No matter how good your game, it is going to get stale after awhile. It’s unfortunate when a great game doesn’t take the few steps necessary so that players can change the settings to create alternate play experiences.
Company of Heroes is an incredible tactical RTS, a watershed moment for the genre - but the game allows neither Axis vs. Axis battles nor matches with more than two teams. This design choice may fit the fiction of WWII, but it significantly reduced the game’s play variety.
Do you agree with him? Did removing mirror matches reduce the game's variety, or is it something that made both strategic and historical sense? Leave your answers in the comments field!
Tuesday, 7 October, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
So what is AMD Fusion? Well, it is an automated overclock tool for those on AMD Spider platforms (7-series) that boosts your framerate by overclocking your components and disabling some non-essential programs while you play. While these overclocking programs usually turn out to be worthless, ExtremeTech found that it actually gives CoH a boost of 3-7 FPS on their system. Not a huge jump, but certainly worth checking out if you own an AMD Fusion compatible PC...
Having technical problems? Use THQ support![ 6 Comments ] 23:42 PST | Pyros | Print News | Category: Official AnnouncementsWe get a dozen e-mails here at Planet Company of Heroes every day from players asking for help with their copy of Company of Heroes. And that is fine, we like to help and we even have a community tech forum for just that purpose. However, the vast majority of the questions we are asked relate to bannings, Relic Online accounts, and CD-keys. Unfortunately, these are questions we just cannot answer due to the fact that THQ, and only THQ, has the ability to handle these issues. So if you're having technical issues regarding Relic Online, your CD-key, or your disc, you must contact THQ Support at the link below:
It is important to remember that you should not discuss or give out your CD-key or Relic Online information to anyone who is not associated with THQ Support. So for everyone having problems, please use THQ Support's website to get assistance for your issue. We'd love to help you, but only THQ has the ability to do so.
Wednesday, 1 October, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
Congratulations to 12azor and 13laded, winners of the 2v2 Beta Tournament! They defeated RUKAclSweix and RUKAclDrHorse in the finals, two games to one. You can view the recorded games from the event here on GameReplays.org.
Once again, our thanks to all of you who have been playing the multiplayer beta and have been offering your balance feedback and sending in your log files. We are working on a new update for the multiplayer beta, but it has been delayed as we perform further testing on the new network code for the game. We'll keep you updated on our progress.
It'll be interesting to see what patch Relic gets out of the door first: CoH balance beta patch 2.505, or their first patch for Dawn of War: Soulstorm, which was due months ago. Anyone taking bets?
Friday, 26 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
Sorry folks. It looks like we're not going to make this week for the patch update. The team has been taken out by illnesses.
Hopefully we'll see the patch next week, and with luck everyone at Relic will recover quickly. And hopefully they'll take this as a very valuable lesson as to why you should always wash your hands after using the washroom.
Thursday, 25 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
This patch includes some Company of Heroes fixes, like resolving an issue that caused the game running at 2560x1600 in DX10 on medium settings on a 8800GTX (now that is an obscure bug), as well as an SLI performance issue. Having the latest drivers are always a good idea, so it is a recommended download.
Wednesday, 24 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
For those of you playing in the multiplayer beta, we're going to have an update next week. Here is what the patch notes are looking like right now. They aren't final:
v2.505
Online
- Further optimizations & fixes to the new network code.
Fixes
- Fixed some issues with Repair Station Engineers.
- Fixed a number of quite obscure in-game crashes.
Audio
- Fixed incoming projectile sounds.
- Collisions between physics objects now produce material-specific sounds. *this system is not perfect, and is meant to supplement the regular destruction audio (ie: a sound will not play for every collision, only those with a large enough velocity/mass). It’s fun to push around debris with vehicles though.
- Some cool new stuff with Nebelwerfers.
- Reduced volume on BAR to sit better in the mix, as well as many other smaller mix refinements.
Note: Due to technical reasons, some of the audio changes listed in the last patch didn’t make it in (ie. distant arty), but they are included in this one.
Gameplay
- Removed Riflemen Veterancy bonuses granted through researching grenades
- Adjusted cost of British Glider HQ to 200 MP from 100 MP
- Adjusted cost of American HMG Nest to 200 MP/15 Fuel from 240 MP/10 Fuel
- Reduced cost of Firestorm to 160 munitions from 175 munitions
- Reverted cost of Wehrmacht Panzer IV back to 80 Fuel
- Adjusted MP40 medium range accuracy to .45
- At Vet 2, Volksgrenadiers get a +10 sight range addition.
- When a Wehrmacht Bunker is upgraded to Medic Bunker/MG Bunker/Repair Bunker, it can no longer be garrisoned.
Maps
- Added Vimoutiers (6)
- Added Compound Conflict (4)
- Road to Montherme - Fixed the garrison problem with the upper wooden bunker near left VP
- Road to Montherme - Replaced the lower building near right VP to balance building capacity and fix garrison/shooting problems
The new audio changes sound pretty cool. I guess I'll be spending at least one game driving a crab mine flail into various objects!
