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My quick two cents.
A lot of people enjoy watching streams over playing because it is a lot less effort for potentially more entertainment to watch a stream versus playing a game like CoH 2.
There are days that I come home from work and don't have the energy to put towards serious practice or 1v1 laddering, but it is still nice to turn on a stream to see what's up.
I could also see it having to do with people being scared to play. Most people are scared to lose so they'd rather sit around on forums or in streams trying to prove themselves superior rather than just playing the game and letting their actions speak.
But yeah, for the most part I think there has been a major shift recently in watching streams versus playing... kind of like look at how many people watch sports on TV but never (or rarely) go out and play said sports. Nothing wrong with it especially considering how important viewership is in sports/esports, just people just prefer to watch and relax than play. |
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There are no words. |
I do not care.
You 3 are smurfs.
At least no one else has ever streamed while playing my account.
I'm still not sure why you have anything against me. I've been noting but friendly towards you. |
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Seems like Cpt Molo has gotten into smurfing.
Easy game to be honest.
Not worth a watch unless you're looking at how to counter T1 into M4C Sherman spam. |
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+1
Having to restart the game constantly to avoid in-game freezes and lag spikes is killing the enjoyment of the game.
It will also greatly hinder any sort of competitive growth we push for. No one is going to try and push the skill ceiling of the game when having to deal with frustrating stutter, lag, delay and bugsplats constantly.
@Dullahan - congrats on being able to play the game at max settings. Population, you. It's no coincidence that the vast majority of the community has been complaining about optimization since release. It's beyond awful unfortunately.
Then again you could just say that the entire community except for you has toasters and we're just needlessly QQing. FailFish |
Crazy game of Ciez and Momo versus RtN.Lyconious and his buddy Tomakaze.
Heroic snipers and Elefant (spoiler alert over 100 sniper kills throughout the game).
Cast please 
GGWP! |
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GG WP, fun game.
So many dead tanks. |
@wakeupta.
What MS has finally realized and implemented is that inorder to make a product idiot-proof, you have to take power away from the idiots, and the average user is an idiot. Apple did the same thing years ago.
So many idiots keep whining about "Windows gets so slow after a while" Yeah because idiots keep getting malware because they run software they don't know where it came from. They tried making people stop to think with the UAC, a very simple solution just stop the user for a second and ask them "Do you trust the source of this program?" But ofc people found it annoying and idiots never realized why they were asked in the first place.
How hard is it to take a second and ask yourself: "Do I trust this software i downloaded from hpdrivers.alldriversinteworld.sn?"
But no the average user will go to sites that equates a 50cent prostitute in Sierra Leone and fuck her without a condom. And then go complain they got STDs. The average user has been given the choice but nope they were simply too stupid to be safe on their own, so now Daddy Microsoft has come down on all of us and are imposing forced restrictions.
(All in an effort of course to get away from the notion that MS machines will get slow and sluggish after a while, since they have been loosing sizable chunks of the market to Apple.)
The current new harsher EULA of Windows is brought on by the idiot of the average user and we all have to suffer for it. Frankly I'm happy for it, it will make my life easier if there is something that will stop idiots being idiotic and then asking me to unfuck their actions.
It isn't only malware that causes Windows to slow down after a while.
A lot of it is related to the registry, even on completely clean PCs.
The way Windows handles installing software is just completely stupid in 99% of cases.
OS X and Linux distributions don't get the same sort of slow-down with age because they don't have a registry. In my experience they also tend to be more efficient resource wise than Windows and Windows is always trying to run some bullshit in the background. |
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Skimmed over the thread but to answer the question in general (and hopefully Relic may notice this post)... almost everything about Ost is better than OKW.
Let's start with the basics.
Volks are terrible. They really are. They're glorified AT guns that can retreat. They struggle to kill opposing infantry because their DPS is so low. Their grenade is handy, but dodge-able and expensive for a faction that gets a munitions income penalty. Plus you want those schrecks or mines.
Sturms are passable early game but bleed hard mid/late game and need to spend time repairing/sweeping instead of fighting.
Kubel is good... until the M20 or M3 comes, at which point you've wasted your manpower in most cases. I still believe the Kubel to be vital to properly early game OKW play in 1v1s but it could use a redesign in my opinion.
Everything from the Mech Truck tends to be sub-par for cost this patch. Thus you have to open med truck every game. Really that's not such a bad thing since the Jp4 is amazing and ISGs are great this patch. But that's about where the benefits end.
Getting an early JP4 is highly necessary given how fast Centaurs, Shermans and Quads can hit the field. This tends to leave OKW with few options other than turtling around their med truck until they can field the Jp4. The problem with this is that your generalized armor and non-doctrinal elite infantry (that can kill, unlike Volks) are locked in your T4 building. It is almost always overly difficult to field your T4 in an even game. It is just too easy to fall too far behind to enemy armor without a Jp4 on the field since your Pz4 comes considerably later with the fuel penalty OKW suffers.
Ultimately this leads you to rely on not teching, and calling in Ostwinds. Thankfully Scavenge also has JLI which are semi-elite infantry and quite efficient. They just don't kill quickly.
