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I think the jackson could use more acceleration and a buff to its AP rounds ability. I also think the jackson is kind of OP vs ostheer T3, but not really that strong vs heavies. So I would support a damage nerf in conjunction with a penetration buff to make it more consistent in its role.
On the surface I support this because more consistency leads to a better ability for players to correctly predict the outcomes of fights but it gets complicated when it comes time to crunch the actual numbers - or maybe I'm not not good enough at math.
A simple example:
Let's say we want to nerf the damage of the Jackson, but buff it's penetration so that the time-to-kill a Panther remains the same at max range. Right now we know that with 100% penetration the Jackson will take ~23.2 seconds to kill a Panther at max range, simple extrapolation of this data would lead us to assume that given the actual penetration value of 50% versus Panther frontal armor at max range that it should take a Jackson ~46.4 seconds to actually kill the Panther. This hasn't even begun to take into account accuracy/moving accuracy penalties or any other things thrown into the equation like Mark Target/AT nades/etc. Although perhaps we disregard those things when trying to keep the relative performance of the Jackson in a vacuum the same while nerfing damage but buffing penetration?
Anyways so now we have to figure out what the penetration of the Jackson should be since we can safely assume that, if given a nerf to damage, it'll deal 160 damage per shot like the majority of other tanks in the game (and all the other TDs outside the Ele/JT). Keep in mind that in doing this we also remove the defining characteristic of the Jackson - high damage, which removes some of the uniqueness and flavor of the unit. In most cases that would be fine because balance should trump flavor/realism/etc - but I don't think the Jackson is OP nor do I think it is UP, but that's my opinion and a discussion for a different time (well technically this topic, but not this particular post).
Back to the math.
So the Panther has 800 hp, the Jackson is now doing 160 damage per shot. This means 5 penetrating shots to kill the Panther. So now we're at 29 seconds to kill assuming 100% penetration but we need to increase penetration so that the Jackson should kill the Panther in ~46.4 seconds. The Jackson can shoot exactly 8 times in 46.4 seconds leading us to a max-range penetration percentage of 62.5% of the time. The Panther has 320 frontal armor meaning the 60 range penetration value of the Jackson would have to go up to 200. Of course the near/mid values have to increase proportionally.
So yeah... I'm not even sure all of my math is technically correct especially because things with math get sticky when you bring in question of: "If we want the Jackson to kill the Panther in 46 seconds MOST of the time what values do we need etc etc." Not to mention the fact that the law of averages doesn't really exist in the cases of CoH 2 penetration because each shot is independent of every other shot - whether or not the last shot penetrated has no effect on the chance of the next shot penetrating.
And then it just gets more and more complicated with having to factor in near/mid penetration values as well as near/mid reload values as well as moving accuracy/reload penalties as well as any vet bonuses that the units may or may not have...
Personally I'm fine with the Jackson only penetrating the Panther 50% of the time on front armor at max range at vet 0. To me 50% feels like a number I can rely on and feels more concrete than something like 62.5% of the time or whatever other number we end up coming up with. In the end it is just a placebo effect that 50% "feels" nicer than 62.5% to me personally because in reality when I'm playing the game I don't sit there and think "well the Jackson penetrated my Panther last shot, meaning I can push up because the next shot is more likely to bounce" - the only thing that truly matters when it comes to in-game situations is the current situation. If the Jackson is kiting my Panther properly I know that I cannot chase it because I will not win that fight the majority of the time (60 range vs 50 with for all intents and purposes the same mobility). For this reason I rely on PaK40s to counter Jacksons. Again I'd like to reiterate the idea that in-game experience/knowledge/situations always trumps unit statistics.
Soooooooooooooooooooo yeah. Maybe some one better at math or some one at Relic that gets paid to do this sort of thing can figure out a fair way to make this sort of change - and I'd probably support it... I just don't see it being as easy as most people try to make it out to be (not calling you out specifically Romeo because your idea is solid).
Relic Entertainment
