I thought I would quickly add this discussion here since this unit is getting the most talk in a thread meant for more general feedback. I will add a poll shortly after as I'm typing this in a hurry. Also here's a preview on what we had in-mind for the next changes due to feedback.
Total Changes
-Cost from 350/125 to 400/145.
-Accuracy from 0.06/0.05/0.03 to 0.055/0.04/0.03.
-HVAP accuracy from 0.06/0.05/0.04 to 0.055/0.04/0.03.
-Penetration from 230/210/200.
-Health from 480 to 640.
-Penetration from 240/220/200 to 280/230/200.
I feel a mixed system of the CoH 2 commanders with CPs being used to purchased items in a non-linear way would be interesting. It would give players more choice, but you'd also need to decide what you would give up by rushing certain items.
You can use all your commanders, but you still get to keep the opponent on edge with what you're going to go with. Of course there'd need to be limits on how many items you can get, but now you have far more options and some commanders can now fill certain gaps and always provide something.
Do note on the Jackson it's likely only get a slight adjustment now. No more big reworks like Penals.
What is being discussed to ease the unit in:
1. Less accuracy. Primarily meant to make the M36 worse against medium vehicles and slightly worse at firing at distance.
2. Higher cost back near to the 1.0 levels. Given it's the most mobile TD with 40 sight, good health, good firepower, it should be pricer. This also leaves more room for M4 Shermans rather than just Jacksons and Scotts.
3. Reverting far-range penetration back to normal levels. Since this unit penetrates mediums regularly, no differences there. This is mainly to allow it to keep plinking at heavies, but for best effect, you want to close.
On other things: how is the Le.IG 18, Maxim and other units in the FBP? We've had around 8 pages of M36 discussions. We could make a thread on it instead if it gets more focus here.
What's fine about your only decent heavy ANTI-TANK unit getting hardcountered by a tank for the same cost? Why should I build this tank against OKW in the first place?
I find it quite funny how your first idea about the Jackson may have been benificial to 1v1 but would have screwed USF in 2v2+ even more, despite claiming this patch to be adressing teamgames.
And the Jackson is still hardcountered by the jags even with more range due to target size and rate of fire. You build Jacksons to engage KT, Panthers, and non-TD units.
The range is out of question since the Jackson gets hardcountered by the JP4 and is much less effective against range 50 tanks. The Jackson suffers from a severe delay between the target entering his range and the outgoing shot. You'd know that ofc... if you actually played USF.
The delay is minuscule in most cases.
Honestly range or cost can be adjusted since it is a very good TD stat-wise and Jadgpanzer hardcountering is fine.
I disagree with the weapon upgrades since it still does not deal with the issue that Conscript Mosin Nagants are very unreliable in not only mid-late game fights but also the early game. Losing a certain engagement because everyone missed at point-blank due to their 55% accuracy affects them more as Conscripts also shoot slowly and have 1.087 RA.
Necessary Item
-Mosin Nagants to deal 10-12 damage from 16 with increased accuracy at all ranges. Possibly adjust cooldown/aim-times, but DPS stays relatively the same with maybe slight improvements at range. It would help them stall units, when behind cover, that are trying to fight at long-range. If it's 1v1 vs CQC squads there is always molotovs you can throw or you can fire as much as you need until they close and then you hit the retreat key.
This still ensures you won't overlap with Penals who would still provide much more AI firepower and can win engagements far more quickly.
Other Improvements
-Lower reinforcement reduction for each Conscript upgrade purchased by 1 going to a max of 18. This modifier does not apply if you purchase weapon upgrades OR the weapon upgrades/slot items are slightly toned down when picked up by Conscripts. Incentives their nature as cheaper meatshield units that are either meant to chuck AT grenades, charge in with molotovs, merge, or screen/scout for the more powerful units.
-Space out their veterancy so they can get some survivability before veterancy 3 such as receiving -10% RA at level 1 like Volksgrenadiers. Helps negate that 1.087 they have until veterancy 3.
Closing the distance with unturreted vehicles is pretty much the exact opposite of what you want to do with unturreted vehicles...
Well to finish off the StuG G with heavier vehicles, you generally want to close so it works both ways and StuG Gs are not particularly expensive.
On some numbers, max range, a StuG G will penetrate the IS-2 40% of the time and go through the KV series tanks 51% of the time. It was also generally never miss these tanks due to its high accuracy. Doesn't seem great until you realize you can generally get 2 StuG Gs to cover the majority of your AT purpose with their high ROF of around 4 seconds while TWP can still cripple the heavy tanks momentarily.
jackson back again with its 60 range whilst still keeping most of its buffs?
It's also has much less accuracy at long-range and even worse penetration when firing at range 60. It needs to close to be effective against heavier vehicles and can't snipe mediums as easily.
So I thought I would gauge one unit in particular that would likely get lost in the Fall Balance Preview discussion since it was so far down the list which is the Maxim HMG.
What are your thoughts on the Maxim in the Fall Balance Preview? How does the HMG perform now with the changes to aim-time, RoF and suppression? Does anything else needed to be added to the HMG or its veterancy 1 ability?