

V1.6 UPDATE

REVERTED CHANGES



With the Winter Balance Preview now passing the half-way mark of its iteration period, moving forward we have decided to narrow the scope to essential changes only. This has been done to ensure the results of the changes made to units that are currently having the most significant impact on balance and the meta can be properly tracked and their performance measured. This will also help make the changes more concise and allow the community to focus on a smaller scale of changes in order to provide more accurate and higher quality feedback.



The following units have had their changes reverted:



M3A1 Scout Car

M5 HT (This does not affect Quad upgrade changes)

SU-76

M20 (this includes the bazooka vehicle crew changes)

M3

M5 (This does not affect Quad upgrade changes)

Raketenwerfer (the aiming time QoL change remains, however)

Kubelwagen

Universal Carrier (including WASP)

251 FlameHT

Puma (the OST Puma TWP change remains, to keep it consistent with the Stug-E)



The reverts do not affect any QoL changes introduced in the aforementioned units (e.g,. Hold fire, handbrake, shared veterancy for reinforcement halftracks, etc). Although these changes have been removed from this patch, it does not mean they will not be added in future, sequential updates.



SOVIETS

Penal Battalions



We are trialing a new iteration for Penal battalions, so as to minimize the amount of overlap they have with other squads in the soviet union.



With this iteration, we aim to give Penals the ability to be able to dissuade vehicles from being too aggressive vs Penal squads, while allowing vehicles to safely engage Penal squads from a distance. Thus, vehicle counter-play to T1 openings will have a direct effect on the conclusion of the conflict. We have also increased the popcap cost of Penal battalions to offset this increase in utility.



PTRS Package Removed

Orrah at Veterancy 2 Removed

Veterancy requirements increased from 540/1080/2160 to 640/1280/2560

Population from 7 to 8

Satchels can now target and track vehicles. Will cause engine damage on target.

Flamethrower Package now provides 3 PPsHs that do not take up item slots.

Flamerthrower cost from 60 to 70

Flamethrower locked behind Molotov Upgrade

Veterancy 3 Received accuracy from -23% to -15%.

Satchel cost at veterancy 3 from 45 to 35.



Comparison to v1.5 Penals:



Popcap cost increased from 7 popcap to 8 popcap

Lose access to Molotov (Conscript overlap)

Lose access to the PTRS upgrade (Guards overlap; too many Penal-exclusive upgrades were promoting Penal-only builds)

Gain access to AT satchel by default (essentially the satchel ability takes on the engine-damage and tracking features of AT satchel introduced in v1.5, except for the heavy-engine-damage feature).



Comparison to live-version Penals:



Popcap cost increased from 7 popcap to 8 popcap

Satchel can behave like a vehicle snare

Veterancy requirements increased

Vet3 RA reduced

Vet2 oorah removed

Flamer locked behind molotov

Flamer now takes up both slots and forces the squad to get 2-3 ppsh bundled with it to reduce all-range potency

Veterancy 3 reduces the cost of the satchel ability from 45 munitions to 35 munitions.



Penal satchel now behaves as follows:



Damage vs vehicles reduced to 240 (same as AT satchel)

Friendly fire multiplier increased from 25% to 50%

Causes engine snare on targets with 75% HP or lower (after the damage is applied)

Satchel will stick to vehicles if it hits them on its trajectory to the target

Satchels can be targeted directly on enemy vehicles. However, the throw will abort if, at any time, the target leaves the range of the ability (unlike other snare abilities that will fire regardless)



We expect that the ability of Penal squads to have tech-free snare will allow unique synergy to come to light:

A player that builds T1 to start their aggression can tech to T2 to buy an AT guy without having the risk of having their only AT gun flanked by singular light vehicles. Now, Penal battalions can provide flanking protection to the AT guns

Penals can satchel vehicles snared by other units (e.g., guards button)

T-70



In order to reward players that have managed to preserve their T-70s while using them aggressively, we are improving T-70âs accuracy vs infantry at Vet3. This will allow vetted T-70âs to perform a bit closer to current game performance if the enemy has chosen to ignore them.



We are also making some QoL changes to T-70âs Recon mode and Capture point abilities. The following quality of life changes are to reduce the amount of micro to access the T-70âs numerous abilities and consolidate them into one for ease of use. Players could already have both Recon mode and capture territory active at the same time. With these changes we are simply reducing the amount of âclicksâ required.



T-70 Recon Mode now also allows the T-70 to capture territory with veterancy 1.

Capture Point ability removed.

Fixed an issue where a recrewed vet 2 T-70 using recon mode was unable to toggle the ability off.

Veterancy 3 decreases weapon scatter by 20% (accuracy vs infantry)



BRITISH

AEC



Given the partial revert given to the Puma, and in order to keep AECâs performance consistent with the Puma, we introduce the following changes:

MG incremental accuracy increased from 1 to 1.12 to match the Puma (original value in live-version was 1.04)

Near-AoE damage multiplier reverted from 0.33 to 1 to match the Puma



UI IMPROVEMENTS



Planting the Soviet demo charge will show a radius of explosion, like other similar abilities while planting it (similar to USF/UKF abilities)

