Company of Heroes 2 Message Board

Hoping to draw more virtual commanders to the online battlefields of World War 2 strategy hit Company of Heroes 2, publisher Sega has announced a standalone multiplayer version of the game that will make it easier than ever to join the fight.

Slated for release in June, Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies will bear a $20 price tag. For that entry fee, players will be granted access to two new factions, the German Oberkommando West and US forces. As its name suggests, The Western Front Armies takes place on the heavily-contested Western Front, and offers players a new campaign, progression system and "other unique content."

Best of all, this $20 standalone release will grant players access to the Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer servers. Though The Western Front Armies lacks the singleplayer content found in its predecessor, it does include a full complement of multiplayer options as well as all 31 official multiplayer maps released for Company of Heroes 2 to date. [Image: Sega]

As summer slowly creeps up on us, what we want is sunshine and dappled shade upon green grass, not ice and snow and muted tundra. Relic understand this, and are bringing Company of Heroes 2 to pleasant western Europe. The RTS is introducing new maps and armies from the western front in a standalone multiplayer release, due to arrive this June. … [visit site to read more]

The weekend’s just over the horizon and I couldn’t be happier. Well… except for one thing. I’m terribly afraid, actually, that my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are going to be too tonally consistent. No wild mood swings. No spine-separating ups and downs. What a drag, right? So thank goodness that both Company of Heroes 2 and Saints Row IV will be free all weekend on Steam. The silliest game of 2013 and the most brutal front of the most serious war, er, possibly ever. I can’t wait to cross all of my emotional wires – to giggle out world-weary tears and give stirring, morale-boosting war speeches laden with dick jokes.

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The trailer for Company of Heroes 2′s most recent DLC ends on a sombre and slightly surreal note. Men trudge through mud, done down by the weather as well as the enemy. They are all fashioned from the same model, all have the same animation, cookie cutter quarry in a nightmare landscape. Intentionally or not, it’s a scene that uses the apparent limitations of the character models to great effect and makes a refreshing change to the explosive way that war is often depicted in a short sales pitch. For anyone who already owns the game, this isn’t a sales pitch at all though – the DLC is free and includes two new multiplayer maps, several solo challenges and AI battles. Along with base game improvements, there is also Steam Workshop integration for maps made in the recently released World Builder.

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New content has rolled in for Company of Heroes 2, in both free and paid varieties.

Those who spend nothing will receive two new multiplayer maps, "Hill 331" and "Don River," alongside an unspecified list of "several improvements to the game." Further, the update also adds Steam Workshop integration to the recently-launched Company of Heroes 2 World Builder construction suite.

As always in life, those who spend a bit of cash will be receiving more stuff. This "Two Fronts" DLC promotion includes all of the above content, as well the "Southern Fronts" Theater of War pack, which you can see in the above trailer.

The Southern Fronts pack adds 10 new scenarios to the game that drop players into the boots of either German or Soviet soldiers as they slowly grind toward victory through a number of battles that feature new tweaks to the Company of Heroes 2 formula. For example, deep mud may inhibit vehicle movement in these maps while also exposing their soft flanks to explosives. The Southern Fronts DLC will set you back $5.

Owners of the original Company of Heroes aren't left out of today's announcement. According to Sega, the original tactical strategy game will be adding improved "Steam functionality, such as secure leaderboards, battle and arbitration servers." This update, like the first we mentioned, is utterly free, and should be downloaded automatically the next time you fire up Company of Heroes.

More Company of Heroes 2? Oh Relic, no, I couldn’t possibly… Well, OK, if you insist. But just a couple spoonfulls and then– *KA-WOMP* You just dropped a tank on the table. Yeah, I guess I should’ve seen that coming. Less expected but no less appreciated, however, are a map creation tool, two new multiplayer maps, and four new multiplayer commanders. All of it’s free, too. Now could someone pass the salt? This stuff tastes a bit gamey.

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Company of Heroes 2 will receive a new content addition next week said to add "a host of free content," alongside numerous items created by the game's devoted community.

Dubbed "World Builder," the crux of the addition is a feature that allows players to build their own World War II-era battlefields. Additionally, the update brings with it the new "Rails And Metal" and "Lazur Factory" maps - no, that's not a typo. Finally, four new Commanders are being added to Company of Heroes 2, two of which were designed by the game's community.

