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[Company of Heroes] scratching Helmut's new paint job (Mediterranean Front confirmed)

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Posts

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    Prisca wrote: »
    I hope that Relic gets around to fixing the Warspoils system; it's tiresome to get duplicates most of the time. I still haven't got any rare quality Victory Strikes either.
    And there's no criteria for it- not who does most damage in a game, not who wins, nothin'. It just seems to drop every hour or so, which is frustrating.

    Honestly I'm fine with that. Attaching quality of drops to some form of performance is basically just going to wind up either encouraging skewed gameplay (IE 'I lost but my stuff did the most damage because I played in a wierd way' ) or people getting salty for being on the losing team.

    The system just really needs more methods to control the RNG in it. Either removing duplicates or letting you dust them hearthstone style.

  • DarkMechaDarkMecha The Outer SpaceRegistered User regular
    How is the balance overall right now? I was thinking of playing mp again.

    Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
  • altidaltid Registered User regular
    OKW stomps on all the allied factions sums it up pretty neatly. I still can't fathom just how stupid they were with the "redesign".

  • JusticeforPlutoJusticeforPluto Registered User regular
    Yeah, they gave OKW (the best faction) a major buff.

  • altidaltid Registered User regular
    Granted that post was somewhat in frustration, but there's definitely some truth in it.

    OKW got their resource penalty removed, but kept all the cheap/fast tech and free upgrades (along with the band aid incendiary grenade that they didn't need). The problem remains that enough volksgrenadiers with schrecks can kill literally anything. And by enough I mean 3 or more. The shrecks destroy anything that isn't heavy armour in two volleys at most, the firepower is enough to deal with most other infantry unless it's a blob on blob fight and any MGs can be dealt with by charging in and lobbing the incendiary nade. I could go on for ages about the stuff okw have (like the literal stealth tank, which also happens to be one of the best tank destroyers in the game). The revamp was a botch job and they haven't fixed it due to an ESL tourney.

    Ostheer have it much harder, with tech costs leaving them quite vulnerable at times. They do rule the endgame with the panzerwerfer which is just a unit wiping machine.

    On the allied side soviets are decent but I don't know much about them. USF are good if you have the DLC commanders (namely the calliope which is much like the panzerwerfer). UKF are in a weird spot. They were nerfed into the ground and quite literally unplayable at one point. Right now they're crutching on the AEC which got an emergency buff (yes it was that bad). It's not hugely overpowered, but turns up a bit early.

  • Corp.ShephardCorp.Shephard Registered User regular
    edited January 2016
    Balance depends on game-mode.

    I usually just play big team games. 3v3s, 4v4s. Usually arranged team stuff.

    My generally feeling is that the balance is okay right now. They fixed a lot of the most awful stuff with a patch last year. Fixed up the insane pop-cap changes, etc. I wouldn't expect many other changes in the short term with the CoH2 ESL thing happening. They pushed out a pretty nice little buff for the AEC, a british light tank/vehicle, that flipped it from being one of the worst units to insanely powerful for its timing. Classic Relic. Granted the British needed a little early-to-mid boost.

    OKW is very powerful in the right hands. STG Obersoldaten can really dominate infantry warfare. They have a really solid army right now. They don't have many weaknesses. Their suppression weapons sort of suck, that's it. In the realm of team games their forward truck positions can be weak against a coordinated team (isolate trucks by double/triple teaming them and killing them quickly) however for the most part they're still very useful and powerful.

    However for the most part the balance is close enough that it is fun. Changes to multiple commanders have been very smart. You can actually play Soviet Industry and fringe commanders without destroying any hope of victory. Are they optimal? Nah, not really. You can play them, have fun and often win though. Had two great back to back Soviet Industry games last night. The other side of the coin is that several over-performing commanders such as USF Rifle Company got toned down. They aren't the defacto "best choice every time". Well. Rifle Company sort of is because most American commanders still suck. The two new ones, the Perishing commander and the Calliope commander, are viable to optimal. Pay to win in action, baby.

