The GCS Balance Preview is designed to eliminate some specific, overly dominate meta identified by top players in the community. The changes outlined in this preview are meant to be as minimalistic as possible while identifying and addressing the primary cause of the problems discussed.

Although the solutions put forward in this mod will attempt to be finalized in time for the tournament, if strong contention exists with the proposed changes or existing or new problems remain, the iteration period will continue until all issues are sufficiently resolved.

Therefore, the more testing and feedback we get regrading the proposed changes the better. Please Subscribe to the mod on the Steam Workshop, play a ton of it, and give us your feedback in our GCS-BP Feedback Thread.





SOVIETS

Maxims

We find that the dominant Soviet “Maxim-spam” strategy is far too effective compared to the effort required to pull it off.

In order to remove this dominate meta while not further devaluing the Maxim’s as a support weapon, we are increasing the arc of the Maxim MG and reducing its suppression performance. The Maxim will however retain the following benefits over other MG teams:

Durability of a 6-man crew

Fast teardown time to escape flanks

To further bring the Maxim in line with other MGs, we are removing sprint which allows MGs to escape unfavorable engagements to easily and are also increasing the setup time to other MG levels. To further help prevent spamming of this unit, we are increasing the reinforcement cost of the original crew to match the reinforcement cost of Conscripts.

Arc of fire increased from 60 degrees to 90 degrees (other MGs have 120 degrees)

Setup time from 2 to 3 (other MGs have 3)

Burst duration from 2.25 to 4.5

Damage reduced from 4 to 3 (the DPS of the Maxim remains the same)

Tracking speed from 35 to 28

Suppression reduced from 0.00015909 to 0.00005

Reinforcement cost from 15 to 20

Sprint removed from Vet 1

Vet 1 now increases suppression by 10% (to partially cancel out lower base suppression)

Until the conclusion of the balance mod iteration cycle, we will try to come up with an interesting, but balanced Vet1 ability.

M4C Shermans

To prevent players from over-relying on Sherman call-ins, we are increasing the dispatch time between successive Shermans to encourage players to choose between tech or call-in tanks. Moreover, longer recharge time between Sherman will prevent players from spamming Shemans when the Command Point requirements become met.

Increased recharge time between shermans to from 36 seconds to 2:30 minutes





OKW

Command Panther

We feel the Command Panther is it too powerful of a unit on its own, giving it the feel of a "one-tank-army". This is primarily because of the +50% damage bonus that the Mark Target ability bestows on and designated target. Given that this ability also compounds performance in team games, we are enacting some preliminary changes to the Command Panther. We also feel the CP cost is not in line with its value.

Increase Command Point requirements from 10 to 11

Reduce Mark Target damage from +50% to +25%

Mark Target now also increases penetration and accuracy to 25%





UKF

Tank Commander Upgrade

We feel that the ability's cost vs value is out of balance. In particular, the experience gain modifier distorts the veterancy gain rate of the affected tanks.

Removed veterancy gain bonuses from the upgrade

Removed stealth detection bonuses from the upgrade

(The upgrade now only awards accuracy/sight bonuses, which is more than OK for the price)

Emergency Warspeed

We feel that the ability bestows far too powerful mobility bonuses to the already highly-mobile roster of the British faction. This comes in contrast with the free-to-use nature of the ability. We are also removing the ability of players to “tune up” the tanks of their teammates with the ability.

Speed modifier reduced from +35% to +15%

Acceleration modifier reduced from +60% to +30%

It is no longer possible to “tune-up” allied tanks with Emergency Warspeed

AEC Treadshot

To make the ability fire more reliably (i.e., without bugs), we are changing the nature of the ability such that the AEC has to be stationary to fire it. At the same time, we are increasing the responsiveness of the ability to give UKF players that preserve their AEC with a reliable snare ability.

Unit has to be stationary to fire Treadshot

Ready aim time reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds (improves responsiveness)

Reload time between shots reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds

(the ability will only be refunded if no shots were fired before moving)

Cromwell

We feel that the primary issue with the Cromwell is that due to its speed and rotation rate, it is able to crush models far too efficiently. To reduce Cromwell crushing ability, we are are reducing its rotation rate while keeping its higher-than-average mobility by compensating with increased turret rotation rate.

To give the Cromwell a proper trade off for its highly-mobility we are reducing its moving accuracy to that of other tanks of the same class. Therefore, making the trade-off between accuracy and mobility more pronounced.

Fuel cost increased from 110FU to 120FU

Rotation rate from 38 to 32 (equivalent to Panzer4)

Turret traverse rate from 40 to 47.5 (to counteract chassis rotation reduction)

Moving accuracy multiplier decreased from 0.75 to 0.5

Increase horizontal scatter from 6 to 7.5

Distance scatter max from 6.2 to 6.4

Distance scatter obj min from 5 to 10

Distance scatter offset from 0.3 to 0.25

Comet

The Comet is receiving changes that are similar in-spirit with the ones already described for the Cromwell. In addition to these changes, we are also reducing the range of the main gun of the Comet to 45 to match other anti-infantry-capable tanks (e.g., Pershing, Tiger). We believe that Comet’s higher-than-average armour and mobility will still allow it to overcome the reduced range. At the same time, this will make standoffs with the more-specialist Panther more balanced.

