Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Tactical
Company of Heroes 3
Wire Report - Sept 15, 2023
This week's highlights are meant to catch you up on the Console Update, CoH1 coming to Nintendo Switch, and the CoH2 1V1 Mirror Tournament, as well as some awesome community content our players have shared with us.
It features a new map, gameplay tweaks, balance adjustments, and several bug fixes.
Company of Heroes 1 on Nintendo Switch Our friends at Feral Interactive are bringing CoH1 to the Nintendo Switch. Delivering the World War II RTS classic and both its acclaimed expansions in one battle-hardened bundle. Prepare for deployment this autumn! Watch the trailer here.
Amazon Prime Gaming Drop 6 The Night Fighters BRITISH FORCES GRANT Bundle is available now until October 11th. This exclusive package includes special skins for the Grant tank, CWT Truck, and Foot Guards.
PARTNER CONTENT
CoH2 1v1 Mirror Tournament THE BIG ORANGE ONE Discord Server is hosting a CoH2 1v1 MIRROR TOURNAMENT in which players will be pitched against opponents of the same faction.
This unusual style of tourney is guaranteed to give us some exciting and unpredictable matches. The finals will be casted by no other than AE!
Save the date! Sept 16-17 @ 4PM UTC
Meta Plays RTS Tournament Olvadi and Currahee are teaming up with Meta Plays RTS to host their first-ever CoH3 1v1 tournament. Take part and sign up on discord before Sept 22nd. The tournament will be streamed on Sept 23 & 24 at 1.30 PM GMT.
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Some cool sets of screengrabs by cpl.chen
You can submit your content for consideration by using the hashtag #CoHCommunity on our social channels or by sharing screenshots, links and videos on our Discord or Forums.
This week's highlights are meant to catch you up on the Balance Tuning Update, Winter/ Fall Roadmap, CoH3 Master League Grand Finale, and some awesome community content our players have shared with us.
NEWS
Winter/Fall Roadmap 2023 for PC On August 31st we revealed our PC Roadmap for Company of Heroes 3 which covers the remainder of 2023. You can see an overview of the major updates and features we plan to implement this year in the roadmap graphic below. An in-depth blog post is available here.
Balance Tuning Update We released the Emerald Bear Balance Tuning Update for PC on August 24th (1.2.3), along with two hot fixes to tidy up some performance issues (1.2.3.a) and introduce AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 2 (1.2.4).
Emerald Bear Balance Tuning Patch Notes Focused on specific issues that arose after the initial release (1.2.0) and tuning adjustments to enhance multiplayer balance. The full list of patch notes is available here.
DEVELOPER SITREP
Fall/Winter Roadmap On August 31st, we also published a brief summary of the Fall/Winter Roadmap with our Executive Producer David Phan, providing further information on that roadmap and outlining what you can anticipate in the upcoming months.
Balance Tuning Update Livestream Get caught up with the Emerald Bear Balance Tuning Update if you missed it by watching the following livestream. We’ll provide a quick overview of the patch release, dive into CoH3's multiplayer status, and discuss the Balance Team's future plans.
PARTNER CONTENT
CoH2 1v1 Mirror Tournament THE BIG ORANGE ONE Discord Server is hosting a CoH2 1v1 MIRROR TOURNAMENT in which players will be pitched against opponents of the same faction.
This unusual style of tourney is guaranteed to give us some exciting and unpredictable matches. Sign up to compete or join live to watch the carnage!
Save the date! Sept 16-17 @ 4PM UTC
CoH3 Master League Grand Final If you missed the grand finals of the 2023 Master League, be sure to catch all the action between Orangepest and Caosak! This has been a bittersweet Master League as AE has announced he’ll be stepping back from organizing ML moving forward. However, he will continue to cover CoH on his YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out!. Using NotthatDudeM's words, "Thanks for all the laughs, the epic comments, the Organisation, and your work!" Thank you and keep leaving big footprints!
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Watch this instructive video by SargeGG, it's helpful for any new players who are having issues with multiplayer.
This hot fix focuses on fixing select gameplay bugs. You can also find the issues we are tracking and looking to resolve in the Known Issues list.
Fixed an issue with burst weapons that allowed to continuously fire outside of range. However, if the burst fire started in range, the unit will keep firing until the initial burst is over but will not initiate another one if the target is outside of range. This affects any unit with burst fire such as: Heavy Machine Guns, ¼ -Ton 4x4 Truck, 250 Light Carrier Halftrack, M29 Weasel, Flak Half-Track, and Several Infantry Weapons.
