Company of Heroes 2
Balance Designer Peter Qumsieh on the Company of Heroes 2 March Deployment
The Company of Heroes franchise has redefined the genre in a multitude of ways, from a dynamic battlefield, to destructible cover, or the introduction of true sight. These key features were designed to better enable the use of tactics which help simulate the harsh brutality of war. Players must consider the consequences of their actions as they provide orders to infantry at their command. They must utilize advanced manoeuvres such as flanks or ambushes to punish opposing commanders all in an effort to take one more inch of ground.
Countless hours were spent reviewing footage of classic weapons such as the Maxim HMG, MP40, or KAR 98K all in an effort to encapsulate their behaviour in game. From there, endless iteration and play testing helped blossom these changes into intense and action packed infantry combat. With better defined unit roles, commanders can now execute orders with a high degree of fidelity and precision.
One of our main goals with this deployment was to slow down tech progression in an effort to extend the early game. We felt the game progressed far too quickly, which shifted the meta into an arms race for vehicles. This impaired infantry combat, as a prolonged investment in tier 1 units was often punished by hard hitting light and medium vehicles. The new tech progression extends the early phase and enables players to experience the full depth of infantry combat. It diversifies the number of viable strategies as more time is available to explore early tier combinations within each faction.
This is what the March deployment is about; bringing combat to a new level that challenges players not only strategically but also tactically. We want the placement of infantry to matter; we want the player to really think about how they move each unit and what the consequences of such movement may be. More than this, we wanted to reward players who go above and beyond with the execution of flanks or ambushes.
We are dedicated to the continued improvement of Company of Heroes 2. The March deployment represents the first of many significant changes to come. Future deployments may include modifications to vehicle combat, weapon teams, or core gameplay systems. We would like to encourage you to post any questions, comments, or feedback relating to the March deployment on the official forums.
We look forward to seeing you online!
- Peter Qumsieh, Company of Heroes 2 Balance Designer
CoH2 crashes, updates and then crashes
While the majority of players are able to run the game fine, we apologize to those affected.
We thank everyone who has reported this issue and are currently investigating what's causing it. We hope to have it addressed as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your patience.
Battle Servers come to Company of Heroes 2
With today’s Aftermath Update to Company of Heroes 2 we are introducing the Battle Servers to the game.
The introduction of this new server system will be an important step forward in improving the responsiveness and stability of the game connection for most players.
Previously in Company of Heroes 2 when playing online against another player your computer was connected directly to the computer of your opponent. In larger team games that meant that all 4,6 or 8 players were directly connected. The result of this was that if one player’s computer was lagging, all players would experience this. One player’s bad connection could ruin the experience for everyone else in the game.
With the new system players will be connected directly to a Battle Server, which will relay game information between players. If one player has a poor connection, only their game will be affected.
This is the first step in an ongoing process. Please use our official forums to let us know how the Battle Servers are working for you, so that we can identify and address any issues that players may have.
Thank you for your continued support of Company of Heroes 2 as we continue to work to improve your play experience.
- Jeffery Simpson, Relic Community Manager
CoH2 Aftermath Update and the original Company of Heroes
Today we will be launching the Aftermath Update, the first major update to Company of Heroes 2 in 2014.
For this update we focused on addressing issues that players were having with the game, as opposed to adding in a lot of new content. While we love adding in new things, and have more great stuff on the horizon, we felt that we wanted to focus on improving the fundamentals of CoH2 before moving forward.
Most of the work for this update has been focused on our new Battle Servers, which is an important step forwards in improving online lag and unit responsiveness. We have also introduced UI improvements in the menu system both for Surrendering and multiplayer map selection.
There's also the first community created map being added to the full game in CoH2. Community map creator OnkelSam has contributed his 2-4 player map "Crossing in the Woods" which will be part of this update.
Full notes for the Aftermath Update can be found here.
Implementing the Battle Servers will require the game to be offline for several hours. We have planned this work for a time when the least number of you are typically playing CoH2, and so will be taking the servers down at 4 pm PST and bringing them back up at approximately 9 pm PST.
We will also be updating the original Company of Heroes today. Those update notes can be found here.
Thank you all for your continued support of the Company of Heroes franchise.
Make War Not Love - Let's Kick Rome II's behind
We could have been friends.
After a heated Counter Strike match between members of the Total War: Rome II and Company of Heroes 2 development teams things have escalated and we're calling on our communities to help us settle which SEGA publisher is the true champion.
And here's prizes.
From 10:00AM PST today battle will commence with each in-game victory earning points that will count towards a total tally. Players of both sides can keep track of who’s coming out on top at www.makewarnotlove.com up until the contest reaches its climax on Monday February 17, 2014 at 10AM PST. Be sure to follow both sides on Twitter to get involved in all the pre-match trash talk, it’s gonna get messy. @companyheroes and @totalwar.
For added pleasure, each game will be on sale via Steam at 50% off for the duration of the promotion. So slip into something comfortable, flex those fingers and get down to business. Every player’s contribution counts.
If the glory of Total War: Rome II prevails, the latest DLC unit pack, Beasts of War, will be made available for fans to pick for free via Steam for five days.
If Company of Heroes 2 lands the knockout blow, two new multiplayer Commanders will be free to download via Steam for five days.
“Company of Heroes? More like Company of ZEROES, am I right?” said Craig Laycock, Community Manager for Total War at a recent weigh-in. “Their dreams will fall apart like a poorly-maintained M4 Sherman, rusting at the seams, and it’ll be Total War players that confine them to the scrap heap.”
Relic Community Manager, Jeffery Simpson responded in bullish fashion saying, “The only people dreaming here are the Total Bore team. Even a poorly maintained M4 Sherman would bust through the flimsy armor of a bunch of prissy Roman Legions. Doesn’t matter how many swords you bring to this gunfight, you’re going down.”