Profile of rofltehcat

TLDR:
MGs' sight range to 30 from 35. Maxim also has 35 sight inside of its cone.
normal weapons' suppression.target_suppressed_multipliers.accuracy_multiplier from 0.25 to ~0.66
MGs' suppression.target_suppressed_multipliers.accuracy_multiplier from 0.5 to ~0.33
Maxim's suppression.amount from 0.02 to ~0.024 (20% increase, guessed, may also be a bit less)
Maxim's suppression.target_suppressed_multipliers.penetration_multiplier to 1.5


1. Problem 1, Flankability:
Once a HMG can see something, it will also suppress it quickly, leaving no time for the other player to react, soft retreat and flank.

2. Solution:
Reduce the sight range of the HMG crew from 35 to 30 (or 28/27ish). This means that if someone is moving squads in carefully, they can soft retreat, initate a flank, call in smoke and/or pull in more squads.

3. Comments:
This change would reward cautious play and situational awareness on both sides. HMGs would be the support weapons behind spotting infantry while being slightly worse when on their own. Infantry approaching the HMG can evade it.
If this change is added, the sight range bonus and Blizzard negation granted by buildings should be decreased, too. At least for HMGs but could also be a part of making buildings weaker in general.
For the Maxim, they could have 30 sight range all around but 35 sight range in their cone.

4: Problem 2, MGs too effective on their own:
MGs are too effective when on their own. They deal a lot of damage and can capture territory so you don't need many supporting units in the beginning of the match.

5: Solution:

Decrease the DPS of the weapons that can cause suppression but increase the damage multiplier of non-suppression weapons (or just certain ones). Currently, most weapons deal decreased damage (about accuracy*0.25 for many) against suppressed squads.
Increase the modifiers (e.g. to accuracy*0.66). To achieve the damage reduction of the MGs, decrease their damage multiplier vs. suppressed targets (e.g. to 0.33 from 0.25) and slightly increase the suppression of the Maxim to compensate (and bring enemies quicker into suppression state).
Also make them capture slower (e.g. 75% or so of normal squads).

6. Comments:
This mimics the behaviour of suppression and synergy between units like Volks and MG42 in CoH1. It worked well there and I do not know why they did away with that.
Because the DPS decrease of the MGs only affects suppressed enemies, their DPS vs. vehicles as well as their DPS vs. enemies in buildings and the DPS of their first burst stay where they are now. This keeps them viable for finishing light vehicles, viable for urba/static warfare and viable for ambushes.
The changes should also affect the M5 Quad and the Ostwind's machine gun (not the flak!, the machine gun is pretty crappy anyways, though... so the Ostwind might be spared).


7. Problem 3, Maxim too weak:
The Maxim HMG is currently often perceived as being bad at its job. It is often seen as neither doing DPS nor crowd control (suppression) well.

8. Solution:
These are in addition to the other changes.
Increase the penetration of the Maxim vs. suppressed targets from 1 to 1.5.


9. Comment: The penetration change means it can reliably penetrate the armor of German infantry in its cone without making it too strong against light vehicles (if normal damage increase or normal penetration increase) or low armor units like Pioneers (if normal damage increase).
This effectively increases the Maxim's damage against most suppressed infantry by 50% (66% before, now 100% is a 50% increase).

The winter map is a lot better than the summer map though.
On the other hand it has too many resources (especially munitions) and the VPs are too close to each other.
It'd probably be my third map ban if I had one more.

There should be an easier way to do those checks without spamming the replay section...

Finding yourself is easy but some enemies may be very hard to find once the post-game stat screen is closed.

Well, you can still play with friends. The tournament matches are done in private games anyways, right? So this shouldn't change anything.

Pretty sure PGrens get a large DPS boost from their vet, shocks mostly get extra armor. That said, who has been making false claims? They have lower damage than PGs despite being a doctrine unit and more expensive and having more models which usually means they'll tend to focus on the same target less.

Panzergrenadier, Vet2: *2.25 armor; Vet3: *1.78 accuracy
Shock Troops, Vet2: *1.78 accuracy and *1.25 armor; Vet3: *1.8 armor (exclusive? Not sure if I read the files correctly?)

So no, their DPS boost (accuracy multiplier) is the same. Also remember that the Shock Trooper squad have 2.25 base armor and the Panzergrenadiers 1.5 base armor. This, combined with their higher squad health (6 instead of 4 soldiers, so 480 instead of 320 health) lets them survive a lot longer under small arms fire.

So yeah, they're not as excellent DPS-wise as Panzergrenadiers but they'll be able to keep their DPS up a lot longer. The impression some people mentioned about them being massive bullet sponges is true... kill them with fire or explosions if possible