No Veterancy Please

SuperBumbleB

So I've seen a handful of people upset that the Veterancy system seems to be gone. Units leveling up from combat and such. And yeah, I agree it is a cool idea to have units level up during the battle and I guess for some it makes the players want to preserve units more.

But having played COH2 online for a long while, I have to say that the Vet system easily leads to snowballing. Or in other words, the player with more experienced units will have a significant advantage over your less experienced units.

For example, a US Riflemen Squad vs a Volksgrenadier squad will generally give the win to the Riflemen. They have Semi automatic rifles and they do cost more than Volks. But when you have a 3 Star Riflemen squad vs. a 5-star Volks squad, that Volks squad, despite costing less than the Riflemen squad to buy and reinforce, will defeat your Riflemen squad.

The Vet system also gives factions with the stronger units by default even more advantage over the factions with weaker units. I.e. The Panther tank, which already is well armored, deadly, fast and will always defeat most Allied tanks 1 v 1, will now be even more powerful. Allied equivalents like the Sherman or T34 or Cromwell are less armored, less powerful, have less HP, and are slower. Less powerful guns means their cannon fire will bounce off a Panther, thus they dont get any experience for doing no damage. Less HP means they either can't stay on the frontlines long or they die. Either way they gain veterancy slower, lose all those points in dying, and will often fight an uphill battle against the faction with the more HP and better stats which are still accumulating.

The vet system really just benefits the stronger faction. Survivability is what allows your units to level up. And most Allied units are weaker which means they level up slower or die. And the Axis faction, generally already better in stats, will just get even stronger with high Vet levels.

And I don't really want DOW3 to have that same issue of units with better starting stats just accumulating points just because the other factions' equivalents are 'weaker'.

Personally either I'd remove the Vet system entirely which I thank Relic for doing in DOW3 or maybe have only one Veterancy Level that just unlocks the unit's ability. Most units in COH2 unlock their abilities in Vet 1 and I think unlocking abilities is better than improving their stats after Vet 1

FJGC

I agree, it can get frustrating in CoH2 as you described it. But I wouldn't mind if some modder come ups with a game mode that fools around with this. Maybe with some major tweaking and balancing the vet system wouldn't be as troublesome...

Bersercker

It was pretty good in dow2 though. If i'm not mistaken each level gave like +5% accuracy and melee skill or something and the maximum level for non-hero units was 4. So not too big of an effect but still noticable and promoting squad preservation.

Mr_Ruin

Veterancy is good in both DoW 2 and Coh 2, it rewards you for your unit preservation and is something that makes Relic games distinct.

Riflemen have a very powerful vet 3 and with bulletin for faster veting attain it really fast. Add a BAR or two and for the first part of the match Volks are on the back foot.

And on the other side OKW was made around being faster on the field and having more vet lvls while having very expensive tanks and being late in suppression. It is one of their main strengths. And Americans can repair their own vehicles and get a unit when they tech up. Every side has something.

But even if you take away gameplay mechanics usually you supplant them with something new and better. A new thing we got is long grass. Wow, bravo, great job -.-

Renner

If you watched gameplay footage, you could notice that the veterancy has been replaced with upgrades. Each side has its own armory that contains plus damage, plus shields, plus health upgrades, and such. Mostly like in DoW1. Who knows, maybe the Elites will keep some of it, like leveling up during the game. Or maybe some unlocks we can equip on them by doing some accomplishments, leveling up our profile or earning achievements. I've spent quite a lot of time doing bulletin challenges in CoH2. Hardly they'll keep that system in DoW3 which doesn't seem so RNG dependant, unless its purelly cosmetic. But all of that remains to be seen after the MP portion is more detailed.

Misery

The biggest problem with veterancy and Elite type units in multiplayer is that it spoils the balance and gives disadvantage to newer players. Imbalance doesn't make the experience fun for either player like playing on a level playing field at the start of the battle which it's just ability, not who's grinded the most. Having players with advantages due to the time they've player just means newer players are less likely to want to stick around and harms the online communities growth in the long term.

Ellie

and its only really useful when you're able to pull troops back effectively. In dow 3, theres no retreat button, and the game is a bit of an aoe meatgrinder as it stands right now, so you're not likely to have much left over when the smoke clears.