Compiling DLC 1944 Feedback
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:44 pm
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the vast majority of comments we've received on this latest DLC!
There have been no outrageous problems or issues and it sounds like people and genuinely enjoying themselves with some of the new and unique objectives. We had more than a few concerns about this, so it was especially good to see it get a warm reception.
Expect a few text and triggers fixing to follow but more importantly...
It seems that there really isn't anyone struggling with prestige. This is both a good and bad sign. On the difficulty levels that do not modify prestige, the amount rewarded for just winning scenarios in this campaign, decisively, is roughly 28000 prestige. As a comparison, DLC 1943 actually rewards about 37000 prestige. But DLC 1943 also had some much larger battles and more numerous enemies and no prestige saving super units such as the King Tiger.
That said, I don't think we're very comfortable with reducing prestige amounts. We want players to have the flexibility that large prestige pools grant, so players can experiment and not be unduly punished if they want say... a more historical force. It's just a fact of the game that a 0 star King Tiger is cheaper to maintain than a 4 star Panzer IVJ and theoretically more effective as well. It is what it is, no point in fighting or denying it.
So rather than reducing prestige which only would result in MORE King Tigers because they are such great prestige saving machines, we'll see about reducing time limits on some scenarios and increasing the potency of Soviet units. Mostly like this means many of the old T-34/41s will get upgunned, but we do want to preserve a balanced Soviet force that does not require a full CORE of heavy German tanks to effectively combat. So our players who are playing on the medium difficulties and who want their full Tiger CORES, they can do so and that's fine. We still want to preserve strong game play for alternatives though, which are arguably more historical.
The nature of the battles in DLC 1944, smaller maps with lots of clear weather also lends itself very well to the King Tiger, whose weakness is slower speed and bad fuel. Moving into DLC 1945, which we know won't go past May 1945, we should have more solutions for curbing too many super heavy german tanks. Snow and larger map sizes slows them down pretty well, as do the heavy ATG units in rough terrain(which is a double bonus actually as these types of targets are a heaven send for infantry, and we do want to encourage stronger infantry presences too).
Fact is though, they are still the best economic choice, but that's okay. We don't want to balance the game around King Tigers, players who want to use them extensively can do so. Maybe they'll be encouraged to up their difficulty settings to match. Balance is built around the Panther and Panzer IV being viable tanks though, that's the bottom line.
There have been no outrageous problems or issues and it sounds like people and genuinely enjoying themselves with some of the new and unique objectives. We had more than a few concerns about this, so it was especially good to see it get a warm reception.
Expect a few text and triggers fixing to follow but more importantly...
It seems that there really isn't anyone struggling with prestige. This is both a good and bad sign. On the difficulty levels that do not modify prestige, the amount rewarded for just winning scenarios in this campaign, decisively, is roughly 28000 prestige. As a comparison, DLC 1943 actually rewards about 37000 prestige. But DLC 1943 also had some much larger battles and more numerous enemies and no prestige saving super units such as the King Tiger.
That said, I don't think we're very comfortable with reducing prestige amounts. We want players to have the flexibility that large prestige pools grant, so players can experiment and not be unduly punished if they want say... a more historical force. It's just a fact of the game that a 0 star King Tiger is cheaper to maintain than a 4 star Panzer IVJ and theoretically more effective as well. It is what it is, no point in fighting or denying it.
So rather than reducing prestige which only would result in MORE King Tigers because they are such great prestige saving machines, we'll see about reducing time limits on some scenarios and increasing the potency of Soviet units. Mostly like this means many of the old T-34/41s will get upgunned, but we do want to preserve a balanced Soviet force that does not require a full CORE of heavy German tanks to effectively combat. So our players who are playing on the medium difficulties and who want their full Tiger CORES, they can do so and that's fine. We still want to preserve strong game play for alternatives though, which are arguably more historical.
The nature of the battles in DLC 1944, smaller maps with lots of clear weather also lends itself very well to the King Tiger, whose weakness is slower speed and bad fuel. Moving into DLC 1945, which we know won't go past May 1945, we should have more solutions for curbing too many super heavy german tanks. Snow and larger map sizes slows them down pretty well, as do the heavy ATG units in rough terrain(which is a double bonus actually as these types of targets are a heaven send for infantry, and we do want to encourage stronger infantry presences too).
Fact is though, they are still the best economic choice, but that's okay. We don't want to balance the game around King Tigers, players who want to use them extensively can do so. Maybe they'll be encouraged to up their difficulty settings to match. Balance is built around the Panther and Panzer IV being viable tanks though, that's the bottom line.
