MrRoadrunner
Posts: 1323
Joined: 10/7/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Deputy Something that occured to me when comparing version 1.02B with 1.04. It looks to me like patches after 1.02 were designed to REDUCE the fighting ability of the Germans. In 1.02B the German Army didn't have a lot of problems defeating the Soviets or the Western allies. Especially later in the war when Panther and Tiger tanks appeared. The changes that were made in 1.03 and 1.04 both seemed to be a subtle effort to "balance" the game and make the allies more competitive against the Germans. I was playing 1.04 last night, and to my amazement, Russian TANKS were using hidden fire while in open terrain and remaining unspotted. Now MAYBE I can believe a small, hand-carried anti-tank gun staying hidden pretty well, even a larger 50MM anti-tank gun might stay hiddden for one or two turns, but THREE STACKED platoons of T34/85 tanks in open terrain remaining hidden WHILE FIRING....no way. The Soviets would have to be usng the "Philadelphia Experiement" of making them invisible to achieve an effect like that. This is just another reaasin why I prefer 1.02B. It is closer to real world experience and not some kind of artificial "play balance" engineered by those who want to see more Allied victories or more "fair" gameplay. I've never had tanks firing in the open that remain hidden, that would be interesting to see. And, the 50mm German AT gun does stay hidden. Even after firing. I have not seen invisible destroyers so I do not understand about the "Philadelphia Experiment" reference. quote:
ORIGINAL: Deputy It is also quite obvious that the German OOB has been altered from what it was in the Talonsoft and early Matrix versions of the game. I am regularly seeing a company of tanks, either Tiger or Panther, and 1 of the 4 platoons is always understrength. So you have three platoons at a strength of 4 and one at a strength of 2. Is this some kind of artificial attempt to "balance gameplay", or did someone at Matrix suddenly discover documentation that the German Army always had one platoon understrength? I thought the changes were already announced, in every update. You can research it. The 2 strength platoon was the HQ platoon, IIRC. Nothing was done to any of the OOB's to make balance. Everything still fires according to the original fire tables except for artillery which went from a 3% chance to a 5% chance of damaging armor. The version 1.05 patch will fix the smaller caliber mortars from doing damage to armor. BTW, all armor is effected by the tables and not just the German armor. quote:
ORIGINAL: Deputy And of course, we have the notorious anti-tank mortars and artillery. This also looks like another attempt to "balance gameplay" by giving the allies a long range anti-tank weapon in the form of mortars and artillery. The standard answer that everyone posts is to spreaad out your armor and not stack them in one hex. I tried that. Major catastrophe. It just meant that allied artillery had more targets to hit, not that it was more difficult to hit them. The only real compensation for the current anti-armor artillery is that the German Panther and Tiger tanks can move one hex after firing twice to make sure you disrupt any spotters. See that above comment regarding the mortars. Also remember that ambush shots are more effective, by the established tables? It makes the mortars and hidden AT guns more effective when they first fire. I also have/had a problem with the artillery fire. But, as stated version 1.05 or reverting to 1.02 will fix that? Messing with the fire tables could effect game play but not balance. Unless they make Panthers and Tigers fire like PzKwII's? quote:
ORIGINAL: Deputy So is Matrix tweaking gameplay to make things "more balanced". Did users complain that they couldn't defeat the German units so things were "adjusted" to help them out? Was this a request by PBEM folks? And why weren't the German units given hidden units and killer mortars and artillery? All I have seen from the changes to the OOB's were to make them more historically accurate. Changes to the OOB's do nothing toward "balance". Balance of play is in the hands of the scenario designer. You can add or subtract strength points to units as well as replacing units within the OOB to other units, ie trade out soft trucks for half tracks. PBEM folks mostly wanted more and varied units that actually were used in combat. Some wanted the navy stuff and others wanted the airfields and mobile supply bases. Personally I do not like the naval units, airfields (on map), and mobile supply units. Nor, do I like the engineers that can build bridges and create minefields in six minutes (but that is a different argument altogether). The only changes to earlier versions, that I know of, were done to add historical units. RR
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“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
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