Profile of Imagelessbean

Team games being broken and insane has been par for the course for a while now.

Ahh yes, the old, "Just give up when there are more than 4 players in a game" approach to balance.

On a more serious note, I have not seen the Sturmtiger yet, but the ability to shoot through shot blockers should be rare to non-existant. The only reasons I don't complain about the pak43 is because the unit is already so niche. Sturmtigers should not have the ability to shoot through objects, why not reduce aim time?. If you hit something on map, sorry that's how it goes. We might also consider reducing reload time slightly.

I think we had a topic about this on the Stug. I agree that TWP is too good currently. It used to be practically necessary to deal with the hoards of T34's but I think this ability should become like the "Aimed shot" on the Puma. It should give a critical that weakens the tank, but never prevents movement. Otherwise, as you have pointed out, there is no counterplay, you get hit or you don't.

This is brought up about once every two months. Search through the forums and you will find it.

OP no, cheese yes.

If MT goes then smoke and blitz need to go. These abilities were added to help German players survive engagements they would otherwise lose a tank in. By allowing them to keep these will also having nerfed button, there is no way late game armor will die to Soviet forces. Keep in mind if a player has MT plus T34-85's he has no late game armor. They had to choose a doctrine just to get a stock tank in Ost T3, which has less useful vet, and less AI ability. On the other side the German player (whatever faction) has access to heavy armor as the game drags on, increasing his ability to maintain field presence and limit MP bleed.

Also why is it such a problem to have a CmdPanther around heavy armor you want to mark? Isn't that the whole point of the super fast TD, that it can always get to the battle quickly. Increasing damage on allied units, which already suffer from having lower health and armor than German units, only makes this point more painful. If you want Soviet MT to go then OKW one also goes.

Increasing penetration is possible, but the abilities cost would need to come down. Also the plane is very easy to shoot down since it makes tight circles. Turn it into a standard loiter plane and I might consider allowing the destruction of the plane to stop the ability. Besides, the plane warns the marked player they have been marked, it makes it obvious so they can get out of there.

MT is good, but removing it is hard to imagine. If you remove MT there are a number of other components which need to change as well.

In this case, you shouldn't be using turretless units by themselves, and their abilities shouldnt allow them to single handedly wreck the units they will typically be fighting, with no micro required. The abilities should also have counterplay of some type. Otherwise, you give one faction an unfair advantage, and force the other to be exceedingly careful.

The puma ability can be countered by retreating or aiming the turret at the enemy manually. Blenkorpers can be dodged. Blitzing tanks can be blocked/ chased/ engine critted. Smoke can be attack grounded. HVAP units can be retreated from.

TWP lets a single AT weapon (stug/pak40) to not only deal heavy damage, but to do so in a way that has no counterplay. If a vehicle is stunned, it has no chance to flee until the ability runs out. This means that a single stug/ pak40 can fire twice with no retaliation, halving the life total of a medium tank. It also means that heavy AT sources like the elephant can wipe a medium tank with no counterplay. When TWP is used in conjunction with multiple AT sources, it allows for easy installation gibs, as well as chained stunning.

TWP also requires minimal micro to pull off. For a pak, merely press the ability. For an elephant/stug, press a button then select a target.

There is no way to excuse TWP as an okay ability. It is simply far too powerful and has 0 counterplay besides being ultra defensive (which allied factions are terrible at). It unfairly punishes allied players for building medium tanks.

These are all good points. You also forgot to mention TWP allows the Stug to make a decision. If TWP would allow it to win the engagement it stays and kills the target, if it would normally lose it just retreats and saves itself. Meanwhile, as you pointed out, the Allied player just sits and waits for the ability to cool off.

TWP is too powerful and uninteresting. I like the new Stug without it though, feels really useful and is now almost a must have for Ost.