Profile of Aerohank

There is little point to argue if the "rush to final tier" is happening or not, it is happening.

This is factually incorrect. In the current meta LVs are very popular. You can't rush for a final tier and spend fuel on LVs at the same time. That's not how rushing works.

Take the mobilize reserves upgrade in ver 3 for instance it was buffed and move to T3 as a sidetech. Then the mod team decided it should stay buffed and come for free at T4 not because it would not work in T3 but because they wanted to people to rush T4.

The idea was probably to give the player the option between going T70 or going for earlier upgraded infantry. You still have not explained why giving players and option of rushing high tech is a bad thing.

If people prefer that tech choice are meaningful I would suggest to stop the "final tier rush" mentality and make other tech option viable strategy.

Other tech choices are viable. Nobody is skipping over LVs in 1v1. The exception perhaps being 4v4s, which I honestly think is fine since it simulates bigger battles which would have more heavier equipment involved.

And I have to guess that probably prefer large modes where teching choices are more forgiving.
Your preference is respected.

Imo though tech choices add an extra layer to game especially in small mode. One has to calculate which investment will pay off better depending on number factors like including his opponent faction, his opponent build, map control...

The imo creates the possibility of much more builds instead of the same meta again and again.

Since you have mentioned Ostheer tech I would like use them as an example of what mean. When USF where introduced,they where so versatile that when playing ostheer one had to predict his opponents build and prepare a counter unit or one would lose.

Since the game has allot simpler economy than other RTS (where a player has to choose whether to invest in economy tech or combat tech) imo making combat tech less predictable improves the game and allows more room for diversity in builds.

Quite the contrary. My 1v1 to big team ratio is like 5 to 1. CoH doesn't have deep and impactfull teching choices even in 1v1. Which is good as this game isn't suited for it.


What you want to see works in a game like Starcraft 2, but it can't work in CoH2. Having to guess what your opponent is doing on penalty of defeat is not good game design.

Take the two games.
SC2 has a ton of cheeses and tech choices that required specific counters in order to beat. This was fine as the game gave all the tools to a player to see what was comming. In the early game you could check the base with a worker unit. Did you see 2x gas and no expension? Some high tech cheese will hit you, prepare yourself! The economy in SC2 was a huge give-away to what your opponent was doing. How many expansions, how many workers were there at which time, how many gas was collected etc. Then there were also the tech buildings themselves, you could see what the opponent was actually capable of building and prepare for it.

None of these things you can do in CoH2. You can't scout a base due to the HMGs and even then you likely won't see anything. You can't spy on someones economy as all resources are passive and don't require any investment. In contrast to the early double gas example in SC2, a player holding both fuel points in CoH2 is under no obligation to tech faster than usual since his fuel income didn't cost him anything. If you want to make tech choices impactfull, you have to make it so that it requires actual investment (i.e. capture points give no resources and need cashes built first) and give players to tools to be able to accurately predict what the enemy will throw at you (for example each unit gets their own building and base MGs are removed). At which point you are losing out on the best part of CoH2, the tactical rather than the strategic gameplay.

Coh1 is only brought up as an example and regardless how good it was implement there, the question remains:

Should the game have less decision making involved and the player should be encouraged to "rush to final tier" (as the current direction seems to be) or should the tech decision require more thought each having advantages and disadvantages?

I don't think the tech needs (dis)advantages. I think CoH2 already offers this in the units that you get. Resources are fairly limited so it's already a strategic choice whether you go for that Panzerwerfer or that second Panther. I don't see why adding tech restrictions on top of that making the game better.

True but:
Should player be "rushed" to them?

Should tech just be used only as time factor (similar to CP) or should the player be given choice how to design his strategy with his decision making on tech choices?

For CoH2 I would say that tech should be indeed a time factor like CPs rather than any significant choice factor. CoH2 isn't really suited for many different strategies. This is due to the relative small scale of armies, the extreme rock-paper-scissor relationships between units, and the complete lack of a resource gathering system.

For instance the game doesn't allow you to focus on infantry based tactics as you can't harvest MP to out-macro a teching opponent. You are just gathering fuel that you are not spending. Rifles do 0 damage to tanks and AT guns are slow, so you have tech as well to also get tanks. Then you need arty to defeat the enemy AT guns. You can't really force players into choices other than 'LV first or medics first' as the game can't really be won without combined arms.

To me this is completely fine. Unlike more strategy focussed RTS games where often only a few battles are fought each game, CoH2 has constant engagements and is very tactical throughout each match. It does't need a lot of macro-depth on top of that to be good.

USF ver 4

Officer Transfer Orders
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--A good option add to vehicles crews also (although I would rather have replace the vet 1 ability that could be move to elite armor doctrine)

Having withdraw orders in the ui of a unit itself is a bad idea as it is a suicide button that you can accidently click. If it would be implemented it should be a 6th commander slot like the KT so it requires 2 clicks to activate.