Eastern Front 1.31 Patch

[GodlikeDennis]

Except that panthers are more expensive than any other tank in the game (except IS2), are incomparable to any other tank in the game (except IS2) in role and are easily countered by infantry and AT guns at the stage they arrive. Sharpshooters are the reverse. They are roughly the same cost as other snipers, occupy the same role as other snipers but do it better and cannot be countered by anything at the stage they arrive. If a blob approaches you can FOO it and anything else will get whittled down while you run at him and if he retreats properly, nothing will kill him on the retreat because of his high health.

Panthers at least have to face their armour forward and circle strafing AT guns or using buildings for cover uses skill. Maybe in basic matches panther spam might win a game but they are rarely used in 1v1s and are usually ineffective because they are so easy to counter. Sharpshooters are just attack-move and retreat when threatened. You won't die unless hit by a gib weapon (arty etc.) and even then you have less of a chance of dying compared to a normal sniper because of having two men. They also have unlimited usefulness since EVERY game has infantry in it whereas the panther is situational and really only useful against Russians since they have such powerful, easy to tech to, tanks compared to Americans.

[IJoe]

The panther reference was just for the sake of illustration. A comparison not without a flaw, of course, but it was the first thing to come to my mind, when I tried to think of some powerful unit.

Most snipers don't really get killed by infantry, unless counter-sniped, which is almost impossible (to actively counter-snipe a wehr sniper with the soviet one) with soviet snipers' camouflage system , or stupidly thrown onto a blob.
So, the only thing that makes soviet snipers appear OP is their ability, which is purchasable and costly. The possible solution - move it to after the tank hall is built (requirement), or add an additional armory upgrade, so only snipers, purchased after it has been researched could be upgraded with the barrage ability.

[Blackbishop]

Soviet sniper isn't like normal snipers, it usually cannot be countered by normal sniper hardcounters:

a) If you use a bike, it will scape unharmed; if you use an armored car and the sniper has more than the half of it's health, most probably will run to home alive.

b) If you try to countersnipe by right-clicking to attack it, 99.9% of the cases you will fail and your sniper will be dead.

c) The only thing that works is when you hold fire and the sniper is in range you disable hold fire command and Soviet sniper will be dead... but usually there's no time to prepare something like this.

As the sniper has the double of health, and axis factions have the half of men on each squad (talking about their main infantry), make the soviet sniper a nightmare. The proper solution will be that if you order a wehr sniper to fire at a soviet sniper, the sniper should die instead of the observer... but afaik that cannot be changed.

[IJoe]

I countered soviet snipers by having (at least) one wehr sniper in camo and on hold. Basically, wait 'till the soviet sniper appears, then shoot at the sniper (somehow I rarely missed, since sniper and spotter have quite differing skins). Most likely, the second guy will then flee. Well, that's the price of playing against soviets.
Also I often found myself in a situation, when soviets attacked with two teams of snipers. This lead to the necessity of increasing the number of my own snipers.
The problem is, that if you want to effectively fight soviet snipers, you have to keep yours on hold, which is rather expensive. But I think of it as of faction's specifics, same as mortar truck - gives quite a kick to a mortar by adding mobility, and most likely counters any other mortar.

One nerf I would suggest is putting a price for recruiting in dependance of who you recruit: one price for the sniper (a high one), and another for the spotter. I know, it's possible, since I've seen it done in one mod.

[Copernicus]

Guys, would you mind moving your discussion to the balance subforum? Or at least to some other forum I don't read at all (e.g. every forum besides tech support & the internal dev boards)?

Thanks.

[Red_Stinger]

Awesome patch. But beside minor problems, I've found that soviet cant recrew heavy weapon... Is this intended?
They also cant retreat to medic truck (only CS can).

[ReckLESS]

Penal Squads STILL are suppresable and pinnable.

Medic Truck still has "M3 gotov" (M3 is ready) line

[Blackbishop]

Awesome patch. But beside minor problems, I've found that soviet cant recrew heavy weapon... Is this intended?
They also cant retreat to medic truck (only CS can).

Afaik soviet can recrew weapons, i've tested with strelky, red banner strelky, guards, shock guards, tank hunters, engineers, penal troops recrewing ZiS2, PaK38, soviet mortar... or what unit/emplacement you were unable to capture? Also all soviet troops are able to retreat to ZiS-5 after is built.

[IJoe]

^^ maybe he tried to re-crew with conscripts. And the only soviet unit, that can't retreat to MT are penals, but this IS intended.

[Killar]

PTRD arent droppable? I only saw the DP-28 droppable in changelog

The music confused me a little. It is well done but it doesn´t fit to the main menu

[250.Inf. Div.]

Good patch the zis gun model is awesome but the new music remember me immigrant gypsy music i prefer the old music.

[Blackbishop]

PTRD arent droppable? I only saw the DP-28 droppable in changelog

The music confused me a little. It is well done but it doesn´t fit to the main menu

The PTRD is supposed to be dropped xD... but in the next patches.

Good patch the zis gun model is awesome but the new music remember me immigrant gypsy music i prefer the old music.

About the music, @icarusfoundyou said before the patch was released that he will create more music for the main menu, and will improve what was included. So, let's wait him and pray that will be ready for 1.40 xD. But i have to say, me likes it .

[Desert_Fox]

I've played a skirmish today for try the new patch.

Just a question:

The Zis AT gun (cool model  ) has some kind of self-repair and self-heal ability active with time?

I've noticed that my damaged Zis gun, after some minutes was totally repaired and its men healed.

The gun was at Vet.0.

It's a bug or an intentional thing?

Anyway, I like the new SU-85/SU-100 skins.

Thanks and good job. 

[Red_Stinger]

Awesome patch. But beside minor problems, I've found that soviet cant recrew heavy weapon... Is this intended?
They also cant retreat to medic truck (only CS can).

Afaik soviet can recrew weapons, i've tested with strelky, red banner strelky, guards, shock guards, tank hunters, engineers, penal troops recrewing ZiS2, PaK38, soviet mortar... or what unit/emplacement you were unable to capture? Also all soviet troops are able to retreat to ZiS-5 after is built.

I tried myself with red banner strelky, assault guards and engineers; they all were unable to recrew my ZIS-2 and a nebelwerfer that rushed into my line ( ).
They also were unable to retreat to ZIS-5 (no ability), only the CS can from what I've seen.

Or my version is badly bugged, or I may have smoked something too heavy; I will retry later. 

[Blackbishop]

@Moonwalker
It isn't writen on the 1.31 changelog so i think it could be a bug.