Main gun range from 50 to 45

Population cost increased from 16 to 20

Reduce rotation rate from 36 to 32 to prevent crush (same as Panzer4 levels)

Turret traverse rate from 40 to 45 (to compensate for chasis rotation changes)

Moving accuracy from 0.75 to 0.5

Fixed an issue where the grenade throw ability would sometimes not work

Fixed an issue where it was possible to use the grenade ability while moving

Increase horizontal scatter from 6 to 7.5

Distance scatter max from 4.2 to 6.4

Distance scatter obj min from 5 to 10

Distance scatter offset from 0.3 to 0.25

Cromwell/Comet Smoke Shell/White Phosphorus

We find the range of either ability (80 range) too strong. Thus, we are bringing them both in-line. At the same time, we are introducing a critical fix to both abilities. That way, we expect the abilities to be much more reliable moving forward.

We are also changing the behaviour of Comet White Phosphorus shells so that it no longer finishes off infantry models. The White Phosphorus (WP) shells will still damage models down to 1HP of health (similar to other WP abilities).

Fixed a bug where Smoke Shell/White Phosphorus would, sometimes, fail to trigger properly

Range of Smoke Shell/White Phosphorus reduced from 80 to 45

Comet White Phosphorus will no longer finish off infantry models, bringing its performance in-line with other White-phosphorus abilities

Emplacements

To bring UKF emplacements in line with the emplacements of other armies, we are preventing players from building UKF emplacements in the base sector:

No longer possible to construct emplacements in the base sector

Sappers Flamethrower Upgrade

We are addressing several bugs with this upgrade, which will bring this upgrade in-line with other abilities, and other factions that have similar upgrades.

Sapper flamethrower now, correctly, takes up 1 slot

Sapper flamethrower is now mutually-exclusive with the minesweeper upgrade

Fixed an issue where Sapper flamethrower was dealing additional damage vs squads in cover (i.e., above the level of other flamethrowers)

Fixed a bug with Sappers where Veterancy affected the number of upgrades available to them.

Land Mattress

We feel that the primary issue with the land-mattress is that it affords very limited avenues of counterplay. To address this, we are allowing anti-tank weaponry (e.g., AT guns and tanks) to target the gun first, and be able to destroy the unit, without having to first decrew it. This brings the durability of the Land Mattress down to static howitzer levels.

A secondary issue with the Land Mattress is its rate of fire, giving too little reaction time for the adversary to avoid the coming doom.

Vehicles/etc will focus fire on the gun, as opposed to the crew (if the player right-clicks on the gun)

The Land mattress gets destroyed when its hitpoints become depleted. This is regardless of whether the crew is still alive

Health reduced from 350 hitpoints to 300 hitpoints

Cooldown between rockets increased from 0.25 secs to 0.375 secs (also affects white phosphorus barrage)

Artillery Cover Ability

We find that Artillery Cover is an ability that is too efficient for its cost. This is despite the fact that this is a generalist ability (affects all targets) and requires minimal input from the player vs its final effect. Therefore, we are significantly reducing the effects vs varied types of targets, allowing for greater opportunity of counterplay.

General Changes:

The radius of the ability now properly drawn on the battlescape

Delay until the barrage begins increased from 4 seconds to 8 seconds

Anti-Vehicle Shells:

Decreased the AoE radius of anti-vehicle shells from 8 to 6.

Reduced speed of anti-vehicle shells, so that it is now possible to dodge them

Reduced the duration of loader-injured critical from 10 seconds to 5 seconds

The changes to the anti-vehicle shells will make it possible for tanks that remain in the affected area to dodge incoming shells, provided they continue to move.

Anti-Infantry Barrages:

Suppression vs infantry reduced, so that incoming anti-infantry barrages no longer pin infantry squads, but only suppress them.





Quality-of-Life Changes

Handbrake 2.0

We are further modifying the handbrake ability to make it provide additional utility to the players.

Instead of completely immobilizing a vehicle, the ability now simply prevents the vehicle from automatically rotating to face enemy units and will now only do so if explicitly given attack command. At the same time, if the ability is on, the vehicle will stop automatically rotating once the movement is complete.

In addition to the original affected vehicles (i.e., all transport vehicles), we are also adding handbrake v2.0 to the following vehicles. This will allow players to control whether they want the vehicles to rotate to face the enemy or not:

Kubelwagen

Flammenhetzer

Crocodile

The following vehicles will retain the original (i.e., immobilize) version of the Handbrake ability. This is due to their potentially lengthy setup time:

M15 (USF)

Infrared Halftrack (OKW)

Flak Halftrack (OKW)

Hold Fire for Tanks/AT Guns

We find that the lack of a proper hold fire ability makes players resort to half-measures to control when their AT-guns or tanks can fire (e.g., by turning on prioritize vehicles to get a better position vs infantry). The following units now have Hold Fire:

All anti-tank guns

All tanks that already have a prioritise-vehicles ability

FlakHT

Panzer4 Command tank

Ostwind

Centaur

KV-2

M15 (MGs will continue to track/fire on targets)

Note: To make UI experience consistent, the doctrinal Soviet AT ambush ability has been moved one row below its previous position.