Profile of ZombiFrancis

Commanders really should be sorted into three categories, with players being able to choose one from each category.

That may be the most feasible way to handle the discrepancies between EFA and later factions commander set.

It may provide a stronger framework for attempting to balance commanders without just redesigning the least used commanders as mimics of the most used commanders.

Demos were really meannt for structures and especially bridges.

Bridgeplay and competitive coh have never mixed well. For gameplay and map design alike.

I would prefer less demos and more mines overall.

I still think demos (and satchels, both versions) need a fuel upgrade to unlock globally. The momentary grenade merge for soviets I'd hoped would be opened that opportunity up.

Best way to balance those explosives without having them be no brainers or freebies.

Great congratulations to DonXavi! Poltawa is a really a great map. I really hope that these next few weeks result in good feedback for fixes and tweaks to the maps being implemented.

In my opinion, Poltawa and Alliance of Defiance were the two best maps of the contest, so I'm glad one of them won. (And glad it appears both will be entering automatch.) As saturated as we may be on rural maps, the rural assets are the best set available for making maps. Fields of Winnekendonk I am also glad will be making the cut. I have to make a mention to Bialystock Market, which is a visual masterpiece. I would offer people to try playing that map as a 1v1.

I am the maker of Itter Fields and Stadtschutt.

Poor Itter Fields. I'd originally made the map and terrain size way too large. I spent most of the map contest migrating the map to a smaller terrain size so the minimap/tac map wasn't so awfully crunched. Then the map completely broke so I had to submit an older version after the deadline that had all those original size issues. Oh well. It's for the best. The map size issues would've been ugly.

I am personally surprised that Stadtschutt won. I did not think such an open ended (and destroyed) map would make it through to the finals, let alone win in it's category! Every step of Stadtschutt's creation kept in mind the litany of abuse Stalingrad had received from the community over the years. Especially every non-Stalingrad map accused of being Stalingrad. Both of my submissions tried to utilize a wide battlefield with plenty of room to maneuver (and hide) units in the fog of war. I did my best to counterbalance this with centralizing territory points so that defensive positions could be made without being too isolated or irrelevant.

One thing of note on Stadtschutt is that the 'off' fuel for each side has an access path locked behind two wire-cuttable fences that allows you to circumvent the middle. This is a design that I'd really appreciate feedback on specifically.

I felt as though all of the finalist maps were excellent creations. Sure there are some visual and design issues in there, but quite frankly, so do most maps.

I'd like to thank every participant in this contest, and especially to everyone who played the maps and gave feedback. I will do my best to polish Stadtschutt as much as I can between now and the deadline.

I’d welcome more contests like these in the future, maybe organized by the community (it’s been proven to work), supported by Relic.

Indeed! That said though, I'd love to see more varieties of resource points put into the game/worldbuilder for the future. Especially if another contest is ever considered.

Jackson price should probably be reverted with the damage reduction. I would argue it'd need even more penetration though in this case. That and/or an improved rate of fire, at the very least through vet. A better turret rotation speed might help improve its reliability too. (Though IMO that goes for virtually all non-heavy turreted tanks.)

Vet 0 mortar flares for soviets is a rather nice change. Sight > *

RIP grenade merge. The costs should've been merged in some capacity. 35 or 40 fuel would've been good. Attempts should always be made to make room for more/better global upgrades.

ZiS barrage at 35s may be a bit low for the amount of barrage it makes. It might be good to shave a shell or two off its barrage in this case. (The last couple shells usually are blasting empty earth anyway. In my experiences the first shell's accuracy is 80% of the ability's value.)

Ostheer pop cap reductions are all smart choices.

Interesting StuG choices. The 15 second weapon disable was rather ridiculous.

I'll be interested to see how the Ostwind works. It's medium and long range AoEs appear to have increased. Cost reduction is good, and increase in range is powerful too.

Panther changes... Whatevs at this point...

I don't see too much reason to use timers for the AA mode for the Schwerer. Making it a toggle alone would be a great change. A delay of a few seconds switching between modes would actually be an interesting dynamic for players to try to time.

Luch changes may be for the best so long as they're not wildly failing to kill pickup trucks.

Oh the Sturmtiger. A troll vehicle probably deserves the hate it gets.

Sturmpio changes are probably necessary given their repair nerf. Big RA loss though.

Great changes for Panzerfusiliers, Obersoldaten, and Fallschirmjager.

Phasing raketenwerfer shots are an interesting decision. Slowing their vetted cloaking move speed is a good change.

As always, pitching a near perfect game in the bug fix and QoL game.

Volks stgs and incendiary nades screwed the pooch with OKW pretty hard.

Both are results of addressing a problem in a vacuum (volks schrecks overperforming and OKWs inability to handle maxim garrisons respectively).

And then maxims got changed, and the handheld AT weapon xp issues were addressed later...