easier said then done, you know i cant move the medic truck around the god damn map right
well should have known, no wonder you'd support this as it doesn't effect your glorious USF in anyway and hits the faction you despise
Sounds like an l2p issue. The change was made to discourage blobbing by the WFA armies and because immobile FRPs were simply too powerful compared to the mobile halftracks that EFA armies have that were supposed to be it's counterpart.
It affects USF just as much as it affects OKW. Major FRPs have the same penalty. Even with the delaying changes OKW can still potentially get it's FRP up before USF techs to major.
Balancing this could be tricky since 30 Second Brace is unpopular with the opposition. I'd personally like to see brace going up to 15 Seconds (Considered "Too Short" back in the first days of the game) and maybe the duration of Zeroing Artillery shortened yet accelerate the rate at which it starts bombing at full steam. But I feel we would need to hear more input from more unbiased OKW players regarding this.
Zeroing artillery is one of the only reasons to ever pick fortification doctrine in the first place, and that was largely due to emplacement cheese (at least in my personal experience with OKW). Fortifications doctrine, ironically, was OKW's best anti-turtle doctrine because it had the LeFH howitzer as well as zeroing artillery for busting those sim cities. With emplacements not being so hard to destroy in the first place I see little reason to lock in Fortifications.
That being said, live version Zeroing Artillery is definitely overkill for the revamp if it gets all of its shots off -- that is, if it ever gets all of its shots off. It's actually not too easy maintaining visuals on sim city if the Brit player has any kind of presence around it in a 1v1. It's team games that's the problem. I'd argue in favor for reducing the total number of shells fired in exchange for a faster rate of fire, although I'd say we should try putting brace to 10s instead of 15 first, and only then make the jump to 15 if it really needs it. This way Brits get a more intuitive but not busted brace, and the OKW zeroing artillery is more effective for a wider variety of targets while also not being as reliant on teammate flares or recon abuse in teamgames.
I know that the OKH and OKW's shared vehicles (Ostwind, PzIV, Panther) uses the same models with different skins. Without camo items, the OKH tan is a light tan, while the OKW is a dark yellow. I'd like to try to find a way to apply this same effect to team weapons, so that if I give OKW a mortar or a Pak40, it'd be the same yellow as the ISG or Puppchen. I assume I can try creating a skin and using the skin_summer/skin_winter on the ebps, but before I start the editing work, is changing of team weapon skins even allowed in the first place (like how vehicle skins are and infantry skins aren't)?
Also, I don't know if this is relevant, but I remember a old bug with the Soviet 3-color Leningrad camo that applied a similar camo to the ZiS-3 that's since been patched out. Perhaps a possible loophole to exploit? I have no idea how custom skin packs work.
So in conclusion, I do not believe these transports begin to even remotely make up for forward retreat points. It is however one of faction advantages, certainly, in the same way Conscript merge and Ostheer bunkers are. Lack of on-the-field reinforcement for WFA factions is definitely something that should be considered in the course of balancing the game.
While I agree completely that FRPs require much less micro and is less risky in terms of pure reinforcement capability, transport play can be very frustrating to play against too. Everyone knows of the infamous clown car technique in the early game, which occasionally still stirs riots, add that stems as a result from not necessarily the reinforcement advantage, but the rather the advantage of just letting carried troops fire out in the first place. Also, the transports are a relatively small loss as opposed to the costs of a developed FRP if destroyed. Additionally, the halftrack has the obvious advantage of being mobile, which makes it much more survivable in the hands of a careful player. I can agree that it's an underused tactic as opposed to the almost mandatory FRP upgrades; it's unfortunate that despite all the love halftracks got since WBP, halftrack play is still rare. Though it's still certainly not an equal trade, I believe that it is a lot closer than you would think at first glance.
On the previous page I advocated for the introduction of an OKW APC by retooling the 251 Stuka to replace the mobility loss of MedTruck's FRP. Maybe you'd be interested in that approach? totally not shameless self-promotion or anything like that
FRPs need to be either removed or included for all factions. An argument can be made that armies are different etc, but I simply do not see anything that EFAs have which could possibly compensate for a FRP, especially on larger maps in teamgames.
Non-doctrinal open-topped troop transports that also act as reinforcement points. Their armies lack infantry mobility in general. The only non-doctrinal "APC" is the Bren Carrier, which is laughable when compared to even the Soviet M3 Scout Car.
So I've been thinking about the removal of FRPs, and here's my humble two cents:
It occurred to me that WFA as a general rule of thumb has no non-doctrinal reinforcement-providing troop transports like EFA does. I'm curious if this will be addressed as well?
Looking at OKW specifically, the 251 Walking Stuka is the easiest to retool. A marker_ext and some hold_ext edits would allow it to function similarly to the other open-topped halftracks. The Stuka's cost can be lowered and the rocket artillery functionality locked behind an upgrade that, depending on how testing plays out, may or may not take away its transportation and reinforcement abilities like CoH1. This would allow MechHQ to have forward reinforcement, too, opening up new venues of play. There are even voicelines for an OKW troop carrier in the files that can be heard on those rare occasions you capture an abandoned APC.
I haven't quite pieced together ideas for UKF and USF besides making their doctrinal halftracks non-doctrinal. I know for certain that the 251 Stuka as a troop transport functionally works.
Great to see those OKW changes. Need to test them out and see how they play now.
Also, could it be possible just to give the Sturmpioneers MP40s since their MP44 are functionally close range smgs. Always could do with more MP40s.
The Sturm's StG profile shows it has a much better far accuracy than any of the other non-StG SMGs, so there is a difference there functionally. It's just that they are best at close range (which could be said with almost all CoH2 weapons) regardless of them being able to hold their own at mid range.
It should also be noted that they are no longer the starting unit for OKW, so there is now a much smaller need to replace their weapons.
-Kubel is now OKW's starting unit.
-Incendiary grenades now have a 0.375 fuse
Kubel as a starting unit is an interesting change! Will have to test this later Also, I believe these assets (in spoiler) would be useful for the OKW rework for QoL and visual consistency. If you're into that.
United States
China
Also, I believe these assets (in spoiler) would be useful for the OKW rework for QoL and visual consistency. If you're into that.
Relic Entertainment
Luciano 
RIP Chester 
