Giving an new ability in the commander would be interesting, but i am not sure on what is fitting in theme with the commander. What remains for certain is that the flares in their current state offer too much potential with no way to counter it(basically what others have said in the last 2 pages) and thus warrants a change.
Yes they do, but I said in my original post I would start with increasing the CD and see from there.
The ability is not that great in 1vs1 and only becomes an issue in team-games.
I don't have the same feeling.
Centaur is in my opinion in a decent spot, at least decent enough that it does not need much attention at the moment. Power level compared to Ostwind is decent.
Maybe some slight alterations would be okay, but I think fiddling with it at the moment would cause more harm than good and probably suck up a lot of time.
Yes Centaur is in good spot but Cromwell has become good in AI and they simply overlap in the AI department while having similar cost.
The centaur is the UKF AA tank with a cost of 320/100. Although that unit is good recently I find less and less reason to build it.
It AA,AI is good and even its anti vehicle performance (vs light armored target) is decent for an AA unit (obviously it no much for the PzIV).
The main issue is the current performance of Cromwell. For 40MP/10FU more one has access to the Cromwell that although having inferior AI it also comes with AT.
So unless AA is specifically need I would rather build a Cromwell.
Imo the solution to this issue is the lower the power level of Centaur to around 280-300 mp 80-90 fuel by reducing both price and performance. One might need to increase build time so it more difficult to rush.
The change will make the unit a better alternative to Cromwell for AI while also allow UKF to field a cheaper AA unit.
Plenty of my AA planes getting shut down after vet0 major called them in says otherwise.
Fun story (lost that game but not because of that, that was just the ice topping on the cake):
Ostwind shut down my plane around the middle of the map and that plane fell on 2 pak howits behind bushes (left side whiteball bottom) and 2 squads of retreating infantry that was running past them to a forward retreat major. Talk about luck.
Now read more OP more carefully, the problem comes from second major planes that comes from the direction of enemy base and provides enough info before it can be shut down.
And now to address your argument about revealing enemy rear.
Let's do a little rundown:
- You know where the enemy base is. You do not know where the forward base is (if there is any).
- Recon-pass plane (USF let's say since I'm most proficient with USF) will reveal (for a very short amount of time) the position of the enemy base IFF (if and only if), the map is elongated (eg. redball, whiteball) due to the recon plane having a certain AOE vision radius.
- In that short amount of time you can call in offmap IFF your doctrine has it or you discuss it with your teammate (as you can see, we are talking about teamgames) that has offmap.
So far we have a 50 muni ability that does something. That something is a quick flyby revealing forward positions for a short amount of time (impossible to scout the whole map as the plane passes, unless you're some savant). That short amount of time can be combined with some other abilities by your allies and have cost [50,300+] munitions altogether (all allies that decide to drop 600 worth of munitions on schwerer or something).
So now we have some general notion of what recon planes are about ==> quick flyby to give a general sense of enemy whereabouts.
To pull it off you need to drop all you're doing, focus on the plane and really pay attention and be fast with the fingers to call in anything offmap before the vision is lost. Or if it's a 2nd flyby where you know the position and you just wait for the vision to call in.
Counter? AA. I've had games where ostwind failed to shut it down but most of the time the plane does get shut down. I've had times where top MG gunners managed to shut it down.
And to address your argument that revealing the enemy rear is important? What can you learn about your enemy by looking at his base for a couple of seconds? You can maybe spot LeFH (which you can also when it's firing from fog of war). You could spot tanks getting repaired which you can deduce if you've had combat and damaged them. Infantry? Duuuh.
What is so important about enemy base that you need to make a pointless thread discussing the OPness of stock recon planes.
There is a thread that's justified about Brit and OKW flares being cheesy (0 counterplay as opposed to little to no), and it's a well thought out thread.
Are you making threads just for the sake of making threads and creating pointless debates with arguments weaker than M.N. Shyamalan's Avatar just so you could be heard or something?
You do know that typing "all this is irrelevant" when making a debate is the sign of wholehearted incompetence and bias? Point out why all that is irrelevant and I'll gladly accept if the argument is sound. Convince me that stock planes are OP. I've had my belief/view challenged many times throughout my studies and scientific/philosophical debates with friends and foes alike. Convince me and I'll gladly accept it.
EDIT: about the "reveal enemy rear". I'd argue that revealing the frontline is much more important due to the position of enemy MGs, ATs, etc. which is the direct "OPness" of flares (discussed in another thread). Unless I am missing something important about the enemy "rear", frontline reveal is indispensable when it comes to pushes and clearing out any enemy encampments (where any recon + stuka shines brilliantly) beforehand.
Do I really need to explain why vision near enemy base is advantage that should not be available stock?
Saying that USF/UKf need stock reckon option with no counter because they do not have rocket artillery is beyond apples and oranges, it is simply trolling.
If you have trouble understanding why I am sorry but I can not help you.