Modified the German MG42 Machine Gun Team White Phosphorous ability to have a mandatory reload animation when activated and at the end of its timer.
Fixed a glitch that caused Team Weapon's Reload ability to not animate when used back to back.
Modified the generic Team Weapon's reload ability to also force a reload animation, meaning that it will now interrupt a firing sequence, rather than simply queue the reload instruction.
Fallschirmpioneers and PanzerJagers can enter damaged vehicles
Fall/Winter Roadmap
Today, we are eager to present our Roadmap for Company of Heroes 3 which covers the remainder of 2023. This roadmap graphic will give you an overview of the key updates and features we are targeting for this year.
Before we jump into talking about the PC base game, let’s touch on the upcoming Expansion for Company of Heroes 3. When Company of Heroes 3 launched on PC, we committed to an Expansion release in 2023. We’re pleased to confirm that work on this content is underway and that we are on track for a release this calendar year. We’re staying tight-lipped on expansion content for now but are excited to share more with you when the time is right.
We want to take a moment to reflect on how the game has evolved since CoH3’s launch. To date we’ve released 3 named updates along with several smaller updates and hot fixes. Our most recent update, Emerald Bear, included additions that were highly requested by our players, such as New Maps, a New Player Profile, Core Gameplay Updates, Improved Pathfinding, and more.
However, we want to acknowledge that at release, CoH3 did not live up to the standards of some of our players. We know there is work to do to get this game to the level that we all expect from this great franchise, but we hope these updates and this roadmap demonstrate our commitment to that objective. We want to extend our thanks to our players for their continued investment, feedback, and patience as we have reorganized our teams and realigned our direction since the launch of the game.
When it comes to the Console Edition of CoH3, we will be porting more updates, fixes, and improvements from the PC version. Our next update will catch the Console Edition up to the 1.1.6 [Brass Leopard] update, which will drop the first week of September. Brass Leopard will feature a new map, gameplay improvements, and audio updates. We’re aiming to share more info about future Console updates soon.
Our next named PC update is Umber Wasp, which we are targeting for an October release. Umber Wasp will feature several gameplay improvements including unit responsiveness, continued unit pathfinding improvements, unit selection, improved map pings, a balance pass, and more. We think players will really notice and enjoy the host of gameplay changes landing with this update.
Umber Wasp will also bring a new 4v4 Map for all modes called Sousse Wetlands and a reworked version of the 1v1 map Pachino Stalemate. It will also include match stats upon quitting a game, new unit cosmetics, and an in-game news system so that we can keep you up to date with all the latest in Company of Heroes 3.
For most updates moving forward, we intend to deliver a targeted follow-up Balance tuning update focused on addressing key areas from the previous named update. Emerald Bear was the first update we delivered within this new structure, which received its tuning update in August.
Our second named update, Steel Shepherd, is planned for December. We are happy to say that Replays along with the Replay Caster HUD will be a part of this update! The ability to view queued commands in Tactical Pause, Live Stats, and other valuable tools will be part of this much-requested feature when it launches.
Steel Shepherd will also feature a new 1v1 map for all modes. Further work is being done to address immersion and gameplay affecting animations, and additional responsiveness improvements are also being worked on for this update. What’s more, based on data and feedback, we understand new players to the franchise have been struggling more than they should with the early sections of the game. To help with that, we’re overhauling our First Time Player Experience with a revamped Tutorial Mission and updates to the Campaign Map, including a reworked tutorial and an improved Supply system. While veteran players may not benefit directly from these changes, we know these updates will be really beneficial for onboarding new players and keeping them with the game.
We hope this Roadmap gives you a good picture of the months ahead and a few things to look forward to. Our team, just like all of you, are huge fans of Company of Heroes, and we want to thank you for your ongoing support and feedback as we continue working on CoH3.
Hot Fix 1.2.4
Today's hot fix includes the release of AMD FSR support, fixes to several crashes and a small change to unit selection.
NEW FEATURE
AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 2 (FSR)
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 is a cutting-edge temporal upscaling algorithm that produces high resolution frames from lower resolution inputs.
CHANGES & FIXES
Improved support for older versions of Windows 10.
Fixed several crashes with DirectX 12
Adjusted the selection box from 1 to 3 on all faction's HMGs
Hotfix 1.2.3a - Patch Notes
This update is meant to unblock players that are unable to launch the game. Our team is working on another Hotfix for next week.
Fixed an issue preventing the game to launch properly for players with an older Windows 10 version.
