Profile of Doomlord52

Yea, this thing is probably the most useless unit in the game since it can be decrewed.

So IMO it just needs to be more durable, maybe vulnerable to flamers but not small arms. Also it could use a good penetration (I honestly don't know its current pen!!!), just to keep light vehicles (not mediums) at bay, and not counter them completely. Or maybe a Munition switch (HE for AoE damage and Suppression, AP for armor and Aircrafts).

Pretty much this, although I'd rather it have very low pen (works vs. HTs, that's about it) but lots of suppression. Basically a 'bofors-lite'; no brace, no self-repair, useless vs. medium vehicles, but amazing vs. infantry.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I think that might work, I'll pick up Feuersturm when I can (need 250points, so 1 drop).

Vs. Soviets and penal spam, it's only really a problem when it's supported by a brit playing aggressively, so I think that this will fix both problems.

So it's been almost a month. Is there an OKW counter for this, or is it just a case of hoping you massively outplay/RNG aggressive brits? Combined with penal spam in 2v2 it seems pretty much impossible to win unless you massively outplay them.

It's basically gotten to the point that vs. any team without brits, my win rate is probably 75%, but with a single brit its probably 20%.

Honestly, there's not a lot that needs to be changed for CoH3 to be a great game; the game play is fundamentally great, as is the general design. There's really just a few 'key' things that need to be done in a specific way to ensure a fantastic game (most of these would be done anyway).


New engine. I feel like we've fallen into the problem where the same engine gets upgrades and additions, but they only end up making things worse. Essence 3 is really just a large update to 2, which was an update to 1... which shipped with CoH1; 10 years ago (+years of development). Let's say the engine took 1.5 years to develop - that puts the planning phase back in early 2005; before even Core 2 Duo was a thing.

Only so many things can be added to the initial framework before a total restart or overhaul is needed. Multi-core CPUs are standard in even the most budget-oriented of laptops, multi-GPU setups are far more common, 64-bit is basically universal (as well as 8gb+ of ram)... but CoH2 doesn't take advantage of any of these things for one reason or another. Combine that with all the other performance problems people talk about, and a new engine is pretty much a necessity.

They could easily license a 3rd-party engine (there's a lot of very high-end engines out there) that would solve pretty much every problem; I'm just unsure about how much work would be needed to get a proper RTS framework up.


New patch schedule. I think we can all agree that COH2's patch history hasn't been as good as it could have been. In general, patches need to be smaller and quicker. The whole "giant patch every quarter" thing doesn't work in a competitive game, where a small change can cause a massive swing in the meta, causing massive problems.

What we need is a weekly "update" system, where small things can be changed by small amounts. Is the AEC under-performing? Let's buff one stat and see how that works. Is it still weak next week? Buff it a small amount again. The whole "buff 5 stats" and then don't update the game for a month thing doesn't work - it makes people stop playing while they wait for a patch. At most, something should only be glaringly OP/UP for a week or so.


More evident 'design document'. I think one of the main problems in figuring out how things should be balanced in COH2 (at least from the communities view) is the lack of any idea on how certain factions are supposed to play. For example, the USF is supposed to be a combined arms "flexible" faction, but instead is played like a giant blob. OKW is supposed to be the resource starved faction with expensive but powerful late-game vehicles, but instead floats tons of MP and generally uses lots of infantry backed up by massive amounts of tanks.

Let's get some clear documentation on how the units, and the game, is supposed to play.



More focus. This is probably the most debatable idea, but I personally think the game would need a lot more 'focus' in order to become an "E-sports" competitive game. What I mean by that is focus in design and balance; it's hard to support 4v4 comp-stomp bridge maps AND 1v1 close-quarters maps with the exact same units and changes. It's also hard to support a game which is often extremely contradictory.

On the one hand, we have focus on tactical movement (cover to cover), flanking (true-sight) and positioning (weapon facing, optimal ranges, etc.); but on the other hand we have stuff like the IR-halftrack (ignores true sight), a blob-focused meta (ignores flanking) and LMGs being best in almost every situation.

Then there's emplacement-heavy factions (UKF), mobile bases (OKW flak base), forward retreat points (just mass-retreat your blob and attack 30 seconds later), various AoE duration abilities (loiters, long-duration targeted arty, etc.). None of these play to the game's strong points.

If it were up to me, I would strongly focus the game on smaller-scale tactics. The maps can stay about the same size (although 2v2 maps in 1v1 are too big), but let's get it to a point were you only have 4-5 squads and 2-3 vehicles at one point; not 5 panthers and 6 volks. Similarly, offensive emplacements should just be removed (use sandbags instead), forward retreating should be removed (although forward healing is OK). Of course, all of this would require a MUCH more responsive game as well as much better and more predictable pathing.


/edit
Refined placement matches. Kind of small, but it's really needed for new players. No one wants to get crushed 10 times in a row. Instead, when a totally new player starts the game, give them a 'default' ELO score (like 1,000). While their rank shouldn't be shown until a few placement matches have been played (ideally, 5), just use that 1,000 ELO starting point like any other score.

Also, when playing new factions, just average the player's existing ELO score; a different faction isn't an entirely new game - the player will still have a good understanding of counters, micro, game mechanics, etc.

The only 'BIG' changes left are things such as removing double-upgrades from mainline infantry (although HOW to go about this is undecided), possibly something to help with blob control (personally suggest increased supression AoE or negative zeal), and then just 'cheese' fixes (bofors nerf, OKW-flakHQ, etc.).

After that point it's mostly small stuff, like others have said: turn speeds, slight RoF changes, adjustments to some docs to make them more viable, etc. And then there's bug fixes (i.e. bugs that impact gameplay consistently).