Ok, so I actually really like a lot of things about this game and have held back on really criticising the many poor decisions Eugen made. But after the recent total collapse in player numbers and the ongoing snore fest that is 1v1, I think I finally ought to share the stuff I'm concerned about.
See, the thing is even a basic defense is actually really tough to beat for a new player launching clumsy attacks. That's true even though for an experienced player this game might actually favor the attacker in some circumstances thanks to all the offmap and artillery and whatnot allowing you to nut all over a position and then walk in and surrender everything. Or completely ignore it and go around because haha puny infantry AT range. New players, meanwhile, get fucked by the surrender mechanic coming and going. Either their attacking units mass surrender in a big blob or their defending units get crapped on from the sky and then surrendered in a big blob without them ever understanding just what the hell is going on because Eugen spent a ton of money on voice actors to have them sing stupid songs and make dumb jokes rather than paying for unit barks that explain what is going on in the game as in CoH2/DoW2. I don't know what the hell Tipperary is but at this point I'd have no problem firebombing it tbh.
For new players the micro floor is enormous because there aren't any effective low micro strats like the mech infantry hordes you could go with in RD. Low unit availability and low income (both relative to WRD) mean that new players are doubly hammered as they can't afford to spam and they lack the deep availability base necessary to sustain spam. WRD had more infantry and tanks in a single card than some decks can bring in total, for example. Even good players routinely run out of infantry in competitive games. Without some easy to hit on low micro entry level strat these guys and gals ditch the game early because they feel like dead weight and get utterly stomped against players who have achieved the base level of competency.
The KT is the ultimate new player slayer. They send their tanks into it from the front in endless numbers and then completely fail to understand why they all die. They also never figure out how to kill it because Eugen failed to provide vital at-a-glance info about side and rear armor on the display like they did for front armor (which, for the KT, is a new player demoralizing number that has straight up caused some to surrender on seeing it) or anything at all about AP scaling except in one easily overlooked tool tip. If you're going to build the core of your game around a critical mechanic like AP scaling, you need to shout that shit from the rooftops. It should be on every other loading screen, and there should be unit barks that say something to the effect of "we can't penetrate their armor at this range, we need to get closer to hit them effectively" that fire off regularly when units fire on something they have 0% chance of penetrating. BTW, units should straight up default to not fitting at something they don't have at least a 20% chance of penetrating because wow what a stupid micro tax you inflicted on new players for no reason.
It also doesn't help that specialist decks often get and can deploy more tanks or planes on the field while still remaining competitive than non specialist decks can even include AT and AA guns in their deck, sometimes by a factor of two or three. That is straight bonkers.
And then there's the tiny resupply circle for supply trucks. Why? Why would you do this Eugen? I've seen many, many players move a truck near some unit to resupply but because the circle is tiny it doesn't actually start. I've done it myself multiple times. Just why. It is a totally unnecessary additional micro tax that adds zero to the game and I've even seen devs and publishers make it so why is it still an issue.
You'd think that if Eugen decided to make this game somehow tougher for new players than WRD that they'd up the APM and skill ceiling for experienced players to compensate, but they somehow managed to lower that even as they raised the floor. Deck building has been substantially reduced in complexity, tanks are more durable against long range threats, there are fewer units on substantially smaller and less complex maps in 1v1, fuel is gone, and suppy micro and macro has been reduced substantially. And without helicopters, radar AA, ATGM vehicles and other high risk high reward units (at least helps that aren't spammed), there's less need for tight, accurate unit micro overall in a franchise that already had a low APM and skill ceiling to begin with. The removal of movement crits (which from a historical and realism pov is absurd, especially given the setting and the notorious automotive unreliability of Nazi tanks) also removes an additional factor from the game.
So in my opinion SD44 manages to be both more complex for new players than WRD while simultaneously being less complex for established players. This is what led to the precipitous drop in player numbers. And I'm not saying that all forms of complexity for established players in WRD were good. Many were terrible choices eg major water obstacles on competitive maps in WRD or the absurd number of near duplicate or total crap units in decks that added complexity for new players while being utterly irrelevant for experienced ones. Eugen managed to remove a few of the bad and a few of the good sources of complexity, but they didn't replace either with new sources of optional complexity and they didn't remove most of the sources of complexity that caused new players the greatest hardship. Opt in or optional complexity is important in games because it creates a flexible micro environment that allows a player to gradually add mechanics as they become more experienced and develop their game specific APM. Grenades in CoH2/DoW2 are a great example of additional optional complexity. New players rarely use them and in large format games (which new and less competitive players love) they often aren't even a good idea to use because closing to throw exposes units to massed fire. And experienced players can make use of and dodge them in competitive games which adds complexity and counterplay. Lack of grenade use by new players lowers engagement lethality (thereby increasing engagement duration, giving them time to micro) and gives them more resources for the fun, showy and ultimately unimportant when poorly used special powers you get in game. SD44 has plenty of opportunities to create marginal micro sinks of that nature to increase the skill cap, but it has instead opted to create a higher floor.
I still like SD44, but there are so many other decisions I can only describe as bizarre. Like why is historicity of overwhelming importance for tanks and AA and MGs but totally irrelevant for bombers and fighters and AT planes whose accuracy, availability and general effectiveness is way out of whack with reality? Why is range compression ok for tanks and artillery, but range extension for AA totally impossible to countenance? Why is experience so ridiculously potent without coming at a significant cost and awarded in what feels like an incredibly arbitrary manner? And why are all 1v1 maps either choked by a gigantic city and/or hedges or completely empty of all obstacles?
I haven't played the game regularly for a while because I can't stand the enormous design issues that make it a thoroughly joyless experience in 1v1. I did do a few matches after the patch but I found it basically fixed none of my biggest complaints. Maybe the division patch will, but either way I think it might be too late for this game.
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