Profile of Blovski

word.

no, i agree with op. lots of balancing decisions have lead the game to be as posted in other treads. stupified. SU gots its speed nerfed and its rotation nerfed because german noobs could not drive straight into it. what did the russian players do? adapted and came with a new strategy.

then german noobs complained about ramming. because yeah lets be honest here. German is the majority and they are all vocal about it. now they cant ram, ram got nerfed. what did russians do, adapted and came with a new strategy.

some how russians still managed to win of couse germans noobs. so what do we do. buff tiger tank. right now people might say the units are balanced. but the armies as a whole are not.

each and every diferent russian strategy have been decidely crusshed. it pains me to see streaming russian players like von ivan, picking the 3 general that have pphss. going 4-5 conscripts and a fast t70. its very uncreative unvariable and boring. i dont know how you people can stand and do the same thing every Show Spoiler

game.

while germas have a lot of gameplay options. because well Russian fanboys are not vocal enough.

As you know perfectly well, the SU-85 nerf and the ram changes came with a massive buff to the damage of the T-34, which has made it a *lot* more viable. Von has been doing that 5 conscript PPSH T70 strat since the Beta. Recently he's been mixing it up with the new Shock Motor commander. I don't entirely get the OP's point... imo, balance and the game has been improved with every patch with the exception of the new DLC commanders, which is cause for optimism. It's still not perfect but I think it's almost always going in the right direction, which is a good sign.

After around 400 hours of game time since beta a few things stick out to me like a sore thumb.

1. Early Game infantry combat.

What the perceived issue is - Random Model loss and potential engagement loss in superior or equal cover.

What the Solution is - Decreasing Rifle Damage and increasing rate of fire.

Why this Solution would work - Each rifle bullet fired by each model is an independent instance, this leads to a plausible misinterpretation of the percentages allocated to hit. Take for example a 50% chance to hit, each round fired is a coin flip this means that the likelihood of streaks of heads or tails is highly plausible. Say i flip a coin ten times it is entirely reasonable that I could get 9 heads and 1 tails, however the more i flip the coin the more likely I will approach 50% which is what one would expect. This solution would also improve the effectiveness of cover against enemies with a similar rate of fire lets say conscripts and grenadiers. Any slight reduction in hit chance like yellow cover would yield more consistent results.

I kind of think this isn't a hugely common issue right now. Making units keep in cover better (like, say, DOW 2) would probably have a bigger effect.

2. Pio/Enigneer BBQ Banaza!

What the perceived issue is - Random Model loss results in huge loss of resources and potentially the loss of my squad!!!! (Due to flamethrower ignition)

What the Solution is - Eliminate the ability for SAF(Small Arms Fire) to detonate the Flamethrower.

Why this Solution would work - Since SAF does not cause the detonation of any other explosive in the game logically the flamethrower should not go up in smoke in this manner. Additionally Explosives could have an increased chance of detonation since this daisy chain precedence also exists. This would prevent the colossal early game loss to the first Conscript round without producing flame squads of doom. Since an explosive would be required to cause detonation the loss of a flame squad in this manner would be the result of a deliberate action on the enemies part requiring them to allocate resources (Mines, Grenades) or relying on fortunate hits (Mortars, Tanks). While I personally would like to see it go away all together this is a way to incorporate this cinematic effect, without rewarding pure luck early game. It would be a calculated risk to send a pio into an area that is being shelled or to ignore them while they engage a pgren squad.

My personal preference is to make an engi flamethrower only destructible if the squad is reduced to one or no models by the loss (meaning, a responsible retreat can reliably protect you from the gamble) but I absolutely agree this is one of the most egregious RNG things.

3. Engine Damage and Blitzkrieg

What the perceived issue is - The enemies AT grenade/Faust always causes heavy engine Damage to my tank!!!

What the Solution is - When an AT grenade or Faust penetrates it causes light engine damage. Soviet Mine medium engine damage. Teller Mine heavy engine damage. Blitzkrieg operates while the engine is damaged following the ability the tank degrades its engine status down to the next level of damage. Light/Medium Medium/Heavy.

Why this Solution would work - Consistent performance of abilities is crucial and knowing somewhat what to expect is important for both players in a match. A shot at light engine damage on a heavy tank for the cheap price of 15 munitions is amazing and if it can be achieved it should be! (assuming you have the units to follow up) This however is not the case for heavy engine damage from 1 AT grenade or Faust can often result in a loss if even slightly well executed. Rewarding favorable scenarios for a common action is acceptable to me however rewarding game winning conditions for the same action is not. This is why i suggest that the mines be the sources of medium and heavy engine damage. These items require foresight, tactical positioning, and battlefield knowledge, in addition to a direct counter at the same price or 1/2 the price of the mine itself. Because of the differing cost of the mines the engine damage should be correspondingly more lethal to the larger investment. Lastly Blitzkrieg is a veteran ability and one that is gained through combat. I do believe that the other changes listed would address the use of this ability as an oh shit button however if the speed while damaged with blitzkrieg is active is to stay as it is in live I would suggest that following the duration of the ability the tanks engine status would degrade to the next level of damage. This will promote the use of the ability following a mine hit to be a plausible defensive maneuver at a cost.