    As for 1v1? I dunno, I am sort of in the dark. I've heard it is... pretty good right now? But maybe people have figured it out. I just haven't kept up with that side of the game.

    Corp.Shephard on
  • EnigmedicEnigmedic Registered User regular
    altid wrote: »
    Granted that post was somewhat in frustration, but there's definitely some truth in it.

    OKW got their resource penalty removed, but kept all the cheap/fast tech and free upgrades (along with the band aid incendiary grenade that they didn't need). The problem remains that enough volksgrenadiers with schrecks can kill literally anything. And by enough I mean 3 or more. The shrecks destroy anything that isn't heavy armour in two volleys at most, the firepower is enough to deal with most other infantry unless it's a blob on blob fight and any MGs can be dealt with by charging in and lobbing the incendiary nade. I could go on for ages about the stuff okw have (like the literal stealth tank, which also happens to be one of the best tank destroyers in the game). The revamp was a botch job and they haven't fixed it due to an ESL tourney.

    Ostheer have it much harder, with tech costs leaving them quite vulnerable at times. They do rule the endgame with the panzerwerfer which is just a unit wiping machine.

    On the allied side soviets are decent but I don't know much about them. USF are good if you have the DLC commanders (namely the calliope which is much like the panzerwerfer). UKF are in a weird spot. They were nerfed into the ground and quite literally unplayable at one point. Right now they're crutching on the AEC which got an emergency buff (yes it was that bad). It's not hugely overpowered, but turns up a bit early.

    I havent played multiplayer at all in CoH2, or really finished the campaign, and the DLC prices make me not really want to spend time on the game. But dang if the volks with shrecks doesn't sounds like CoH1 flamethrower pioneer blobs that were insanely good.

  • DarkMechaDarkMecha The Outer SpaceRegistered User regular
    altid wrote: »
    OKW stomps on all the allied factions sums it up pretty neatly. I still can't fathom just how stupid they were with the "redesign".

    So standard Relic Balancing, business as usual. :/

    Ahh well I might give it a go anyways.

    Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
  • PriscaPrisca Registered User regular
    Has anyone tried the Open Beta for the revamped War Spoils system? Personally I think it's a lot more accessible compared to its current iteration. I'm looking forward to its release.

    I understand that Relic is focused on DoW3, but I hope they'll continue to focus on supporting and fine-tuning CoH2 until CoH 3.

  • AlegisAlegis Impeckable Registered User regular
    So after a year ... how is the game nowadays? Big steam sale going on at the moment, never picked up CoH 2; may do so for the Ardennes campaign

  • PriscaPrisca Registered User regular
    It's worth picking up.
    The game still has a relatively healthy online community and the developer released a balance update a month ago.
    The Ardennes campaign is certainly an entertaining theatre, but multiplayer's still where the fun is.

  • DarkMechaDarkMecha The Outer SpaceRegistered User regular
    Prisca wrote: »
    It's worth picking up.
    The game still has a relatively healthy online community and the developer released a balance update a month ago.
    The Ardennes campaign is certainly an entertaining theatre, but multiplayer's still where the fun is.

    Is the balance in a good place finally?

    Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
  • FreiFrei A French Prometheus Unbound DeadwoodRegistered User regular
    I know you guys are mostly multi dudes but I've just been playing Ardennes Assault over and over. Probably because DoW3s single player was such a step down

    Are you the magic man?
  • altidaltid Registered User regular
    Balance is so-so.
    OKW are still a problem, especially in 2v2 games. I have a deep and burning hatred for them that I doubt will ever be extinguished so I am more than slightly biased but before the unofficial stats tracking page went down they had a comfortable lead in win rate. Everyone else seems mostly fine although there are a few problem areas.

    Balance changes have been handed over to a "community team" which I'm quite ambivalent about. They're technically proficient and enthusiastic but I feel they lack an overall sense of the design behind the game. They're also prone to subjective bias since the forums dedicated to CoH2 are echo chambers and give undue influence to the most vocal players rather than insightful argument.

