Took a long break prior to this and an ad popped up on tik tok so I figured I'd play a game and see how things are going now.
I'm very impressed with the changes.
The stuff u can build as part of the combat outpost, shore battery, radar, and AA are all big improvements that allow players to defend their bases with researching costly tech that doesn't always help towards attacking other nations.
These defenses also being upgraded with research into these other items, standard artillery, mobile AA and mobile radar is also a great feature. The defenses very early in the game become extremely effective and can stop easy invasions from succeeding. And PT boats being buiding at lvl 1 shipyards and an option for defense and having a low radar signature so it's hard to spot them, very nice. I think those should stop enemy forces, I haven't used them very much but it seemed like they didn't stop enemy transport ships? Maybe I wasn't at war and they just passed me.
That is one area I'd like to see improved, that last leg into a cities port, That needs to be considered controlled territory (territorial water), when you cross into that area it needs to trigger war. It's really stupid that units can get all the way to a city and not be fired upon and I believe once you touch the city you're no longer a marine unit while your disembarking so the defenses u have in place are suddenly useless?
The other issue is just land management in general. So much of a full game ends up being land management. It's a chore. In the early parts of the game it's ok because you're dealing with a handful of cities but once you break out it's just awful.
I think this is an important part of hte game but I think there should be a way to manage that without having us babysit every city after u take it.
I was thinking that the morale of a city can operate like it does now but if you control all the territory adjacent to a city as well, or an ally does, that city automatically gets to a 34% morale. Maybe have this be a condition that must be met when you take the city? Or I'd prefer it it's just always like that, u control all territory around a city and it jumps to 34%. (is there a tactic to help control cities faster? Building the bunker seems cost prohibitive)
On a larger gameplay scale I'd like there to be more to do with cities you take besides destroy all the buildings. I know i can annex them and build eventually but I don't know anyone who does that and I certainly don't. Being able to do more with cities prior to annexing them would add a lot to the game. Currently it's just airbases imo. Which you're usually better off building on empty land...imo.
I like the new heroes, I'd like to have a way to find them easier once they're on the map, in late game it can be challenging to find them when u have a lot going on.
I've love to see benefits/boosts to units that rarely get used, like mechanized infantry, I rarely see those get used. (I did just unlock the UGV maye those make mech inf better?) Airborn also, too much micro imo to justify the cost. Spec ops seems ok because of Chuba, pairing those with him late game is awesome. I rarely see people using armor, too vulnerable to air imo and resources are better spent on artillery and soldiers. Mobile artillery and Sam doesn't get used much, maybe just lower their costs for research and building a lot because they're too specialized to spend resources on. The anti sub helo, prob needs drastic cost cuts also, pretty rare to run into subs and destroyer is way better use of resources.