Profile of Mr.Smith

*watches thread intently*

I was recently trying to create a special cover type for a CoH1-style smoke grenade:
- Reduces incoming accuracy and suppression
- Does not reduce incoming damage

I tried assigning a tp_smoke type of cover to the grenade. However smoke cover type gets overwritten by just about any type of cover; including default and negative cover; thus it's useless.

In any case, I narrowed this down to cover priority, which seems to be set in the "tuning" file. Unfortunately, I have not been able to clone the file.

Has anybody ever found a way to bypass this restriction for their mods?

I'll check it out next. Also please don't trust me completely, I might be overlooking something. But so far it seems consistent.

BTW all tests are on the 1.8 WBP

EDIT: Ok, with the AEC, the source of the problem is likely similar, but the behavior is funkier:

1. Keep it stationary and it will work, as long as there's unbroken LOS.

2. Activate while stationary, then start moving - the ability will work (assuming, of course, that the rate of turret rotation permits you to get the 2 shots off in a certain timeframe) unless you come to a full stop again - not the deceleration thingy.

3. If the AEC is already moving when the order is issued 1 of 2 things happens:
3.1 If the destination of the move is nearby, the ability fails immediately;
3.2 If the destination is further away (not sure what distance exactly), the ability works as point 2 - it's fine unless you stop completely.

In any case I get the feeling that the slow turret rotation is probably at fault for the clunkyness of the ability as much as the bugs.

Cheers.

I think I managed to reproduce the bug, and I think I found a workaround for the Cromwell/Comet smoke thing. The trick was setting allow_targetted_abilities_while_moving to False in the SBPS file. In this case, the Cromwell/Comet etc will stop to fire the shell, just like the Sherman stops when it is about to fire its smoke. However the player can quickly order a fresh move command either way.

In either case, this is a win-win for Cromwell/Comet since the safe way of firing the shot off is the exact same procedure. This just automates it and takes error off the player's hands.

Unfortunately, the same workaround doesn't seem to completely work for the AEC, as the 2nd shot can still bug, according to the steps that you described. However, it does help with getting the first shot off.

Actually, regarding received accuracy vs armour, it's not so clear cut.

Received accuracy is better vs:
- Kubelwagen MG (Penetration)
- MGs (which have penetration > 1); especially incendiary rounds
- Luchs/FlakHT/FlakHQ, which are mostly accuracy-based

Armour is better vs:

There's a whole range of weapons that don't have the focus-fire property. I.e., these weapons roll an additional hit-roll if they fail in their original hit-roll. This means that received accuracy affects incoming DPS in a non-linear way with respect to those weapon times.

This is part of the reason why certain squads (e.g., Panzergrenadiers) are so much better at killing retreating infantry (modifier < 1). This is also the reason why offensive modifiers don't translate to direct DPS increase (I mean, Ambushing PGrens are monsters, but not to the level that +50% increase would imply; they are already monsters at the appropriate range without the modifier).

On the other hand, if a shot does hit but fails to penetrate, there is no hit-reroll. Thus, armour changes affect incoming DPS linearly (assuming that the penetration of the offending gun was already smaller than the original armour value).

Thus, armour will perform a bit better vs the following weapon types:
- BAR
- STGs
- non-enginer SMGs (I don't remember what sturmpioneers have)

Since Piat where not used in Koth tournament (or not extensively)one can not evaluate their impact from data in there.

Imo you probably need more data on the performance of Piats before going ahead with change. My point here is that imo the change at this point will cause more problem than it will solve. I might be wrong but that can only be verified from more testing.

After 3 months of testing and adjusting PIATs, I am not aware of a single issue that has risen up, where PIATs have caused, or threatened to cause an issue.

I am aware you are going to say "But M5 conscripts". Well guess what; M5 conscripts are even more powerful in the live version. This is just something that people don't know how to abuse. The issue with vickers-k/PIAT drops will be trivially solved when slot item performance becomes normalized to the squad that picks them up.

If PIAT changes will be the accelerator that speeds up the process of correcting this consistency error, then so be it.

If fixing light-vehicle abuse-meta makes it so that OP commanders become painfully obvious and then fixed, then so be it.

If adjusting allied infantry to OST infantry standards and Panzerfussilier blobs, with their outlier stats start drowning everything, so be it.

In the next patch, the community will pick those items up, and those items will be addressed. The end result is a game that converges to a more playable state faster.

Relic gives us a very tiny window of what we are allowed to touch, and I think we should reap that ability to the maximum. With those changes, we consider early-game strategic choices actually meaningful now, and the early game kinda more balanced as a result. Late-game has always been, and will always be problematic when the game insists on harbouring factions that outscale other factions, by design.

On the other hand, I am extremely painfully aware:
- That regardless of PIATs, UKF will have an easier game (mainly due to light vehicle nerfs and sniper kill-ability)
- live-version PIATs are insanely, extremely OP in the late-game. UKF needs no help in the late-game

If 3 months of testing in a well-advertised mod is not enough, then how many months of testing should we, objectively, aim for? Ideally for future patches, we should be aiming for a shorter testing phase, not a longer one.