Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Tactical
Company of Heroes 3
Wire Report - June 9, 2023
There’s been a lot happening in the world of Company of Heroes, and we wanted to cover all of it here. Let’s not waste any time and just get right to it!
NEWS
Brass Leopard
This week we released the Brass Leopard (1.1.5) update for PC. You can find a high-level overview of the update in our Brass Leopard Mission Briefing, or dive into the Patch Notes for all the details. If you're in a hurry, check out our video summary below.
As always, if you’re encountering any technical issues or bugs, be sure to report it to our team by filling out this form here. This ensures our team will see the issue and we can get it into our system for review. You can also find our current list of PC Known Issues here.
Our team is preparing hot fix 1.1.6 for PC to address many of these top known issues, including overpowered loiters and planes, and you can expect it early next week after some additional testing. We know this might cause some frustration over the weekend, but we appreciate your patience as we work on this.
Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition Launch
We’re very happy to be welcoming all our new Xbox and PlayStation 5 players to the Company of Heroes community! The reception and feedback have been terrific so far. We plan to roll out an initial hot fix to address some of the top issues affecting console players in the next couple of weeks. As we mentioned above, reach out to our support team if you’re having any issues. Be sure to review the Console Known Issues list here.
The Pub Landlord himself, Al Murray, helped us launch CoH3 on console. Check out his briefing in the Console Edition launch trailer!
DEVELOPER SITREP
What’s Next?
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for everyone at Relic, and we’re very grateful to all of you for the kind words of support you’ve sent our way. We know there was some concern about the future of Company of Heroes, but after some restructuring, our team is set up to support and continue improving CoH3 for the foreseeable future. You can find more details about “what’s next” for Company of Heroes in our Road Ahead of Us blogpost. Not only do we talk about next month’s update, Emerald Bear, but we commit to a steadier communication cadence, and we shared our updated Priorities Map for June and July.
Brass Leopard Preview
Early in May, we also sat down with our designers Marco (Marcus2389) and Miguel (DevM) for a quick preview of all the changes coming to Brass Leopard. Check out their insights from the livestream!
We also love seeing the projects, screenshots, art and more that you are creating and working on! Be sure to tag us @companyofheroes and use the hashtag #CoHCommunity so we can check out and share your amazing creations.
First up, is one of our recent favorite memes from Reddit moderator, Viceroy.
Next, for all our co-op players out there, we highly recommend Shadowphreak’s Comp Stomp II. Repel the enemy advance and destroy them!
Cpl. Chen over on the official Discord has been sharing some heart-pounding moments from the battlefield. Check them out!
That’ll be it for this Wire Report! Don’t forget to submit your content for consideration by using the hashtag #CoHCommunity or by sharing screenshots, links and videos on our Discord or Forums.
This update focuses on several quality-of-life improvements, gameplay changes, bug fixes and more. We feel these changes should provide many iterative improvements to the overall feel and experience of CoH3. You can find all of the changes below, or an overview here, along with a video summary here.
In this update, you will find the following:
Audio improvements
Additional intel warnings
New sound effects audio mixes
Gameplay feature improvements
Camera height
Event cues
Player names and colors
Gameplay changes
Plane and loiter changes
Mignano Gap and Gazala Landing Ground map fixes
A new 3 vs 3 map available in:
Skirmish
Custom games
Co-Op vs AI
Several improvements to the single player experience
Italian campaign bug fixes
NEW CONTENT
Catania Crossing - 3 vs 3 Map
Adding a new 3 vs 3 bridge map released exclusively for Skirmish, Custom Games and Co-Op vs AI modes.
A return to classic CoH bridge maps, based on the Allied Landings in Sicily.
Features dense urban combat around critical bridge crossings, perfect for those who wish to hunker down and outlast their enemy.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
Audio
British Forces – War Cry ability
All players will now hear a trench whistle followed by a crowd swell indicating the ability has been activated.
Camera
The camera now allows players to zoom out an additional 5 meters using the scroll wheel increasing the overall zoom level.
Event Cues
Event Cues are now aligned over top of the minimap.
Event Cues priority has been adjusted across the board to prevent less important cues taking over more relevant ones.
Event Cues now allow players to click and select units behind them.
Event Cues are now limited to how many can display on screen at the same time
The background transparency of Event Cues has been reduced to improve readability
Event Cues lifetime on screen will adapt based on player interaction. Event Cues that are not interacted with will be unchanged. Event Cues that are clicked will be considered “seen” and their total lifetime will be reduced by 5 seconds. For example:
A ‘grenade incoming’ event cue appears on screen. The player clicks on it after 10 seconds, the event cue immediately disappears as its total lifetime has been reduced to 5 seconds when becoming ‘seen’.
The same event cue appears on screen again, this time the player clicks on it after 1 second: the event cue will be considered ‘seen' and will remain for 4 more seconds, as its total lifetime has been reduced to 5 seconds.
Maps
Gazala Landing Ground
Minor adjustments to Strategic and Victory Point locations to ensure the Western points favor the Southern team and Eastern points favor the Northern team.
Mignano Gap
Improved the southernmost engagement area (the bottom of the valley) to be approachable from more angles
Removed cover from Greek staircases to prevent unintended balance issues.
Territory layout adjusted to ensure a fair dispersal of munitions resources near each Team's HQ areas.
Planes
The intent of the changes to airplanes and loiters is to deliver more believable-looking visuals along with better responsiveness and game feel. When a player clicks, it’s essential that the feedback on the ability be more immediate. As always, we are looking into new ways to bring you an immersive experience, so we’ve adjusted the visuals and deformation on airplane crashes, dives, and projectile speeds.
Standardized airplane arrival times:
Utility based airplanes (includes smoke & recon runs): 3 seconds
Strafing runs: 5 seconds
Bombing runs: 7 seconds
Airplanes now start their dives earlier to allow for a less aggressive angle.
Airplanes speed increase while loitering from 36 m/s to 72 m/s.
Airplanes turn angles are increased from 25 degrees to 60 degrees.
Adjusted Airplane crashes to create deformation and include a new effect.
Adjusted Airplane crashes to damage environmental objects.
Adjusted Airplane debris to last longer.
Adjusted Airplanes doing dives to only drop the projectile when at a distance from the target as opposed to only when on top of the target.
Adjusted Airplane abilities flares to match the center of the ability reticule.
Adjusted Airplane abilities reticule colors to match the proper intention of the ability (green for utility, red for damage)
Airplanes performing paradrop abilities are now invincible.
Airplanes performing Mark Target abilities now show a proper indicator on the target.
Airplane Weapon & Projectile Changes
Adjusted projectile speeds overall to be 2x to 3x times faster.
Adjusted bombs to have a 1.5x damage modifier against buildings and emplacements.
Adjusted deformation to better match the area of effect of some of the explosions.
Adjusted strafing runs to have an area of effect of 45m length.
Adjusted strafing runs to cover the area within 1s as opposed to 3s.
Loiter changes
Loiters no longer acquire new targets in base sectors.
Loiters now display a ground indicator that reflects the target acquisition area.
Loiters now display an indicator on top of the unit they are targeting.
Loiters now properly display the time left for the ability to end.
Loiters now take longer in between passes.
Afrikakorps
Stuka Dive Bomb munition cost from 250 to 150.
Wehrmacht
Fragmentation Bomb now drops 6 bombs instead of 4.
Fragmentation Bomb now has two airplanes in formation.
Plane bug fixes
Airplanes performing a Mark Target will now leave the field properly if the target is destroyed.
Loiter airplanes no longer leave the field pre-emptively which was causing instances where instead of two airplanes loitering there would be only one.
Various Audio fixes missing voiceovers in different airplane abilities.
Player Names
A new bindable hotkey has been added to the Controls settings, allowing players to customize the button to temporarily toggle player names. Default has been set to CTRL.
A toggle for player names has been added to the game settings both while in a match and in the main menu
ON: Player names will be permanently displayed under the unit decorator.
OFF: Player names will not display under the unit decorator permanently, but players will still be able to toggle them temporarily using their assigned hotkey.
Player names will be displayed on unit information cards.
Player names will be using player’s selected color scheme in the UI (compatible with both team and unique colors). This will apply to names displayed in the RTS layer, on the unit card and in the player list.
Unique team / player colors
Team and Unique colors now apply to player names.
Team and Unique colors now apply to units' health bars on the unit cards.
Territory point flag and capture UI now uses team colors rather than unique colors.