Emerald Bear Balance Tuning 1.2.3
Moving forward, our team will be releasing a smaller and more focused tuning update after every major PC release. Today’s update (1.2.3) will address some outstanding issues from the release of Emerald Bear (1.2.0) and make some tuning adjustments to multiplayer balance. You can find more information on our new update cadence for PC in our 2023 PC Roadmap releasing soon.
FACTION BALANCE
General
3-Inch Mortar Team
Shells per HE barrage increased from 4 to 6
Shells per HE barrage with Artillery Saturation increased from 7 to 8
Aircraft
Strafe plane health reduced from 280 to 240.
High-Altitude bomber plane health increased from 280 to 480.
Rate of fire reduced by 0.125 seconds; adjusts back to pre-1.2.0 update status.
Bishop Self-propelled Gun
Barrage projectiles now ignores collisions up to 75% during its flight due to the Bishop’s low angle of fire.
Now fires low angle shells to match the maximum elevation of its weapon.
CWT 15CMP Anti-Air truck
Accuracy reduced from 0.8/0.625/0.6 to 0.6/0.5/0.4
Area of effect damage set to 5.675 damage with no drop-off.
Area of effect now capped to 2 models.
Horizontal traverse speed reduced from 160 to 100.
Reload time increased from 1 to 2 seconds.
Scatter ratio and offset reduced from 0.85/0.65 to 0.35/0.25
Scatter reduced from 10 to 6.5
Weapon cooldown reduced from 0.25 to 0.125 seconds.
Reveal Area
Direct-fire units firing from the fog of war will no longer reveal the terrain they are on. This prevents these units from being targeted by certain off-map abilities.
Vickers Heavy Machine Gun Team
Focused Gunnery accuracy increased from 0.7/0.55/0.45 to 0.9/0.825/0.8
Focused Gunnery Suppression reduced from 0.009 to 0.005
M3 Stuart
Penetration reduced from 120/100/80 to 80/65/50
Reconnaissance Scan
Changed from a timed ability to a toggle ability.
Remains active when the vehicle is moving.
Movement speed reduced by 50% and disables weapons when active.
M3 Grant
Coaxial machine gun now properly tracks targets.
WEHRMACHT
221 Armored Car
20mm Panzerbusche now deals very limited area of effect damage; primarily to detonate objects like mines.
The 221 Scout Car's White Phosphorus Round ability no longer overlaps with its Scout Awareness ability
White Phosphorus Round is now available without veterancy for the Panzerbusche variant.
Breakthrough Incendiary Bombing Run
Munitions cost reduced from 120 to 100.
Now arrives sooner and drops its bombs off sooner; it now takes 8-9 seconds for bombs to impact the target area.
Flak 36 Anti-tank Emplacement
Health increased from 800 to 1040.
Kettenkrad Reconnaissance Vehicle
Reconnaissance Scan changed from a timed ability to a toggle ability that remains active when moving.
Speed reduced by 50%.
Luftwaffe Strafing Run
Recharge time increased from 60 to 90 seconds
Luftwaffe Fragmentation Bombs
Recharge time increased from 60 to 120 seconds
Stosstruppen
StG 44 Assault Rifle accuracy increase from 0.59/0.47/0.29 to 0.72/0.55/0.4
StG 44 burst duration increase from 1.25/0.75/0.25 to 1.25/1/0.45
StG 44 cost decreased from 75 to 50 munition.
Wehrmacht 8Rad
Signal Detection range reduced from 90 to 60.
Wespe Self-propelled Gun
Barrage ready-aim time from 2 to 0.125
Cost reduced from 400 manpower and 80 fuel to 320 manpower and 60 fuel.
Creeping Barrage range changed from 150 to 180; matches standard barrages.
Creeping Barrage recharge time from 70 to 55.
Fixed several issues where the Creeping Barrage damage was different from the regular barrage.
US FORCES
Chaffee
Penetration reduced from 180/125/100 to 180/110/80.
Engineer Light it Up Veterancy ability
Area increased from 5 to 6.
Flamethrower damage increased from 5 to 8.
No longer has a cooldown between bursts.
M31 US Recovery Vehicle
Fuel cost reduced from 45 to 30.
Will now self-repair when out of combat.
Whizbang
Damage to emplacements reduced by 25%.
Range increased from 80 to 85.
DEUTSCHES AFRIKAKORPS
250/9 20mm Half-track
20mm autocannon accuracy increased by 33% (0.224/0.192/0.176 to 0.3/0.25/0.23)
Area of effect damage set to 4 damage with no drop-off.
Area of effect now capped to 2 models.
Coaxial machine gun accuracy reduced by 33% at all ranges (0.64/0.58/0.52 to 0.42/0.38/0.34)
Now deals area of effect damage in a radius of 1.25
Bersaglieri
Reinforcement cost reduced from 28 to 26.
