As many of have pointed out in the past there are a number of issues surrounding grenades that pretty much reduce their use cases to mostly using dynamite packs, and ignoring everything else. So I am going to list some of the problems that affects them and suggest how to improve them.
Most grenades are to expensive to experiment with: if I were a new player without stacks of Silver orders and my choices are getting a weapon for a silver order, or buying any grenade, I would not buy grenades at all. As simple as that. They are simply not worth it, taking in account how many weapon Silver orders you can get before having a squad fully upgraded, it makes no sense what so ever to spend Silver orders on grenades untill you are like lvl 15, and even then saving for better weapons will always take priority, this drastically reduces your willingness to try different grenades, so you will keep in hand only the ones that gives you the greatest utility, which are anti tank ones.
There is a single yet simple solution for this issue, change the grenades price to bronce orders so they don’t compete with weapons for the silver orders, therefore they would be used more by new players.
The general purpose grenades vs more historically accurate Anti tank grenades:
One of the hottest topics around grenades is how the dynamite pack pretty much eclipse every other grenade in the game, because it can be used as a frag grenade and it is the best grenade against tanks. the interesting part of this issue is that in real life the Molotov cocktail would be a better anti tank grenade than a dynamite pack loosely throw at a tank. As the tanks armor may protect its crew from the dynamite, but with a well placed Molotov you may set the tanks engine on fire, this is referenced in US training material of the era. Also other real anti tank grenades used HEAT heads in order to penetrate the tanks armor resulting a concentrated explosiĂłn, which is far less effective against infantry.
A solution for this issue would be to change the roles of AT grenades by changing the way they work, for the Molotov cocktail, you could make it so if it impacts any vents over the engine, it would cause it to start burning in a similar way than when it gets hit by a AP shell, therefore the tank crew would be forced to get out in order to extinguish it. As for dynamite instead of been used as a throw away grenade, it could be changed to be either a put in place timed charge, or an explosive detonated vĂa manual detonator, conectes by cable, which means it would be used for ambushes rather than a general purpose grenade. This would also leave open the space to add real AT grenades for every faction.
A single smoke grenade isn’t enough: the most under used grenade in the game is by far the smoke grenade, you almost never see anyone using them, and that is for a good reason, usually. Smokes are used for concealing movement or to obstruct the enemy’s view on a hard to push position, but since the smoke screen generated by a single grenade doesn’t provide nearly enough concealment, to either relocate or push, and if you equip most of your squad with smokes, you simply waste more pushing potential compared to the one that the other grenades CA provide.
The solution here is to add the ability to carry more smoke grenades in a single grenade slot, if we could have 3 smoke grenades, instead of a single Molotov or frag grenade, then they would be useful for their intended purpose, and as such they would be used a bit more.
The problem with molotov cocktails is that in order to be effective (ie work their Holywood magic) they had to land more or less on the engine deck vents so that the flaming liquid could drip into the engine bay and set the “bilge monster” on fire - ie light up all the leaked fuel/oil sloshing around in the bowels of the tank. That did not happen as often as ppl think and any other impacts were merely psychological. The current implementation in game is about right - if you land it on the rear deck of the AFV you have a chance to start a fire, if you throw it at the front of the vehicle, its an effective way to blind the vehicle. That’s a reasonable compromise to the tankers, who also have to contend with poor visibility and absolutely rubbish terrain implementation in the game (don’t get me started on the width of the trenches - or more accurately tank traps)
in the case of the molotov I beg to differ, because you lack context as the time such weapons are used, against modern armored vehicles and tanks, molotovs aren’t very good at anything else other than intimidating the crew, but in WW2 where tanks used petrol engines and had a far more vulnerable ventilation system, molotovs did quite a lot to knock down a tank. because such conditions made it far easier for the vehicle to catch fire. but currently in enlisted molotovs almost never make a tank catch fire when they hit the vents, which is simply what I am asking for, if the molotov hits the vents, then make the engine catch fire, which will eventually force the crew out of the tank. nothing more.
Why improving fire if atgrenades will do much more dirt and rifles+grenade launchers do much problems to most vehicles in game, moreover sometimes leaving no chance for crew to spot it and survive
Molotovs would end up been starter AT grenades, that aren’t as great as other AT grenades, but can also be used for area denial, is kind of giving them a different and more appreciable utility, than it currently has
I don’t think you read what I wrote, we said the same thing, and I did provide you with context.
Correspondingly, the current implementation of the Molotov can set an AFV on fire, but just like IRL it was not as easy as lighting a match - its a low chance. Tanks were not as flammable as you seem to suggest.
I agree, reducing the price of infantry standard-issue hand grenades. Maybe add a little more explosive power.
I don’t think anything should be changed with the explosive pack. If the games are rolled with no consideration for weapons/experience / K/D ratio, etc, and tanks vs noobs with basic issue stuff. It’s the only thing available early that can level the playing field as well as any tank if enough are used. Quadro’s Video on spamming the battlefield with explosive packs fails to point out the real weakness, which isn’t the power of the explosive pack or its liberal use. It’s the lousy choices we have to move with our squad, they stay bunched together if you assign them a point to defend they are in a tight group, thus easy kill for an explosive pack. The game needs more commands for squads. (The player can set squad config and assign F keys) for:
Movement Formations (In a horizontal line, or Horz inverted V , column or double column, spacing and distance from leader). Bounding movement if under fire. Fields of Fire: Security setup: Etc etc…
If an encounter with an experience strong enemy and they are wiping your squads out, in RL the squad will use combined firepower and or Nade the heck out the enemy if within range. So the Enlisted squad leader is the squad, he throws the explosive pack that represents 3 or 4 squad members tossing nades at the enemy. (leave explosive packs just as they are.)
Instead, Fix grey zones • times when the engineer can’t put down a spawn/rally point but can rez everything else • or when u know for sure you hit the guy and Nothing, it’s like a dead zone • getting killed in tank and you can’t see who it was 75% of time, it jumps out of that screen so fast.
just my 2cents