



V1.8 UPDATE



We are now approaching the end of the iteration period for the Winter Balance Preview. V1.8 is likely to be one of the last 2 or 3 versions before the changes are locked for live game integration. If you have any feedback on the existing changes but haven't voiced your opinion yet or if you haven't played the mod yet, now would be a good time. Thank you again to everyone who has participated in this process, your feedback has been invaluable.



A refined survey will be going out later today to gather feedback on some of the remaining changes that have had polarizing opinions. Keep an eye out for it in-game and on COH2's social channels.



GENERAL CHANGES

Retreat Point De-Congestion



Following our live game tests, we are making adjustments to this QoL change for the USF and the UKF faction.



For the USF faction, we are completely reverting the changes, since these changes only deteriorated retreat point performance. Nevertheless, we have made Majorâs retreat point antenna traversable by all units, to allow USF units to quickly relocate after finishing their retreat.



Retreat point changes reverted

Majorâs FRP antenna now traversable by units



For the British faction, we are refining the changes so that British weapon racks also act as candidate retreat points, in a similar fashion to how weapon racks behave for USF (even for the live version. This will prevent units from creating bottlenecks in the British base building complex.

Refined retreat points for the British faction.



OST

Target Weak Point (Stug-E/OST Puma)



We feel that the turret rotation critical we gave to both Target Weak point abilities for the Stug-E and the OST Puma makes them simply inferior versions of the OKW Puma aimed shot ability. To keep the ability somewhat unique, while not making it overpowered, we are changing the type of critical to a Blind critical (equivalent to the Stuart stun-shot ability).



For both vehicles, the shot has 100% chance to penetrate any target, and the amount of damage dealt is equal to half the amount of damage their respective weapons would normally deal. E.g., for the Stug-E which would normally deal 80 damage per shot, the TWP ability deals 40 damage. We are also reducing the cost of the Puma TWP ability to be inline with the rest of TWP abilities in the faction.



Puma/Stug-E TWP ability now causes the blind critical (disables vision and the main gun) for 5 seconds when hit

Puma TWP ability cost reduced from 40 munitions to 35 munitions



USF

M15



We are still not happy about the veterancy thresholds for the M15 anti-air half-track, and are lowering them so that the survivability bonuses at Vet3 become attainable.



Further reduced veterancy requirements from 1000/2000/4000 to 870/1740/3480



OKW

Puma Aimed shot



We are changing how OKW Aimed Shot performs in relation to infantry. In the live version, Pumaâs aimed shot is able to reliably kill any infantry model, regardless of the circumstances (e.g., a moving Puma has 100% accuracy vs a squad retreating, even when it is hugging the best kind of cover). This often leads to unnecessary squad wipes.



Accuracy vs infantry suffers additional penalties while the Puma is moving.

Puma aimed shot now suffers from the same accuracy penalties as OST sniper vs retreating squads



BRITISH

AEC



We are further reducing the anti-infantry potency of AECâs main gun, by making it as inaccurate as the Puma gun. Furthermore, we are giving AECâs acceleration a small boost at Veterancy level 3, since this has been, so far, the only vehicle not to benefit from increased mobility.



Veterancy 3 now also yields +20% bonus to acceleration/deceleration

Horizontal scatter increased from 6 degrees to 7.5 degrees

Vertical scatter increased from 6.5 to 9

(scatter changes do not affect the treadshot ability)



BUG FIXES



Fixed an issue where ambushing (stealthed) AT guns would sometimes, not automatically engage enemy targets within range



Fixed an issue where the Assault Grenadier grenade volley would, sometimes, become permanently unavailable