Player List
Added a tooltip when hovering with the mouse on Battlegroups in the Player List, containing the Battlegroup name and a brief description.
All Battlegroups from each player’s loadout will now be visible in the player list: it will no longer be possible to check which Battlegroups other players have picked.
Player names will respect the color scheme chosen by the player in the Gameplay settings: when Team Colors are enabled, the player will be assigned the blue color, allies the yellow color and opponents the red color. When enabling Unique Colors, the player’s team will be assigned the cold color palette, and the opposing team will be assigned the warm colors palette.
Team 1 and 2 background colors standardized to blue for player team and red for opponents’ team.
Bugfixes & improvements
Fixed a save issue where the objective UI language was incorrect when loading a save that was made in a different language.
Fixed an issue with the main menu background not appearing.
Improved indication of resolution on the settings screen when borderless Fullscreen window mode is selected.
Improved mouse compatibility and clamping while in windowed mode.
Textbox now properly displays when chatting with friends.
Audio
Added a new sound effect to campaign map captures.
Added an intel announcement for allied-controlled points that are attacked or taken by the enemy.
Afrikakorps Mortar Units have found their voice. Fixed an issue where recrewed Afrikakorps Mortar Units would have no voice lines.
Capture point now always plays capture sound when neutralized.
Fixed audio sound effects when capture points are neutralized.
Fixed certain British vehicles not using American lines after being restored by the American recovery vehicle.
Fixed unnecessary intel message that played when using a CWT truck to recrew a team weapon.
Paratrooper Squad's M1 Carbine now uses unique firing sound effects.
Recon ability sound effects will no longer be heard in the fog of war.
The Humber 15mm turret's sound effect now correctly matches fire rate and animation.
US Forces halftracks now uses different audio after being upgraded.
US Forces Intel referred to pathfinders as scouts when deployed from HQ. They are now correctly referred to as pathfinders.
Victory and Defeat music on the results screen is now no longer affected by the muffling effect on remaining battle sounds.
Voice over
Fixed silent voice over line at the end of the Defend Potenza mission.
Intel voiceover warnings for weapon crews such as Anti-Tank guns and Mortars did not play when the unit was lost. Warnings now play correctly.
M2A1 Howitzers now has working voice over lines.
Refined the voiceover selection logic to reduce the repetition of memorable lines.
Squads garrisoned in buildings now give a voiceover warning when the building is at risk of being destroyed.
Victory and Defeat screen voiceover will now always play.
Art
Afrikakorps Panzergrenadiers now understand how boots work, therefore their legs no longer clip through their boots. It’s leg day!
Anzio Annie crew now stands on the gun, where they should be.
British Forces M1 Pack Howitzer Team now uses the correct models and portrait.
Colors on the Afrikakorps Bersaglieri squad rifles have been adjusted to better match the unit.
CWT AA Mount seat no longer clips through benches.
Fixed smoke trails to match team colors.
Flame attacks correctly apply charring to vehicles.
Heavy machine guns no longer floats when the M8 Greyhound is destroyed.
Kattenkrad Recon Vehicle now produces debris when destroyed.
US Forces M1 carbine now uses the correct semi-automatic animation.
Gameplay
Fixed a scaling issue where unit paths would be the wrong size on the minimap.
Fixed an issue where the cover dots indicators would be rendered floating in the air.
Fixed an issue where the game was not updating the player correctly when an enemy neutralized one of the player's team-controlled sectors, and still showing the neutralized territory as player owned. With this change, after a point is neutralized by the enemy team, the player would correctly see it as neutral on both the RTS and the minimap/tactical map layers.
Fixed an issue where the minimap did not orient north correctly.
Fixed an issue where units got stuck when trying to exit certain buildings while retreating.
Fixed an issue with some environmental vehicles being targetable as if they were enemies.
Fixed A.I. players not supplying a direction to directional targeted abilities. This A.I. will now be using directional targeted abilities, such as the German Wespe Creeping Barrage veterancy ability.
Fixed several instances of overly zealous infantry running towards the enemy when retreating.
Fixed several issues related to bridges not correctly having cover.
Loiter planes no longer disappear off map while performing abilities.
Updated Line of Sight generated by capture points to be more consistent with past CoH games.
Localization
Added Japanese text display improvements.
Adjusted and simplified tooltip text throughout the game.
Fixed several typos and inconsistencies in texts.
Fixed an issue with subtitles in Campaign not appearing at the correct time.
Improved localization in all languages and integrated missing translations.
Maps
Added missing cover to several objects in the environment.
Fixed an issue on Aere Perennius where the map zone/territory would be drawn incorrectly between ruined buildings.
Fixed an issue where certain buildings would make units garrisoned inside invincible.
Fixed an issue where territory lines did not display correctly on stairs.
Fixed missing collision on large standing fuel container on L'Aquila map.
Fixed several issues with indestructible hedges.
Fixed several issues with small objects taking up too much space and blocking unit movement.
Updated balustrades to provide cover as expected (identically to stone walls).
Updated hangar assets to no longer provide cover. Suspended sections were wrongfully providing cover to units beneath them.
Updated map edge visuals on Torrente, including railway tunnel and rail lines.
Improved width of impasse around some cliff areas across multiple maps to reduce clipping.
Modding tools improvements & bug fixes
Added first ability archetype “equip_and_fire_weapon”. This archetype is intended primarily for infantry to replicate the functionality of abilities such as grenades or panzerfausts. It will equip a weapon of the chosen name or hardpoint index and fire it X times at the target. The caster entity(ies) must have the weapon assigned to that hardpoint in order to cast.
Introduced “custom properties”, which allow modders to adjust the variables that will be read by state tree scripts to allow variations of existing ability archetypes. Custom properties are only used for a specific ability state tree script, however any ability that references that state tree script can re-use the same variable names to create the same effect.
Introduced the concept of an “ability archetype” -- These are template abilities that can be cloned to easily create variations using custom properties. For now, this is just the “equip_and_fire_weapon” ability with the potential to release more in the future. Previously, if you modded an ability like the rifleman’s grenade, it could only ever throw that specific grenade. Now a modder could adjust which weapon to swap in and how many shots to fire by copying the equip_and_fire_weapon ability and changing those properties.
It will also be possible to use custom properties to adjust values on some of the abilities that do not yet have a formal archetype created, such as any of the flight abilities we reworked this patch and abilities such as Repair, which now exposes several tuning handles to adjust the repair amount.
Tuning pack mods can now have their files reference each other without crashing on load
Updated the default atmosphere to the latest day lighting version, this should improve the modding experience with default settings.
Performance
Fixed a crash that would sometimes occur when skipping a cutscene.
Fixed an issue where capped fps was higher (by as much as 10fps) than the set cap due to sometime not being accumulated frame-to-frame.
Reduced memory increases across missions.
Single Player
Fixed an issue that caused some objectives to be started multiple times.
Fixed an issue where campaign save/load would become inaccessible after creating a skirmish game in single player.
Fixed a crash that sometimes happened when loading a save game.
Fixed mission failed dialog in certain campaign missions.
Fixed several issues of missing voiceover dialog in campaign missions.
Fixed several issues with camera fadeouts flickering or happening at the incorrect time during mission sitreps.
Dynamic Italian Campaign
AA Emplacements can no longer shoot at Supply Crates.
AA emplacements no longer attack ships in the single player campaign.
Added a fix for a specific Save/Load issue that affected a kill counter not updating properly in Fire with Fire mission.
Added Relevant requirement text to the Heal, Repair, Encircle abilities when out of range.
Adding correct portraits to Supply Drop Crates.
Displaying correct description text on Supply drop Crates.
Adjusted description for the following UK Artillery company abilities/upgrades to more accurately match their functionality in-game:
Battle Hardened - Raises minimum Veterancy Level of Gurkha Rifles to 2.
First Class Fighting Men - Raises minimum Veterancy Level of all infantry squads to 1.
Adjusted out of bounds vista in Salerno to make for a smoother transition in the distance.
Adjusted timing of Conti's Voice Over so it no longer overlaps with the sitrep.
Assassinate Baumann object will no longer auto-complete and the mission can be played.
Campaign Map A.I. no longer uses bombardment abilities from its ships and howitzer emplacements outside the playable area.
Combat music no longer starts immediately after intro to the Pomigliano airfield mission.
Companies requisitioned through a seaport now have the proper cost modifiers applied to their Heal and Repair abilities.
