If you haven't read my post on "What is Fun?" viewtopic.php?f=27&t=3947, I'd suggest you take a quick look at that first. I reference a lot of ideas from there on this post.
A couple of ideas frequently come up for consideration and I want to focus on those and why, as a dev, I'm personally extremely reluctant on implementing and will probably argue with other devs to reject the ideas. This post is meant to give my reasons and open up for discussion.
Summary
It often comes up to be improved for some units, added to some units, and in one case be used as a design theme for a doctrine. This ability and all its forms (static camo, in cover camo, crawling camo, garrisoning buildings, etc.) is probably the most fun to use but most anti-fun to face. This ability really needs to be use sparingly throughout the mod. A quick analysis of the ability is as follows:
Fun to Use?
1. Is it rewarding? For a person using the ability, this ability is extremely rewarding. Because of the damage system in BK, any first shot is extremely rewarding because the capability of a unit is greatly diminished when damaged, and I'm not talking about the modifiers. When an infantry squad engages another infantry squad and kills some of the models, the damage output to return fire is proportionately reduced. For example, lets say the average health of infantry squads is 60 * 6 = 360 HP and the average damage is 30 * 6 * accuracy modifiers = 180 damage * accuracy modifiers. Let's assume the average accuracy of infantry squads is 75% so the average damage will be 180 * .75 = 120 damage. If one inf squad, Infantry A, shoots another, Infantry B, it is likely to kills 2 soldiers (this situation is common enough in a real bk game even if the example values are fake), the responding infantry can only fire back with 2/3's of the damage output it normally can which means at most 180 * .75 * .66 = 80 damage to kill one soldier. Subsequent rounds of trading fire will result in a quick win for the first shot infantry squad:
Round 1 Outcome - Infantry A (shot first): deals 120 damage, 5/6 soldiers remain | Infantry B (responded): deals 80 damage, 4/6 remain
Round 2 Outcome - Infantry A (shot first): deals 100 damage, 4/6 soldiers remain | Infantry B (responded): deals 67 damage, 3/6 remain
Round 3 Outcome - Infantry A (shot first): deals 80 damage, 4/6 soldiers remain | Infantry B (responded): deals 30 damage, 1/6 remain
Round 4 Outcome - Infantry A (shot first): deals 80 damage, 4/6 soldiers remain | Infantry B (responded): Dead
The one to get the "first shot" is normally not the attacker but the defender. This scenario isn't even including modifiers that come with almost all camo units.
I think it's safe to say that camo is highly rewarding for the person using.
2. What degree of control does the player have? High degree. The camo'ing player can either use it or not use it. The only scenarios where the player cannot use the ability is if the unit is (in most scenarios) when not already in combat and there is no cover. Both those situations can be determined by the player in deciding where they position the unit.
3. How challenging is it to use? Not very challenging. Like mentioned before, the player is able to decide where they position a unit to set the unit up to use the ability or not. There is no "randomness" to camo except when it's spotted which is on the responsibility of the victim player. This challenge is even further reduced when crawling is introduced.
Fun to Counter?
What is the counter play to this from the victim's perspective? In reverse order:
3. How challenging is it to counter? Very high. Getting a spotting unit to a camoflauged unit implies either a player knows that the unit is camoflauged there or got lucky in running into it with a specific spotting unit without getting shot at first by either the camoflauged unit or any other units covering the camoflauged units.
2. What degree of control does the player have to counter? Medium. There exist spotting options with varying degrees of cost. The best spotting units are cheap but extremely fragile while the most durable spotting units are expensive. There is always a tradeoff in determining the spotting unit.
1. Is the counterplay rewarding? Not really... the reward is literally "not dying" to first shot advantages. You can argue that the reward is being able to kill the camoflauged unit but that's no different than being able to kill any unit whether it's in camoflauge or not.
Fun Comparison Summary
Camoflauge is only fun in one direction which is only further exacerbated when some doctrines have the capabilities more than others (example, assymetry in camoflauge availability between Commandos vs Panzer Support or Luftwaffe vs Royal Engineers). Just recall how annoying it is to counter snipers to get a sense of what I mean. You gotta execute top level tactics with 5000 mouse clicks only to be foiled by the enemy player pressing one button "retreat". Here's a quick visual summary on how "fun" camoflauge is for players:
- camo compare.PNG (3.27 KiB) Viewed 1949 times
The most common argument/counter suggest received was to introduce more forms of revealing the camoflauged units thus decreasing the degree of control an camoflauge using player has over the ability. The thing about this suggestion is that it also directly increases the level of challenge for the countering player for no increase in reward through micro tax. The net outcome is just the game being harder for everyone for only marginal additional reward for the camoflauge using player. Here's a REALLY generous view on what a "balanced" camo system can look like:
- camo compare with balance.PNG (3.36 KiB) Viewed 1949 times
I understand the camoflauge ability adds fun by making the game more immersive, adding uniqueness to themes around certain units to make the game feel more "realistic". But honestly, it's just a crutch and workaround to representing "real" camoflauge. In reality, units don't just magically go invisible. Despite the intention, it's still not an accurate portrayal of camoflauge. One big example that we are trying to figure out how to manage around is camoflauge when garrisoned in buildings. Players who are using the ability will feel cheated of their ambush plans because the house highlights when a unit is trying to camoflauge in the house. Players who are trying to counter the ability will often say "I KNOW THERE IS A UNIT IN THERE WHY CANT I JUST SHOOT THE HOUSE". We try our best to work within the system limitations. My point is, it's a difficult theme to introduce so let's not get too married to the idea of the camoflauge ability itself needing to be an integral part of the mod.
Conclusion
I'm not saying we get rid of camoflauge entirely. I know it's basically hardwired into BK player brains and strategies after all these years. I'm not even saying to change camoflauge (technically I did once but got the biggest shit from half the community... you can see my "trick" on these two threads: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3577, viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3575). But if we're going to propose introducing it even more to the game... we need to be really really careful in considering its impacts beyond "balance".
. Just kidding of course, come play the BK sometime
