Profile of Array

corrected

I'm making no balance claim but the post expands and analyses the concept that the balance could shift significantly for different skill levels of the players (where they are both equally good or bad)

Personally I get kicked around has both factions but am less experienced with ostheer and can clearly see how I mess my games up, as soviet I can often play what seems to me to be a great early game but then still lose - normally to FHt and p4's but with pg's nullifying my counters. The detail here gives me lots of food for thought on how I might change aspects of my strategy and tactics to counter the problems in turn.

I hope in the short term that someone posts a similarly detailed response on how ostheer can be played to their full advantage for your benefit.

This topic is really important for balance though, the beta grapevine suggests that soviet is getting a significant rework and I assume perhaps wrongly that this will increase flexibility and thus ease of play for the faction, which at my level of skill feels (to me) broadly necessary. This gives another view that easing my (noob) pain might severely hurt high level ostheer players and that other areas (such as muni float and unit range) will need careful review.

Of course I don't actually know what's in the next patch unlike some but it sounds like the debs are going to have to think really hard about it and the next balancing steps particularly as any significant rework is going to throw up a whole load of new 'unforeseen consequences'

Glad to hear.

Does anyone know why the infantrycombat was altered the way it was? Was this a request by the community or is it simply a result of the new developmentteam having a different philosophy than the team behind vCOH?

I recall in a developer thread way back this was discussed. It was explained that they wanted to remove 'hidden knowledge' from the game. For example in vcoh volks v rifles volks would win in cover at range whilst rifles needed to get close in. This was not obvious for someone coming to the game - in fact careful study of dps tables was advisable to play the game even reasonably we'll. in coh2 a new player can immediately see that with cons v grens the trick is to land a grenade or attack with 2 vs 1 or buy an upgrade (Lmg). The low dps of small arms accentuates this mechanic and gives players more time to react. I hesitate to say this on an anti negativity thread but it was a 'dumbing down' in an attempt to broaden appeal. It is probably the only change I really regret in the game.

You got this a bit wrong
Overkill doesn't mean that the damage is spread over the squad. It means that every model has 80 hp. Now if a weopon has 26 damage it kills 1 model in 4 hits. (4x26=104) Now you just did 24 damage to much. These 24 damage are wasted and are called Overkill. If they change the damage from 26 to 20 it kills with exactly the same speed (20x4=80). Now you have wasted 0 damage.

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Yes this true but as the accuracy has been increased there will Bo more hits over time and so men will die quicker - the previously 'wasted' dps has been transferred to a different model making damage more efficient at killing which is kind of what I meant about the Damage previously being 'spread across the squad' -as you correctly state this was in the form of wasted dps.

Most, if not all, systems do.

Decay will promote an active ladder and the players who can climb will feel rewarded by no longer being #2 after a player who hasn't played since beta.
You call it undeserved, but what merit is there in someone who hasn't played in 2-3 month being #1? Far more warranted if he would be here to defend his position, would you not say?

It could be a she!

Ah, thanks for the explanation.

My opinion: If you want to be on the top you have to play and win. Getting a rank because someone who is better then me doesn´t play fore a while sounds wrong and undeserved.

Fanatic - there are some issues with non-decaying ladders - for example some players have been able to build up a very enviable record early on when many new players are on (thus getting many easy wins and few losses) also taking advantage of exploits like the free fhq's before they are patched can allow people to take an unassailable position in terms of win/loss ratio that may be hard to better through normal play. Ladder decay means that patch and balance changes become irrelevant to ladder positions across time and you can clearly see who is mastering the 'current' build