see, given the optimization and the strong impression I'm getting that the designers of CoH2 are dumber than the designers of CoH1 (agree?), I really just want to know what the designers of CoH1 are doing right now.
someone in other thread mentioned THQ trying to rush this game whilst going bankrupt made this game badly optimised and not fully "done". As in side armour was clearly intended to be in the game evident by in game description mentioning side armour specifically, but it is not in the game.
(educated and totally non-far-fetched theory): Also, if you saw some concept art for the soviets, their main HQ had three variations that it would have morphed into after choosing a "doctrine" like in vcoh. I assume they were going to be involved with some heavy fuel investment.
Because of that, I think the shallow dlc commander design was developed later in the game due to
a. relic thinking this will give the game more longevity, which it does in a way (by releasing new commanders which they don't right now).
b. THQ or SEGA made relic to do this to make more moneeeeeei.
c. or a little of both.
Another thing to note here is that the initial vast quantity of commanders that existed when the game launched are full of recycled abilities while the new commanders they released after, partisan, b4, CAS commanders are very unique relatively. the uniqueness is also same with all USF,OKW and UKF commanders.
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In terms of depth, there are a lot of different strategies you can deploy with all factions but OKW I'd say (1/5). There is no heavy fuel upgrade options which means less depth in itself, but there is enough depth nonetheless.
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so, no, I would not simply say Relic is "dumber". that is a poor choice of word.