Disabled the forward artillery ability in Salerno until the player gets access to a base.
During campaign skirmishes, enemy squads no longer pick up supply caches at the start of the 'Recover Discarded Supplies' bonus objective.
Enemy companies in the single player campaign now use recon abilities more consistently.
Errant intel no longer plays before Corporal Conti's objective outline at the beginning of random encounter skirmishes in the Italian Campaign.
Fixed a bug in the Italy campaign that caused the bombing run to fail after capturing 3 towns in the Volturno Line.
Fixed a bug in which narrative lines in the Ice Cream event could play out of order.
Fixed a narrative bug in the Winter Line mission where a line's audio was assigned to the wrong character.
Fixed a narrative bug in the Operation Morning Glory mission where a line's audio was assigned to the wrong character.
Fixed a narrative bug in the The Great Ammo Robbery mission where a line's audio was missing and assigned to the wrong character.
Fixed an issue causing input to be blocked when exiting loading screens in certain cases
Fixed an issue in the Anzio mission in the Italy campaign where enemy units would spawn during a cutscene.
Fixed an issue on certain campaign missions where US Forces infantry were not properly displaying veterancy options.
Fixed an issue where Paratroopers would get stuck in specific areas of Ortona.
Fixed an issue where Partisan capture ability would sometimes not do anything
Fixed an issue where the British Armoured Company Fuel Airdrop tooltip was incorrect when it was upgraded to drop 3 fuel crates and still referred to 2.
Fixed an issue where the Destroying the Gun's objective in the Italy Campaign mission in Gela would not complete properly before ending the mission.
Fixed an issue where units could have more movement points than their max movement points upon a new turn if they lost some supply on the previous turn
Fixed an issue with certain bridges on River Crossing Rescue not allowing vehicles to cross properly.
Fixed an issue with certain bridges where paratroopers would be unable to cross them after spawning on the wrong side.
Fixed German Mechanized Company that retreated on the Campaign Map near Camino that would get stuck and become un-targetable.
Fixed an issue that would make a company unusable if they were paradropped onto a destroyed town.
Fixed an issue where C-47 transport aircraft that were spawned in airfields that were captured by companies with the Air Support trait weren't displaying in the airfield management page.
Fixed an issue where planes were spawned hovering over Foggia if it was captured on the same turn as the objective to capture it was started.
Fixed an issue where ships moved via the Transfer Seaports ability weren't able to move on following turns.
Fixed an issue where the population cap was not increasing properly when picked as a reward for completing the southern foothold objective.
Fixed an issue with the Campaign map torpedo ability when used from Carriers that allowed it to be used against enemy land units and friendly ships.
Fixed lighting on battleships.
Fixed Partisan support ability sometimes not being selectable in skirmish/mission
Fixed post mission death animations for defending company playing on top of the initiating company
German Companies can no longer heal within the first 10 turns unless they are near a Hospital or Triage Centre.
German Company affecters/icons correspond with their Company Type
In the Anzio mission, aircraft can now be used without being shot down if the Destroy AA Guns objective was previously completed.
In the Enigma retrieval mission, added a small lump sum of manpower when the special aid station is captured to allow for limited reinforcements. The limited amount is to preserve a raiding party/commando fixed force feel that is smaller in scope than a typical skirmish or a larger scenario. A notification to the player is given when they get the resource.
Italian Campaign Finale Mission - Fixed an issue that prevented description text from appearing on the Swap Company ability button.
Navy Salvage and Repair abilities have been moved so they are no longer overlapped by other abilities
Removed friendly fire damage from area of effect abilities like Barrage, Bombardment, and Bombing Run in the Campaign.
Repair and Heal cost no longer increase on Save/Load
Re-trimmed boundaries in Calabria prologue so mountainous regions are more reliably recognized as impassable terrain.
Smoothed airplane turning for certain bombing run and supply run abilities.
Some missions in the Italian campaign now only trigger once.
The enemy territory that exists directly East of the player base in Gela now becomes player owned once the territory point to its north is captured by the player.
The Foggia mission now correctly registers when intel has been destroyed.
The Paratrooper tooltip has been updated to reflect that Paratroopers can be paradropped anywhere outside the enemy base, rather than only within friendly territory.
The rewarded Destroyer is no longer stuck at the seaport after repairing the seaport
Tiger Heavy Tank call-in can no longer get stuck behind the Wehrmacht HQ on the Winter Line map.
North African Operation
Corrected historical facts on a loading screen that claimed Italian and German troops clashed with British forces in 1940, when German forces did not arrive until February 1941.
Finale Mission - Fixed units clipping into each other during the introductory camera pan.
Fixed an issue where players had access to battlegroups from other factions in the desert village ambush mission.
Fixed an issue where destroying enemy vehicles for an optional objective would complete the primary mission objective and end the mission early.
Fixed an issue where sometimes victory cinematics at Tobruk would play twice.
Updated minor timing issues with camera sequences.
Skirmish
The Panzergrenadier Unit from the mechanized reserve can no longer equip MP40 in campaign skirmishes.
Tutorial
Adjusted the first few steps of the tutorial to restrict what the player can interact with. This change should improve clarity, limit confusion and guide new players more directly.
Fixed a minelaying tutorial tooltip staying active indefinitely.
Fixed an issue in the tutorial in which hint arrows were not being removed upon objective completion.
Fixed an issue that prevented some hint messages from appearing.
Minor additional instruction hint added to the aid post tutorial sequence.
Stability
Improved desync handling to only remove the desynced player allowing the match to continue.
Fixed a crash that occurred when a voice over line was unavailable.
Fixed a frequent Italy Campaign crash triggered by a deleted capture point.
Store / Cosmetics
All soldiers in Captain's Retinue squad will get appropriate cosmetics instead of just the Captain.
Fixed a bug where the granted item window does not show the correct rarity color.
Winter Tundra Panzer IV’s turret accessories no longer flicker.
Winter Tundra Wirbelwind no longer leaves floating objects behind when destroyed.
Fixed issue with UK truck bed not getting camo.
Fixed issue of DAK Left Behind StuG III D not being available as an offer in the store.
Amazon Night Fighter vehicle crews now have their intended camo.
Brass Leopard - Mission Briefing
On June 6th, our team is releasing the next update for Company of Heroes 3, Brass Leopard (1.1.5), which focuses on quality-of-life improvements, gameplay changes, bug fixes and more. We showed a sneak preview of this mid-sized update in one of our last developer livestreams. You can check it out here. This will be a high-level overview of everything coming in Brass Leopard, with more detailed patch notes releasing tomorrow.
Find all the details below, or you can watch this quick summary:
OVERVIEW
Brass Leopard will include:
A new 3vs3 map in Co-op Automatch, Skirmish and Custom Games
Changes to Gameplay
Quality of Life improvements
Audio improvements
Mod Tool improvements
Bug Fixes
NEW CONTENT
Brass Leopard will include the new 3vs3 map Catania Crossing, which is very reminiscent of The Scheldt from the original Company of Heroes.
This map will be available in Co-Op Automatch, singleplayer Skirmish, or via Custom Games.
This map will not be coming to Player vs Player Automatch.
Catania Crossing, though more Co-Op focused, was a map we worked on earlier in development and was already near completion. Since it was now ready, we decided to make it available to players to offer more variety as soon as possible. It was designed as a cooperative map for more social experiences, and not necessarily for the highest levels of competitive play. As such, we felt it best to leave it out of PvP automatch.
We know our PvP fans are eager to see more maps in the automatch pool, and we’re happy to say that the next update will bring two new maps to all modes. One is a 3vs3 and the other is a 4vs4. We hope to have more news on those soon.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
All plane and loiter abilities have been overhauled, thanks in no small part to DevM (Miguel M). There are too many changes to cover here, but in summary, planes should look, feel and respond better, while maintaining the immersion we want players to experience in-game. Be sure to review the upcoming Brass Leopard patch notes for all the granular details.
Here’s a preview:
Plane timings have been standardized
Animations are more realistic
Crashes and debris have more impact
Terrain deformation from bombs & bombing runs is better
Projectiles are faster and more accurate
Paradrops are now invincible
Units acquired with a Mark Target ability now have an indicator
Loiters now display a ground indicator for their area-of-effect
QUALITY-OF-LIFE IMPROVEMENTS
We’ve introduced several quality-of-life improvements based on our Development Priorities map and the feedback we’ve been seeing from players.
