Ostheer veterancy proposal

[Herostratos]

Hi there. Looking at the forum, you seem to have no shortage of people trying to design the entire ostheer for you, so perhaps you will appreciate this more limited proposal from me.

My suggestion is for the veterancy mechanic of the Ostheer. What I imagine is that when an Ostheer unit gets a veterancy level, the player gets the opportunity to choose a specialization for one of it's squadmembers.

For example: The Ostheer grenadier equivalent, assuming it has one, gains a level, and when he does the player gets to choose between two upgrades, much like the panzer elite. However, instead of choosing between the generic offensive or defensive upgrade they get to choose between either a) turn one of the squad members into a medic, which gives him a new skin, increases health regen drastically and gives them the ability to administer medpacks (much like the wehr option only targetable) or b) turn one of the soldiers into a marksman, which gives him a new weapon with drastically increased accuracy on long ranges and the "deploy marksman" ability.

I could imagine that the choices for specialization differed from level to level though; for example, a level 2 vet gren gets to choose between a heavy weapons expert with an mg or a veteran sergeant (high-hp soldier which increases suppression resistance), and the level 3 grenadier is so elite that it gets to choose between two relatively high-ranking officers, the german equivalent to second lieutenant which gives squad fire-up ability or lieutenant which increases accuracy and reload. Likewise the pioneer unit on levelup gets to choose from an expert repairer or an expert on fortifications (faster minelaying, barbwire, sandbags, tanktraps...), the mortar unit gets to choose between master aimer (accuracy) or experienced officer (set-up time and speed reduced significantly)

If possible it could also be really cool to give the player three options for upgrade, where one of the options were dependent on tech or doctrine choice. Could imagine that would be hard though.

The advantages of the system mentioned above is that
1) it is different from the other veterancy systems, not just a copypasta.
2) It makes each squad unique not only in the sense of stats, but since this kind of veterancy changes the skins on the units they will also *look* unique.
3)This encourages unit preservation, unlike the current wehr and soviet systems.
4) It gives more flavour, just compare those two ways of thinking: "Wohoo, my grenadiers got vet2, now they have a 25% less incoming accuracy modifier and health regen" or "wohoo, my grens got vet2, now their squad has an expert marksman and a medic in it"

That was my suggestion. Hope you like it.

[Ghost]

very unique idea, i like it a lot.
if its possible than its probably the best vet idea

[Voop_Bakon]

I love the idea. Only problem is you have to think of 6 upgrades per unit. Nothing bad, just a bit of brainstorming, which it seems this team is very proficient at already.

[Michael Wittman]

cool proposal, but who knows if is hard to do.

[Loupblanc]

 Oh, hey. Yes, by far the best vet proposal I have heard !!
 DEVs! Get cracking! Lol

 Seriously, though, it would be very sweet.
 Any system which gets you to love your squads is good.

[Herostratos]

Thank you all for the kind words.

I was thinking some more about this proposal and yes, I agree having 6 different upgrades per unit could be a large task. This could perhaps be solved by letting one specialization be fairly common - for example, having the "veteran sergeant" upgrade could feel right as a lvl 2 upgrade in many different squads. Another way of solving it would be to let one level of vet give generic off/def upgrades but the other ones give fairly unique choices.

Also remember that this kind of work is very easy to outsource to the masses - just make a thread on a high-traffic forum (gamereplays?) where people post their suggestions for specializations, and 100's of suggestions will probably be made. 95 % will be shit, but this still leaves us with perhaps 10-15 genuinely good ones. It's the monkeys with typewriters approach.

Another factor in this is that I think it would work best for frontline infantry in 5-man squads. This is because a 4-man squad with 3 specialized soldiers would lose their special people too quick.

[Aouch]

Why ask other communities for help?
Think only a little bit about it and you'll have in no time more than enough veterancy-upgrades.

• Squadleader/Gruppenführer or Paramedic
• "Throw grenade"-ability or medical kit
• Grenadeshower-ability or "Fire Panzerfaust"-ability
• G43 scoped or Panzerbüchse 39 (both similiar to the British Recon-upgrade, one for AI and one for AT use)
• G43 (without scope) or MP40 (for both the whole squad is armed with those weapons, one for mid-range and one for close-range)
• FmW 35 or MG34

You can also do it with tanks.

• Nebelkerzen-ability (lays down fog) or "Load Panzergranate 40"-ability
• Turret-MG-gunner or Commander (increases LOS)
• Dug-in-ability or Sideskirts

And these are just a few ideas.
The list goes on and on and is truely unfinite... 

Oh, I assume none of them is "shit". 

[luz777]

Haha no worries Aouch they all sound pretty good to me.
Yeah I agree this is the best vetting idea that I've seen proposed. And as long as the (not shit) ideas keep rolling in it should be easy.

It might take a little longer than the average vetting system to implement but would definately be worth it.

Nice one 

[Loupblanc]

 Just had a flash. It's similar to the system in Dawn of War1,2.
 Optimization of your squads

 I'm totally for it, though. Anything that adds character
 and personnality to a unit, I'm for. As long as both options
 are balanced and are HARD to choose from
 (Lots of nailbiting)

[Gerrit 'Lord Rommel' G.]

Here again my Ostheer veterancy-idea ( inspired by real eastern front history ).

Veterancy:
Veterancy will be gained by productiontime. A units which is build up for a longer time had more time to get training with their weaponsystem. So units with long production times had a high veterancy.
You can decide at your HQ ( 4 buttons ):

• Build fast units with no veterancy.
  
• Build units with veterancy I,
  but they need more buildingtime then units
  without veterancy-training.
  
• Build units with veterancy II,
  but they need more buildingtime then units
  with veterancy I training.
  
• Build units with veterancy III,
  but they need more buildingtime and more ressources
  then units with veterancy II training.
  

Units without Vet or with Vet I or Vet II will need a long time and a lot of kills to get a better veterancy.
Veterency will impact healthpoint, weapondemage and accuracy of the units.

Horrdio

[Loupblanc]

 Well, while we're at it, why not fudge both methods together?
 

[Aouch]

Well, while we're at it, why not fudge both methods together?

Because it would complicate things too much, according to my opinion at least. 

[Voop_Bakon]

I agree, I like Herostratos idea better personally.

Sorry Rommel 

[Loupblanc]

 Same.
 Although I don't see why couldn't get xtra veterancy by
 doubling or tripling the build time? Or something to that
 effect