    Despite all my criticism the game still has a unique appeal that no other RTS (barring earlier Relic titles) has been able to match for me.

  • DarkMechaDarkMecha The Outer SpaceRegistered User regular
    altid wrote: »
    Balance is so-so.
    OKW are still a problem, especially in 2v2 games. I have a deep and burning hatred for them that I doubt will ever be extinguished so I am more than slightly biased but before the unofficial stats tracking page went down they had a comfortable lead in win rate. Everyone else seems mostly fine although there are a few problem areas.

    Balance changes have been handed over to a "community team" which I'm quite ambivalent about. They're technically proficient and enthusiastic but I feel they lack an overall sense of the design behind the game. They're also prone to subjective bias since the forums dedicated to CoH2 are echo chambers and give undue influence to the most vocal players rather than insightful argument.

    Despite all my criticism the game still has a unique appeal that no other RTS (barring earlier Relic titles) has been able to match for me.

    Uhh that sounds horrible.

    Steam Profile | My Art | NID: DarkMecha (SW-4787-9571-8977) | PSN: DarkMecha
  • Corp.ShephardCorp.Shephard Registered User regular
    edited June 2017
    The Community team is made up of savvy modders and the more even headed expert players last I checked.

    The changes they have implemented have never really caused me to raise an eyebrow. They're generally wise changes that cut the more exploitative units down to size.

    It has been a while since I checked in granted but the community influence on the patches has been positive I think. Relic still has final arbitration on em' too.


    My biggest gripe was that the balance felt it was shifting to favor 1v1 balance. Hard to blame them for going after that... but my personal interest in the game has been team games for some time. Not that I am playing actively ATM...

    Corp.Shephard on
  • altidaltid Registered User regular
    edited June 2017
    Two changes they proposed and made stick out in my memory. The first was proposing the Comet have 20 pop cap, 1 short of a king tiger, while also reducing its mobility and nerfing its AI capabilities. It would have made the Comet cost more than a Panther, take up more pop cap than a panther (which is 16), have worse armour and AT performance and only marginally better AI performance. Results from the ongoing tournament showed that it was such a bad idea (UK were on about a 40% win rate) that they had to roll back on it - and still set it at 18 making it more costly than a panther yet worse in most regards. It was a prime example of giving in to forum complaints rather than looking objectively at the problem.

    They also removed the ability for hammer sappers to give war speed to friendly UK vehicles for absolutely no comprehensible reason. It reduced team play and makes little sense considering axis command vehicles give bonuses to allied units.

    As far as I'm aware the procedure for these patches is that the community are allowed to make changes within a certain scope only, but beyond that they're more or less rubber stamped by relic. I don't think they really have anyone left working on the game beyond making sure these patches don't technically break the game. I think it was last year they removed most of the team, including the lead balance guy.

    altid on
  • PriscaPrisca Registered User regular
    I hope that Relic's probing for community feedback on the 'best of' CoH 1 & CoH2 may suggest a CoH3 in the near future.

  • Gnome-InterruptusGnome-Interruptus Registered User regular
    I wouldnt mind them taking another crack at that Company of Heroes Online.

    steam_sig.png
    MWO: Adamski
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    I would! That game was a mess and nobody needs more free 2 play bullshit in their lives. I'm not sure I'd hold out for any new CoH stuff from Relic for a while, since they're busy with the new Age of Empires right now.

    CoH 2 got a new patch in December and it's reinvigorated the game for a lot of people. I've gotten back into it, for instance. I'm streaming on Twitch now and posting new videos to my YouTube channel, which is lots of fun. The game's nowhere near perfect and in fact it's still not as good as CoH was in its best days, but it's in a pretty good place, I'd say.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Been getting into this for the first time.

    Indeed the West German army seems the strongest. No real weaknesses and a lot of strengths.

    I can''t get a handle on the U.S. their upgrade system is so awkward, they don't have the early advantages of the Soviets or the late game advantages of either of the German factions. The Sherman and Jackson just can't seem to compete with Tigers or Panthers.