Event Cues
Event cues have been updated to be more player-friendly and less intrusive with their on-screen real estate. They have also had their priority adjusted so that less important cues won’t override more critical ones. Additionally, event cue boxes will now allow players to click and select units behind them.
Player Names, UI & Team Colors
Units will now display the player name of their owner in the unit card. As in past CoH games, you can now bind a hotkey to toggle player names displayed under unit decorators. Player names under unit decorators can now be toggled on or off for the first time in the series – you can find this in the Settings menu.
We’ve also done a lot of work to unify how team colors and unique player colors work throughout the game. These will now apply to player names and unit health bars on the unit card. Territory flag and capture UI will now use team colors over unique colors to reduce confusion.
Players will no longer be able to instantly tell which Battlegroup other players have selected by checking the Player List. This will now display all the Battlegroups in each player’s loadout.
Camera Zoom
Based on player feedback, we’ve made some adjustments to the camera height while in a match. When you begin, the camera height will still default to its current position, however using the mouse scroll wheel, you can now zoom out an additional 5 meters. We feel this is a happy medium to give players some added flexibility while still ensuring the game feels like Company of Heroes.
Stability
Our team has done some work to help remove frustration that arises when a player desyncs from a match. Desyncs will now only disconnect the player that caused it, instead of ending the game for everyone in the same match. This should help with match and game stability across the board and alleviate griefing from players that purposefully force desyncs.
AUDIO
Several audio fixes and changes have gone into Brass Leopard. Many weapon and vehicle effects have been corrected or improved, such as the US Forces M1919 Browning, Sherman tank, and the Axis Flak36. The team continues to work to improve on the audio mix overall. We’ve also updated several intel announcements to ensure players are receiving the information they need during the most critical parts of a game.
MODDING TOOLS
This update will also include a small number of fixes to the modding tools to help reduce some pain points for our modders. Most notably, we are also introducing “ability achetypes” which are templates that can be cloned to easily create variations using custom properties. In plain English, this is a state tree workaround. We will include more details in the patch notes, but we hope these changes will empower our modders to create more complex and fun mods for players to check out in the near future.
BUG FIXES
One of our primary goals right now is to improve the overall quality of the CoH3 experience for all our players. That means we aim to bring as many bug fixes as possible in each update, and Brass Leopard is no exception. We have several fixes coming for maps, gameplay, art, audio and more to help bolster the game. Additionally, both the Dynamic Italian Campaign and the North African Operation will be getting several bug fixes for our singleplayer fans. You can find the line-by-line details and all the other bug fixes in our patch notes tomorrow.
CONCLUSION
We can’t wait to see and hear your feedback once you go hands-on with Brass Leopard! Be sure to jump into our official forums or Discord to discuss the update with other players and to leave us your thoughts. As always, your feedback helps inform our focus and helps guide the future of Company of Heroes 3. Don't forget that we've outlined our road ahead here. Our Community team will be hosting a live Q&A session on Brass Leopard on June 15th on Twitch, so be sure to tune in!
Company of Heroes 3 - The Road Ahead of Us
As you can imagine, last week has been a difficult week for our team, and we want to thank players for their support and positive messages as we took a few days to regroup. Today we want to address a highly discussed topic in our community — what’s next for Company of Heroes 3? As mentioned in the message posted to Relic’s Twitter, Relic and SEGA are fully committed to supporting Company of Heroes 3 on PC and console. We know there are areas of the game not meeting your, or our, expectations, and we will continue to iterate, improve, and communicate with you as we take on your feedback and plan future updates. Please understand that following this week’s studio events we are still adapting and organizing, and our goal is to answer some of your questions on our upcoming priorities and game updates as best we can.
What’s Next for Company of Heroes 3?
Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition release
Console Edition is releasing tomorrow, and we’re excited to welcome new players to our community. A welcoming, supportive, and growing community will allow us to continue supporting our game for years to come.
Brass Leopard PC Update (1.1.5)
This update is on target to release on June 6th and will include a new 3vs3 co-op map, changes to gameplay (including Planes and Loiters), quality-of-life improvements, audio improvements, mod tool improvements and several bug fixes. You can check out our preview livestream here. We will be posting patch notes and a more robust overview closer to the release.
Emerald Bear PC Update (1.2.0)
The Emerald Bear PC update following Brass Leopard is in its alpha stage and is planned for release in July. We will share more details about its contents once we complete our final testing. This patch is too far along in development to change any of its priorities; however, we are already reassessing priorities for subsequent updates. Once everything is locked in, we’ll share its release date and give you a sneak peek at what’s coming. Based on community feedback, we've dropped "Operation" from our update names to reduce any confusion about their size or scope
Communications Cadence
We intend to adhere to a more regular schedule of communications to ensure our players are kept up to date on all the latest news and updates.
Bi-weekly Wire Reports (starting June 9th) – these blog posts will aggregate news about the game along with the best player content we’re seeing. It will include answers to frequently asked questions, and occasional insights from our developers.
Bi-weekly livestreams (starting June 15th) – showcases, play sessions, Q&As with the Dev team, and more.
Be sure to let our team know what you think of our future updates, the sneak peeks, the before/afters we’ve showcased, and our livestream previews from Brass Leopard. If you liked these types of previews, we’ll aim to have more in the future!
The Road Ahead
Our team is committed to supporting Company of Heroes 3, and part of that support is building trust with our players and community. As mentioned above, we are reviewing and reassessing all our priorities for the game that are not already locked in for the June and July updates. You can see below that our Development Priorities roadmap has been adapted to reflect what content is coming, what is back on the table, and what has needed to shift.
There are a lot of topics on the table right now and plenty of conversations for our team to have. Those include (in no order of priority): additional multiplayer maps, a replay feature, vote to surrender, additional balance updates, planning for additional content, and how/when we could integrate community-made maps to the game.
We are also working on a longer-term roadmap to share with all of you, which will include descriptions of planned content and target dates. We are aiming to release this roadmap shortly after the July 1.2.0 PC update.
This overview is just the beginning, and we understand it does not cover every concern that the community has raised. What hasn’t changed is our team’s commitment to supporting Company of Heroes 3 and continuing to improve the experience for all our players. Thank you again for your kind messages and continued support as we focus on the road ahead. Join us tomorrow to welcome our new console fans to the community and get ready for next week’s Brass Leopard PC Update!
Company of Heroes 3 Player Survey
As a member of our CoH3 player community we would be very grateful if you could take 5 minutes of your time to complete this survey.
Your insights will guide our decision making process as we continue to support and enhance CoH3 alongside our players.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with us!
Development Priorities - Checking in!
Since the launch of Company of Heroes 3 in February, our team has received considerable player feedback, data, and information. Our principal focus has been on fixing urgent issues through hotfixes and supporting and improving your gameplay experience with larger updates.
With Operation Sapphire Jackal, we fixed over a thousand issues & bugs. In the same update, we also brought Challenges, Merit, and cosmetics to the game. These were not received as well as we hoped, notably due to a lack of transparent communication based on the feedback that you were giving us and our own team’s priorities.
So, we’ve reorganized, and we hope you will see improvements in our communication in the coming weeks as we are planning to give more insight into what happens behind the scenes during the live development of CoH3.
We’ve already begun this process with last week’s livestream where we offered insight into how our Design team approached the latest Balance Update. Additionally, we want to show you more of what is in the works at Relic for our next update. We saw quite a bit of feedback on our Development Priorities list, so we hope that this post today also provides insight into how we make decisions.
We are dedicated to supporting this game for years to come and our aim is to strengthen player trust with effective communication and action to back it up, as we continue to make CoH3 the best experience for all our players.
What is a Development priority list?
Our April Development Priorities
We wanted to provide more clarity on what “Development Priorities” means to our team, and what players can expect. What do the different columns mean? How are these items and features prioritized? Why are some items not listed here? Hopefully, we can answer some of those questions.
On Target
Last-minute technical problems notwithstanding, you should expect these items to be in the next one or two updates. That is the Soon™ list!
In Development
In the In Development phase, we are actively working on these items. However, they may not be slated for an upcoming release/update, or the timing of their delivery is still being nailed down. These items will be scheduled for a release as soon as they’re completed, or moved to On Target once we have a better idea of when we can deliver them.
Scouting
Items in the Scouting phase are in development but will need more time before you see them in game. We may be at the design phase, are still scoping it, or working on prototypes. Sometimes items in Scouting will be a larger undertaking for the team. For example, a new Expansion!
