Meh it's far easier to simply give the AG's a crap gun, and make the machinegun an upgrade costing munitions. Reworking the whole model used by CoH seems over the top.
As for now it would only affect the the Shock troops and the Guards. The Germans only call in would be the Field officer and the Osttruppen as Relief Forces. But you have to look in the upcoming future. What new units will be available as infantry call-ins. Maybe dedicated Panzerschreck-troops for the Germans. Just saying, that after the Heavy tank adjustment, where the MP cost went up, it would be nice to save som MP on the infantry and pay with munitions instead.
But yes in the beginning you got cheaper Shocks without submachineguns and payed for them afterwards. now it it is one MP package. By this logic the AGs should also come equiped WITH their submachineguns at a high cost at 1CP... |
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Then maybe rework the whole infantry call-in model depnding on the usefulness of their weaponry? Like the Shocktroops PPsH and the Guards AT rifles? Lower their MP cost and add a Munitions cost? That could surely be interesting. |
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As I see it there are three groups of players: the pro players, the core players and the for fun players. The pros want their stats to be high, their streaks long and care about the ELO rating, also they are ones mostly concerned with equal balance of the game. The core players play a game when they can, some mind if they lose some don't some are frustrated, some encouraged to beat a stronger opponent. But they are not as vocal as the pros, they just play the game as is. Then there are the for fun players, these are your scheldt and compstomp annihilation players that just want to see things explode and like to spam things like artillery. They will definitely quit if they see no fun in a game playing against pros and vice versa will the pros quit when they have to play with for fun players on their team. They will post everything that's imbalanced and broken on the forums.
So maybe enable a setting in the automatch for what kind of games you are looking for playing for fun or playing for ladder points or whether it doesn't matter. But you will still be all in the same ranked match pool! And the match-maker would try(!) to find matches according to your preferences.
If you select pro: you will see the other players ingame rank, ladder position, ELO and maybe even your possible rise or fall on the ladder when you win or lose against this opponent.
The ones looking for fun players could only see the other players faceplates and if they are also looking for fun. So they can be happy if their game consists of mostly players that are all looking for fun.
And the core players who do not care for ladder points can simply see the ingame rank as usual.
On all settings the Bulletins should be hidden. And revealed after the game. You have beaten Player x who had chosen commander Y with these bulletins: A, B and C.
Offtopic:
And please add the bulletins in game to the unit, sometimes I forget which unit is buffed. Or alone for the sake of replays when you are watching someone else's units. Just add the bulletin like the other buffs to their portrait section of the UI.
And please add maybe a little icon next to the commander portraits that shows which endgame unit/ability they wield (Tiger, IS-2, left etc) because if in 6 months the game will have over 40 commanders it will be a nightmare to tell them apart solely from their portrait. Weren't they supposed to be some sort of Mr. Potatohead code in their portraits? like the Stahlhelm is for the Tigertank, the fur coat for camouflage ability etc.? |
Exactly Bulldog. There are so many ways thinkable to nerf the AG's so they fit into the game nicely.
They went with the most ugly solution possible.
You can:
- Nerf the unit itself
- Up the cp's needed
- Make it cost fuel
- Make it cost more MP
- Have the machinegun be an upgrade requiring munitions
Just some things out of my head in 5 seconds, I'm sure more is possible. Why they went with this solution is beyond me.
Yes a combination would the the most satisfying solution. 1CP, cheap MP only call in cost and 60 munitions to upgrade them with MP40s. That would give them the Volksgrenadier feeling they were aiming for (I think). |
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Create Option to choose Commander for AI in custom game. Three, two or only one if you want to fight a specific one. Random ones of course, too.
Then enable all Commanders in Custom mode for the AI(!) so you can play against them or with them as your team mates. This will be good for practice and a positive incentive to buy the commanders if you can see them actually ingame. |
IMO/TL;DR: all these DLC should be free, as a consumer, we bought the game already, give me my money's worth. As a business, DLC is amazingly good profit.
DLC on the other hand has also its merits as it creates revenue which fuels the games longevity with content other than the DLC itself such as patches, community support, tournaments etc. Though here comes the difference with board games and video games. Board games (should) work if you pay for them once and so should video games work (if all goes well) but since the days of broadband internet speeds and the ability to deliver patches to video games after the release video games seem to be never finished once you buy them. On the other hand you expect some kind of support (technical/ingame/...) from a video game or "basics" such as community support and "hot stuff" on their web sites, maybe even for free. So video games became more of a Service than a Product.
@Generian: The Commanders as I believed in at the start of the alpha of CoH2 were all kind of bland and similar and you didn't actually had to choose one right off the bat. I thought that this was good, that the Commanders didn't alter the game as much as they did in CoH1. That now it will be easier to implement new ones, that doesn't break the balance. Because they won't completely change the meta-game. And whoosh, in comes the 0CP cavalry.
Thank goodness they reacted quickly on this one as people effectively were buying a game changing imbalance that worked in their favor.
> With a broader player base (free to play) and no-brainer-prices (1€/1,40$ per Commander) people would come and pay in droves. And add Steam-Workshop integration! Custom skins (Hello Kitty StuGs), custom Commnders! OMG let them create their own Commanders with a create-a-commander tool to have fun in custom match (only, and the option to choose whether to allow or disallow Workshop content such as skins and Commanders)! |
Or don't even make them at all in the first place! That would be like in the old days. You know...when you bought a game and you had it...when it was all about skill, not money. Do you remember these times?