Heavy engine damage from AT nades and fausts just needs to go. Otherwise I'm not too fussed about making mines that much more consistent... they already seem to work for me. And cut engine damaged blitzkrieg as well. That's just silly.

The biggest RNG thing I want to see addressed right now is the building crits and health operating very strangely.

I am explaining the difference between COH2 and COH to someone who didn't play it and asked for explanation........

Still I don't agree with you on many things.

Sniper is more vulnerable unit now as opposed to being shoot in the face by other sniper out of nowhere if it fires. Positioning in COH2 means you come in the vicinity of enemy and fire away. You know there is nothing to shoot you back in the face, as opposed to having to scout area to make sure there is no other sniper.
(you are confusing tactical sniper play with currently broken snipers where they get one shot by all manner of things)

You had to do all those things you wrote, in COH with vehicles on top of which there were generally more things that could kill your M8 on the field than there is when you pull out T70. Due to faster teching. So yes, you had to be a lot more careful and think what you are doing as opposed to your main concern being how many units can I kill in the short window of opportunity.

Really? is that your answer. You just need to do these couple of simple things and you are good to go.
If you don't control the map you cannot get K Tiger at all, If you don't control the fuel, you cannot build any vehicles period

All that doesn't mean that there is no tactics or thinking involved in COH2, a lot less then COH that is for sure

Ahk. Snipers - my argument is that the cloaking being dependent on cover makes using them against *any* unit more of a matter of positioning, while in VCoH you basically only had to worry about other snipers most of the time, and since you could see over any obstructions they were harder to flank by tactical play. There is still some countersniping play... I don't think people in general have got their sniper use to the level where they're executing it well right now. In general I'm kind of glad the mid game has gone beyond both sides trying to kill a sniper but that's just my preference.

Vehicles - yeah, you were more likely to have the PAK/shrek combo when an M8 hit the field. Also, both sides used mines properly so it was always riskier. I think CoH 2's reliable engine-crit fausts, true sight and AT nades do compensate for that though. Map control to get a King Tiger... have to admit it was a rare game where I found that to be a problem. Because it didn't cost fuel it was rarely a serious problem getting one if you lasted that long in the game.

Much as the VCoH argument is the more interesting one, Sluz's OP was about COH 2 as opposed to COH 2 a couple of months back being a 'clickfest'. I completely do not buy VCoH requiring less clicks/micro/control/whatever you want to term it than CoH 2 (for instance, ketten/jeep/bike pushing was more clickfesty than anything in the early game now) - in many ways it felt a bit more demanding on account of the lethality.

Baba, CoH 2 snipers require *far* better positioning than VCoH snipers ever did, because their magic cloaking is now conditional. Also they're a much more vulnerable unit in general. I don't really get your idea that vehicle micro and positioning is less important or involves less caution and risk-taking than VCoH. Other than blitzing with a damaged engine and random heavy crits there's nothing to make it too different. I think on those fronts you're maybe mistaking the fact that people aren't playing at the level they played VCoH yet for a fundamental lack of depth in the game.

(and with a T-70, you have to consider, non-exhaustively - avoid suspected teller mines, don't get ambushed and fausted from behind a hedge due to truesight, are there shreks or a pak around, can you get around the PAK, are the shreks in a position where you can approach them at max range and kite a little, is vehicle repair worth it to get you back in the fight more quickly, do you prioritise trying to get the kill on light vehicles which you don't have another counter to or going after infantry, how far do you pursue, if the opponent is entrenched, do you try to scope it out with the recon ability, can you lure the first P-IV onto mines or into an AT gun/nade to give your T-70 some more infantry killing time until it's repaired... all of that is positioning and tactical judgment)

The infantry game... it's more the low lethality of the base units than the cover system that is the change. How you can scale them up without making LMGs, shocks or pgrens just stupidly deadly I do not know. Also the fact that both sides have grenades available very early, and the importance of buildings as a positional tool. Not that there aren't things I prefer about VCoH (more global upgrades, BARs, far better designed doctrines) but I think a lot of it played more artificially and less tactically than people remember.

Where in COH you had to think how to maintain your fuel and pop cap to pull out that tiger,

In CoH you had to not spend any manpower for a couple of minutes, not get all your sectors cut off and then throw away infantry until you could pull a king tiger out of nowhere. It required no fuel control, and you only needed the population for the split second to deploy it.

Personally, I'd like flamers to not explode randomly until the squad is below half its models so as an early game upgrade they don't get neutralised by the first loss the squad sustains. I think that'd add some variety to the early game.

soviet snipers also die to 1 mortar fire, and many other stuff.

Sometimes, but not invariably as the Ostheer sniper does. It's fairly rare for one tank shell to kill both Soviet snipers in my experience. Mortars do somewhat more frequently but only if it's a direct hit.