Subject to change
During development, unforeseen technical issues or new unplanned priorities might come up. This can impact any item on our Development Priorities list. These items might then be moved off of the list until they are closer to release.
What if the item I care about is not on the Development Priorities list?
This is meant to be a high-level list and is not representative of everything we are working on. With this list, we want to share the items that we know our team can deliver in a reasonable time and that players are interested in. Some larger features might take a while longer to show up on our Development Priorities, especially if they’re in very early stages, but they are likely still on our radar!
Our progress
Progress since the March Development Priorities list
Released in Operation Sapphire Jackal
Hundreds of bugfixes and improvements
Challenges, Merit and Cosmetics
The gameplay changes originally planned for that update were released earlier with the 1.0.5 balance hotfix, but our communications didn’t reflect it properly.
Released after Operation Sapphire Jackal
Hotfixes and stability patches
Balance update
Moved Items
Several items were moved up to On Target and In Development
On hold
Because we want to work on critical improvements to the game, we had to shift focus from some of the additional accessibility features we were working on. The work is just on hold for now until we are ready to get back to it and was removed from the list.
What is next?
The most recent Development Priorities list, as shown on last week's livestream
Balance Update
We released a Balance Update last week on April 20th
Next update
Remaining On Target items will be included in the next PC update.
As outlined in the above list, our focus right now is on improving the overall gameplay experience, rolling out fixes, adding additional quality-of-life features, and bringing new content to Company of Heroes 3. This means some requested items like Replays, Observer Mode or Ranked seasons aren’t on our short-term list for now. Those features are still important to us, but we feel that focusing first on improving the overall quality of the game will have a much larger impact on all our players' experience in CoH3.
Hopefully, this rundown of the Development Priorities list sheds some light on how our team prioritizes features, defines what those mean, explains how items make the list, and outlines when you can expect them to be delivered. Our team hopes to continue sharing more insights like this in the weeks and months ahead via blogs, developer livestreams, and more. Our next update to the Development Priorities list will come shortly after our next major update, Operation: CLASSIFIED, which is in the works. Stay tuned and we will have more information for you soon!
Balance Update - 1.1.4
We are excited to release our first major balance update in 1.1.4. In this update, our team has focused on several key areas to tone down oppressive strategies and increase unit and strategic diversity. We will continue to monitor unit/faction performance for future updates. In this Update you can expect:
General adjustment to balance for all factions
Balance pass over Battlegroups
Addressing the power of Forward Reinforcement
Significant changes and boosts to Heavy Machine Guns and Anti-Tank Gun teams
GENERAL GAMEPLAY CHANGES
Anti-Tank Rifles Afrikakorps Panzerjager Panzerbusche & British Corps Infantry Section Boys Anti-Tank Rifles Anti-Tank rifles are overperforming in their ability to shutdown vehicle play and engage targets while under suppression. The following changes address these cases and allow vehicles to kite Anti-Tank Rifle Units.
Range decreased from 40 to 35
Weapon cooldown modifier when suppressed increased by +50%
Auto-Reverse Distance Auto-reverse distance is being increased to reduce how often a player needs to use the Reverse ability and make it easier to back vehicles up during the heat of battle.
The distance a player can now right-click to issue an automatic auto-reverse command without using the auto-reverse ability has been set from 20 to 60
Barbed Wire
Armor increased from 1 to 10
Bunkers Wehrmacht Bunkers & Afrikakorps Heavy Machine Gun Bunker
Build times standardized to 20 seconds
Button Abilities Flak 30 AA Gun, M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage & M1919 Heavy Machine Gun Team Button has been overhauled to be less punishing. Buttoned vehicles can now fight back and will no longer be immobilized, allowing them to maneuver or retreat.
Button no longer disables weapons
Button now reduces sight by 50% and speed by 25%; speed penalty is increased to 50% on penetrating hits
Duration set to 15 seconds
Indicator now added when the ability is active
Recharge time standardized to 120 seconds
Forward Reinforcement Times We have adjusted forward reinforcement to lessen the power of front-line reinforcement, especially during combat. This should dramatically lower the efficiency of forward reinforcing, making it less oppressive in larger games.
Reinforcement time of in-combat units located +45m away from the HQ increased by +100% for a total of +200%
Reinforcement time of units located +45m away from the HQ increased by +100%
Mobile Anti-Tank Guns Anti-tank guns are seeing improvements across the board, increasing their reliability and performance against vehicles. Additionally, we have implemented key adjustments to minimize the frequency of shells striking the terrain ensuring a more consistent performance at long ranges.
Accuracy at long-range increased by 7%
Build times standardized to 40 seconds
Aim-time decreased from 0.5 to 0.125
Horizontal traverse speed increased from 16 to 24
Reinforcement time standardized to 5 seconds
Will hit objects and terrain significantly less
Mobile Heavy Machine Guns Heavy Machine Guns are seeing improvements across the board to address their unreliability in their anti-infantry / or “anti-blob” role.
Cost standardized to 240 manpower
Crew health increased from 80 to 90
Horizontal traverse speed increased from 35 to 50
Infantry now become pinned around 17% faster
Reinforcement time standardized to 5 seconds
Suppression radius increased from 13 to 15
Suppression recovery now takes 3 seconds longer
Smoke
Smoke duration decreased from 30 to 20 seconds
Snipers We are reducing the effectiveness of snipers when operating independently. They will now require spotters to utilize their full range and are more vulnerable to incoming fire. Furthermore, these units will now fire marginally slower.
Aim-times standardized to 1.75 seconds
Target size increased from 1.33 to 1.5
Vision range decreased from 45 to 35
Weapon cooldown increased from 3.5 to 3.75/3.825 seconds
FACTION CHANGES
US Forces
US Forces continues to struggle in team game modes where many of their advantages are less pronounced. Our focus for this patch has been to improve their mid-game options, reduce the price of certain upgrades, and strengthen their light vehicle play. 4x4 Truck
30cal machine gun lethality increased by 13%
Self-repair speed increased from 8 to 12
Self-repair duration increased from 10 to 15
Veteran ability Capture and Decapture speed increased from 100% to 125%
Advanced Logistics
Manpower cost reduced from 250 to 200
Assault Engineers
Reinforcement cost decreased from 25 to 23
Bazooka Team
The Destroy Obstacles ability damage penalty against infantry is increased from 25% to 75%
White Phosphorus Rocket ability cost increased from 25 to 35 munitions
Engineer
Reinforcement cost decreased from 25 to 23
Grenade Package
Fuel cost decreased from 25 to 15
Research time decreased from 30 to 25 seconds
High Velocity Armor Piercing Rounds M4A3E8 Sherman & M18 Hellcat
Can no longer pierce through shot-blocking obstacles
HVAP rounds now use the reload times of the parent vehicle’s main weapon, this is a general reload time decrease of 1 second resulting in increased rate of fire
M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage We have adjusted the M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage to be geared to destroying lighter vehicles and providing fire support against units like dug-in infantry and Heavy Machine Guns.
Aim-time decreased from 1 to 0.125
Barrage range decreased from 60 to 50
Barrage recharge decreased from 70 to 45 seconds
Penetration decreased from 300/250/220 to 200/160/140
Reload time decreased from 4/4.5 to 3.75 seconds
Rotation rate increased from 30 to 50
M3 Half-track
Conversion to M3 75mm Gun Motor Carriage decreased from 75 to 60 munitions
Manpower cost decreased from 270 to 250
Non-converted form now gains Shared Veterancy
M4 Sherman 105mm Dozer
Manpower cost decreased from 420 to 400
M8 Greyhound These changes are intended to increase the Greyhound’s performance against infantry in open terrain.
.30cal Coaxial Machine Gun lethality increased by 10% at all ranges
.50cal Pintle Machine Gun lethality increased by 20% at all ranges
Speed increased from 6.4 to 6.75
M8 Scott
Barrage minimum range decreased from 15 to 10
Cost decreased from 320 manpower and 60 fuel to 280 manpower and 50 fuel
High Explosive Barrage reload time decreased from 3/4 to 2/2.75 seconds
Horizontal weapon traverse speed increased from 30 to 45
Reload time decreased from 4.5 to 3.5/4 seconds
Vertical weapon traverse speed increased from 10 to 15
M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage
Armor decreased from 12.5/9.375/6 to 10/7/5
Can now use the Prioritize Vehicles ability
Damage against aircraft decreased by -77.5%
Weapon penetration decreased from 2.5/2/1.5 to 2.5/1.5/1.25
M24 Chaffee Light Tank These changes will make the unit more effective at hunting down other light vehicles, give it better maneuverability to flank heavier vehicles, and disengaging from enemy threats.
