Welcome! Glad to have you in the community and I can't wait to hear from you in the future! |
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Commander update:
-Partisans
-Shock Army
Agreed on Partisans. Combining AT and AI Partisans into a single unit that can upgrade instantly with either SMG, Molotovs and Grenades or Panzerschreck and AT Grenades seems like a good starting point, as it would free up an ability slot. Plus, it would buff to Reserve Army too.
However, I bet that either Anti-Infatry Tactics or Terror Tactics will get a refresh instead of Shock Army, as those two share 3 identical abilities between. I think that's a record right now.
EDIT: My bad, Ostheer's Fortified Armor and Blitzkrieg Doctrines also share 3 abilities (Panzer Tactician, Stuka Recon Overflight and Command Tank). |
I remembered that Ranger have a higher drop rate when they have the 3rd weapon as a penalty IIRC so normally they have a 33% drop chance to 40% or something, this is floating around for a long time but now I wanted to check it
I don't see any special rulings for that in either Ranger squad, Ranger entities or weapons they pick up, so I assume what I said previously is true. Their drop chance is the same as for other squads, but since they can have more slot items than regular squads, they just get more chances to drop items due to how the system is set up. |
Hi!
I'm not sure what you mean by "3rd weapon slot increased drop rate". To my understanding, all slot weapons have a set drop rate, which can (but doesn't have to) occur when there aren't enough "free" models in squad to hold an item.
For example:
Bazookas, have 0,33 drop rate. If you have a Ranger squad, with only 1 Bazooka equipped, they will only drop a Bazooka only if the last squad member carrying it dies. However, it's not guaranteed to drop - it has 33% to chance happening.
If you have a Ranger squad with 2 Bazookas, a Bazooka can drop if there are 2 squad members left, as both of them are already holding a slot item, so there are no "free" squad members. Again, the chance of them dropping it is 33%. Same if there's only 1 squad member left.
Similar thing happens when Rangers have 3 Bazookas equipped (or any slot item for that matter, like BARs). It's not that Bazooka's that Rangers use have increased drop rate, but rather the fact that Rangers have more slot items equipped on them that causes it.
If you'd like Rangers to have lower chance of dropping an item, you'd have to manually clone slot items to create a Ranger variant that would have different drop_rate from what there is normally. That's how it's done with Guards - "ptrs_41_anti_tank_rifle_guard_troop_mp" slot_item not only uses better weapon profile, but also has lower drop rate compared to penal version (0,1 vs 0,33). This is there so they don't become a "weapon piñata" when they use double PTRS and double DP-28. |
Imo the drop able weapon system is a bit of mess.
The solution would be to divide infatry in categories (elite, mainline, support) and have weapon perform differently according to category.
It's not really that messy, there are just some weird exceptions.
For LMGs:
- everyone bar exceptions below gets regular variant;
- infantry that can fire on the move get variant that can (surprise) fire on the move;
- Obers get their own special variation that can fire on the move.
Vickers K and Bren are the only LMGs that are exception to this rule. The fact that there's no clear hierarchy between the variations is a different can of worms - you'd think it would go something like "Ober variation > fire-on-the-move > regular", but that's often not the case as I explained in that post from almost a year ago. However, trying to standardize it now could potentially mess with current infantry balance.
BARs have their own little category, but there are no problems here, everyone gets the same stuff. Same with all flamethrowers - everyone gets the same thing.
For handheld AT:
- Panzerschrecks and PIATs are same for everyone;
- Bazookas are same for everyone, except Paratroopers and Rangers get super-bazookas
- everyone gets Penal PTRS, except Guards, Shocks, Airborne Guards, Obers, Fallschrimjager, Sturmpios, Panzergrens, Stormtroopers, Paratroopers, Rangers, Commandos (basically infantry with type infantry_elite) - they get Guards' variant.
While PTRS might seem messy, it's clearly an intentional exception that makes sense.
Standardizing things so accuracy of the weapon depends on quality of the troops wielding them sounds good and I would like to see something like that implemented, but while from technical side it wouldn't be a big changes, it would have a widespread impact. I assume that changes like that rarely are in scope for Balance Team. |
I think in the Vickers K's case it is directly related to the Special Weapons Supply Truck which can drop them for anyone. Now I'm certain no one wants to see (at least from axis side) a US ranger squad roaming around with 3x walking vickers (yes, rangers are actually an elite squad too).
As for the bren, nothing drops them directly on the ground, but they are still quite common, perhaps the most common lmg among allied factions, so it's likely that 1-2 drops each game.
I'm still certain it's just an oversight from developers and not some "grand balance foresight" of how overpowered it would be for Vickers K to be fired on the move by Allied elite infantry. Doubly so with Bren. Then again, the only Axis infantry that can fire LMGs on the move are Obersoldaten, so it's not a huge impact if OKW manages to steal one of the British weapons.
All in all, avoid picking Brens with Obers, Paras, Rangers and Airborne Guards. Same with Vickers K, except you also add Commandos to that list. |
This is not the case, since a majority of lmgs have 3 versions, not just 2. Obersoldaten are the only squad that uses the 3rd profile, which allows for moving fire, and the user will not go prone when stationary.
There are enough consistency issues that the intended design is not entirely clear, but the Ober versions of LMGs are usually more effective than the stationary-only versions, instead of less effective, as in this case.
There are way more inconsistencies between the LMGs. I noticed them when I found a bug with Bren last winter patch:
https://www.coh2.org/topic/104520/bren-and-vickers-k-not-firing-on-the-move-for-elite-infantry/page/2#post_id811050
It wasn't changed back then (especially the Vickers K) so I doubt it will be changed now. |
They don't, and in fact, the Kar98 and G43 are reused from CoH1. The G43 has a scope because it was the weapon of the Wehrmacht Sniper, which was later reused as an upgrade for PE Panzer Grenadiers. That concept was similarly used for Ostheer Sniper and the optional Grenadier and Panzergrenadier JLI upgrade, but the scope was never removed because it was presumably not worth the time to delete.
Funny enough, CoH1 modders figured out a way of making the scope on G43 invisible and even adding it to Kar98 via mesh mixing. Sadly that's not possible in CoH2, but the point is that it's not that hard to do from developer's perspective. |
Uhh isn't the point of the game to build a bigger army than your opponent? Are we ignorant of Lanchester's square law? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanchester%27s_laws)
Lanchester's square laws takes into consideration both quantity and quality of opposing forces. So a numerically superior force can still lose to a force superior in quality. I think that's (usually) reflected quite well in CoH2. |
Ideally no, the idea being that you're moving an existing unit.
It is possible to create a crew with veterancy level equal to the scuttled howitzer and have them rebuild a gun with veterancy equal to theirs. However, I'm unsure whether any "between-the-levels" experience could be retained this way. |