They don't see much use and I am sure everyone agrees. As such, can we increase their impact by straight up increasing the HP reduction/increase of the powers? Even if it requires code access, it's just a couple numeric values in there, not much hassle at all.
I might look into these values for the patch after next. I always wanted armor to actually be really powerful, like nigh invincibility but I don't want to push it up too high in case it breaks the game. Plus there's no way to tell a squad is using a squad skill other than hide. If there was a visual indicator I'd prolly be happy to put it as high as 80%, but as it is maybe 40%. Damage, not so sure.
Is the main concern damage reducing the time it takes to kill the cv, which can be pretty short as is? If it could be made so damage didn't affect anything happening to the commander you wouldn't have any problems. At least that is how I feel. It might not seem terribly consistent, but I don't know how you would make damage useful in a general sense without upsetting how fast the cv dies. I guess half the effect, so what it currently is, on the cv would be a simple way to meet halfway.
Which we don't without code support you stupid fuck Obviously if I could add particles on my own I'd fuckin' do it.
We already have artillery strike which actually does stupid high damage to CVs so I doubt damage will be a big deal. If you get a squad into position next to a commander with a rifleman as squad lead I'm more impressed than if you did it as engy. Sure you can swap squad lead around but thats one mor ething to concentrate on while trying to pin down a CV in his own main.
Right, I was thinking more along the lines of someone laying down some mines then getting damage buff and killing the commander right there. Arty does do good damage, but it is expensive to keep spamming it. Damage upgrade lasts 30 seconds, more then enough time to deal out similar damage to arty strike. At least assuming it gets buffed to 50% or something.
I mainly see dmg up and armor up being used in an infantry push, similar to squad hides usage. Though bonus damage to vehicles would be nice.
Regarding visuals, I was thinking of changing all tracers to be red and adding a hint of red into the smoke from explosions and rocket trails. For armor, my idea isn't as obvious - changing hit sound to something more sturdy and removing the blood splat particle. It might be not obvious enough though, depending on how badly you want this thing to be visible. Of course it probably needs a decent chunk of code support, but hey it would look rather sick.
Changing blood impact/sound to a spark would work quite well, I've done it in different games and bullet impact behaviour is a great way to explain mechanics. Maybe red tracers, not sure. Explosions are another matter entirely.
Currently red explosions indicate STD CN/ML So making infantry weapons explode red would make them look like STD tank weapons. So I'd probably prefer to add a shockwave or something.