Hey guys, so I was thinking with the balance preview mod coming out soon I think it would be nice to have a place to find people to play against faster than trying to host a game and hope people are on. I've decided to give it a chance and provide comprehensive feedback and it would be nice to be able to test certain match ups and what not with people of similar skill.
Personally I'm mainly looking to test 1v1's with so if that's your jam add me on steam. My steamid is assassin2470.
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Here is how all factions AT works
1. "Snare" abilities that either cause engine damage or temporarily slow down a vehicle that gets too close. Short range, so it's a defensive ability not an offensive one.
2. Munitions based AT weapons that can be placed on infantry. These are mobile (being on infantry) and can quickly move to react to flanks.
3. Manpower Stationary AT. These are weapons with effective fields of fire that cannot easily chase but tend to hit a lot harder.
4. Vehicle AT. Mobile, usually hardest hitting and best for chasing, but also costs the most resources.
5. Mines. Munitions cost, high impact but defensive by nature and can be neutralized.
OKW is trading powerful mobile AT for a snare ability. The downside to this is that instead of spending munitions for AT, they are now spending manpower. Instead of getting 1 raketen, they probably need two now. Or they can take the risk of teching up for vehicle AT, but because of the tech tree changes to OKW last year (JP4 moved to panzer command from battlegroup) their only option for this is the Puma.
The problem with OKW's proposed AT is that it lacks mobility. It's going to be really weak to light vehicle heavy strategies, wherein your opponent is attacking from multiple directions with light, cheap vehicles because your ability to defend your flanks is much weaker with a defensive panzerfaust rather than an offensive panzerschreck. Additionally, a Puma will be outproduced by tanks like the Stuart.
An American player who builds 2-3 stuarts and micros them well will be very, very difficult for OKW to deal with compared to Ostheer. The reason being is that Ostheer has all of the above tools They got a snare, they got mobile panzerschrecks, they've got an AT gun, they've got the 222 and doctrinal Puma as relatively cheap mobile AT vehicle options and a Stug coming out much earlier than anything OKW can do with the new tech cost changes and they've also got way better mines, capable of one shotting light tanks.
This is going to push OKW into a very defensive position, wherein they are reliant on snares and mines to keep them alive. I think if Relic intends to keep this change, they should move the JP4 into the battlegroup HQ again.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out when the balance patch hits, but I think this has made OKW into the weakest faction the game has ever seen which is fucking ironic because they were reworked in the first place because people thought they were too weak.
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Storm in a tea cup. Given the current and future level of support available to CoH2 it doesn't make sense to target minor issues like this.
This will alter the early game for a bit but eventually adjustments will be made to smooth out the balance. But at that point, what has been achieved? Two factions have the option to spawn their infantry in a slightly different place, meanwhile we've lost the flexibility offered by multiple spawn locations. Now whether this is a net gain is obviously not something we all agree on, but the cost of this is the time and resources put into implementing and balancing the change which could have been better spent on easier or more pressing fixes.
A better solution would be to address some of the shortcomings of the current spawn system. This could be achieved by allowing units to be given repair/build tasks while they're still outside the battle area, or putting a clear indicator on the unit shield to show that the unit isn't on the field yet and making a clear indicator when they do come online.
One hundred percent agree here.
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They used to both be 240 mp. |
This should not be the case as some factions have access to LoS generators more frequently than others. On top of that the Stuka dive bomb (biggest offender here) cannot be stopped and cannot be known before it has a chance to tick off some of its time before impact. Besides as others have pointed out, some of the arty is balanced around the assumption that it cannot be used on base sectors. Base sectors offer a sanctuary, that's the point.
As OP said, all should be turned off in base sectors for fairness and consistency.
You can still drop them at the edge of the base sector if you want.
It's tricky because they disallowed arty to be used in command sectors before adding some that would be imbalanced in command sectors. But I think it was a bad design decision.
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It's fascinating to see all the vCoH nostalgia fanboys come out of the woodwork in praise of this change.
If you guys had played the campaign, you'd see why this feature exists. Relic had strategic points in many of the missions that allowed you to add units to your forces much quicker than meandering across the map from your HQ. This was a problem in Dawn of War 2 Retribution's campaign in many missions because while you captured forward bases, res pawning heroes would spawn at the first base on the map. (And hot keys would default to your first HQ so if you built units that way they'd spawn far away). It wasn't just added for realism: it serves a functional
purpose.
So, in multiplayer it also serves a role. It allows you to spawn units with your teammate at the start of the game. This is a strategic improvement. It also means that in a base attack situation your AT guns are not easily camped outside the spawn building, or any other units really.
It's obvious from how the game is designed that most factions aren't meant to care about building placement. (OKW being a key exception). Two of the factions don't even have the option to place structures.
It's a trade off: building placement is irrelevant but rally point placement is. Some call in points can be ambushed on several maps, for example. If map designers wanted to they could even connect rally points to strategic points opening up the option of building units closer to the frontline if you had captured key territory. This would actually be kind of interesting to see, to be honest. It also normalizes all factions: they all get their units from the same spots. With this change we are going to see Ostheer with the greatest advantage, along with Soviets. If it also applies to OKW we could see some issues as well with obers spawning on the map. It disadvantages USF and Brits who already have long build times and expensive units. With the change, grenadiers will be capping a point while tommies or riflemen are just spawning in the HQ.
This is one of those things that does not need to be changed. If you don't like it (because you don't like coh2 in general) then you're free to make a mod and play the game there. Forcing this shit into retail and pushing for the game to change, when you've never liked the game at all, is really obnoxious. Those of us who actually like coh2 for what it is are getting the shaft because of vCoH whiners. |
It is not a redesign, it's a soft nerf to the USF's early game by forcing the player to spend additional resources. 80 munition is a decent amount in the early game.
So instead of incentivizing USF to use weapon racks or ATgun they are delaying the bazooka slightly.
If they were smart about it they'd make the captain pay MORE to unlock bazookas in the field than pick them up at the racks, not less.
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One stuart is going to be the least of OKW worries.
What about two Stuart's? Or Three?
Stuart beats Puma 1:1 as long as America has munitions. They can also support with Bazookas.
Raketen alone cannot hold off multiple light tanks that can repair quickly out of sight.
Simply building 2-3 light vehicles will be extremely potent against OKW.
It's actually quite strong vs Ost too, but smart Ostheer will have teller mines and can get panzer grenadier schrecks if you over commit to light vehicles. (And a stug hits the field much quicker than Jp4)
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I don't understand why it's changing either.
It's going to speed up the early game quite significantly. Ostheer is going to save like 20 seconds of walking time to get grenadiers on the field. Not to mention the Sniper.
They just adjusted the maxim build times, but with this change they'll arrive on the field earlier than ever.
Not sure if OKW is affected either. Being able to build ISG or Obers at the truck would be a big deal. |
All should work.
The base should not be a safe haven. |