Acceleration from 2.5 to 3.5
Deceleration from 3.5 to 5.5
Manpower cost reduced from 320 to 300
Now has medium vehicle pathing and medium crush
Rotation rate from 35 to 40
Reload time decreased from 3.875/4.375 to 3.5/4 seconds
Speed from 5.5 to 6.5
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles
Research time decreased from 45 to 30 seconds
M1919 Heavy Machine Gun Team
Build time decreased from 45 to 30
Riflemen Pour it On’Em has received a heavy adjustment to its suppression. Previously, it allowed Riflemen to win all infantry engagements through suppression while also receiving a damage boost. Browning Automatic Rifles have also had their accuracy slightly increased to improve their effectiveness at range.
Browning Automatic Rifle long-range lethality increased by 15%
Browning Automatic Rifle mid-range lethality increased by 5%
Pour it On’Em
Area suppression removed
Recharge time from 120 seconds to 180 seconds
Weapon suppression adjusted; changes are a general decrease
Browning Automatic Rifle suppression decreased from 0.005 to 0.003
Garand Rifle suppression increased from 0.005 to 0.0075
Thompson SMG suppression decreased from 0.01 to 0.00075
Survival Training
Fuel cost decreased from 80 to 50
Health increase now applies to team weapon crews
M4A3E8 Sherman To differentiate the Easy Eight from regular 76mm Shermans, the High-Velocity Armor Piercing Rounds ability now comes as default, while also retaining the regular Sherman veterancy abilities, giving the tank excellent flexibility and options.
High-Velocity Armor Piercing Rounds veteran ability is now a default ability
Veterancy abilities changed to the match standard M4A1 Sherman – High Explosive Rounds and White Phosphorous Rounds
Sherman Whizbang
Cost reduced from 400 manpower and 100 fuel to 380 manpower and 80 fuel
Population cost decreased from 14 to 13
US Forces Battlegroups
Armored Battlegroup
Rapid Production Command Point cost decreased from 1 to 0
Seek and Destroy Command Point cost increased from 2 to 3
Strength in Steel Command Point cost decreased from 2 to 1
Field Repairs Field Repairs has been reworked to be easier to use and have a greater impact.
Ability duration increased from 30 to 45 seconds
Health restored per second increased from 11 to 20
Munitions cost decreased from 125 to 100
Will now activate if the vehicle is on the move
M4A3E8 Sherman Combat Group The cost of the combat group has been significantly reduced to better reflect the capabilities of the Sherman Easy Eight, its timing, and its position in the Battlegroup.
Cost decreased from 800 manpower and 120 fuel to 640 manpower and 100 fuel
Command Point cost decreased from 8 to 7
The Sherman Easy Eight will now enter the field carrying a Veteran Level 1 Assault Engineer Squad instead of the standard Rifleman Squad
Special Operations Battlegroup
Sherman Whizbang Command Point cost decreased from 6 to 5
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht is receiving boosts to its early game with improvements focused on the Panzergrenadier Kompanie to increase build and composition diversity. We are also addressing the dominance of Jägers across all game modes. 251 Medium Carrier
Conversion to Stummel cost decreased from 90 to 60 munitions
Non-converted form now gains Shared Veterancy
Riegel Mines now properly camouflage and trigger
Riegel Mine damage increased from 300 to 500
Riegel Mine deployment time from 11.5 seconds to 7.5 seconds
Armored Car 221
Cost decreased from 280 manpower and 30 fuel to 220 manpower and 25 fuel
Panzerbusche mid-range accuracy increased by 18%
Panzerbusche far-range accuracy increased by 43%
Speed increased from 6 to 7.75
Fallschirmjaeger
FG 42 ready-aim time from 0.125 to 0.5/1
Fallschirmpioneers
Reinforcement cost increased from 28 to 30 manpower
Flak 30 20mm Anti-Air Gun
Build time decreased from 50 to 45 seconds
Grenadiers Grenadiers have received several adjustments to slightly improve their performance, so they are in-line with other early game infantry.
Medical kit healing duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds
Medical kit healing rate per second reduced from 8 to 6
Veterancy Level 2 accuracy bonus multiplier increased from 10% to 15%
Veterancy requirements decreased from 900/2700/5400 to 800/2400/4800
Hulldown Ability This ability now has a delayed activation to prevent immediate defensive boosts.
Hulldown bonuses are activated 10 seconds after the ability is triggered.
An indicator was added to represent the countdown before the bonus triggers.
Jäger Light Infantry The Panzerschreck Jägers high flexibility, powerful base stats, and superior anti-tank capabilities have made them dominant in all modes. We are shaving off a significant amount of power from the unupgraded Jäger and Panzerschreck Jägers, emphasizing tradeoffs when opting out of the Reconnaissance Package.
Capture and decapture rate decreased from 150%/125% to 133%/100%
Smoke grenade range decreased from 45 to 35
Sight reduced from 42 to 35
Reconnaissance Package now increases vision by +7 and capture and decapture rate back to 150%/125%
Panzerschreck
Accuracy against infantry decreased by 50%
Area of effect damage removed
Long-range aim-time multiplier increased from +50% to +100%
Ready-aim time increased from 1/1.25 to 1.25/1.5 seconds
Scatter increased; rockets should no longer reliably scatter into vehicles at longer ranges
StuG III G Assault Gun We have made major changes to the StuG III to make the vehicle more attractive in larger and later games where it was unreliable at fighting enemy armor.
Acceleration increased from 1.9 to 2.67
Cost adjusted from 360 manpower and 50 fuel to 300 manpower and 60 fuel
Deceleration increased from 3 to 4
Long-range accuracy increased from 0.045 to 0.0475
Rotation rate increased from 30 to 40
Reload time decreased from 4/4.5 to 3.5/4 seconds
Weapon penetration increased from 180/140/110 to 250/180/140
Stosstruppen Stosstruppen have received a number of improvements to make them the premiere anti-infantry squad for their cost and timing.
Armor increased from 1 to 1.25
Reinforcement cost increased from 39 to 40
Overall DPS output increased by 13%
G43 accuracy increased from 62% / 61%/ 57% to 70% / 67% / 64%
G43 now properly reloads after 10 rounds fired, not 9
LMG accuracy from 46%/ 45%/ 40% to 48% / 47% / 44%
LMG will no longer spread damage on the targeted squads but instead focus down individual entities
StuG III D Assault Gun (Short Barreled)
Acceleration increased from 1.9 to 2.67
Deceleration increased from 3 to 4
Rotation rate increased from 30 to 40
Stummel Half-track The Stummel has been adjusted to make it a more effective fire-support unit against infantry through increased range and area of effect damage.
Auto-fire range increased from 40 to 45
Auto-fire minimum range removed
Area of Effect radius from 5 to 6
Area of Effect damage increased from 33% / 25% / 15% to 35 % / 25% / 20%
Penetration for barrage and auto-fire standardized to 20
Sturmpanzer IV Brummbar
Build time decreased from 55 to 45 seconds
Cost decreased from 440 manpower and 120 fuel to 440 manpower and 110 fuel
Rotation rate increased from 25 to 28
Reload time decreased from 8.25 to 6/6.25 seconds
Speed increased from 4 to 4.25
Wespe Self-Propelled Gun
Barrage recharge time reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
Creeping Barrage recharge time reduced from 180 to 70 seconds
Wehrmacht Battlegroups
Breakthrough Battlegroup Panzer IV Command Tank
Command Point cost reduced from 4 to 2
Luftwaffe Battlegroup
Luftwaffe is adjusted to be in-line with the other battlegroups.
Lg 40 Paradrop and Reserve Infantry abilities positions are now interchanged in the Battlegroup tree
Fallschirmjager Paradrop
Manpower cost increased from 340 to 380
Fallschirmpioneer Paradrop
Manpower cost increased from 260 to 280
Recharge time increased from 60 to 75 seconds
Mechanized Battlegroup
8 Rad Armored Car Command Point cost reduced from 3 to 2
Stosstruppen Assault Package Command Point cost reduced from 2 to 1
StuG III D Assault Group Command Point cost reduced from 4 to 3
Mechanized Assault
Munition cost increased from 80 to 120
British Forces
The British Forces’ dominance with massed infantry backed by powerful upgrades led to oppressive gameplay and reduced build and unit diversity. We have significantly reduced the effectiveness of these strategies, requiring the faction to rely on combined arms to get the most out of their units. Bishop Self-propelled Gun
Barrage recharge time increased from 30 to 45 seconds
B.L. 5.5 Inch Artillery Emplacement
Build time decreased from 70 seconds to 40 seconds
Centaur The Centaur has been improved to push the unit towards a mobile anti-infantry vehicle that deals steady damage to infantry, while being able to disengage from most threats.
