Profile of rofltehcat

4 € for a commander is simply too much.

I disagree with Basilone: The changes he proposes would make kiting infantry (especially with vet 1 sprint) too easy.
Snipers should not kite everything to death and they sure as hell should not be able to frontally charge an MG. Rather, they are meant to stay at long range (35-50) and use cover to make spotting them harder. They can take out units like MGs fine that way and can use cover to hide their exact location.
If the 0.8 seconds (1.5 for Ost sniper) before shooting are a huge factor for your sniper, chances are you are already far too close and/or lacking units that provide cover for your sniper.

Fair enough, Penals have great long range DPS compared to other units. Problem being, it takes about 1 min of firing to kill single model @ long range, and no one is stupid enough to just sit there and wait 5 min for their squad to get wiped.

50% of the time walking over to Penals (or any unit for that matter) into nade range will result in 0 casualties...

It really comes down to how lucky you are, will you kill model or 2 or none at all..

Yeah, long range battles are kind of wonky because you either kill a few models pretty quickly or because one side may end up with a squad that hasn't lost any models but ist at 50% health. I think if the targeting of entities were a bit more consistent this wouldn't be as bad.

However, Penals can defend themselves from approaching infantry pretty well with their devastating Satchel throw.

what does people think of penal flame-thrower able to fire on the move?

I think that would certainly be possible but I do not completely understand what this would change. Of course this would make the flamer a bit better but I don't understand which of the Penal problems (low armor, long range rifles but short range ability and upgrade) this would fix.

Overall, I'd like to add to this suggestion to also change the movement burst modifier to 0.75 or 0.5 or something. This would mean their bursts would be shorter, on the one hand decreasing the flamer's DPS on the move but on the other hand also preventing the Penal from roasting itself (which their satchels are already doing enough of).

I could really use some clarification from Relic on how mortars work:
1) Are Mortars more accurate on targets that are spotted by other units?
2) Are mortars more accurate on units that are directly in their own LoS?
(I ask this, because Ive seen 120mms DEVASTATE infantry that is pracrically next to them)
3) Are mortars coded to be more accurate, the more shots they fire at a guven target?

It is handled by the scatter mechanics:
The scatter angle defines how far to the right or left of the unit the shot can go. If a unit is very close, the distance it can go to the left or right is a lot smaller than when a unit is far away.

The scatter distance and scatter distance max determine how far "before" or "behind" a unit the shot can land. This value increases up to the maximum (scatter distance max) in a manner that is described by the "distance ratio" stat.
I am not sure how the distance ratio actually works (would appreciate input from a few number crunchers ) but I suspect it might be a simple (distance ratio * distance). In any case, the 120mm's lower (0.1) scatter ratio than the 82mm's and 81mm's (0.15) also means that it is more accurate than the normal mortars at "short" ranges. A part of the problem may stem from that.

When firing into (or through?) fog of war, the scatter angle and scatter distance are both multiplied by 1.25, so vision of the target certainly plays a role.

So the answers are
1) yes
2) no (no direct fire hit chance unless possible but implausible bug)
3) no (although the Soviet barrage abilities are slightly more accurate than their auto attack)

In any case, if the explosion radius weren't so large, all those problems wouldn't even exist.


A possible other solution could be to leave all of its scatter/AoE/damage stats and increasing the setup (3.5 s) as well as its for its size short teardown (2.5 s) times and maybe also increase its minimum range (7, same as other mortars).
This would shift the unit from its current role of "mortar, only better in everything" towards being a medium artillery piece. This role is also more representative of its long range and cost.
It would still have its killing power but it would be easier to take out (and harrass), especially with flanks and vehicles. However, I think just decreasing the AoE radius (and adjusting other stats) would be easier.

They looked pretty bunched to me wouldn't a normal mortar of had the same effect?

Possibly, but not necessarily. The chance for at least one soldier to survive a hit like that from a normal mortar isn't bad. The 120mm mortar has twice the damage and 1.5 times the blast radius (which means 225% of the area covered) of a normal mortar. This combination means that the area inside which infantry are annihilated (not just damaged) is much bigger.

This plopped up on my suggested youtube videos today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuK-Meu6KO4

The thing about what happened in this video: The shot could also have gone astray by 5 metres. This shot required neither munitions/veterancy/skill (precision strike, which would have been fine if this were one) nor is it fair for one player to profit this much and the other player to be punished this much from this random event.

If the AoE radius were lower (and other things like cost of the mortar adapted to compensate), the extent of what happened there would have been much less severe.
From a mortar hit hitting this precisely, he sure as hell would have lost the engagement. Thus he'd have lost a little ground. But he wouldn't have lost a whole squad and the LMG upgrade.

He could have retreated, reinforced, used his skill to adapt. Instead, the outcome was a completely binary situation without room for one site to compensate.
And he should have at least had the chance to adapt. To retreat, reinforce, recapture lost territory. Losing time, manpower and territory would have been enough without also costing him a squad and a ton of munitions. Those high impact effects based on pure random chance should not even be a part of this game.