Our team wanted to provide an update on our progress with the next hot fix. Some of the multiplayer balance changes we introduced in update 1.8.0 had unintended side effects on the meta, and the issues they created were made worse by a couple of bugs. These compounding factors have skewed the multiplayer meta in a direction that we’re not happy with. The identified issues are not all the same across skill bracket or game mode, however, there are several things we wish to address to bring the multiplayer experience closer to where we want it.

With all that said, we will need some additional time to test the 1.8.1 patch to ensure it does not introduce any bugs or issues that are worse than the ones we are trying to solve. As an independent studio now, we need to be prudent with our time and resources. This means (depending on the scope of changes) we may have a longer gap between identifying issues and getting a patch published - primarily due to the capacity of our team. As much as we want to get a patch out fast (and we’ve done so in the past), it’s usually better for the health of the game if we take time to do things by the book. Another decision we had to make in this case was whether we delay 1.8.1 by a few days to get all these changes included or push some of them to 1.9.0 in November. We felt it best to go with the former.

The 1.8.1 hot fix is on track to be released later this week. You can find a preview of the balance changes we hope to include below, but please keep in mind that these are subject to change. We are also targeting some key items on our Known Issues list, but we will provide more information on those when 1.8.1 is released. 

Thank you for your patience and support! 

 - The CoH3 Team 

General 

Stosstruppen and Guastatori 

- Correctly adjusted armor to be 1 from 1.25 or 1.5 

US Forces 

M8 Greyhound 

A few issues were found when we made our changes to Greyhound’s data, and we’re making some improvements to the performance of its very important 50cal gun so that it is effective while on the move. 

- 37mm moving accuracy to 0.75 from 0.5 

- 50cal moving burst penalty removed 

- 50cal horizontal tracking speed from 35 to 60 

- 50cal firing cone increased from 5 to 10 

- 50cal ready aim time set from 0.5/0.75 to 0.25/0.375 

Bazooka Team 

- Build time from 40 to 25 

Infantry Assault 

- Ability cooldown increased by 60 seconds 

- Munition cost increased from 100 to 125 

Wehrmacht 

Panzergrenadiers 

This incorrect number increased what was intended to be a gentle ~5% increase in damage-per-second to be a powerful ~15% lethality buff at close ranges, which was unintended. 

- Near range corrected from 10 to 7 

LG40 Recoilless Team 

The new performance of the High Explosive shell is oppressive when combined with its full range. Rather than making the HE less reliable, we’re reducing the range to increase the risk and counterplay. 

- HE Range from 50 to 40 

Sturmpanzer IV Brummbar 

- Fuel cost from 110 to 120 

Support Bunkers 

We’ve noticed that certain strategies are too powerful at snowballing an early Command Bunker into dominant map control, never letting opponents catch up. This is meant to delay how early Coastal can anchor their defensive line and give opponents more time to counter a player trying to setup. 

- Command Point cost increased from 1 to 2
 

British Forces 

Commando Section 

- Fixed an issue where the Commando Sten was not using the correct stats. Now properly uses the values provided in update 1.8.0.
 

Deutsches Afrikakorps 

Panzergrenadier 

The original changes were meant to make Panzergrenadier builds more viable, particularly in smaller game modes. However, the impact on team games was significantly greater than expected, and we’re toning down some of the power we’ve given to them and reducing their scaling speed slightly. 

- DPS revert mid-range buff from 1.6 to 2 

- Build time from 20 to 30 

- Reinforce time increased from 3.375 to 4 

- Veterancy requirements scaling increased by 100, from 900/2700/5400 to 1000/3000/6000 

Kradschutzen Motorcycle Team 

We’re toning down some of its Recon and its combat endurance. While the changes have increased the build variety of Afrikakorps openers, we’ve found that the value of giving Combined Arms far exceeded expectations, making this unit too efficient early, being good at combat, support and recon. 

- Vision radius reduced from 45 to 35 

-  Self repair time changed from 15 to 30 seconds- Health reduced from 200 to 185 

2.5 Tonne Medical Truck 

We’re increasing the risk of bringing these to the front. It was too difficult to properly punish these builds due to the ability of the Truck to shrug off hits and retreat. 

- Health reduced to 160 

L6/40 Light Tank 

- Fuel cost increased from 60 to 70 

- L6 Flamer damage against production buildings reduced to 175% from 350% 

that crash/freeze on loading screen before the team names show (i noticed it a few times in co-op) is adding to the leave penalty - any chance of getting a fix on that? or the penalty reduced to somewhat reasonable levels or even have a cap of 1 hour or something. 

Thank you, I know why axis had 80% search lol.

How is making dak panzer grenadier take longer to come out going to help early game? I thought that was the point of the initial buff....

NOOOOOOOOOO. NO NO NO NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING??????? why would you shutdown the few recon tools of Dak at the beginning????????? If you want to do that then you better make the added vision when the bike stops kick in immediately when it stops. This is not good, the problem with dak was not with this aspect, you could have tweaked the raw dps but you shouldn't shut down the feature of a unit used for scouting like this

60% USF winrate on high elo not enough need to bring back 70%, i see :)

Thanks for the update!

I feel like you're missing the point here. Let's take a step back to version 1.7, which a lot of us agreed was pretty well-balanced for 1v1 maps. But that same "balance" completely fell apart in 4v4 maps. Each faction had its own way of torturing other players, including their own teammates, and it just led to everyone accusing the others of being OP. With the map design and firepower density, the strategies and timings in 4v4 games are completely different. Those small unit tweaks snowballed out of control and became a total disaster.

Now, for this 1.8 patch so far. In 4v4 games at 1400+ ELO, DAK is spamming PGs, British players are one-clicking their way to victory with naval artillery and typhoon rockets (just like the last patch), Wehrmacht is spamming weaker bunkers to hold for Brummbars, and US players either vanish or flood the map with 8 squads of Pathfinders, wiping out any infantry in the early game. So yeah, we're all set for a bright future.

Honestly, maybe it's time to consider balancing 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 separately, even if it creates some inconsistencies.

L6/40 Light Tank 

- Fuel cost increased from 60 to 70 

- L6 Flamer damage against production buildings reduced to 175% from 350% 

Lol WUT ? 

Not a word about the rangers. These guys are so boring... you only have 2 mg!!! Find them more dangerous!!

Look how fast they nerf axis. And how long it takes them to nerf OP allied units. xD

Please, just think about it: if you shutdown dak bike back to 35 - which is normal vision of standard units, what else is there for dak as scout option early game? Having to wait for it to stand 4 sec before the vision adding ability pops will also be so painful to use? Do i have to wait for mid just to do a simple thing as scouting with vet1 8rad/tractor? Or do i have to wait for late game when i can upgrade to scope to be able to scout? You are making dak army a blind animal, and a blind animal is deficient no matter how sharp its claws or how long its fangs are

can we tone down fuel cost of light vehicles a little?

meta is way to focused on infantry at the moment