Profile of thedarkarmadillo

hi all, wanna do some talking about the EFA reserve abilities and how to address them without them being lame clones of each other with no thought into the factions the ability will be a part of

firstly ostroppen reserves:

i believe this ability can work, both thematicly and in gameplay the ability has merit, however its just so damn hard to get any use from due to how narrow of a window it has.
ost has small squad sizes, thats known to all, so the appeal to getting a larger squad with a snare, and cheap per head is quite clear to most, prostroopen are renowned the world over after all.

the issue lies in the reduced window and increased requirements ontop of the reduced yields it received last time it was looked at (perhaps it was nuked specifically so it could be claimed it doesnt work at a later date so it could be changed with something else? who knows... sure looks that way to me given the changes it received anyways....)
so the fix seems pretty simple... undo some of the gutting it received. 30 seconds more in duration could easily take it from never worth the risk to calculated exchange. keep the 5 models required and keep the hard cap at 1 squad given back but for the love of god let it last longer than a blink. you practically have to walk through a minefield do get any milage out of it right now with the limited timing.

the result is you more or less have created a ostroppen call in that uses MU and MP instead of just MP. you could give the ostroppen the LMG42 as well if you wanted to round it out but the important bit is that a neat thematic ability that requires player input and gives something new to the player isnt replaced with a death rebate.



for rapid conscription on the other hand, should be changed and for a similar reason as above, but inverse. cons are as accessible as they come. an ability that replaces my cons with more cons assuming i timed my ability wrong doesnt add anything really.
i dont like the death rebate for this either because soviet already have merge to help stem the bleed and cheap conscripts (per head) to smooth out that bit. giving them MP back has the potential to be either really broken, especially combined with 7 man cons and their reduced reinforcement cost. baaaaad business all around while not being ver interesting either.

no, id look towards something a little more interesting.
reinforcement speed for conscripts, build time for conscripts, POSSIBLY a very small (like legit, 1 mp) reinforcement reduction on conscripts.
numbers could be tweaked across multiple variables to ensure the ability doesnt over perform and depending on if it would be wanted as a passive or an active ability. if passive stages could be unlocked via tech buildings. if an active it would certainly be much more niche unless scaled up and would most certainly find most application in team games but at least its INTERESTING and engaging. thematic and interesting while also helping set commanders that have it out from the rest in an interesting way.



anyways, thoughts?

This is honestly completly wrong examples you are giving. Comparing to other arty units to stuka is pointless.

Other rocket arty all works the same way = if you are closer, you are deadlier. If you shoot from close\mid distance you can garantee that your shots will count. This is the learning curve for other arty units, possitioning and timings when to shoot.

B4 is a RNG dice roll meme gun, which shouldnt be in the game as it is in a first place.

Artificial learning curve is stupid concept. I can start custom game with cheatmode, shoot it dozens of times, see on which arrows first rocket lands, see its pattern and use it afterwards.

Stuka learning curve is prediction and timings. Its salvo markers are just an unintuitive and non-userfriendly bullcorn, which wasnt even intented as a balance feature and learning curve I garantee.

. The advantage of not having more scatter at range is offset by the disadvantage of not getting more accurate up close. That's a very reasonable trade off that already makes the Stuka extremely consistent compared to absolutely all other indirect fire in the game. No matter where you are shooting you know almost exactly where your rockets will hit however predictably works both ways.

You don't need to go into cheat mod to learn how to use the Stuka. Just paying attention when playing is enough.
Having markers to show exactly where the nuclear wipes will be is absolutely an awful idea from a counter play perspective and would take an already easy to use team weapon hard counter even easier.

The marker is a strip. If you've fired it twice you know roughly where in that strip the rockets will land and can aim according. We don't need to lower the skill floor even further, if we do that were going to need a backhoe.

I don't think it should be a "move". It would be strictly a nerf since it's free at vet 1. It would be better if nade tech unlocks AT nade at vet 0, while vet 1 still gets it for free.

Yea I suggested something similar a ways back seems like the best solution

I've been thinking lately about ways of reworking Relief Infantry and Rapid Conscription. Turning them into Recoup Loses equivalents is a solid option (though I'm still trying to come up with something more unique to differentiate more between the factions).

I'm wondering though - why didn't you change Rapid Conscription too? In my opinion, it's equally as bad as Relief Infantry (if not even worse) and commanders that have it are not very good either, so the risk of turning them into meta-monsters is minimal.

rapid conscription receives the exact same attention reserve infantry does in the mod.

I'm not a fan of this change because these abilities are only in the swamps after countless nerfs to make them more niche. They were pretty neat but altered into uselessness into needing changed. Like reserves used to be a chance to get some ostrppen to replace losses. Then it was changed so you can't actually get them unless you lose like 17 models within 23 seconds. If you mistime the ability even slightly or RNG says miss too many times congrats you just wasted the munitions.
Nerfing the shit out of seldom used abilities is really stupid but it makes a whack more sense considering the next step appears to be changing it outright since the gutted version sees less use that a nuclear butt plug.

But one also needs to keep in mind that OKW has currently not a lot of recon options. It has recon on 3 Commanders of which one is basically never seen. So nerfing Specs OPs would bring the recon options down to 2 ( realistically 1 )

Meanwhile UKF have lots of recon options and even have things such as non doc flares on the 17 pounder.

Also I don't get the "Brit ones just lighten up the front" argument. While it makes this ofc impossible to know what the enemy is doing in front of his base you got the whole front illuminated. This is something which should also not be underestimated. ( also there are some abilities which can lighten up behind the front too, although they are bundled in with unit call ins )

Then give okw more recon! Don't have a broken mechanic that's extremely abusable in team games. Also sanders new proposal is bloody good recon but like the Brit flares (which BTW I also think needs changed) is limited in flexibility.