Reading this thread encouraged me to make my first post on this forum. It seems that many people are advocating for a performance increase for the Panzer IV. I don't think that this would actually fix the problem. It seems like this would shift the tank burden to UKF (Cromwell),USF (Sherman) and SU (76). Both USF and SU would have to select their corresponding doctrines just to stay competitive with a stock do-it-all Panzer IV. The poor Cromwell would be completely outclassed. This would force Allied players to buy TDs for a stock unit, and that would solve nothing because that solution already exists for Axis.
There are several solutions that do not require throwing this delicate tank balance. 1) Doctrine tanks or other units (cough... flame rifles) are indeed too powerful and require toning down a bit. 2) Maybe a different approach of tackling these two doctrinal tanks: players selecting these doctrines are doing so (in part) because of the specialized tank. Buying a TD might be the best bet. 3) A healthy combination of the 1 and 2. 4) Fix the teching issues so that Axis players can get to the Panther in a timely fashion to combat these two tanks.
The EZ8 might need to cost a bit more fuel if it severely outperforms the Panzer IV.
This is my admittedly (very) limited view on the balance of the Panzer IV. I may just need to play with the tank more to see how it holds up.
While I would love to see grens turned into a 5-man squad, this change would actually require a NERF to overall grenadier squad DPS to keep balance. Currently the only reason conscripts can beat grenadiers is because of the fact that they have more men. At close range, a grenadier model has higher DPS than conscript DPS by quite an amount. Increasing gren squad size to 5 and spreading the DPS across all the models will make it impossible for a 5-man conscript squad to win the fight (losses taken from closing). Even a 6-man squad would have considerable troubles.
If you add a 5-th man, the grens need to have an overall lower DPS than than they had 4-men to make sure that the increased TTK (time to kill) for allied squads doesn't give the grens a much higher advantage, since they have better DPS.
We could and would increase con and rifle dps to compensate. Indeed, it would be necessary.
Adjust all the dps stats across the board to maintain current performance. Hell, I say all axis/allied squads ought to be balanced around 5 man/6 man squads with required dps/received accuracy adjustments
Both are over-performing right now. Super-long range instapin with model snipe. Horrible to play against, that's for sure. Comes down to broken faction design for OKW- no mg for pins means their LeIG gets suppression. Mind you, I'm not in support of this. If anything, it should only be able to suppress a blob, not well-spaced squads.
Hmm....how about adding incremental suppression modifier, with a small search radius (say 5), and lowering base suppression? That way, suppression should only happen when target infantry is clumped up?
I think the PIV needs to be cheaper. Actually all of Ost T3 should be cheaper when you compare it to the abomination that is Brit T3
True that. Was outplaying a brit on 1v1 kholodny ferma. Had fuel superiority (both fuels) for quite some time too, throughout the match. He built a wasp, AEC and had all 3 HQ upgrades. I build a 222 and HT. We both had first tanks (crom/pz4) out at the same time. Clearly, there is a fuel price issue here.
...make explosives do reliable damage but not enough to one shot and you will have a massive improvement and the squad size becomes irrelevant...
I'm not so certain. I mean, squad size will affect the small-arms combat regardless, and that creates probability issues I outlined.
And although I can kinda see this idea working for larger explosives, I don't think it could be done for mortars. I mean, mortars rarely do direct, or close hits unless target infantry is static. To make them reliably do only 16dmg every shot would mean flat 16-dmg profile with either massive AoE or higher RoF adjustments. Which will make mortar spam the king. Theory-crafting here, I could be wrong.
Attention: Alex and other people discussing win loss ratios in this thread.
He's right. Please open a separate thread for the w/l discussion as it doesn't contribute to this. And the reason why is doesn't is because w/l data only provides a global picture of balance. Grens are a local problem, not global.
So please, lets try to keep this thread On Topic, not Off Topic.
Wall of text below. Summary: standardize squad sizes to 5 man axis and 6 man allies
Expanding on my previous post: I think rng is a big factor in gren performance. And this is due to their squad size and weapons. With 4 men, they present 4 entities for any opposing squad to shoot at, while they shoot at 5 or 6. Trouble is, this leads to a higher probability of 'unlikely' events, both favourable and unfavourable. Take cons/rifles for example. Lets say probability to hit an entity with k98 is x and for garand is y, and remember both x and y are less than 1. (Idk the actual stats, just follow the math here).
So: probability of all 4 grens getting hit by garands is y^4 but probability of all rifles getting hit by k98 is x^5 (smaller).
Hence for grens, generally, taking or dishing out extreme amounts of dmg is more probable than it is for rifles. Similar issue with cons. The probability for extreme events in the opposite direction (all grens evading their shots etc.) also becomes higher. THIS plus the fact that they have high dmg, low RoF bolt-actions, compounds the issue.
The smaller squad sizes make these RNG blips more important for grens than any other infantry (except early game tommies). Losing a squad member means 25% less dmg AND 25% less health (technically even less health than 25%, cause now the opposing entities have more enemy entities they can focus on which skews the 'to-hit' probabilities more, but I'm trying to keep it simple here). This of-course affects all squads as they lose entities, but grens more so due to their small size.
Which is why I argue for squad size standardization. 5 men for axis. 6 men for allies. We'll retain the element of flavour this way too. [I'd argue for 6 axis/7 allies or higher, law of large numbers and all that, but maps will then be need to be redesigned so no point] Adjust dps and Received Accuracy accordingly to retain current damage profiles. It'll enable better balance of snipers and explosives too.
Also, I am of the opinion that fausts need an animation speedup in exchange for lower stats. I'd prefer they mirror it to the conscript AT grenade. I mean, infantry snares aren't meant for solo critting mediums and heavies anymore, makes no sense that faust should retain its high pen.
It's been a very long time since I've created a balance thread as I have been attempting to "get good" in 1 v 1's as Ostheer. My observation is that Grenadiers are overly micro intensive when compared to other front line infantry. In the past six months cover has changed, grenades have changed, the other factions front line infantry have changed but Gren's have remained a near constant. Oh, there was that minor correction two patches ago which hurt their performance.
Simply put, given the direction the game has taken I feel the time is now for Gren's to have a 5th model. The damage should remain the same but this one change would at least make the unit more survivable and easier for the not-top-10 players to use.
My frustration as of late has been the USF toss a grenade and retreat tactic. The timer on those nads are short which in my case leads to squad wiping, both in cover and out. An extra model may help ease this.
Rawr
Agreed they could use a 5th man, but with dps realigned to be as is now. Preferably by reducing K98 dmg instead of RoF.
IMO they ought to standardize all squad sizes to 5 axis/6 allies with dps adjustments