The Flametrooper squad currently only has 2 Flametroopers per squad. For contrast, Assaulters have 4 Assaulters per squad.
I think increasing the number of Flametroopers from 2 to 4 would offer some variety to the meta. More flamethrowers means you can actually use the flamethrowers more frequently. In addition, since Flametrooper 2s have a 12.3% vitality increase, this increase in specialists would allow a player to bring a squad with more flamethrowers, as well as a decent number of soldiers with this default perk.
And finally, Flametrooper 2 premium and event squads already have 4 flametroopers with this perk. Changing TT Flametrooper squads to also have 4 flametroopers would bring parity compared to their more exclusive counterparts.
Specialty squads should be restrictive. Adding more flametroopers to the squad allows those with skill issues a better chance instead of practicing and increasing their skill. If you give ME 4 flametroopers per spawn I’m going to wreck everyone’s day. 4 flamertrooper squads benefits me but in my opinion doesn’t benefit new players because it decreases the chance they can stop someone who is effective with flamethrowers anyway.
A better improvement would be “dropping” the flamethrower on death and allowing other members of that squad to pick it up. I can’t imagine that would be functionally possible without major other coding and bugs.
I’m a bigger fan of leaving it how it is.
Not a fan of increasing speciality squadmember sizes though. Same with mortarmen and anti-tank squads. The numbers are fine how they are.
The mismatch will be high-end players destroying low-end players; and I feel the balance in the other direction of giving lower-skilled players a better chance is significantly smaller benefit to them than being barbecued by my flametrooper mega squad.
I’ll cycle my M8 Scotts up to BR5, it’s beside the point. Straw man.
The fact remains that specialty squads like mortars need support with them to keep them alive. Every man in an MG squad isn’t a machine gunner. There’s a select few specialists with support behind them to maintain the push and defend the specialists. They die, now you got a little rifle squad.
Historical German Machine Gun squads are the perfect example of what I mean, the riflemen teams centered around a primary machine gunner. The riflemen’s job was to support the Machine Gunner in the squad and replace him when he went down. It wasn’t 4 machine gunners to every squad.
It’s an anecdotal historical example and biased to one factions military doctrine but I believe the principle applies of what is a realistic way resources are distributed amongst front-end WW2 squadrons.
American squads didn’t have 5 BARs per 7 or 8 man group. That would be ridiculous.
So aside from historical misalignment - my NO is in relation specifically to how it would skew the gameplay in a way that is an unfair advantage to people like myself who have min-maxed all of my things and are very particular. Such a change benefits me as a daily player with high kills and high placement regularly in my matches. More importantly having an understanding of the game and how it flows gives you and I and really anyone to the extent of posting on here to debate new features; we all have a massive advantage over the average casual player. The vote here shouldn’t be considered reflective of what would be beneficial to the overall player base (and growing new players). It does not benefit a new playerbase of people whose experience in the game is getting roasted as chicken in a fire barrell the second they unlock a BR3 weapon and get uptiered.
EDIT: Since the thread is about flametroopers.
I copy/pasted this from a Google Response but it’s accurate to my memory:
“A standard Assault Section consisted of 6 men: 1 Section Leader, 2 Flamethrower Operators (carrying M1A1 or M2-2 flamethrowers), and 3 Demolition Men (armed with bazookas and explosives). They were attached directly to rifle companies as needed.”
This lines with up how this game is structured and how historically the units we’re playing were structured. Interviews with WW2 vets discuss how flametrooper duty was not something most wanted. Dangerous duty. Most members of a squad that included a flamethrower didn’t carry a flamethrower.
Flamethrowers are minimum BR 3, maximum BR 4 weapons, they can’t go down to BR 1 or BR 2(unless it gets downtiers but BR 3 flamethrowers are not that good honestly anyway)I do think that they could have more flametroopers in the squad given this context.
I would agree for 3 as in machine gunner squads, 4 flametroopers at their current state (Flametrooper II can stack up to 47,5 additional health and they no longer have movement penalization while shooting) would be too op.