Cannone da 105/28 Howitzer
Shells per barrage increased from 4 to 6.
Famo Recovery Vehicle
Fuel cost reduced from 40 to 30.
Panzerjeager Squad
Health increased from 85 to 90.
Reinforcement cost decreased from 28 to 26.
Armored Support Battlegroup
Vehicle Awareness
Range reduced from 160 to 60.
BUGFIXES
Fixed a high-rate crash occurring when models would ragdoll.
Art/Animation
Fixed an issue where the territory and map borders would flicker on the Ruins single player map.
Wall sections should no longer remain visible once destroyed.
Dynamic Italian Campaign
Fixed an issue where recovered Stuarts for the Americans did not have the correct tint or voice lines.
Gameplay
Units with no AA capabilities no longer acquire airplanes as targets.
Engineering units no longer take extra damage when repairing at veterancy 3 as intended.
Fixed an issue where Compromise Armor did not properly apply to targets.
Fixed an issue where some Bombing Runs preview reticle was inaccurate.
Fixed an issue where the MG34 got a speed boost when using Fire Discipline ability.
Fixed a text error that stated certain munitions crates granted 60 munitions when they only granted 40.
Moved base bunkers to remove the ability to shoot resource points on some maps.
Burst fire weapons no longer interrupt the current burst if the target is out of fire-cone angles.
MG34 Fire Discipline and Vickers Plunging Fire abilities can now be used in garrisons.
Team Weapons and Emplacements will now grant shared experience to units that can receive it.
CWT 15CMP Anti-Air truck now properly deals area of effect damage in a radius of 3.
Fixed an issue where the 8 Rad, 250/9 Halftrack, and Crusader AA were firing their autocannons faster than intended.
Improved the hitbox of dropped weapons to make it easier to pick them up.
Adjusted selection box from 1 to 2.5 on the German LG40 Recoilless Gun.
Fixed the LG40 Recoilless Gun to properly camouflage when its Veterancy 1 ability is used.
Removed the wrong decorator from the tactical map for the LG40.
UI/UX
Fixed an issue causing loss of functionality when pressing ESC during hotkey remapping.
Fixed an issue where LMG Commando Suppressing Fire ability did not display a UI icon when active.
Wire Report - August 18, 2023
NEWS
Balance Tuning Update (1.2.3) Next Thursday, August 24th, join our Gameplay Balance team live on Twitch at 10am PT for a short chat about the Balance Tuning update coming later that day. This will be a smaller update, "tidying up" after Emerald Bear, but we'll also have some insights from the CoH3 Balance Team on the state of multiplayer and what their focus will be in the future. Be sure to tune in!
DEVELOPER SITREP
Play Session If you haven't had a chance to check out our last two play sessions, go ahead and give them a watch. Gabby and John really put in their best efforts to beat the dev team. But did they succeed?
Let’s find out!
Check out the casual 4v4 action from July 27th here.
and from August 11th here.
Wounded Warriors Charity Fundraiser We wanted to give you a quick update on the Wounded Warriors Charity Fundraiser. We are extremely grateful to announce that, with your amazing support, Schilly has successfully raised a whopping CA$3,185! We couldn't have achieved this milestone without the help of each and every one of you. Your contributions, big or small, have made a tremendous impact. Thank you for being part of this wonderful cause and helping us reach our goal.
PARTNER CONTENT
Master League 2023 Finals The finals for the 2023 season of the Master League community tournament are happening this weekend! Find all the details here and be sure to tune in live with host A_E on Twitch. Relic has donated $1,000 to the prize pool bumping it up to $4,100 – meaning first place will take $2,000 home!
Be sure to catch up on the tournament's most recent games before catching the finals this weekend!
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
First up we wanted to spotlight the new CoHdex fansite which has a CoH3 wiki and player stats, and will be introducing some additional tools in the future. Check it out here!
The 4vs4 Summer Clash hosted by CoHmmunity Germany saw 64 players from around the world playing for a prizepool of €400. If you love big planes and tanks, check out the CoH2 action in the finals!
We’ve highlighted Shadowphreak’s workshop creations in the past, and this mapmaker has really been experimenting with what’s possible in the CoH3 Worldbuilder. Check out their latest addition, an all-new Horde Mode!
SomeRandomGuy shared their latest Roblox creations on our official Discord. Their OKW headquarters is looking great!
Cesare on Discord has also captured some amazing desert battlefield shots!
You can submit your content for consideration by using the hashtag #CoHCommunity on our social channels or by sharing screenshots, links and videos on our Discord or Official Forums.
