Although the changes (by some) are well received, I've witnessed both sides of the coin. On the test server playing my BatChat 155 58 was amazing as I'd be able to stun opposing teams members and rake in the assisted damage as our team obliterated the stunned opposition. So far, on the live server I haven't found this as players seem more intent on simply racking up there own damage and enjoying the spoils of war.
With the lowered damage I'm able to cause I'm losing more credits than previous as I'm unable to accumulate as much damage and suffer incredibly from the lack of teamwork present in most public games. This is from a small number of games played so this may (or may not) change in peak times.
Playing as a "tanker", I've found it more annoying to be rendered useless by being stunned than losing half my hit points from 1 artillery hit at times when playing lightly armored tanks as you take damage and have to drive a severely "nerfed" tank for 10-15-20 seconds. That being said, in a more heavily armored vehicle the change is a little bit of a "sigh of relief" (my Maus, Jpz E100 and E100 thank you!)
All in all I think this change will appease most players but not all. I think as an artillery player and tanker (majority of my play in NOT SPG) that the changes are of a positive nature. However, if I was only an SPG player I may disagree for the following reasons :
1. I believe the lack of being able to platoon, even with tanks of other types is a ridiculous change as is not the whole purpose of this game to promote team work? what about bonus awards for platooning? This has been taken from players for no reason at all in my mind. If in a mixed platoon you can at least provide support for the 2 other guys on your team that you can rely on while also being able to "profit" from the rewards awarded to platoons.
2. The inability to 1 shot opposing team artillery - I will try to counter-artillery to help my team be able progress without taking damage by taking out the long range support provided by their artillery. Now I find I can counter but often will simply stun the opposing artillery with all 3 shells fired from the clip of my BatChat even with direct hits.
3. I've found that firing at close range causes extreme damage to my BatChat, sometimes even self-destruct while doing little to no damage to the attacking enemy tank. I'm sure many welcome this and I to at times would have appreciated this but wonder if this intentional?
4. With the spall-liner and rechargeable health kits this has nullified artillery's usefulness as single shot artillery will essentially have no effect on a tank with this set-up.
I've tried to provide this info from a "both sides of the fence" perspective and as I said I believe the artillery not being able to platoon with even a mix of tanks is very unfair and DOES NOT conform to one of main aspects of game-play i.e. team work.