General Information
Register Time: 18 Nov 2012, 19:57 PM
Last Visit Time: 11 Apr 2023, 00:18 AM
Broadcast: https://www.twitch.tv/Trainzz
Steam: 76561198066699614
Nationality: Germany
Timezone: Europe/Berlin
Game Name: Trainzz
There is an interesting 7-year old video showing an advanced mechanic from vCoH.
It basically shows that you can throw a grenade while the rest of the squad keeps moving and only the one guy that throws the grenade stops to perform the throwing animation.
This is insanely helpful in situations, where your opponent cant pay close attention, as normally, a moving squad means that the squad is not throwing a grenade. I am not 100% sure if this exists in CoH2, but that is not important for my point, anyways.
Basically, this was not intended by Relic. Their intention was that you have to stop moving with your whole squad in order to throw a grenade. It was NOT intended to have the rest of the squad moving while only one guy stops moving.
The interesting part is that they never removed it. The reasons for that are not known to me, but no matter why they didn't remove it, it was definitely a really good way of using advanced mechanics to outplay your opponent. Players simply learned to adapt to it and the game became just a bit move micro-intensive and the skill cap was increased just a tiny little bit.
There are a lot of other tricks like this, that make this game more fun, more (micro-) intensive and players that take the time to learn all these things will have a small advantage. I don't see how things like this would need a fix, I rather think it would be really bad if every little trick that gets discovered in future gets removed because the community is crying abuse.
The question for me is, why do factions have to rely so heavily on early light vehicles, instead of using infantry exclusively.
You can always add a jeep or a bike like it was in CoH1, a cheap support unit that is really strong if microed correctly, but on its own it does not do anything.
Another example of balance and game design going wrong is the USF vehicle repair mechanic. Supposedly it was there to counter the weaker armor and HP of US units, which is interesting and different. But it in fact makes US vehicles HARDER to use except on the very highest of skill levels.
If an OKW super tank needs to be repaired it retreats and you click a unit to repair it. You can shift click the repairing unit to repair something else, to do something else, to move somewhere else. A few clicks and you can move to some other part of the screen. When you come back your vehicle is repaired and waiting for order and in the meantime can defend itself with its super armor and the repairers are off on their next tasks. If you see the repairing unit is being attacked you click it somewhere else and it goes with the repairers following.
Now compare that to the USF vehicles. You need more of them to attack, which means each vehicle has to be pathed by you taking into account dangers for each. Then you retreat them (hopefully all survive). You can't de-crew until they get to the destination and can't repair until the de-crew is complete. You have two extra commands that each have a minimum of time (de-crew and crew) and can't be stacked, and have to wait until units are in position, in addition to the orders to retreat and repair. (What!? I just lost another squad while trying to repair these three glass cannons?! F-ing "different" faction design!)
During this time, the crew and its veterancy is now exposed to fire and to GTFO they have to jump back in and only then can you retreat them.
And you have to do all of this extra micro to more units than the axis does. That is as bad in 1v1 for a player as it is in 4v4, it just gets compounded.
And remember, additional micro is not a matter of arithmetic or geometric increases in difficulty but an exponential progression. Every person can handle only so many APMs (actions per minute). Every action you add to a task reduces the apms available. If US vehicles already have more micro requirements than axis (and they do since they are both more fragile and you have to use more of them) then adding a "balancing" mechanic with EVEN MORE actions gives the veneer of balance. In the hands of the average player they are just plain harder to use, easier to lose, and require more work.
Personally I prefer having a vehicle crew that is always with your vehicle. In this case, your echolon troop can cap or plant demos or whatever. You don't need a rear echolon squad to survive to be able to repair, that is a huuuuuuge advantage over other factions. I find myself often spending nearly 400 additional manpower or even more with other factions, simply to have a unit to repair 1 vehicle. Not to mention it saves time.
Also, I don't quite understand how you need more micro to repair vehicles as USF than as Ostheer or Soviets. You just reverse them out and order them to decrew. Once your vehicle is repaired, you recrew and you are good to go again. That is so damn easy.
There is nothing wrong with achieving balance in 4v4.. as long as it does not harm 1v1 balance. And there lies the problem. Unless you change balance for every mode seperately (which is kinda stupid imo), you will not be able to get to a state where all 4 modes are balanced.
In fact it probably would. Ever play any of the CoH1 mods? They were excellent. And that was from unpaid volunteers with their spare time.
They also fixed the m10 misfire bug, which Relic never ever got around to even though the source of the problem was known and there was a tiny mod that fixed it.
That you can't find allies to play against shows that Relic does a poor job. As far as stats go IT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT REALLY MATTERS.
Those mods were not really balanced, but they were well-done. Th thing is, there were people working on it that had a clue about what they are doing. Those dev teams were really good atcreating mods and trying to balance them.
You cannot say that about 95% of the community that is actually discussing balance here.
Not really. If you balance out the core units to be viable then we shouldn't see so many people just pick a specific doctrine for that clal-in.
Giving just MP costs to call-ins while perhaps upping the CP cost would drag out the mid/midlate game. I think this is a healthy change. More strategy will be involved instead of everyone just saving up for the super tank.
Maybe, I really don't know how it would play out, but I think it could be worth a try.
I'll still just wait for call ins because they are way better than standard units and also cost less with regards to tech costs.
Hi 2 U Mr. Tiger Ace
Well then you will get punished for it, because call-ins are now not only more expensive manpower-wise, but you can also get overrun by mid game units that are non-doctrinal, because the fuel you needed for call-ins before can now be spent on teching. I mean, it will still be a viable strategy to just wait out until you get your call-in (which has hopefully a higher cp cost then), but not waiting for it will be just as viable.