  • Gnome-InterruptusGnome-Interruptus Registered User regular
    The UK with their infantry are my favorites.

    But have to rush an armored car to deal with bunkers and depots, though it also works very well against half-tracks too.

    Most of my time is spent in comp stomp solo, so I'm probably way off base with any competitive strategy.

    Though one tip I recently developed was to micromanage capping a bit more and start moving the cappers prior to finishing so they finish as they are on their way to the next one.

    steam_sig.png
    MWO: Adamski
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    I get the feeling online play is only super hardcore players who would slaughter me at this point.

  • Corp.ShephardCorp.Shephard Registered User regular
    I got a vet 5 Sturmtiger in a 4v4 AT match tonight that got de-crewed by a lucky shot while reloading and then crawled back up to vet 4.

    Still playin' still lovin' it.

  • FreiFrei A French Prometheus Unbound DeadwoodRegistered User regular
    whenever CoH3 comes I just hope they learned from what they did with Dawn of War 3. game was just straight up abandoned after a few months.

    Are you the magic man?
  • canuckontcanuckont Registered User regular
    I just want more CoH not.. a weird hybrid game where it's a MOAB with ww2 skin on it.

    That was such a disappointment, I really hated how they ditched the cover system.

    CoH2 and 1 I boot up every once in awhile to scratch that WW2 itch. British have always been my fav, hated how I could never deal with Armor well tho.

    I saw a kid get handed a JB poster by who I presume was his parents outside my store today....he tore it in half infront of his horrified parents.....There's hope for our youth yet!
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    All franchise titles + DLC on sale for 75% right now.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    So if you were waiting for CoH3, then you want to check out Iron Harvest, the RTS game set in the Scythe board game universe. It's pretty much exactly CoH. Also a free demo out now on Steam.

    Spent about an hour skirmishing.

    I was really surprised how smooth and polished it felt. Feels smoother than any of the CoH games. Also graphically ahead with little details like oil pumps activating when you capture them.

    So here’s what’s different from CoH that I could tell:

    - Only 2 resources: Metal and oil

    - Limited buildings. You’ve got the sand bags, barbed wire, and mines that engineers can build. Only 2 production buildings: barracks and workshop, with the workshop having an upgrade that lets it produce the more advanced mechs. That’s it for buildings.

    -Infantry changing on the fly. Every killed infantry squad drops their equipment. You can pick it up and turn your entire infantry until into whatever unit dropped the equipment. Sort of like picking up special weapons in CoH, but moreso. You can even pick up engineer equipment to turn into engineers, or pick up rifles to turn back into basic riflemen.

    -Loot pickups. The maps start with little piles of resources scattered around. They take about 10 seconds for an infantry unit to pick up, and provide a one time resource dump equivalent to what its generator would produce in 4 minutes (an oil well gives +1 oil per minute, a pile gives 4 oil). This puts an interesting twist on the very early game as you scramble for these piles. In addition, there are weapon crate that can transform your squad, exactly like the weapon drops from defeated squads. Do you go for the weapons first? Straight for the resources?

    -Slower AA guns. Gone are the days of those silly CoH anti-tank guns that could zip around and unlimber in two seconds. The ones in Iron Harvest are SLOOOooooooow.

    All in all, I was pleasantly surprised in what I thought was going to be a cheap cash in on a popular brand. If the multiplayer scene turns out to be robust, I’ll probably pick this up shortly after launch.

  • PriscaPrisca Registered User regular
    edited June 2020
    Thanks for the news, @MrBody - I've looked into Iron Harvest and have supported its Kickstarter project, nice to know it's coming along nicely.

    Does anyone here still play the original Company of Heroes - I find that it is far better in some aspects in contrast to the sequel.

    The multiplayer community is not quite as sizeable, but I can still a few ranked games going every day. There are players with really inflated stats though; well over 3000+ games played. I worry about how vulnerable the game is to exploits and hacking.

