Following my first week of my being granted access to the Berlin CBT, I thought I should convey my observations of the test environment as a whole, and with there lacking a dedicated place to discuss such, I felt that it was best to post my thoughts in Suggestions.
First of all, I will post my first week’s game results specifically for Berlin;
With the above dataset out of the way, my general observations as to balance issues are as follows;
Low level tank gameplay favors the soviets.
Conquest is fairly balanced on the whole, but soviets are still somewhat more likely to win.
Invasion maps heavily favor soviets to win.
The particular points which I have identified that lead to the above;
The Panzer IVJ is woefully underpowered compared to the T-34-85 D-5T. While it is capable of fighting back, it is ultimately a one-shot to the Soviet tank at most any angle, whereas the IVJ actually has to aim back. The low turret traverse rate doesn’t help things. I would recommend considering replacing it with a Panzer IVH, or on the high end, a Tiger 1, or perhaps a Panther D?
The MP3008 feels quite inferior to the PPS-42. I’m aware that statistically, the 3008 has lower recoil, but the rate of fire difference is significant enough that the 3008 still is going to lose most any firefight, in my experience, and the PPS-42 is controllable enough in burst that it just feels superior to me in general. I’m not sure exactly the best way to improve things, be it by improving the recoil characteristics of the 3008 or what, in particular, but it is something that should be improved, given the close quarters combat many of the maps find themselves dominated by.
It’s not uncommon for Soviet forces to reach the first capture point on many invasion maps before the Axis team has finished spawning in, and thus well before Axis soldiers can reach the capture point. (especially on the bridge that serves as the first capture point to two of the different invasion map paths) It might be a consideration to move Soviet initial spawns back further from the initial capture point to try to rectify this point.
As it is, a lot of the capture points don’t have good placement options for spawn beacons, and many of the closest okay positions you might think to put a spawn beacon as the Axis defensively are obstructed or have a gradient that prevents placement of a spawn beacon, thus requiring you to either place your spawn beacon in the open, or place it further back from the capture point. It might be beneficial to the defensive team to add a few more flattened spaces behind capture points, sheltered from artillery fire, that are suitable for spawn beacon placement.
Another issue is a lot of capture points have flanks that cannot be adequately defended. The point itself may have reasonable cover, but a flank that overlooks it can render much of your cover pointless. On a couple of the maps, I’ve seen soviets rain down explosives from rooftops, then just camping it, right before their soldiers rush in. Some of these rooftops are easy to access from the attacking side of the map but not the defending side - or may not have obvious routes for the defenders to reach them. Giving the defenders a way to access such more easily, making it easier to defend the rooftops, and/or making it harder for attackers to access such rooftops, might help that situation.
While not strictly an issue for Berlin, I do think that prebuilt AA emplacements to help defenders on Invasion maps deal with enemy aircraft would be beneficial to balance with air power on the whole. Perhaps placing them on rooftops where they can’t be abused vs infantry (save infantry on the same rooftop level as mentioned in the previous point, thus perhaps helping for two issues simultaneously) might be an option on Berlin?
Edit 1: Point brought up in comments; While not necessarily a balance issue, shouldn’t the VG2 have a 10 round magazine, not a 5 round magazine, given it used Gewehr 43 mags? Also most every image I’ve found of the rifle has been with a 10 round magazine. It might improve things at low level for the Germans, if only a small amount, to have such.
Only thing I’d disagree with the PPS vs MP3008, but that’s only because they’re simply better at different things.
PPS is point blank bullet hose, but the MP3008 is good out to long range thanks to low recoil and the semi-automatic fire mode
An alternate solution to the invasion problem would be to make the defending team spawn BEFORE the attacking side, giving them time to prepare and fortify a bit, and actually LOOK like a defense party. As it is now, both sides, on any campaign (exept maybe dday) look like they ATTACK the point. There’s very few difference in term of play between the two.
A grace time of 30 seconds (more or less?) For the deffender? Because you can only put the attacker spawning point back so much.
I’ve seen it in other games, it works well. It also gives you the chills as a defender, waiting those crucial seconds the first battlecry screaming wave of attackers.
I’d love this since I main engineer (usually the only person on the scoreboard with engineer points) and I can’t even build defenses before getting zerged by soviets.
Exactly, I mean, in Berlin for example, the axis kinda knew they were getting attacked… They had time to fortify points, block streets, collapse whole buildings if need be. I don’t see why engineers couldn’t work a lil magic beforehand.
Well, according to my observations, most of defeats were only because we had less real players than soviets or I had full team of guys with stock squads because soviets really have better start than germans.
But when we had 2 or 3 15lvl players with engineers, mgunners, panthers, stukas and bf109s… Even when we met highlevel guys like us we mostly won just by constantly bombing them into ground while panthers and machinegunners were killing guys who escaped the 250kgs.
I think germans will win much frequently when berlin’s obt will finally start.
Able to != Able to as easily as each other. The IVJ struggles to do so in some areas, whereas the D-5T has no issues penetrating the IVJ… anywhere. The D5T also has better gun handling with the faster turret traverse.
Which is why I suggested the IVH with a bit more add-on armor and the actually working turret drive as my first suggestion as something just a little bit better, if still not entirely on par with the T-34-85’s.
I mean, most of the inequivalancies between the two historically were in terms of optics. They performed largely on par in offensive operations to one another. And if Warthunder is anything to go by (which the tank models are pulled from for Enlisted), they’re fairly equal enough. As will be IS1 vs Tiger 1, should we see that at any point.
Now, the real point where the Soviets will have a potential issue will be in the IS2 vs Tiger 2, when that comes to the beta, but at least this being an infantry game, 122HE will be… scary, for infantry, going for it, if nothing else.
For tanks I think the starter’s should be the Panzer 4 H vs T-34-57. Then T-34-85 vs Panther A, then maybe ending with King Tiger vs IS 2. The smgs feel balanced enough
Well dont know man, IS 1 vs Tiger I sounds about right,
and IS2 vs Tiger B would only “somewhat” work if the Tiger B had the Porsche turret, which it will get if I’m informed correctly, however still the Tiger B would have better armor and a better gun as well as a MUCH faster reload speed.
But but but, the panther tank had much better frontal armor and firepower than the T34 85, even better than the Tiger I.