Area of Effect radius increased from 4 to 6
Cost decreased from 380 manpower and 80 fuel to 360 manpower and 75 fuel
Horizontal traverse speed increased from 25 to 50
Reload speed decreased 6 to 4.5 seconds
Smoke Shot veteran ability now only fires 1 round
Speed increased from 5.2 to 6
CMP15 CWT AA Truck We have adjusted the CMP15 CWT AA Truck to primarily be geared to shooting down aircraft. We will be revisiting this unit in future updates.
Anti-aircraft range bonus from +600% to +1000%
Horizontal traverse speed increased from 120 to 160
Now deals +50% extra damage against aircraft
Range reduced from 45 to 40
Commando Light Machine Gun Section
Manpower cost reduced from 350 to 320
Population cost reduced from 9 to 8
Commandos
Reinforcement cost decreased from 40 to 31
Crusader II
Fuel has been increased to better reflect the performance of the Crusader.
Fuel cost increased from 60 to 70
Dingo
Coordinate Barrage and Decoy Flare range decreased from 60 to 45
Coordinated Barrage cost decreased from 45 to 35 munitions
Distribute Medical Supplies duration increased from 15 to 45 seconds
Distribute Medical Supplies recharge time decreased from 180 to 120
Infantry Section The following change now forces Infantry Sections to be in cover to gain their veterancy 1 ability bonuses, making them less effective when in the open.
Base of Fire passive veteran ability now requires the unit to be in cover to activate
Coordinated Barrage cost decreased from 45 to 35 munitions
Matilda II Heavy Tank
Population cost reduced from 14 to 13
Royal Engineer Section
Build time increased from 16 to 20 seconds
Training Center Upgrades The Training Center provided excessive value for its cost, could be confusing forplayers and enabled Veteran British units to heavily out scale their opponents. We have streamlined the combat bonuses to only apply once and removed the damage bonus. This significant reduction should maintain British units’ early-to-mid game power but result in a noticeable drop in late-game scaling.
Combat bonuses now only apply once to units with at least 1 level of Veterancy
Damage bonuses from all upgrades removed
No longer stacks per veterancy level. Is now a consistent 10% bonus that is applied only once
Vicker Heavy Machine Gun Team
Build time decreased from 41 to 30 seconds
British Forces Battlegroups
Air and Sea Battlegroup
Hawker Typhoon Anti-Tank Loiter Command Point cost increased from 3 to 5
Incendiary Bombing Run Command Point cost increased from 1 to 3
Naval Blockade
Duration reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
Munitions cost reduced from 80 to 50
British Armoured
Churchill Black Prince Command Point cost increased from 6 to 7
Indian Artillery These changes to the Battlegroup better reflect the power of Volunteer Infantry and its role as a middle to late game option that requires the player to commit to the end of the Battlegroup tree to obtain.
War Cry and Volunteer Infantry positions swapped; command point costs for both abilities unchanged
4.2 Inch Heavy Mortar
Cost increased from 440 manpower to 440 manpower and 20 fuel
Perimeter Monitor
Perimeter Monitor Cost increased from 150 to 225 munitions
Afrikakorps
The Afrikakorps were oppressive in its middle and late game while also being overly vulnerable early on. We are making minor adjustments to even this out by strengthening its early game and reducing the power of their Armory upgrades. 250 Light Carrier These changes should allow Afrikakorps players to delay building dedicated healing.
20mm autocannon conversion cost reduced from 75 to 60 munitions
Build time reduced from 40 to 35 seconds
Distribute Medical Supplies duration increased from 15 to 45 seconds
Distribute Medical Supplies recharge time decreased from 180 to 120
Advanced Field Repairs
Manpower cost reduced from 250 to 200
Booby Trap
Armor reduced from 35 to 1
Emergency Repair Kits
Manpower cost increased from 250 to 325
Fire Support Elements
Cost reduced from 150 manpower and 45 fuel to 100 manpower and 40 fuel
Flak 36 88mm Anti-Tank Gun
Build time increased from 30 to 45 seconds
Flakvierling Half-track The Flakvierling Half-track is having its effectiveness increased to better reflect its timing and role as a low durability, but high firepower unit.
Accuracy increased from 40% / 35% / 30% to 44% / 42% / 36%
Angle scatter reduced from 8 to 3
Burst duration increased from 1.75/2.5 to 3.5/4 seconds
Weapon cooldown reduced 2/2.5 to 1.5 seconds
Weapon long-range cooldown multiplier increased by 50%
Guastatori Guastatori have been adjusted to remove their anti-vehicle snare, focusing their role as an anti-infantry and anti-garrison unit. Their cost has been reduced to reflect this.
Anti-tank satchel ability removed
Manpower cost reduced from 440 to 400
Now able to plant regular mines
T.35 Gas Mask ability now requires Veteran Level 1
Kradschutzen Motorcycle Team Build times are being reduced to improve the standard Afrikakorps openings, that include Panzergrenadiers.
Build time reduced from 35 to 30 seconds
L6/40 The armor of the L6/40 has been increased, pushing this unit towards a low health vehicle that is immune to Heavy Machine Guns and small arms.
Armor increased from 40/20/15 to 50/40/25
Flamethrower munition cost reduced from 75 to 50
Le.IG 18 Support Gun
Build time reduced from 61 to 45 seconds
MG 34 HMG Team
Build time set to 30 seconds
Pak 38 Anti-Tank Gun Team
Manpower cost reduced from 290 to 260
Panzerjaeger Panzerjaeger Tear Gas Shot ability no longer creates a White Phosphorous Cloud explosion effect. The performance is unaffected. Panzergrenadier Squad Build times are being reduced to improve the standard Afrikakorps openings, that include Panzergrenadiers.
Build time reduced from 25 to 20 seconds
Rapid Advance
Rapid Advance manpower cost increased from 250 to 325
StuG III D Assault Gun
Acceleration increased from 2.5 to 2.67
Deceleration increased from 3 to 4
Rotation rate increased from 30 to 40
Support Advance ability range reduced from 60 to 45
Support Advance ability toggle recharge now from 0 to 5
Tungsten Rounds Tungsten Rounds is having its damage bonus removed as they added too much passive power for Afrikakorps vehicles against infantry and vehicles. Penetration bonuses have been slightly increased to compensate.
Damage bonus removed
Penetration bonus increased from 20% to 25%
Vehicle Survival Package We are lowering the durability bonus so most vehicles, when combined with Emergency Repair Kits, can survive one additional hit rather than two.
Health bonus reduced from 80 to 40
Afrikakorps battlegroups
Armored Support
Assault Salvage Command Point cost reduced from 3 to 2
Panzer III Flame Tank Command Point cost increased from 3 to 4
Panzer Storm Command Point cost reduced from 3 to 2
Superior Fire Drills Command Point cost reduced from 2 to 1
Stuka Anti-Tank Loiter Command point increased from 3 to 5
Veteran Gunners Command Point cost reduced from 2 to 1
Italian Combined Arms
Force Recon Command Point cost reduced from 2 to 1
Secure Location Command Point cost reduced from 2 to 1
Bug Fixes
Dingo is now properly affected by Training Center upgrades
Fixed an issue where all Marders would take additional damage on rear-hits
Fixed an issue where Improvised Armor did not apply to M4A1 Sherman 76mms and Sherman Whizbangs
Fixed an issue where mines would suppress retreating units
Fixed an issue where Paratrooper carbines did not ignore cover at short-range
Fixed an issue where the Commando Grenade had minimum range
Fixed an issue where the Training Center Upgrades would not apply
Fixed an issue where the Wehrmacht 8 Rad Armored Car did not share the same mobility or autocannon stats with its Afrikakorps counterpart
Fixed an issue where the White Phosphorous Rounds for the MG 42 would cause a Blind effect on vehicles
Fixed an issue where veterancy 3 was not providing the correct bonus to Anti-Tank Guns
Riegel Mines now properly camouflage and trigger
In Conversation with Steve Mele
Following Company of Heroes 3’s launch in February, the entire team has been busy rolling out hot fixes, addressing bugs, and releasing our first major update with Operation: Sapphire Jackal. Throughout all of this we’ve been seeing lots of valuable feedback from our amazing community, and as we’ve been doing throughout development, we want to keep you in the loop.