"We are excited to provide such a large content update to Company Heroes 2 players," stated executive producer Greg Wilson. "We are particularly proud to offer our community the much sought-after World Builder and are hoping to provide Steam Workshop integration and other mod features in the near future."

Turning Point is currently slated for release on PC on November 12.

Company Of Heroes 2 launched burdened with quite a bit of day one DLC. I’m not even much of a CoH2 player, but I was offended by the really quite grubby attempt to sup up the pocket money for skins and the like. Some form of compensation has come with the release of free maps, so there’s that. And look: today is a day for new maps, with a pair dropping onto the strategy game’s chilly front for everyone. Hooray! Rostov and Kharkov will be arriving any minute now.(more…)

Company of Heroes 2 developer Relic has added new graphics, fresh design and extra letters to the series' classic multiplayer map, Semois, now named Semoskiy. The upgraded map comes in two free variants, summer and winter, with summer available in today's patch, and winter due on September 10.

Releasing a game that deals with one of a country’s darkest periods is tantamount to walking on thin ice. Oh, sorry, did I say “walking”? I meant cannon-balling back-flipping onto it. In a tank. Some, then, have argued that Relic could’ve handled its depiction of World War II’s Eastern Front with a bit more grace in Company of Heroes 2. And by “some,” I mean thousands (via an Internet petition) rallying against what they perceive to be a serious “anti-patriotism” slant. As a result, Russian and Eastern European distributor 1C-SoftClub has halted sales of the otherwise decently liked RTS.

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The sale of real-time strategy game Company of Heroes 2 has ceased in Russia, a Sega spokesman told VideoGamer. The decision to halt sales followed complaints about the game's depiction of the Soviet military, which were directed to 1C-SoftKlab, a Russian retailer that recently opted to stop selling the game.

"Sega and Relic are aware of the press stories circulating concerning Company of Heroes 2 and the historical context of the game from a Russian perspective," Sega said in a statement. "At this time we cannot offer any further comment, however we are taking this issue very seriously and are investigating these concerns thoroughly with all relevant partners."

Controversy surrounding Company of Heroes 2 stemmed from its portrayal of the Soviet army during World War 2, which depicts "the best of the USSR as an instantly evil thing," according to vocal detractors. A petition demanding Valve remove the game from Steam has amassed 17,160 supporters, who claim the game is an inaccurate representation of events from the war, as it shows Russian soldiers fighting without being properly equipped for battle.

The reason I’m not a financial advisor, an accountant, nor even allowed access to RPS’s bank accounts, is because my understanding of money is thus: “Ooh, look at the pretty colours! I like the blue ones best! I’ll swap you my pinks for your blues?” So it is that I look at Eurogamer’s news that Sega is suing the not-existing-any-more THQ for £630,000 with only bemusement. It seems they want the Company Of Heroes pre-order cash from Steam.

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Eurogamer reports that Sega is suing bankrupt publisher THQ for $941,710.93—the total amount of money, sans Valve's cut, that THQ received for pre-orders of Company of Heroes 2 on Steam between September 2012 and January 24, 2013, when Sega acquired the game (and its developer, Relic) from THQ.

This thread is where we'll be sharing patch changes and game updates.
http://community.companyofheroes.com/forums/company-of-heroes-2-discussion/topics/CoH-2-Changelog

Updates as of June 4th, 2013

- adding tracking for rare peer to peer error
- optimization: game won't slow down after numerous explosions have damaged the terrain
- optimization: speed up terrain rebuilding for higher frame rates when the camera moves
- fix dead entities not snapping to ground when dying on bridges
- prevent enemy buildings from appearing as holes in the ground when FoW was active
- improve hang detection to reduce number of times the game crashed itself thinking it was hung
- fix a bug where projectiles would never hit a dropped mg42
- fix post game stat screen showing wrong info on save/load
- add OEM8 for mapping English physical key locations to French
- add new Commander Dispatch feature
- update performance test to feature snow
- most barrage abilities now target positions instead of squads/entities
- fix guard troops reinforcing for free
- catch networking problems when a user has trouble connecting to many users in a short period of time
- reduce pak43 and howitzer requirements
- normal mortar can now be deployed when you get the 120mm
- commander tank and officer limited to one
- 120mm mortar changed from 480 to 360 from free
- fix for quad50 audio in the distance
- fix ISU 152 having two abilities with the T hotkey
- add hotkey for transfer orders
- fix M shortcut for tellermine
- fix bug where playing a tutorial of watching a replay to completion would prevent the player from playing online
- fix subtitle overlap in tutorial

