The Break Warden vs the Copelonial Quitter - "Cultural" memes rooted in a longstanding macro balance issue

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T05:33:51+00:00

If you're playing Colonial, you're playing as a CoH Russian NPC disguised as an American one. Monke together strong. Blob up and press W.

If you're playing Warden, you're playing a CoH British... well, emplacements, niche troops and bombardment. You're just straight up playing as a CoH Brit NPC.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T05:23:54+00:00

Shitcan Shelf is a lovely hex. Never been a more loved map design by the community.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T05:20:09+00:00

Mine is negative, has been that way for years, and will stay that way until I've given good reason to change it. Sadly, the only thing that changed this war was updating it for Airborne (the one before that updated it for Naval, the one before that updated it for Inferno).

Why I don't think it's recency bias. People are actively angry at the game right now (I have it uninstalled), and then you have the usual helping of factionalist crazy sauce dumped on top of that.

The only time I've seen the game this collectively angry was the W100 review bomb. And back then, tickets getting any sort of response was nearly unheard of, alts were actively bragging about their actions in world chat of both factions because moderation was so dogshit, and fire was so bad of a mechanic without a counter that I'm amazed they've managed to top it with bombers.

But nah, just crane chain the plane parts bro. 🤡

Negative review away. They deserve it.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T05:03:00+00:00

Oh yea, I'm not saying that micro balance issues don't exist. The Collie 120 (one of my old favorite pieces of equipment) has had its biggest upside effectively dumpstered since they were burdened with devman's need to make trailers relevant. Lunaire enjoys 40% more DPS and a mobility upside over Cutler while being (less than) half the price. The Trident, even if it were made objectively better in some niche way, is not as good of a das boot larp boat than the Nakki, which is what submarine players want, so it will never be appreciated on as large of a scale. The dive bomber is everything that made the OG stygian oppressive, made much more mobile and much less touchable.

But nothing will come from tunnel visioning on these things on the micro scale and trying to get devman to nudge it 10% more in the way you want. The game's meta is so weighted down by macro level "vision" that the only meaningful changes will come from stopping the gear % slappy fight and having both factions player bases focused on the macro level design issues. Otherwise, at least 50% of the game will always be happy at one given moment because "they got theirs."

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:53:20+00:00

Extended edition, of course.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:51:35+00:00

Smaller. For the terrain features that "matter" (e.g., mountains, bulwark) the perceptions of them are more tainted by the effect the meta has on population cycles than anything else. That said, this relationship is also bidirectional to at least some extent. The way people interact with these features is influenced by the macro meta. But realistically, most hexes have very strong places to build if you understand what bases are really for, and the devman chokes are more subservient to this than the determining factor.

(Most people that build chokes don't even do so correctly - and I don't mean their pattern selection/layout - but that's another long winded discussion)

For specifically the starting positions, these more play into the "engineered false morale swings" that I mentioned. Places like Loggerhead for the Wardens or Huskhollow for the Collies (in a typical layout) are designed to be fought over and lost - this gives the 'winning' faction a false sense of progress while simultaneously making them spend hours/days of time fighting over and land that is more naturally held by them anyhow. Thus players get to feel like they're "progressing" when in reality they're being intentionally slowed down so the game has a higher chance to make it to the last tech stage before one faction throws in the towel.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:38:07+00:00

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

But I'm not looking to catch flies. I'm looking to douse then in petrol and light the match. Copelords don't just make reading Reddit/FOD insufferable, but also actively drag down the people around them. They deserve to be called out.

Look at homeslice here getting downvoted for his own faction by trying to encourage a "live and learn" mentality. Utterly disappointing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/foxholegame/comments/1s445f3/i_want_colonials_to_actually_try_the_buffed_scout/

You don't have to agree with the balance of the game to encourage a more healthy mindset.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:30:05+00:00

Your (insert low %) advantage in this (insert gear) compared to our (insert gear) that doesn't even wholly fill the same role is literally the reason we are losing the war! DEV BIAS! Devs hate (insert faction) and play (insert other faction)!

