I like the idea of moving ram back to vet 0 but adding a requirement of say 50% hp or below.
That would solve the problem of building/using a fresh T-34 and running it straight into an enemy tank out of nowhere to follow up with an offmap (imo the main problem with ram), while keeping the original intention of being a last ditch effort to get some value out of a dying unit.
When going after heavies it would take careful timing and quite a bit of gambling to have it willingly take damage, before being able to activate the ram and then hope it doesn't die before it can ram. It would give the enemy player more time to sense what is going on and more time to react.
This is a much better idea in my opinion. Personally I usually don't use ram unless I think the tank cannot be saved or I'm trying to kamikaze anyway.
But I think it's important to look at why Ram + Off-Map is the go-to method for dealing with Elefant / Jagdtiger despite the combined cost in Manpower, Fuel, and Munitions. The Elefant and Jagdtiger are heavy casemate tank destroyers with 110 Rear Armor and 1040HP, the SU-85 cannot challenge them because it is woefully outranged and outgunned, so they must flank it with T-34-76 but this is not successful either because the immense HP and occasional bouncing mean that you could leave it idle and alone and it'll take a pair of T-34-76's twenty seconds to kill it.
Unlike facing the ISU-152, the Soviets don't have a Panther they can send forth to poke holes in the front or front sides without risking swift annihilation. An Elefant does 300 damage, so a shot to an SU-85 that dare challenge it will put it down to 340HP in a single counter-hit. An ISU does 240 damage, so if a Panther steps up to challenge it, a successful counter-hit will only put it down to 720. |
Riflemen should have their weapon slots reduced to one because Double BAR riflemen make Paras and rangers redundant which Hurts Airborne, Heavy Calvary, and Urban Assault
to Make up for change I suggest riflemen cost lowered to 270 and Rear Echelon given place general purpose mines like Soviet Engineers, Royal Engineers and Sturmpioneers
I think it'd help balance quite a lot to remove Double BAR / Double Bren from non-elite units. They would have to have those weapons buffed to compensate and maybe buffs to the squads themselves too, but they'd be brought in line with other line infantry.
That said I don't feel Double BAR is all that overpowered, the BAR isn't that great. In fact it's slightly worse than the Panzergrenadier G43 (nearly identical DPS at all ranges, except around ~8-10 where it's much lower), and actually makes Panzergrenadiers worse at their job to pick up a dropped BAR rather than just keep their StG. The only other automatic rifle type weapon is the FG 42 and that thing overshadows most weapons, let alone the automatic rifles. |
Conscripts are mainline infantry, not support units.
The game designers disagree with you, which is why Conscripts don't have a weapon upgrade.
Conscripts
To improve the performance of Conscripts, while retaining their role as utility infantry that excel at defense and supporting other units, we have added an upgrade to help them scale into the late game. The extra man and reduced reinforce cost will allow them to more effectively trade against opposing infantry while the veterancy bonus will allow fresh Conscript squads to gain veterancy. |
It also bringing inline with other similar vehicles since the superior rear armor was not justified.
"Other vehicles" have lower rear armor because the Soviets have T-34-76 as their only standard turreted tank. Ostheer and OKW both have nondoctrineal Panthers, there is no reason to balance the ISU as if it were to face T-34-76. |
ALSO people call ram+off map cheese but... Like how else exactly is Soviet supposed to kill an Elefant or JT since their only TDs are casemate and will flat out lose against these big beasts...
Sometimes it feels like they're not supposed to. |
Regarding the Scott, if the problem is autofire sniping units from behind AT Gun walls, then why don't you just reduce the range of it? You could even let it have a fairly average rate of fire but 40 range. It'd be effective at direct-fire without being a passive unreachable manpower bleeder. |
The Soviets are currently the underdog and unfortunately I don't think this patch will change that. While some units got some welcome improvements, all 3 of their armored units received nerfs. Due to lackluster infantry and machine guns, the T-70 is Soviet mid-game. I'd be cautious with taking it down a peg without ensuring that the Soviets can better hold their footing without it.
The T-34-76 nerf has already been thoroughly panned. I have nothing new to add, but agree with the ridiculousness of nerfing a snare that requires you to sacrifice an entire tank to use. The SU-85 nerf I am also concerned about, considering the raw power of Panthers, Tigers, and Tiger II's; the SU-85 is their first and last line of defence against these incredible threats.
It's a bit of a sore spot to see the Panzerwerfer getting the Katyusha's primary advantage (fast arrival time) as a Veterancy bonus. A fast-arriving Panzerwerfer barrage is an order of magnitude better than the light rain that is the Katyusha's Creeping Barrage. I would go so far as to say it might even be getting close to the power of Precision Barrage which Creeping Barrage replaced. A well used Stuka Zu Fuß may as well be a built-in Precision Barrage. |
for reference: at vet 2 on the SU85 and vet 3 on the Jackson, their current penetration is so high that they have a 100% chance to penetrate a vet 2 Panther frontally (at vet 2 it gets an armor bonus)
The Panther in turn can penetrate them back, but also has much higher health. The Panther also has a decent chance beat a Pershing or IS-2 one-on-one. It's hard to compare the Panther to things because it's in a class of it's own as a 'Tank Hunter', essentially a low-end Heavy Tank with a Tank Destroyer gun and Medium Tank mobility. But there are also Tiger and Tiger Ace. My worry is that with German tanks, especially Panther, excelling in nearly every category there is (with survivability being unmatched due to high armor, high health, blitz, and optional smoke), the late-game is still going to be Axis Tanks vs Allied Tank Destroyers, the latter being the only thing standing between the the Germans and Victory. Were it up to me I'd probably bring Heavy Tanks and Medium Tanks closer together so that Tank Destroyers didn't have to match the power of Heavy Tanks whilst nullifying Mediums. |
The Quality of Life changes are amazing, big props there!
I still worry about the Soviets place in this game, they still have lackluster infantry until T4 unless you rely heavily on Guards or Shocks. The T-70 will still likely be the glue holding the faction together, and it's been slightly weakened. I'm worried about the penetration nerfs, the big cats haven't gone away.
Speaking of, really don't feel buffing the Panther was necessary, and if it was, it should be compensated with a nerf to durability or mobility. Also the Panzerwerfer getting the best feature of the Katyusha while the Katyusha only gets a minor buff to it's 'light rain' ability feels like a bummer.
Overall I feel the Soviets will be a faction of lackluster units glued together by the T-70 and SU-85. The changes to the other 4 factions look so much better in comparison. |
I was getting into modding recently and make a rework for ukf infantry with some element similar to your setup here. Still, the issue i think will happen is that recon section with 1x bren setup will overshadow the bren section upgrade by a lot, since it have access to arty and can deal dmg with the bren as well as snipe models with the scope. The scope enfield should take up both weapon slots.
Intended design, to be honest. One of my goals was to diversify the double Bren and Medic meta by separating those upgrades. The double Bren is still possible, but the trade-off is the squad gains no utility. Whether or not Scope+Bren is overpowered might depend on how strong the Scope is and the damage profile of the weapon.
The 2 examples we have today are the Jager G43 and M1 Garand, the Jager G43 has a higher chance to snipe than the M1 Garand, although the specifics have left my mind, meanwhile according to the stat's website the G43 has negligible DPS while the M1 Garand uses the "Elite" M1 Carbine profile and does only slightly less.
I envision the Recon section most likely using a Bren to whittle down enemies for the Marksman to eliminate them. I hope the combination won't prove troublesome. |