Updates for June 6th, 2013

- fixed some crash bugs
- server updates
- adressed an issue with the Replay feature requiring a game restart

Updates for June 10th, 2013


Updates

- Create post-game AI survey for beta


AI Updates

- AI vehicle positioing tactic now prefers to find safer positions relative to the current position instead of always relative to the target position
- AI vehicle positioning tactic no longer tries to use vehicles that are bad at strafing to out postion an enemy relative to the enemies position
- AI tactics and fallback now properly check weapon ranges based on OBBs like the weapons do
- AI force attack tactic will not get stuck running if the target moves within minimum weapon range
- AI attack commands now properly detect squads in idle combat
- AI move commands now support a facing only move
- AI simple move state now copies the path finding weights when it starts to prevent other AI tasks from changing them after the move has started
- AI cover, vehicle, and force attack tactics now only do path finds with a path length factor of 1.5 and not unlimited since they should be short moves
- AI Vehicle Tactic now keeps more space between it and threatening entities and re-positions less frequently
- AI Task Combat State no longer oscillates between retreat and fallback when the squad wants to retreat but does not support retreating
- AI Ability Tactic properly converts entity and squad targets to position targets before attempting to do the ability if the targets cannot be seen
- AI squad clump detection system now tracks which clumps contain visible squads instead of just testing the centre of the clump for visibility
- AI checks for squads and entities being detectable now also checks if the squad or entity has been seen recently if so then they can still be detected
- AI vehicle tactic crash fix
- AI VehicleTactic now only does path following moves if the destination is greater than 15 meters so we can do less path finding
- AISimpleMoveState and AIObjectiveAttackArea repath and replan timers are now scaled by the number of local AI players so we don't continually throw away good paths when we are getting infrequent updates
- AITaskMoveState no longer gets confused between layover movement doing cold layovers and capture layovers
- AISimpleMoveState now sends a move command to the final position if it has waited for a path for longer than 8 seconds
- AITaskMoveState now checks to make sure its path is going to the correct destination before it assumes it has a path it can use
- AILeader and AIFollower tasks now coordninate better and spend less time stopping and waiting for each other
- When selecting squads to be leaders and followers, team weapon squads are no longer preferred to be leaders, they are now not preferred
- AITasks now know which task group they belong to
- AITactics are now prevented from being recursively updated
- AICaptureTasks now correctly check for capture progress relative to allies and enemies
- Skirmish AI no longer double military targets for neutral world owned points
- Skirmish AI players now calculate preferred map areas relative to other players and get penalties for attacking and capturing outside those areas
- Skirmish AI players now take into account what teammates have produced and prefer to build different units
- Skirmish AI will no longer try to build securing structures on points that cannot be secured. (victory points, fuel/munition points, watch towers)
-Skirmish AI now properly releases a squad from its current task before getting it to do a construction task
- Skirmish AI no longer fallsback if it is almost done capturing a point or reverting a point
- Skirmish AI no longer gives up on capturing a point on a cold map if there are no heat sources near the point but it is already capturing the point
- Skirmish AI no longer counts all units that can be spawned from a building as potential producibles, now it only counts units that it has the prerequisits for
- Skirmish AI now prefers to keep doing objectives it was doing the previous update
- Skirmish AI now uses attack objectives to capture undefended points instead of capture tasks without an objective
- Skirmish AI will now create attack objectives to attack military points that are undefended instead of only attacking military points that can be destroyed
- Skirmish AI will no longer send team weapon squads or artillery squads out alone to attack or capture unless they are already in combat at the target
- Skirmish AI now assigns extra squads to help attack objectives based on combat ratio improvement and distance and not just distance
- Skirmish AI now prefers to attack a military point with squads near it over a clump of enemy squads not quite near the military point to facilitate captuing the point while attacking
- AI no longer thinks Katyusha and Panzerwerfer are good for circle strafing
- Hard and Expert AI now use default dynamic economy without any overrides
- added dshk squad, panzer iv command squad, mortar halftrack, and assault field officer squad to the default AI economy
- updated panzer iv command squad main cannon AI combat ratings to more closely match the panzer iv squad AI combat ratings
- AI barrage abilities now target enemy structures in addition to clumps of enemy squads
- Skirmish AI default economy now includes randomized utility ranges of 10, previously was 0


