or T4, depending on where it fits best.

Point system alone is probably the biggest change so far, because CoH2 system pretty much affected littery the whole game. And every single point on the map is pretty much point of interest worth trying to capture. Problem with CoH2 system, is not even the amount of points, but rather the fact that usually in total (excluding the VP), there are only 4 points of interests and unless you just want to either delay or cut-off the enemy, there is no reason to go beyond this (unless its 1v1), since regular points are effectively pointless to the economy, making game more static and predictable.

I wouldn't say a standard point is THAT much weaker than a specialized one. It's just that the game forces you to prioritize fuel so much in the beginning that the munitions income is not that important. At the start everyone rushes fuel. Not having infantry upgrades is bad, but getting an early Luchs/AA HT/222 etc is more than compensating for that and will likely give you control over more points for mun.
Later the situation often reverses when fuel is not that important and you just want munitions to buy abilities.

I agree that the system is bad though since it makes it arbitrary which point you take. There are usually 12 standard points, of which a maximum of 4 designed as cut offs. This leaves at least 8 points with the only function of generating exactly the same amount of resources. They are for the most part interchangeable and basically all "the same".
In total, there are 3 important VPs, 4 special resource points, <4 cut offs and >8 "boring" standard points. Almost half of the points do not have decent purpose, and at least 2 are often secured next to the base anyway.

I hope CoH3's new, old system can improve that. It is more of a challenge for mappers though, since the points need to be placed in a way that you can't snowball and insta-win because you control the most important region for 5 minutes. Let's see what Relic does.

Exactly. If I join and see 2 of my teammates less than level 20 and they start their build by spamming engies or mortars you bet your ass im dropping, especially if it's a map like port of hamburger or shitball express.

To be honest there are worse builds than flamers and indirect for Hamburg.

But even if it is not a player actively dropping, just having 8 players instead of 6 already increases the chance for someone to crash by one third.

I like most of the list, although it could be more in-depth at times. Which I understand that it can't go into details in every single point, given that everyone was playing the pre-alpha as a hobby in their free time.

My opinion on the auto-reinforce is fully positive though.
It reduces what I call "stupid micro". Clicking for clicking's sake. Yes, sometimes you want to not reinforce and save the manpower for buying a tank a little earlier. But let's be real, this situation occurs maybe once a game. >90% of the time everyone is just spamming the reinforce button as quickly as possible to go back to the front line. It is by far more reasonable to actually cancel the auto reinforce in the rare occasion of wanting to save manpower instead of making this rare occasion the default.
The only downside I can see is that players won't see reinforcement costs as often. Those should be displayed alongside the buying cost when hovering over the unit construction icon in the respective building, which would make sense regardless of auto reinforce or not.

Elevation is actually an interesting mechanic, since it is a natural shot blocker. A map could be very open, but at the same time not. This also brings more emphasis to knowledge of the map and ability to use it as an advantage. Coh2 also has elevation, but (AFAIK) it can be ignored, if the firing unit rolls an accuracy hit.

The main problem with Coh2's elevation is also that units won't take elevation into account. They try to fire regardless and will happily hit the ground if they don't roll an accuracy hit. So either it looks odd because the shot goes through the ground, or it looks odd because your unit shoots the ground. In any case, it looks odd because your unit might actually not see its target.