The peaceful, rustic landscape of Frace; the rustic hills of Italy. Peace. Calm. Suddenly, the sound of hammers and the pouring of concrete is heard! In under 1 minute, a factory has been constructed smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Soon, tanks will roll off its assembly lines in rapic succession, doing battle in an epic clash of arms-- wait, what?
I'm sure we've all noticed that Company of Heroes builds units out of buildings that are magically thrown up in the middle of nowhere with a somehow limitless supply of bodies and tanks concealed within their walls--something to do with Marry Poppins' handbag or somesuch nonsense. Anywho, I've set out to remedy the problem: your base buildings no longer construct unit! Instead, you'll be able to select a "platoon" of infantry--two squads--that will walk onto the field of battle from your call-in point, similar to doctrinal units. Here's the catch: the new system will severely hamper spam. The costs of each call-in are calculated by adding the cost of the two infantry units in question together, dividing by two (the average) and adding 100 manpower on top of that. For example, you can call in a Grenadier Platoon from the Krieg Barracks (if you've selected Fortify the Perimiter as Defensive Doctrine or Infantry Assault Team as Blitzkrieg Doctrine, but we'll cover that later). Grenadiers normally cost 300 Manpower. 300 + 100 = 400 manpower. It's a great bargain considering you'd normally pay 600 Manpower for two squads, but all unit call ins share a cooldown; no chaining long build orders together and forgetting about them for a while. Some units that would be particularly cheap (Assault Engineers + National Guards platoon -> 420 + 220 = 640. 640 / 2 = 320) will cost two times the cost of the most expensive unit involved (420 is it's own average, so 420 + 100 = 520 Manpower--yikes). Each call-in also eats up almost double it's normal population, so you might end up running out of popcap to call anything else in!
Weapons teams such as HMGs and ATGs will enter battle with some sort of escorting squad in tow; a rifle squad, a spotting team with extra sight, an infantry team with rudimentary repair skills, and so on.
Infantry platoons are mostly split into two squads; a 'Section Leader' squad that's lead by a visually notable squad leader (i.e. the radio guy in a normal Rifleman squad), and a secondary squad that lacks a definative leader. Don't worry, the squads share the same stats; only the looks of some squad members differ at all. Some upgrades might also be different in squad pairs. For example, the Grenadier 'section leader' squad can upgrade with the Experienced and Veteran Combat Packages but not a Panzershreck, while the 'normal' Grenadier squad can upgrade with the Experienced Combat Package or a Panzershreck, but not a Veteran Combat Package.
Within the next patch, upgrades themselves will likely receive an overhaul with attention paid both to historical accuracy and how interesting it is to use them--keep in mind that I'm a longtime mod player-turned-dev, so I (think I) know how to keep things interesting enough.
Tanks will still arrive on their own, with the exceptions of the M4 Sherman (arrives in pairs), M8 Greyhound (arrives with two Jeeps in tow), Puma Armored Car (arrives with a Bike and recon infantry squad in tow), and the PE AC (arrives with a Panzer Grenadier squad and a Kettenkrad in tow). Multi-unit armored call ins will have their prices adjusted accordingly.
Some Infantry squads will be available depending on chosen doctrines. At the moment, only the Grenadier Squad is effected. If you've selected Fortify the Perimiter as Defensive Doctrine or Infantry Assault Team (formerly Stormtroopers) as Blitzkrieg Doctrine, Grenadiers will be available at the Krieg Barracks as they are normally. However, if Zeal and Propaganda War from Terror Doctrine are selected, you will gain access to an SS Sturmtrupp squad--little more than Grenadiers that look like Stormtroopers, but a nice visual touch. The Sturmtroop squad will likely receive new abilities or some other change to distinguish it from Grenadiers in the future.
This is a time consuming process to create all of the new abilities that allow the player to call in each unit/unit combination, so the next patch might be a little while in coming. Worry not, I'm not sitting inactive on this one! I'll be updating this system as fast as I physically can.
A final note, the AI doesn't like the new system (too many Dislikes on Facebook? o.0 ). The AI won't use the call-in abilities for a time, and only will (if and) when a new AI file can be added to the mod. For the time being, the mod will become almost exclusively PvP unless you like slaughtering hordes of Engineers/Pioneers/Panzer Grenadiers (Brits lack starting engineers--tough luck!).
Many thanks for the continuous support and huge number of re-downloads!