    Prisca on
  • PriscaPrisca Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    Really interesting of Relic and the community to keep CoH2 multiplayer active (somewhat) during these times;
    however I have gone back to CoH1 and found it far more entertaining than the sequel; hopefully it will be REMASTERED in the future.

    Prisca on
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Yeah I don't hate CoH 2 but the first one is superior in almost every way. Some of the key Relic employees moved on to other things between CoH and CoH 2 and whether it was their influence that made the original so good or something else (or some mix), it definitely shows.

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    The one thing that's a real big black mark on CoH2 is the monetized microtransaction/grinding nature of all the commander unlocks.

    Not to mention the loss of individualized commanders replaced with the mix & match sameness of the system they replaced it with.

    Turned out CoH2 was just the testing ground for what they would end up doing to Dawn of War 3.

    MrBody on
  • EnigmedicEnigmedic Registered User regular
    the multiplayer with randos is just infuriating as well. as allies you have to guess whether theyre going to spam stukas or tanks and if you guess wrong youre either going to be bombed off the map or just lose to superior tanks. not that allies cant win, but sometimes it just isn't as fun when it feels like you get countered so hard.

    also at some point their account stuff all changed in COH1 or something and i somehow lost all my expansions, and they wouldnt restore them without a receipt. like no i dont have a receipt for a game i bought 15 years ago digitally. Im pretty sure i like coh1 better but fuck relic im not giving them money because their shit sucks.

  • altidaltid Registered User regular
    Seems like relic are gearing up for an announcement:


    Coundown with associated WW2 footage on their twitch channel as well. Looks like a CoH3 announcement with an Italian campaign setting.

  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    altid wrote: »
    Seems like relic are gearing up for an announcement:


    Coundown with associated WW2 footage on their twitch channel as well. Looks like a CoH3 announcement with an Italian campaign setting.

    Agreed. All the newsreel footage is pointing towards North Africa / Italy.

    Relic don't break my heart. I still have hope for you guys. I would quite possibly scrimp and save for a new PC for a good CoH sequel.

    subedii on
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    My faith in Relic is pretty much exhausted but that doesn't mean I can't hope for a comeback!

  • Albino BunnyAlbino Bunny Jackie Registered User regular
    At the very least if CoH3 is just CoH2 but able to reset the faction and commander creep that's probably good.

    At the most: Please just make the new campaign Ardennes Assault but with a main campaigns' budget.

  • OpposingFarceOpposingFarce Registered User regular
    Yeah I can't say I have much faith in Relic anymore but I always welcome an RTS with good production value in these dark times.

    My cynical predictions:
    • Barebone campaign, if it even has one
    • Therefore, competitive multiplayer focused for dat sweet, sweet e-sport money (which isn't a thing)
    • Laden with microtransactions, but it will probably be a full priced game still.

    These aren't really any developer's fault though. I mean, if I were a businessman who really cared about return on investment, would I want to release a AAA RTS game that didn't have long-tail revenue streams? So I get it. But this is an expect the worst, hope for the best scenario.

  • altidaltid Registered User regular
    At the most: Please just make the new campaign Ardennes Assault but with a main campaigns' budget.

    Also keep the campaign and MP separate. Ardennes Assault is a great campaign but it has gone through various stages of 'completely broken' due to sweeping MP changes messing up SP systems.

    Reveal is in about an hour, and it seems IGN have taken over for that. Countdown is now on their twitch page.

  • OpposingFarceOpposingFarce Registered User regular
    altid wrote: »
    At the most: Please just make the new campaign Ardennes Assault but with a main campaigns' budget.

    Also keep the campaign and MP separate. Ardennes Assault is a great campaign but it has gone through various stages of 'completely broken' due to sweeping MP changes messing up SP systems.

    Reveal is in about an hour, and it seems IGN have taken over for that. Countdown is now on their twitch page.

    Ah, reminds me of Wargame Red Dragon.

    "Wait, why do my F-111s now have 4 bombs instead of 8?"

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