Overall OKW isn't "bad" just a bit on the weak side. They certainly have a lot of difficulty dealing with USF because of no reliable M20 snare. Against UKF Volks are dominated at all ranges by infantry sections. Against Soviet Shocks and Guards pose a big threat without access to Obers. Once again, without easy access to a snare units like the T70 and KV8 become extremely deadly. I guess you can at least have a Jp4 out before a Kv8 but double ZiS + Kv8 still presents many problems.
So to actually answer your question:
Ostheer has LMG grenadiers that are significantly more efficient than Volks, while also providing the best AT snare in the game.
The HMG42 is crazy good in the right matchups on the right maps.
Tellers win games.
Ost sniper hard counters UKF early game, especially when screened by Ostruppen.
The 222 can easily handle pesky things like M3s while somewhat keeping the M20 at bay - at least the M20 can't just run at you since a faust + 222 will ruin the M20's day. Whereas a single schreck is easy to vehicle push so it won't every hit the M20 more than once per engagement.
Not to mention quicker and more streamlined access to the Pz4 as well as the Tiger to lock in late game and solid off maps like the Ju87 skill planes.
I can't think of anything OKW does better than Ost this patch except perhaps ISG stuff. That's basically your only viable strategy in a competitive game. Crutch on ISGs, JLI, Jp4 and Ostwind. The rest of your tech is either under performing or generally too expensive to field unless the game goes quite late. Or both. |
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Going to try and keep this as short and sweet as I can...
Forcing players to manually face these units does not address the root of the problem, and neither does hitting them with a seven sided nerf. Good players will barely notice the "micro tax" in all but the most furious engagements - and even then selecting your control group and right clicking once is hardly difficult.
In my opinion what needs to be resolved in some manner is the suppression. Suppression is overwhelmingly powerful in CoH 2 especially given that being shot at by small arms extends the duration of suppression. This causes unwinnable engagements to be won with ease.
Infantry Sections dominate Volks at all ranges given equal cover... until the ISG hits. Rifles are strong against Volks early on... until the ISG hits. Double BAR vet 3 rifles should walk all over Volks... until the ISG hits. See the pattern here? Even more upsetting is that lack of control the player on the receiving end has over when/where the ISG is going to hit. You could be perfectly microing your units into advantageous green cover to win an engagement... and then the ISG hits. Have fun retreating. #OutplayedEz
Now I'm not saying that the suppression must go. Personally I'd like to see it removed given how accurate these units are now and how much bleed they can inflict on their own given proper management. However, the accuracy causing them to suppress/pin nearly every hit is what tends to break these units.
Furthermore since there is generally no great way to get out of suppression/pin in the middle of combat you are generally forced to retreat units constantly. Time is a valuable resource in RTS, especially in CoH 2 where time is directly correlated to map control due to the capping mechanics. Having such reliable suppression at such long range with such a high amount of map coverage in a 1v1 is just absurd. Currently these units are basically extremely long range MGs that inflict considerable bleed without exposing themselves to any real danger.
As I've said before, forcing manual facing addresses none of this. It is a poorly thought-out and lazy way to try and fix a unit. It unfairly punishes weaker/slower players while adding a mildly annoying "micro tax" to top level players.
What needs to happen (in my opinion):
Relic needs to decide the role of these units. Should they be long-range suppression machines designed to stop/slow down blobs of units? Then they need to be able to suppress reliably but not bleed. I do not like this solution as suppression implemented in such a manner (i.e. with little to no real counter-play) does not reward the more skilled player but if that is the design intent behind these units... so be it. Give them a large amount of suppression but lower damage so that they do not bleed opponents.
Alternatively they could be more akin to mortars. In general I try to shy away from symmetric balance as I believe asymmetric balance is more interesting, but sometimes a line has to be drawn. Every faction should have access to efficient indirect fire units, lest the game become a WW I simulator where everyone digs in with stupid amounts of HMGs, bunkers and weapon teams. I am in the camp that believes static game play to be less exciting to watch as well as less rewarding for the better player. Both of these notions go against the idea of game play that could foster a competitive scene.
By removing the suppression from these units they would be able to serve as indirect fire support in much the same way that mortars currently do without forcing constant retreats and consistently swinging the tide of unwinnable engagements due to their suppression. They could counter garrisons, HMGs, and AT guns.
Of course there could be more complicated solutions and I think everyone should put forth their solutions so that Relic can have a greater pool of ideas to draw inspiration from.
Perhaps giving only the barrage suppression while increasing the cooldown considerably would be fair. This way you can push a blob with a well timed barrage or win an important engagement but the auto-fire would no longer play the game for you. This would also increase the potential for counter-play as an opponent could time other pushes around the cooldown between barrages.
The bottom line is - I think Relic needs to decide what role they want these units to fulfill and then design them around that. Having a unit that acts as a long range MG and mortar with the potential to one-shot squads (mostly the Pack Howi) that requires no micro to use and presents little to no real counter-play is a disaster. |
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