Hi ladies'n'gents!
Apologies in advance for the long post; I had a good balance discussion with V-Christian a couple days back
and wanted to share a rough draft of the gameplay changes I could come up with.
Keep in mind that these were just suggestions and ideas, to be taken with a grain of salt,
and in no way do I think all of these changes should go live without discussing them beforehand.
Here's my list:
Allies:
Medics: Change target behaviour so they don't follow up on attack orders to go full melee form.
Instead, attack orders will now set them to safeguard the closest friendly infantry.
Reason: Simple usability improvement.
Engineers: Can now detect mines and stealth at 3 cells range.
Reason: To give them a role other than capturing and to counter the buffed minelayers.
Tanya: Fix her target behaviour so that upon receiving damage she no longer crawls for 1-2 more cells before retaliating.
Reason: Simple usability improvement.
Rangers: Range increased by 1 cell to improve their performance versus infantry.
Reason: RIght now, Rangers are just not usable in combat situations because they go full on melee mode.
This change seeks to remedy that.
Minelayers: Mines will no longer be triggered by your own units.
Reason: Mines being triggered by friendlies doesn't make sense to me.
Light Tanks: Slightly increase the damage done to heavy armor (but not to concrete armor) so they can at least win versus an APC.
Increase vision range by 1 cell.
Reason: RIght now, they are too expensive for what they do and never used beyond the earlygame.
A slight buff would push them into viability.
Chrono Tanks: Armor type changed from Light to Medium.
Reason: Right now, they are hardcountered by the ubiquitous Flak Trucks and therefore borderline unusable.
Artillery: Increase their godawful turn rate. Increase the price by 100 to compensate and to stop artillery spam.
Reason: Imo, Artilleries are not fun to use due to their static nature. I would make them more expensive, but buff their usability in return.
Chinook: Sight radius decreased to 4 cells.
Reason: Transports should not be self-sufficient scouts, as there needs to be a risk associated with drops.
Longbows: Rate of fire up to 150%. Missile speed up to 150%. (The actual damage in an ammo clip is unchanged.)
Reason: MIGs can outrun your missiles, making the longbow useless at its intended role.
Gunboats: Depth charge throwing speed up to 200% to turn gunboats into dedicated anti-sub units.
Cost up to 700 to compensate.
Reason: To give them a purpose. Right now, they are subpar.
Gun Turrets: Damage versus concrete decreased.
Reason: Basepushing should be nerfed in general, imo.
Soviets:
Dogs: Fix target behaviour so that they kill infantry by directly jumping at it as opposed to jumping at the cell the infantry is currently occupying,
preventing dogs from "missing" their target.
Reason: Simple usability improvement.
Engineers: Can now detect mines and stealth at 3 cells range.
Reason: To give them a role other than capturing and to counter the buffed minelayers.
Hijackers: Fix target behaviour so they directly enter a vehicle instead of running at the cell the vehicle is occupying,
preventing the hijacker from "missing" a target. Speed up to 125 %.
Also, Hijackers enter stealth when not moving for 5 seconds.
Reason: This would open up a lot of potential great plays, sneaking them behind enemy lines to steal harvesters or battle tanks.
Right now, they can't catch up to anything.
Tesla Troopers: Health down from 100 to 60. Range down to 5 cells.
Reason: I don't think many people would argue that in their current state they are overpowered
Minelayers: Mines will no longer be triggered by your own units.
Reason: Mines being triggered by friendlies doesn't make sense to me.
Flak Trucks: Range decreased by 1 to prevent them from shooting targets that are out of sight.
Reason: The range glitch makes them a bit too good at kiting.
Heavy Tank: Price down to 1100.
Reason: To encourage more heavy armor play in a heavy armor faction.
Tesla Tank: Turn rate increased to make it into a hit'n'run unit.
Reason: Giving the Russians a toy that has the potential for outplays and a high skillcap.
Yak: Revert the changes in height to bring suicide yaks back.
Reason: I'm not 100% sure on whether I liked or hated Yak suicides, so this one is up for debate.
Mig: Cost decrease to 1800.
Reason: MIGs are good, but too expensive for what they do.
Missile Subs: Can now target air units, but the spread still stays the same.
That way, the Sovs gain naval anti-air, but the missiles can be dodged by good players.
Reason: Giving the Soviets their long-awaited AA over bodies of water,
as right now, they can't deal with seaborne HINDs.
Iron Curtain: Charge time increased to 2.30 minutes.
Reason: Imo, the IC is significantly stronger than the Chronosphere in almost all situations.
Tesla Coil: Damage versus concrete decreased.
Reason: To nerf basepushing.
That's it for now