Hi guys, here is a writeup about the Weapons Cache, and the logic behind its implementation.
The problem as it exists before WC:
The current pool/resource system has been structured in such a way that you can specialize one aspect of your company to systematically eliminate an aspect of an opposing company, and then with the remaining resources you possess, you can hard counter the remains of that opposing company.
This is exactly why spamming is so powerful. The current lack of restrictions on company composition keeps "one trick ponies" from being created, when really that is all a company should be if you decide to specialize in such a powerful build.
This problem is twofold and is a fundamental problem with the way we are allowed to structure our companies that not only are we allowed to specialize then cover up the weaknesses in any particular build (Myst is great at this) but upgrade pricing has to be done in such a way to promote usage and viability of any upgrade you may choose and for some upgrades, the results of these systems are diametrically opposed to each other.
Once the price of an upgrade hits an "event horizon" it will cease to be used in any meaningful numbers, even if the pricing does eliminate the spam.
This is why every single asset in this game has 2 restrictive parameters (resource and pool). To create a balancing act between restrictions and viability. Before the weapons cache, we were trying to balance upgrades with only one restrictive mechanic, the munitions pool, which wont work because with some price adjustments, you either destroy the consensus of viability for that upgrade, or you open a window for it's exploitation, a specialization that can be easily enough, covered by the rest of your company.
Exploitation and specialization cover-up only exists for a few upgrades however. Assault, Fausts, ASMwarfare, Goliaths, support spam, even things like BAR spam, or schreck spam can fall into these categories.
You cannot properly restrict spam, when 4/5 of the company creation has 2 regulations and 1/5 doesnt.
The hypothetical situation that we cant balance with 1 restrictive parameter:
The weapons cache being a hidden munitions tax is exactly what is intended to promote an environment of balanced upgrade usage.
Take the panzerfaust for example. The bugger is still a problem at 30 MU 2 uses. We want the thing to be 60MU but we cannot feasibly price the faust that high, it would never see the light of day again because the cost will no longer represent the effect it has as a secondary AT option.
By increasing the price of the faust to 60MU, you effectively control the spam of the upgrade, but it is too high to make as an individual AT investment, and if every upgrade does not appease the premise,
the upgrade will not be bought. Lets say that Schrecks were priced at 100MU a pop, that is a good price for an individual investment for an AT weapon. If you buy 6 schrecks, you spend the equivilant munitions as 10 panzerfausts at 60muni. Both numbers are largely the desired numbers that should be invested in either AT asset for a company, but no one will ever spend 600 munitions on fausts because that is unfeasible as a main AT asset for the price when you only get 10.
For 600 munitions, you should at least get 20 fausts, but 20 fausts correlates to 40 uses in game, which is broken.
On top of these 20 fausts, you have another 600 munitions to spend on ATGs, MGs, mortars, other upgrades, when 20 fausts is all you should ever need for AT
So we have a pickle here, we need to make players only take 10 fausts while only charging 30 munitions. It wont happen, we cant expect players to stop buying upgrades "just before" the amount they buy becomes an overpowered number. Something needs to take the place of that extra 30 munitions cost, while at the same time, limiting the rest of their company so they cannot cover up the weaknesses of their specialization.
Why the weapons cache is designed to address every upgrade and why people are pissed about it :
The players that we deem to be very good and are also so adamantly opposed to the weapon cache system are absolute masters at specializing their company in one direction and gearing the rest of their company to either counter or kill what is left of the enemy.
These players are the type that use all assault companies, faust spam, BAR spam, Schreck storm spam, Ostwind spam the list goes on and they find that their old companies are mostly invalid because they cannot exploit the fact that upgrades only had one restrictive value. (munitions)
These players also destroy balanced companies very easily and they all include the spam of upgrades no less. (if it's anything else, then that is the "cover-up portion of their army, or units with built-in weapons)
The WC theory is that if they specialize their company too much, they will lack the resources and pool to cover the gaps in their companies and if you make a balanced company, then you can use all of your resources and be within the pool limitations. Ultimately with the proper balancing of the cache numbers, balanced companies will have a chance vs. specialized companies because the specialized companies buy themselves into a weakness they cant cover up, ultimately leading to an even playing field.
This is only effective when Every upgrade is included because if they are not included you will allow any player to "cover up" the deficient portions of their companies. The weapons cache pool ceases to be effective at this point.
An example of this:
Anyone can deal with 10 assault grenediers. You just bring out vehicles or tanks to counter.
10 assault grenade usages is not that expensive and when you also buy 10 schrecks to cover up the specialization, then spamming 10 assault grenades becomes an issue cause you feasibly have no counter.
With ideally priced Cache points, you should be able to comfortably buy one or the other, but not both. If you wanted both, then you would only kit out 5 Grenediers instead of 10.
If you were able to kit out 10, then you would have no munitions or pool to kit out vehicles or tanks, thus exposing a weakness to your specialization.
Why people are having trouble using all their munitions
A more correct correlation between the overlap of the WC pool and the munitions pool is the Vehicle/Tank pool and the Fuel pool.
On my infantry company, it is nearly impossible for me to spend all of my fuel. I may want to, and probably can had I less or more consoldiated MP costing units, but I still usually have that fuel left over because there are 2 restrictive values in place and because I am specializing infantry above all else.
With the Weapons cache in place, poeple are finding the same phenomenon in their Munitions pool, that they cant possibly spend it all in the combination that they would like.
Well just like the fuel pool, if you wanted to spend it all you could, you just need to move some things around and work within the frame work. If you cant spend all your munitions then you are going outside the parameters of what is considered "acceptable amount of upgrade usage" or your are just too specailized.
Conclusion:
There are many players that agree that running a balanced company of any kind in EIRR gets punished.
The weapon cache does not seek to make everyone run a balanced company, but to make those that do specialize their companies (we established that specialized companies destroy balanced companies more often than not) buy themselves into an exploitable weakness.
With proper cache prices, balanced companies should not be effected, that is the goal.
By making the WC only address a handful of abilities which only a handful of players will be subject to, you do not address the overall problem of specialized company dominance within this mod.
We want to make every upgrade viable and balanced, but not all upgrades are created equal. In an environment where they are not, just like the asymetrical balance of all the army units, they must all be restricted by the same parameters to be properly restricted at all within the scope of a company's power.
It is no coincidence that all the bullshit builds in EIRR contain something that is now restricted by the weapons cache. It is a design flaw by not addressing everything you can possibly buy with the pool system, I hope you can understand that.
I know with proper cache points, we can really make EIRR an environment where balanced companies thrive and where specialized companies are still fun but not as dominant.
It's simply a matter of having your cake and eating it too.
