Partly based on the usage in the tourney so far.
Once again I'd like to thank the team for a great job so far and for the community approach.
Elite Armor
General consensus: good commander overal. Fixes to the abilities have come a long way and the addition of the 221/223 is very interesting. Still I think it needs some more slight adjustments to become a truly viable commander.
[0 CP] 221 / 223
- I think the cost should be slightly adjusted to 200MP/20FU, in comparison to OST's 222 (200MP/30FU). 223 upgrade can be increased to 120MP/10FU to keep total cost for the mobile cache the same.
- Partly based on its limited use during the tourney, I think it currently comes onto the field a bit late for what it can do (as 221). I would propose to test it with the requirement moved down to having an SWS truck built, rather than an HQ set up. This should put its deployment time down by 2-3 minutes and give it a bit of shock value. Makes players choose between teching or fighting power. If this is too early for USF to deal with it, armor could be lowered and the 223 upgrade could act like armored skirts (historically earlier models of 221 had less armor).
- The healing is nice but the stack of 3x crates makes it awkward to use on the front lines (you rarely need more than one crate). It would be much more practical if it drops one crate at a time or can select a squad for healing (like OST's medkits). 15-20MU per crate/heal.
- The ability to engage aircraft would be nice. Could be considered for vet4 to replace the durability bonus that isn't incredibly useful.
[4 CP] Emergency Repairs
- This ability is in a really good spot right now. Low cost and quite a significant yield. Very useful to get vehicles back into battles a bit faster.
[5 CP] Panzer Commander
- Good overhaul, ability is really useful now and definitely worth the trade with pintle mount.
- While the current implementation of the PC's Artillery Barrage is very useful, it does devastating damage against tanks because it is so concentrated. See https://www.coh2.org/topic/82569/commander-revamp-patch-bug-list/post/699991. Would propose to spread out shells a bit more.
[7 CP] HEAT Shells
- Great ability, good as it is.
[11 CP] Sturmtiger
- Decrease range on hull MG so it doesn't fire at max range and reveals the Sturmtigers position (spoiling the element of surprise) before it can fire the rocket. Or add a 'hold fire' option to it.
- Please consider removing light cover collision from the rocket. This unit is already very micro heavy and clumsy to use, and after going through all the trouble of manually reloading and planning the next attack it's very annoying when the rocket detonates prematurely just because there was a small bush or fence in the way. If this isn't possible, decrease the random scatter a bit so avoiding cover with the shot is actually in the player's control.
- I think the limit of 1 shared with King Tiger is something that wasn't needed. These units serve completely different roles and do not supplement each other like the Command Panther would. I would like to see this limit removed.
- Alternatively, move Sturmtiger to Overwatch (or Breakthrough preferably) and replace 5th slot with a Tiger I. This would give OKW a valuable alternative to the King Tiger that can be more agressive and mobile but is less powerful. Would fit certain maps much better than the KT. An OKW Tiger I "Ausf.E" would suit the doctrine much better than the Sturmtiger, thematically. Moving the heavy call-ins around would also benefit Overwatch a lot (see below).
Overwatch
General consensus: this doctrine still has an identity crisis. It's kinda all over the place and in its current state I don't see it used much, apart from the Goliath memes. Needs some radical changes still I think.
[0 CP] Early Warning and Forward Receivers
- Good thing to have merged these, flares give nice vision. Doesn't need any changes.
[0 CP] Goliath
- High risk high reward unit, doesn't need any changes I think. Perhaps slightly decrease detectability range by minesweepers.
- Others pointed out that Goliaths themselves are a bit lackluster to take up an ability slot by themselves. Proposals have been to expand slot into 'heavy demolitions' which gives Sturmpioneers access to some extra tools as well. Teller mines or demos perhaps.
[2 CP] Jaeger Light Infantry (JLI)
- Initial changes to combat performance were good.
- Main problem for JLI is that they are better mainline infantry rather than elites. This makes it difficult/awkward to fit them into build orders. This seems to be backed up by their very limited use in the tourney.
- Solution: move requirement down to either 0CP with cooldown or 1CP. This should give players the opportunity to replace the standard 3rd or 4th Volksgrenadier with JLI and give them a place in the opening build order.
- Obviously, if moved down to 0-1CP, some abilities would have to be adjusted. Scoped Gew43 could become an upgrade. Camouflage might need to be moved back to vet1.
[2 CP] For the Fatherland
- Can't say much about this ability, seems to be fine for what it does.
[8 CP] LeFH 18
- LeFH 18 is an odd adition to the doctrine. It doesn't make it particularily attractive to choose. If one wants LeFH 18, Defensive Doctrine is generally the better choice. While it isn't bad, it also doesn't provide a 'cherry on top' to close the doctrine.
- Its new vet5 ability "aimed shot" is practically useless. Needs to be replaced by something else. Or buffed massively. I have no idea frankly.
- Personally, I would like to see the 5th slot filled by the Sturmtiger coming over from Elite Armor. Or (if allowed within scope) even better: Jagdtiger to Overwatch and Sturmtiger to Breakthrough.
- Moving Sturmtiger or Jagdtiger to Overwatch would give the doctrine the significant boost it needs with a high power unit at the end. Would synergise well with JLI and Early Warning for sight. Especially the Jagdtiger would really fit the theme of the doctrine.
- Alternatively, the Jagdtiger can simply be added as a replacement to the LeFH 18 without shuffling any of the other doctrines. The Elefant and ISU-152 are in multiple doctrines as well.