Yes I remember those days. I really miss them. Every time I look at the Appstore and see the bull-load of micro-transactions and in-game purchases that distract and dilute the original gameplay. I would gladly pay 5 bucks to have a complete and well rounded, balanced, thought-through experience. But now is the the days of free to play. Gain a large player community and sell the things that don't cost much which add up to a significant amount in the end.
Indie games and boardgames are the way to go if you want those experiences. Where on the other hand boardgames have also started to go overboard with DLC (Dominion, Carcassonne, every CCG and LCG…).
But here we are. I love CoH 1 and 2. And I see a grim future if they keep adding new untested commanders for high prices. Yes 4€ is much for video game content as small as a 5 commander abilities in an RTS game. You can buy entire Indie-games for 4€. I also wonder who buys the faceplates and camos at these prices? This content is so negligible that it would fit perfectly in a TF2 drop and buy-if-you-want-it environment. And with an ingame store for free-to-play-players and trading for box-owners the community would surely grow multiple times. |
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Disclaimer: This should not be a rant or a bashing of any sort.
First off I'm somewhat disappointed that the new Commanders aren't included in the Case Blue DLC (Boohoo, poor me). Next I was looking at the price of them and was thinking that they are actually really expensive. 3€ each with a 25% discount, otherwise it would be 4€. Three of them and I could buy Hammerwatch which is on my wish-list. And I thought while watching HelpingHans streamed his Twitch that the Assault Grenadiers are actually quite powerful, not overpowerd, maybe not tested long enough. But regardless, a player in automatch facing these new commanders and getting beaten by them can not adapt easily to these new concepts such as 0 CP call ins. A mediocre player like myself might try conscripts and fail in the first 4 minutes (as seen on Twitch) and then play against opponents without the new commanders for the next eight games and suddenly Assault Grenadiers again, quick! What to do? No clue, beaten again. And so on. It surely might lead to frustration and calling them overpowered because they can not train against these new commanders, so the inevitably have to buy them to play them or against them.
But here is the idea: Please enable Commander selection of the Skirmish CPU, which can have all Commanders regardless if you bought them or not. You could select all three, two or only one if you want to fight a specific commander. And also add a random slot! That way people can play against the new commanders and even see all the abilities they can use. Put one of them on their team! This might be a positive incentive to buy a new commander.
And furthermore I noticed while browsing the shop that you are pricing the faceplates at 2€! That's half a Commander. 2€ for an insignia that I see 20% of my game time, while I'm waiting for a game, browsing the menu. You know what the faceplates remind me off? Hats! And here is where the thought train got me going. Why not make the faceplates drops like TF2 hats. Make them trade-able. Not enough games use the Steam-integrated marketplace! (I'm looking at you PayDay 2!) And why stop there.
Next idea: Make the CoH2 MP F2P with no vehicle skins and no faceplates and only three or four commanders. But you can buy them all regularly like now in the steam store. Benefit of the bought version will be that you have the SP campaign and that faceplates and vehicle skins will drop! And maybe even the commanders. That would be a hoot. And then you could trade them (but not to F2P players). On the market place. Make the bulletins also trade-able and more farm-able, say if you completed a task, it resets itself so you can „craft“ a new bulletin which you can trade again (remember that bulletins can be farmed with save games so the should never be traded for real money). |
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I had the idea that units would only shoot at units they were designed to be shooting at:
A long time ago I wrote how it irked me that infantry shot at tanks which they can not harm, snipers giving away their position by shooting at SU85s if not on hold fire Maxims firing at Bunkers which they can not deal damage to etc.
And vice versa I would like to have armored units shoot other armor and ignore infantry. That only the hull MG and top gunner auto-target infantry. Only if targeted by right clicking or via attack move the tank would engage infantry targets.
Now you could argue that this would be more micro intensive, but wouldn't it be more rewarding? That your Panzer 4 turret would only turn if armor comes into range and not every time an engineer comes out of the fog of war for 2 seconds? That the Pak43 and Pak40 would be silent until a proper target comes into range not alerting the enemy to its presence? StuGs and SU85s not being able to decide which infantry to shoot and then being flanked by a tank that comes from the opposite direction? Though this is of course a practiced tactic, to lure the AT tank with infantry, but ATM we are using the units AI that tells it to shoot at everything that comes into range. Without the auto-targeting of infantry the tank would just sit there and maybe fire its turret MG if its a StuG, but you would have LoS with your infantry and see which way the tank is aiming. Now you can still flank it, you just have to be more careful with the approach.
Though with right clicking (or attack moving or shift+right clicking) every infantry unit you have to micro a lot more. It comes down to how useful and worthwhile the not-shooting-everything-on-sight will be compared to the more clicking you will be doing. I think it will be a good thing to have more control/responsibility over your units.
TL;DR: Infantry should not shoot at tanks and buildings it can not harm or destroy. Tanks and AT guns should only shoot at tanks, not at infantry, unless the player specifically right clicks on them or attack moves with the unit.
+1 To the 4 man Pak43 crew unless it includes further problems with the upkeep. |
It costs 90 muni.
Thanks for the correction, this surely warrants its destructive powers. |
hidden1379
Umbert
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
