Normandy 1944: European Theater mod for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

8 comments by JudgeAlfred on Jun 16th, 2013

Greetings, Eager followers!

So before I go any further; I will be making a slight modification to my estimated deadline. Instead of the end of June, I will estimate for the first week of July. Not only does this allow me more time to finish work but it also gives me much needed time to compile everything to release it, which is the only reason I am doing this. If I were to release it by the end of June, some things would be unfinished. They may seem like small and "Unimportant" things but I know to many individuals they mean a lot. Therefore, I've made the decision.

As for the current progress; I am in the midst of redoing how pricing/reinforcement is done. 

Basically, a set cost per man for infantry will be tied with the level of training, as stated earlier. How this is for the different factions varies. For example, the SS/Luftwaffe actually have the highest costs per man in comparison to the Soviets, which have the outright lowest costs per man.

The difference is in how pricing works when it comes to buying the unit, and reinforcing it.

I've always found there to be major issues in general with how costs and reinforcement costs are done in many modifications, and even in the base game. The general incentive is "It costs less to reinforce my men, I should keep them alive."

Yet there is no way with that system to simulate heavily Veteran units, nor is there an effective way to simulate "En Masse" or "Fodder" infantry. Because the system is so basic in planning, it falls short on these completely.

So I thought that modifying incentive based upon what "Type" of faction they historically were was the best way about going through this process. For example, although the SS/Luftwaffe have the highest per man cost out of all the factions; their reinforcement costs are much lower in comparison to what you would make them out to be.

That doesn't mean an SS soldier will be cheaper to reinforce than a Conscript; but what it means is that the more experience a unit has, the less they will end up costing to replace. The initial cost of buying the entire unit itself will continue to rise, but the percentage of savings per man for keeping the unit alive and reinforcing men will lower as the costs for the entire unit raise with how "Vet" they are.

This means that as it historically was, completely reforming and rearming more experienced units is much more taxing on one's command structure than it would be to simply find replacements to "Fill the gaps" of casualties, as it were. This pushes incentive for more experienced divisions to keep their men alive through the roof.

As for fodder infantry, their reinforcement costs are fairly "Stagnant" in comparison. The percentage of savings that the player gets for reinforcing men is much less in comparison; but the overall cost of the unit is much cheaper to begin with, along with the build time being faster.

In the case of the Soviets (Who are super-di-duper special); this differs entirely. As manpower was so easy to come by throughout the Union, reinforcement costs will be a flat rate, regardless of what type/build/experience of the division or regiment they come from. Although there will be a difference in the initial cost, build time and time it takes to reinforce an individual man the per man reinforcement will be an extremely low, flat rate. No other faction will be able to match this, or even come remotely close to it either.

This allows Soviet players to field enormous amounts of infantry, and continually assault the Axis forces regardless of casualties in most cases. However; the Soviets have a disadvantage to counter-balance this. (Technically, two.) First off, none of their infantry is considered to be within the highest HP per man bracket. (Costs reflect this also, thus explaining the cheap costs across the board and reinforcement rate which is flat.)

However, traditionally throughout the war the Union had a major issue with supplying arms to their own troops. Although I refuse to represent this in the modification by having men run around without weapons whatsoever; I feel it would be wrong to not represent it whatsoever. Thus, Soviet infantry have a munitions cost tied to them. The munitions cost will only be tied to the initial purchase of the unit, so the players incentive to keep squads alive is so that they don't end up paying munitions along with the manpower for another unit.

This forces the Soviet player to express his "En Masse" tactics with restraint. Although he can field infantry left, right and center in comparison to everyone else; he will constantly be gripped by munitions woes if he is unable to strategically use his own men. Losing squads doesn't hurt him very much in the Manpower department, but it's a fairly deep wound for Munitions.

Another difference is that all Vehicles will only cost Fuel. Munitions/Manpower will no longer factor into this equation, as the idea that a player should choose vehicles or infantry in a modification that is supposed to represent historically accurate scale and conflict (Too some degree) is rather...odd to begin with.

This allows players to field units to assist and combine with their field infantry, instead of having to choose between them. Emplacements of all variants will cease to cost anything but Manpower. As they cannot move whatsoever, and are niche in nature it seemed unfair to tie any other type of cost to them. 

Build times may increase in some cases (If they are stupidly fast to build and unlimited in quantity, for example) To prevent abuse. At the end of the day these changes as a whole will help spur incentive and the use of combined arms, which previously were hampered and limited. I hope this is fairly informative to everyone; and although I will not speculate to give very specific details please be aware that this has been planned quite painstakingly so as to not upset the balance of anything.

And no, you aren't going to pay 25 Munitions for your Fodder Tier Conscript squad, so Soviet players keep in mind that although the Muni cost will exist for your infantry it will not completely hamper or ruin your ability to field them, it will simply add pain to careless actions in a different way in comparison to how it effects other factions.