John from the Community team sat down with Company of Heroes 3 Executive Producer Steve Mele for a conversation about what we’ve been up to, some of the key areas we’re looking to address based on your feedback, and what’s next for Company of Heroes 3.
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John: Thanks Steve for taking the time to chat with me and answer some of our community’s questions. First, I wanted to quickly go over the launch of Company of Heroes 3. From your perspective, what are the big takeaways from the last few weeks?
Steve: It’s been incredible, and busy! Interacting with the community has really highlighted the player outreach and interest in Company of Heroes 3. It’s just such a big game, it’s easily the biggest Company of Heroes game we’ve delivered at launch. We’re really excited about the breadth of experiences we were able to provide with four factions, the Italian Dynamic Campaign, North African Operation, and new features like Full Tactical Pause. This is a beloved franchise with dedicated fans, and it’s always exciting to finally get the game in players’ hands to enjoy.
We’ve also been listening to feedback around issues that are preventing players from enjoying CoH3 as much as we want them to be. Some of that feedback we’ve already been able to address in the hot fixes since launch, and in our first major update we just released, Operation: Sapphire Jackal. We still have lots of work to do to make CoH3 the best it can be, and we’re committed to giving it the same level of support we did for past CoH titles with updates and new content for years to come.
John: One of the new programs we championed throughout production was our player-focused approach, CoH-Development. Can you talk about how we incorporated early feedback while working on Company of Heroes 3?
Steve: We knew right from the jump that we wanted to get players involved as early as possible. That feedback really helped us validate the directions we wanted to take, like moving to a Mediterranean theatre, which isn’t very common in World War II games, as well as the Dynamic Campaign being a feature that sounded exciting and made sense for a CoH game. CoH-Development was also vital in making sure that we introduced new features like Full Tactical Pause in a smart way, helping us with our goal to provide options for players, especially those who are new to the franchise or to strategy games, without sacrificing the core CoH experience that veterans expect. As those features came to life, being able to let people play early versions of the game allowed us to see how things were working, and even get a head start on balance, map designs, and more.
It’s always a balance, because there were areas where we were confident we knew where we wanted to take the experience. CoH-Development was always intended as a way to validate, correct where it made sense, and bring our community along for the ride. I really can’t express how valuable it was to have that level of communication with our dedicated players so early.
John: Speaking to that feedback and communication loop with our players, what does that look like now that we’ve launched?
Steve: It’s important to say that the work doesn’t stop when the game launches. It’s actually the opposite - we believe that this is where the real work begins, because we’re committed to Company of Heroes 3. Any of our players who experienced CoH2 on launch day compared to what it is now knows how much it continued to evolve with added content, maps, bug fixes, and balance patches. We plan on evolving Company of Heroes 3 for years to come as well.
More specifically to your question, our players are critical to that evolution. Relic has been around for over 25 years. In those early days we weren’t able to continue to evolve our games the way we are now, and we sure weren’t able to speak to our players so quickly and so directly. Our Community team is incredible. They’re constantly bringing feedback from players straight to the team about what people are loving, and what we still need to work on. The Community and Production teams then work together to look at our data and our roadmap, since often what people are asking for is actually something we’re already working on. Then, when we know we can commit to delivering something great, we’ll share that back with the players so they know they’re being heard.
John: What about bigger features? How does the team decide what we include for launch, and what comes further down the road?
Steve: That’s a great question. The short answer is lots and lots of very difficult decisions throughout the entire development process, because we want to do it all. I won’t get too into the details of how games are developed, but it’s worth mentioning that CoH3 is developed on Essense Engine 5, the newest version of Relic’s proprietary engine technology. When players tell us CoH3 plays and feels just like a Company of Heroes game should, that’s a huge win because moving to a new engine always brings some challenges along with it. We knew that in order to evolve our gameplay in exciting ways and bring in new features like the Dynamic Campaign and Full Tactical Pause, we couldn’t just bring over what we had built before. We had to do a lot of work to make it happen.
Deciding where to spend our time and resources is always difficult, because we’re huge CoH fans too. Every map, mode, faction, and feature of past CoH titles has its fans at Relic. However, one thing we all knew was that to justify releasing a proper numbered sequel that we can call Company of Heroes 3, it had to be more than just new maps and missions. Our team is so talented, and they had a lot of ideas as to what a Company of Heroes game, and what a strategy experience, means in 2023. Our primary goal was to provide players with something new and exciting, both for the franchise and for Relic. That lead us to Company of Heroes 3, which is by far the most content we’ve ever included in a game at launch. As developers we will always want extra time to add this or that. But there's a point where you have to release the game, get it in players’ hands, and start getting that feedback to help crystalize where we can go from here.
We know there are features players still want to see, and we knew that was going to be the case when we launched. What I can say is we’ll be supporting this game for a long time, and some of those features are already being mapped out.
John: Let’s talk about our first major update, Operation: Sapphire Jackal. I think the big question from players with this update was why we focused on rolling out Challenges and cosmetics before some of those additional features we know players are requesting. Can you elaborate on that?
Steve: As I touched on, we had a couple of main goals with Company of Heroes 3. The first was to deliver the biggest Company of Heroes experience to date. I’m proud of where we landed on that - CoH3 has a huge breadth of content and features, a brand-new theatre, and some of the most ambitious missions and set pieces ever seen in the franchise. Second, we knew we wanted to support CoH3 for a long time. That support will come from a number of areas including updates and balance patches, new maps and modes, and substantial DLC expansions. We know from past CoH titles that player customization is a big deal for our fans, especially in multiplayer battles, and we wanted to ensure there was a way for players to express themselves in-game as soon as we could. Cosmetics in Company of Heroes 3 are just that, purely cosmetic, and can be obtained via premium currency as well as a selection obtained with Merit, an in-game currency earned by playing the game.
Challenges and cosmetics are features that were in development before the game was released. We were aiming to provide those for launch, but we decided to wait a bit while we focused on the core gameplay experience. Now that they’re out, we’re able to continue to iterate and improve them based on player feedback, as well as continue work on other features and updates we have planned.
John: Can you speak to any of our upcoming plans for Company of Heroes 3?
Steve: We’ve been listening to the feedback from our players, and right now our goal is to improve the gameplay experience for them. The team has been working hard, and in the weeks following launch we’ve been able to deliver multiple hot fixes and updates that have helped address many of the most common issues players have experienced. As developers, we never want there to be friction in a player’s ability to enjoy our game, and while we’ve made a lot of progress, we still have work to do there.
We’ve also just released Operation: Sapphire Jackal, our first major update that introduced a number of fixes and weekly Challenges. We’re currently working on introducing a major balance update, which players have been requesting, as well as a new multiplayer map and improvements to the user interface. The team here is so passionate, and working hard to make this a great experience for our players. While we can’t do everything at once, going forward you’ll continue to see a regular cadence of updates, balance patches, and content drops. Also, while I can’t say too much right now, we’re working hard on our first DLC expansion that I think players will love.
John: That’s all great news. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer some of these community questions, Steve. We’ll have to do this again!
Steve: Thanks John, and thanks again to all our players!
Developer Livestream - Balance Update
Join our gameplay designers Jason and Marco for a deep dive on our next Company of Heroes 3 balance update! Catch us live on Twitch on Thursday, April 20th at 10AM PT (5PM GMT).
CoH3 Hot Fix - 1.1.3
Today’s hot fix focuses on a small number of crashes and resolves the issue introduced last week with the M29 Weasel. We hope to share more news on our next major releases in the weeks ahead.
Cosmetics
Based on player feedback, we've added 12 Merit-earnable Rare items to the Cosmetics section of the store. They've been taken out of the Highlight rotation and are now available without a time constraint. This should provide players with more options to work towards with their earned Merit. We will be adjusting plans for future cosmetic offerings with continued player feedback.
Fixes
Stability/Crashes
Fixed five crashes.
Multiplayer
Fixed an issue where players would sometimes start a match with the wrong battlegroups.
Localization
Improved localization on several abilities and unit descriptions.
Gameplay Fixes
M29 Weasel
Team weapons are now generated correctly and allow infantry to pick them up.