Thursday, 18 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
In addition to the usual bugfixes and tweaks, these drivers actually have two pretty important Company of Heroes related items. First, enabling CrossFire no longer causes graphical problems on low settings, and more importantly, the game no longer crashes when loading after you've set the graphics to max. So if you have an ATI video card, you may want to grab these drivers.
Tuesday, 16 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
Our friends at GameReplays.org are hosting a 2v2 balance playtest tournament. If you've wanted to get online to try out the new balance changes but weren't able to get a game because there weren't enough players on the beta server, now is your chance:
"Take part in our 2v2 Company of Heroes Playtest Tournament and join the list of champions that have won the best tournaments for CoH in the past! The tournament will hold 64 2v2 teams battling it out for the top spot and the chance to win a cash prize and official Relic t-shirts. You can also observe coverage of the Tournament to take place on the 27th/28th of September as every single Replay will be posted in our Tournament Forum."
For more information on how to sign-up and get involved in the event, visit the tournament announcement at GameReplays.org.
The prizes include official Relic t-shirts, as opposed to the unofficial ones, which probably say "Reloc Entertainment" or something. So if you feel like showing off your skills, winning prizes, and have your opponent claim that it was an unfair game since it is a balance beta (just kidding, I hope!), sign up today.
Thanks to Grizzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for the news tip!
Friday, 12 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
Battle of the Bulge 2.0 mod released![ 18 Comments ] 14:13 PST | Pyros | Print News | Category: File SubmissionsThe Battle of the Bulge mod team sends word that they've released a new version of their mod, available here. This long-awaited update brings now only a huge amount of changes, but also adds support for Company of Heroes/OF 2.301.
What does the Battle of the Bulge mod do, you ask? Well, it actually does a huge amount of things. It adds in a bit more realism for those who appreciate accuracy in their World War II games, it adds in several excellent maps design by some of the top map makers in the community just for this mod. Winter maps, a new veterancy system, new abilities, squad changes, and commander tree changes make this mod pretty unique.
The mod is delivered by an installer, since it is easy to set up and play. And it doesn't alter any of your Company of Heroes files, so you can still play the original CoH/OF whenever you desire. So really, there is no reason why you shouldn't download this great mod. Be sure to grab it from here.
Thursday, 11 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
Relic looking into RO lag fixes[ 4 Comments ] 17:45 PST | Pyros | Print News | Category: Official AnnouncementsLast week, Relic Online hit a new record with the amount of people online at once. While thousands and thousands of people playing CoH means more games, it can also lead to some trouble. Like cases of lag or log-in issues, which some users have been experiencing. Relic's Thunder has said that Relic is aware of the issue and looking into fixes over at Relic News:
Hey folks,
I just wanted to jump in here and let you know that we are aware of the new records that have been getting set with our online population for the game and these server issues that you’ve experienced as a result. We are monitoring the situation and looking into possible solutions so that this doesn’t impact your ability to play the game.
The recent online player count has had a pretty impressive jump. Got any theories as to why? Leave them in the comments section!
Wednesday, 10 September, 2008 – Planet Company of Heroes News
CoH Balance Beta Update[ 1 Comment ] 14:03 PST | Pyros | Print News | Category: Official AnnouncementsRemember the Company of Heroes balance beta? The one that was supposed to have bi-daily patches? Well, things started slowing down, and the community didn't know why. Thankfully, Relic's community manager Thunder has posted an update over at Relic.com explaining that there will be at least two more updates before the patch goes final, and that they could use your help. Here is his statement:
We have been conducting an open test of some upcoming patch content with our online community. The balance playtest introduces players to bug fixes, new maps, and balance work for a future patch. The feedback and support that we’ve been getting from Company of Heroes fans has been incredibly helpful during this process. First and foremost we must thank all of you who have been participating.
Currently we are planning to make at least two more updates to the balance playtest before we lock down the change list to create the final patch. These updates will include more balance changes and the addition of some new maps.
Our latest version of the balance playtest has a number of changes to our network code. We’d appreciate getting logs from players so that we can analyze them, especially if you’re experiencing lag while playing the game. You can find the log that we need in your "My Documents\My Games\Company of Heroes" folder, and it’s called warnings.log. Ideally we’d like players to:
1) Start the game
2) Join one game
3) Play one game
4) Quit to desktop
5) Send in the log to webmaster@relic.com along with a brief description of the symptoms. IE: I played a 3v3 and 20 minutes in it began to lag.
Following those steps will help yield the best information for us to track down any bugs. Once again, thank you to all the members of our online community who have been participating in our balance playtest.
Since the network code update was pretty major, it is VERY important that everyone participating in the balance beta sends in the required files to Relic should they experience problems. If we help Relic get this ironed out during the beta, the final release of the patch should go along smoothly.
Tales of Valor, which is DLC related, is out in March according to Amazon.com. Do you think we'll see an episode or two of DLC out this year (such as the Tiger Ace campaign), or do you think that we won't be getting some more of that CoH goodness until next year? Vote to your right!
As usual, our previous poll results can be viewed by hitting "Read More..." below. These ones are particularly interesting, since we now more or less know the answer to the question that was posed.
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