Profile of Hannibal

Well they still have it.

And clearing shot blocker is an op ability.

In any case WFA can get AT weapons on their engineer and some of them can get LMG so I doubt that pioneer are "best engineer unit in the whole game".

Pioneer are extremely difficult to gain any veterancy past 2 min mark.

I do not doubt that they are better. Although I'd say their biggest asset it that they profit from the 5 man upgrade. Just the AT nade was a bit off. UKF can get weapon on they engineers, but usually this upgrade comes rather late in the game, as well as the Anvil LMG upgrade. OST can get a flame thrower early on.
However they also cost more. 250 MP if I recall correctly vs 200 MP of the pioneer. So yes, they are better, but not without drawbacks.

The general idea of redefining T1 is appealing, but I don't think that it is necessary or should be done at this point. T1 builds were the meta in a strong SOV faction before Conscripts got their Mobilized Reserves buff. And Penals were totally fine by that point. Just because Conscripts now got slightly overbuffed it does not mean that Penals suddenly are bad, they are just cost inefficient compared to Cons. As soon as Cons are back in line, we will see both Tiers again.

To the specific suggestions:
I agree with Katitof on the M3. Utility would be nice, but SOV has already a better scout in the form of the T70 that scales alright into the late game.

I suggested a sniper movement nerf some time ago although I would not be as drastic. 10-20% will probably be fine, and a second model not needed with this. Overall I think this change could be out of scope and cause a lot of issues for balancing.

The Penal change I really do not like. 6 men flamer should only be an exception, and it is not needed since SOV already have a flamer squad that can be merged into. I know that it is meant in the context of the reworked T1, but I think this whole idea is out of scope and could break SOV for good or bad for a long time. Also it could lead to a less diverse and more boring SOV faction. When Cons are fixed, there will likely be two quite different play styles depending on your teching path. This could all be destroyed by your suggestions.

Firstly, the detection radius should never match the AoE radius, as this removes any ability for counter-play. I agree that the detection range should be smaller, but it needs to be slightly (+2?) larger than the AoE, to allow for the "attacking" player to back away on detection, while accounting for units that are sometimes unresponsive. Note, however, that any detection radius changes should also apply to other demos, including the goliath when it's not moving.

Secondly, the only way this would make sense, is if detected demos showed up like normal units - i.e. with a red highlight through buildings and a "unit" icon. Right now, even once detected, they can be incredibly hard to see on some terrain, and they can be placed behind stuff, so that they can't be seen from the default camera view.

Really, demos should just become a (slightly) cheaper, non-mobile, non-doc goliath.

The first post (the one you quoted) was a bit unclear. In a second post I stated that the detection radius should be slightly above the demo damage radius. Or rework the demo that it is below the 80 HP damage threshold for the last bit of the area. Which way exactly does not matter, what I am saying is that the time between detection and entering the demo radius should be slightly decreased. From what I am seeing is that basically no one uses demos, although they are highly accessible and also effective if they hit. The most reasonable explanation is that they are just very unlikely to hit, and a slight adjustment to the detection radius could be a way to fix that.

Maybe they should get the treatment as many things that were super "wipey": Lower the peak damage, make AoE a bit larger and adjust price accordingly afterwards. I also liked the idea of capping the total model number killed by the demo that someone suggested.

I disagree with the Goliath however. From what I see on Twitch when VonIvan uses them as well when I use them, they hit or miss really depending on how well your enemy micros. But with correct positioning they have a very high chance to hit. Goliaths however should also be reworked to a better fitting design. They and demos still stem from a time when models died exceptionally quickly.

Yeah my B4 comparison is way off, the value you get from invisible demos is off the charts compared to the inaccurate B4 that’s also doctrinal, expensive, and can be countered by anything.

Meanwhile you want Axis players to have a sweeper at every point on the map to avoid getting squad wiped by the invisible stock Goliath. Basically no edge capping whatsoever, you have to keep a sweeper with you 24/7 or you get rekt. What about okw? They have to make 1-2 extra 300mp Spios for sweepers? That’s very fair, not like they’re already struggling against the Soviets early game, you wanna give them invisible stock goliaths too.

I don’t know what the point of this conversation is. You want Soviets to have stock invisible Goliaths (yeah they can’t move but who cares when you can only detect with sqeeper?) just because of tellers which are just a slight upgrade over the alternative mines that almost everyone gets.

Re-read my post carefully instead of trying to ill-define a position that I do not have. I made a very clear suggestion at the end. Then go answer to that.

Here’s a great argument:

It used to be like that and everyone hated it, so it changed.

Good point:

I also have a great argument:

Nobody outside uses them anymore. Even at my skill level players are good enough to avoid them in all modes. They are a waste of mun. The only times you can actually use them is hiding them behind houses, which works only on certain maps and even then about once per game.

Now go on and explain why this is exceptionally good game design.

The comparison to Tellers is obviously not 100% complete, but all in all it works. At the moment you have Somewhat comparable investment with a likely unit wipe. Just that the Teller is slightly cheaper, the wiped unit more expensive and do not require vision or manual input. On the other hand, they effective radius is smaller.

Your B4 comparison is quite off. Nobody knows where the B4 will hit, not even the person building it. And there is absolutely no counter play to the explosion. The demo charge can (at the moment) be swept by any squad without getting any damage. And in the previous implementation they could still be nullified by having sweepers around. If these two are the same to you then you are 1 billion percent clueless. This is not debateable.
But now on the more serious side again: Also the comparison to normal mines is a bit lacking. Normal mines don't give you much value if you do not support them. The fact that OST needs to somewhat rely on Tellers to counter is a tricky argument. Yes, they lack a light TD, but in many (even high level) games they survive the LV phase even without any Teller. The current implementation of Teller mines just shows that the faction design of OST is a bit off compared to others. An ability that can just turn the game around 180° is bad design, nothing more and nothing less.

I'd argue that if every squad should be able to detect demo charges, than the detection radius should be lowered. They should detect it approximately at the point were they get the outer edges of the AoE damage. So no wipe if a player is careful and pulls back, but they should get damaged.