Profile of Imagelessbean

Openess is better, but it should be tempered by good design.

For instance making an open field that attacks into a trench for one side makes infantry combat very difficult because you are constantly having to avoid that avenue. Or placing one side on an incline so that attackers must come uphill is also still poor design. For me anyway, water should be used sparingly since it acts so effectively to increase defensive strength. Bridges should be indestructible or extremely numerous in maps designed to be competitive.

@Marco, large maps are not something I want to see more of. Even in 4v4 Steppes is primarily centered around the two fuel points leaving almost a third of the map underused. In Hill, once a team takes the center hill battles tend to disperse to the flanks. Keep in mind as well that OKW retreats do not have to go as far with their med truck set up and you have a real recipe for some poor games.

Even for 4v4 I would seriously consider reducing map size. Players should need to fight very quickly to control critical points, but if they lose they should have a chance to pick up their forces and return to combat quickly.

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All these are great. Also many other good comments in this thread.

Comments:

Ettlebruck Station:
Problem: As already stated this map is too small for anything larger than 3v3.
Solution: Change the rotation this map falls in.


Lienne Forest
Problem: This map's forest feels extremely rushed and purposeless. The density of the trees and the narrow gaps make defensive play extremely easy. Once you have been pushed out of forest most teams abandon it and just head to mid and city. The forest also severely limits Soviet players, line of sight is very hard to determine so snipers can easily fail to shoot and walk at the enemy, SU85's and SU76's are constantly flanked because they cannot move in the narrow passages.
Solution: Open up the forest and reduce choke points. Also reduce some clutter as you enter city near the train station.

La Gleize
Problem: This map seems to fit its intended purpose now, I don't have any comments about it yet.
Solution: No suggestions for this map.

Lanzearth Ambush
Problem: Right VP by munitions that is in open field is a camping nightmare. There are effectively only two ways UP to get to the VP from south.
Solution: Either open this open or reduce the amount of excellent cover that overlooks the road (trenches for defender, seriously?).

Rzhez Winter and Oka River Winter could both do with a reduction in blizzards.

Steppes is good.

Angermeunde
Problem: Map is crowded and to add to that narrow sight lines and numerous buildings makes this map a nightmare for pathing and attacking. In addition, commanders that call units out of buildings can literally attack any point on the map at will even though the map is extremely long , having a disproportionate effect on how forces are distributed to try to combat them. Games always progress to later stages quickly because there are not cut offs that can be easily fought for and the map is so large fuel OP's are dropped as soon as the game starts.
Solution: This map is a bit of a mess. Reduce the amount of clutter, free up roads and open areas to move. The area around the mid of the map is a great example of overly detailed and path finding nightmares (long linear concrete non-destructible pieces that tanks can just barely fit through!!). Also reduce the number of buildings far back behind the lines. Reducing the size of the map and make cut offs of fuel possible.

City 17
Problem: Ah City 17 the red headed step child of automatch. This map should not be in 3v3, period. The ability for games to spawn players 2v1 and not know it until they begin is enough alone to prevent this. On top of that the map is far too large. The map lacks a fun feeling, and I don't know why. It is always a slog to play on this map.
Solution: Take it out of 3v3 rotation today. Consider talking to other people to find out what they don't like about the map.

Faceoff at Rostov
Problem: Still struggling to understand how this map was not patched long before this. South has HUGE advantage. Not only is their fuel deep in their lines (attacking players must cross through every active south player to reach it), but they are never required to cross ice to win the game. North cannot move onto the field with crossing ice or narrow bridges. Also as you exit river you have to move UPHILL to enter combat, collision of shells often puts you at a disadvantage here. Soviets can easily demo bridges once they push Germans off the field effectively ending the game at minute 5.
Solution: Don't take asymmetrical maps used to make a challenging mission against the computer and try to play balanced competitive games on them. The river either needs to endanger both teams equally, or it needs to be removed. North should not have to drive uphill to enter combat as they enter the field. Bridges should not be so easily destroyed and north fuel is unfairly close to combat as the game is setup (only one player is close to fuel and attacking player can hit them alone straight on).

Lazur Factory
Problem: Scheldt for matchmaking. The map quickly degenerates into a static artillery spam fest. The narrow movement lines reward this play heavily. In addition, bridges quickly become targets further limiting movement. Height differences in trench always favor defender because attacker is either going downhill (exposing rear armor) or uphill (collision with bank) as they move across mid.
Solution: Maps cannot rely on narrow attacking lanes, even when they are numerous. Open up large sections of the city and remove the trench so there is not such a clear mid point of the map. Fuel for both team is not harassable enough right now, since both are well protected and required attacks to turn blind corners to move on them. Once map is more fluid players will be required to rely on more than arty to win. Do not have a healing point or a repair point, please mirror the map more fairly.

Hill 331
Problem: Great you can add mud to maps, you think you might have a gone a little heavy here? Every road is covered in mud, and areas around the base or literally drowning in it. To add to this the hill is extremely high and hard to judge the distance for a variety of different units. The map is far too large for 3v3 and 4v4, which is especially punishing if you are trying to use infantry. Once you get pushed off the field your opponent will have 2-3 minutes of completely uncontested time to dig in and acquire fuel. Add to that that when you do counter attack you cannot rely on vehicles because you will need to move through mud and you begin to see the issues with this map. Again cutoffs are non-existent.
Solution: Reduce mud everywhere. Reduce size of map so infantry can be used more effectively. Do not have a healing point or a repair point, please mirror the map more fairly.


My thoughts.

This topic was discussed before and we never heard anything from Relic.

FHQ should only be buildable in allied territory and should have a set up time (does not have to be long).

Requiring Wehr to rely on mortars is impossible since in team games (where this commander is best) if another player is Soviet they can build a mortar which will hard counter the Wehr mortar simply by being near the FHQ (reinforce, damage, health, received damage buffs will all apply to that mortar). This also requires at least one Wehr player to go Mortar HT, again not a great thing to force commander selection.

With OKW I tend to agree, Stuka makes this commander very risky.

I think in total this reflects the difficulty to balancing 50 commanders at once in four factions.

Sad but true, except for when the faction or doctrine you pick doesn't get any.

At least in command and conquer everyone got a superweapon. As I've stated before, I really think the whole superunit thing has no business in COH and makes it a worse game because of it. Hated it in COH1, wish they did away with it in COH2, but in fact just made it worse. SU players love the ISU152 - Axis players hate it. Axis players love KT/Jagd/etc - allies hate it. See a trend here?

While we're at it, why don't they just give US a Nuclear Doctrine? Might as well with the absurd shit in this game at this point.

It's not a super unit, it's a break through unit. The idea is that if OKW manage to get the resources to get one the allies have a massive army and they need a damage sponge to push into the line and open it so the infantry can exploit it.

I have been on the side with and against this unit and it is no more a threat than any other heavy tank. Rely on good placement of AT units and an ability or two and you will either force it off or destroy it. When forced off the entire OKW army must retire because it has no support and they literally cannot lose it (Imagine losing 400 fuel in tanks in one go, you lose the game). It is seriously no scarier than a regular Tiger.

Beating it does not mean you don't lose tanks, you can lose potentially 4 or more tanks and still retain a lead while fighting it.

If you are talking about it at high levels of vet that's your own fault.

In team games I actually find the Jagdtiger far more intimidating.

Keep in mind if the tank is tied to a tech cost the effective cost and the timing of the tank also goes up. In this case, even if the E8 is better than the PIV it would still come out late enough to give that unit time to shine and pick up veterancy.

This is a good step by Relic and should be encourage by the community.