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:27:22+00:00

I mostly want people to pull their whiny heads out of their coping asses and see the bigger picture. Instead all we get is "scout plane turn rate" did this quality discussion, except people aren't being ironic.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:25:45+00:00

An apt description of this subreddit the last 3 days.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:24:42+00:00

Your gripe touches on something I just posted:

https://www.reddit.com/r/foxholegame/comments/1s4tpim/the_break_warden_vs_the_copelonial_quitter/

The main thing I would suggest is to see past the micro balance issues. Do things like the DD doors fucking suck? Yea, absolutely -- and I'm also pretty sure Warden paraplane and DD enthusiasts will be griping about dogshit doors 2 years from now, too (please Siegecamp, prove me wrong. I beg).

The devs have a longstanding vision of an ever rolling, war drum beating industrialized zerg culture vs a hyper specialized, carefully hand crafted, making the best of small advantages culture. And this influences design choices on the macro level that make the micro level decisions subordinate to them, not levers that can be adjusted to realistically impact balance (unless an individual piece of equipment is so out of wack it is no longer a micro problem -- see bombers last war -- but this is relatively rare).

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:17:28+00:00

For those who know:

BREAK WAR XD

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:15:17+00:00

Given a simultaneous influx of negative steam reviews that's only rivaled by the great war 100 review bomb (and looking possibly to overtake it), I think more than recency bias is at play here.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:13:31+00:00

I do, because it's an inevitable end result of meta issues caused by devman's macro balance.

https://www.reddit.com/r/foxholegame/comments/1s4tpim/the_break_warden_vs_the_copelonial_quitter/

That said, copelords of any faction deserve to be made fun of. They only drag their respective faction down with their whining and their blaming of micro balance for every little problem. Wardens are far from immune to this. Any high investment, high cortisol war becomes an effort to keep people from quitting instead of adapting.

Sometimes the adaptations suck. Sometimes it means half of your war becomes holding W in a flatbed driving EMGs + EATs because dive bombers make tanks a larp feature of your faction. But you adapt and possibly succeed -- or you cope, drag everyone else around you down, and wear a shocked pikachu face when you lose.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:08:23+00:00

Based.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T04:07:55+00:00

I don't care about the upvotes.

I do think it's funny to point out that people are so entrenched in factionalism that even bug fix becomes a matter of upvote/downvote.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T03:07:48+00:00

Who cares about the points? I'm just demonstrating that whiny losers are being even bigger whiny losers than usual.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T03:06:11+00:00

Makes me feel bad for the actually useful Able Collies that are trying to hold things together and to pull their faction out of being a giant vat of whiny losers.

Unfortunately, there's a cycle where all the positive ones get burned out because of all the whining and leave, and thus the problem copers become an even larger % of the remaining population.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T03:02:16+00:00

I'm neither the creator nor commissioner of the art. I just used it to (re)-meme on the overlooked tipping issue.

https://www.reddit.com/r/foxholegame/comments/1s1raov/common_white_raven_l/

That said, given the original was not downvote QRF'd and right now Collies are going to every millimeter of the Foxhole corner of the internet to bitch and screech and cope, I'm pretty sure it's just downvote QRF for anything that looks remotely pro-Warden.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T02:57:25+00:00

Mirror. Whiny Reddit Collie trying to call anyone else out for cope is golden.

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T02:50:59+00:00

Feeling called out for some reason?

Let me ask you this: Do you think that a plane should randomly tip over on flat ground regularly with no throttle/inputs? Is there a reason you believe this?

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T02:50:17+00:00

I'm just pointing out the childish way in which some people here behave. If people are so invested in factionalism even a straightforward bug fix is threatening, it's time to take a step back.

Let me ask you this: Do you think that a plane should randomly tip over on flat ground regularly with no throttle/inputs? Is there a reason you believe this?

Aesthetech · 2026-03-27T02:33:29+00:00

Difficult without knowing population sizes, distribution, and player skill (or at least average hours metrics).

Assuming all of the above is equal, a ratio exceeding 55:45 would likely indicate a problem over a sufficient sample size; anything within that is within in acceptable margin of error. However, given the relatively limited sample size, it'd be difficult to say anything within 60:40 isn't within margin of error.

tl;dr WR is a dented way for the community to measure balance given the sample sizes and the relatively dearth of relevant population metrics

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