That's it for this week! Don’t forget to join us on August 24th at 10 AM PT on Twitch for an upcoming livestream with our Gameplay Balance Designers. We'll be discussing the next balance tuning update and sharing more news.
The past couple of weeks were all in the sign of the Emerald Bear! This Wire Report is meant to catch you up and cover the news from the last couple weeks, along with showcasing content our players have been sharing with us.
NEWS
Emerald Bear Release
We released the Emerald Bear, 1.2.0 Update for PC on July 25th, along with two hot fixes to tidy up some gameplay and performance issues (1.2.1 and 1.2.2).
You can watch a summary of all the updates that were added to 1.2.0 in the Mission Briefing on YouTube.
To recap:
New Maps
Player Profiles
Ranks
Pathfinding Improvements
Off-Map Ability Improvements
Multiplayer Balance
Gameplay Changes
Quality of Life & Bug Fixes
Emerald Bear Patch Notes
Along with the Mission Briefing summary we've also released a comprehensive list of patch notes, providing detailed information about the numerous system improvements, bug fixes, and balancing tweaks that were included in this release.
Check out the brief recap of how things went with the Emerald Bear, 1.2.0 PC Update, the feedback we’ve been seeing, and what’s around the corner for CoH3.
If you missed it, John, the dev team & our guest players SargeGG, Lady RYtsu and Cas got together for a relaxed CoH3 gaming session, where you can also find out about John's unit preservation skills.
Potok10 shared some fantastic shots of their models with us on Discord. Let us know which is your favorite!
You can submit your content for consideration by using the hashtag #CoHCommunity on our social channels or by sharing screenshots, links and videos on our Discord or Forums.
That's it for this week. Don’t forget to tune in to another fun play session with our community team next week Friday August 11th!
Emerald Bear, our 1.2.0 update for Company of Heroes 3 on PC, has been out for just over a week and we wanted to recap its release and the feedback we’ve been hearing from players. Our team wanted to thank everyone for all your comments, posts and reports – these allow us to continue improving the game and to quickly hot fix any issues that have popped up. If you missed any of the news or changes that rolled out with Emerald Bear, you can get caught up by checking out the Emerald Bear Mission Briefing and the 1.2.0 Patch Notes.
Performance, Bugs & Balance
The timely feedback and crash reports from our players helped us solve some of the most impactful bugs and issues quickly with two hot fixes. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we worked on releasing these hot fixes to address some of the biggest issues that came with Emerald Bear. Our 1.2.1 hot fix resolved the three highest occurring crashes after the launch of Emerald Bear. It also fixed infinite smoke abilities on vehicles, resolved a minor cosmetic issue, and made some tweaks to fix the resolution of the Player Profile and to ensure it was linking to the correct leaderboards. In the 1.2.2 hot fix, we fixed a problem that was leading to significant drops in FPS which was affecting many of our players. We also addressed several gameplay issues that were over performing – namely, the US Forces Air Support Center was a little bit too spicy, so we had to cool it down. We also fixed an infinite bombardment exploit, a cosmetic and lighting issue on Monte Cavo that was affecting vehicles, and we resolved a bug that prevented players from buying certain team weapons like the 17-pounder or the Flak 36.
Player Profiles
The first iteration of Player Profiles rolled out with our new League and Tier ranking system and we’ve heard a lot of your feedback on this feature so far – specifically, about what types of information are shared and how they are presented. This will help us as we look to improve Player Profiles, so they remain a valuable hub of information and game stats for each player.
Console Edition
We know seeing cool new features and changes for CoH3 on PC often means our Console Edition players are giving us a stern look as they tap their watch. Rest assured that we are addressing the important bug fixes, gameplay changes and features to ensure the Console Edition continues to evolve. Our post-launch team is working diligently with an external partner to prioritize updates, which unfortunately do experience a gap in delivery time from the timing of the initial PC update. However, we’re working on improving that cadence and timeline to try and reduce the wait time as much as possible.
For now, you can expect the Console Edition to be updated to the PC 1.1.6 update (Brass Leopard) in September.
What’s Next?
Our next PC patch will focus on some multiplayer balance fine tuning, and you can expect it to be released near the end of August. We’ll have more news on this soon and we plan to host a short livestream with our Balance Gameplay Designers in the coming weeks to talk about it in more detail.
Finally, we hope to share a Roadmap in August that will cover our CoH3 plans for the rest of the year.
Stay tuned in the coming days for more news on our next patch and be sure to keep your feedback coming by visiting our official Forums or Discord.