Bug Fixes

- Rare crash caused when a player in a vs AI automatch starts loading before they get the updated session info from the host for the populated AI slots
- Added a hang detection thread to watch for heartbeats and dbFatal if the app goes off for more than 60 seconds
- Hooked up game start audio stinger to only play for Custom and Automatches
- Fixedtitle entering an unlimited unresponsive state when minimising the title on the Performance Test loading screen
- Fixed scenario could be marked as complete after the check to see if it was complete, resulting in unawarded achievements
- Fixedsome enemy buildings appearing as holes in the ground when fog of war is active
-improved timeout values based on feedback/crashes
-update : terrain compositor has controllable rescaling to enable us to vary compositor resolution
- fixed sometime projectile may never hit a dropped hmg42
- Adding logic to track how often we get the PeerConnectFail error, and if we get a certain amount without ever successfully getting into a match, show an error message to the user
- stats now only care about actual team ID and not slot team id / map team ID
- collectors edition flag now saved out with saves/replays
- make sure team ID matches up with slot team ID (when they are different due to random starting locations) so UI does not have to do any sort of mental gymnastics
- fixed loading an auto save on mission 3 loads the game with only background music playing
- Added Plat support for OEM8 so that we can correctly map English physical key locations to French
- Allow multiple demo charges on the same spot vs non-panel buildings. The "don't place demo charges at the same location twice" rule only makes sense for panel buildings
- Fixed scenario launch code with proper variable initialization and ensure that repeated calls within the same frame do not cause a crash
- Detect invalid scenarios and notify user of error in c++ code
- Detect SetupMod() failure and notify user of error
- force a crash on actual load step failure as otherwise it would just hang (not addressed by this fix)
- Fixed load game dialog dereferencing null ptr while in game
- Destroy the match instead of just concluding if the game becomes inactive
- Moscow Line - Partisan Squads will appear twice in the Construction Tab in the Post Game Stats
- Fixed: When using dispatch, unit will show up two times in the construction tab on the post-game stats
- Set the connect timeout separately from the read timeout for the long-poll
- Fix bridge border become passable after ice heal under it
- fix animation sliding when building barbed wire
- fix maxim crew syncing to a standing maxim will play standing animation, rather than going prone and snap to stand
- add more telemetry logging. including match start and match end event, option changing event, tutorial video event
- optimization: make blizzard/snow/rain render to a lower resolution texture
- re-fix : resolution list is populated properly if your primary display is in portrait orientation
- cache steam cloud files locally
- match reporting fixes to prevent unwanted disputes in arbitration, which was causing everyone to lose trust if someone in the match quit
- always call ReportMatchResults even if the game is not active
- when a player leaves the match, set the kill player reason to KPR_NetworkAbort instead of KPR_Surrendered
- if the player final state is PS_ABORTED, file an abstain match report
- fixed game crash when airstrike ability is used just before the victory point count down
- fixed rally point blip appearing in middle of minimap when placed on an entity
- don't show demo charge as a killer on post game stats (it has no valid UI info)
- fix one case where sync error reporting could be interruped by incorrect fatal scar error caused by sync error
- fix so when sync error, simulation stop updating, so the rest if the simulation code and scar update won't unnecessary get called
- investigate making the game mark itself for Steam update after crash
- fixed a crash when grenade kills a charge on bridge
- PanzerGraveyard achievement unlocked properly
- audio fix for distant shots
- this is only half the work as the M5 is needed elsewhere for another fix. matching audio to come soon
- removing two soldier entities that were left on the map
- fixed Stug III tread critical causing missing tread (mesh conditions on healthy tread were inappropriate to keep one visible)
- fixed missing Polish speech
- background sfx continue through movies
- stuka engine sfx
- final mix polish
- fixed making 2/3/4xxx AMD cards require the special legacy drivers AMD made for us
- fixed lockup when pistol is in cooldown when close to an enemy and being attacked

Balance & Gameplay

- adding vet modifiers and loc to the TOW cold weather units
- removing the tech/building requirement from the howitzers
- fixing for ram not disabling the maingun if the vehicle was buttoned. The critical was able to be applied to the disabled main weapon
- reseting UI and camera in last frame of battles and scenarios, so that View Battlefield is doable
- updated version of the performance test with snow on the ground, and new cameras avoiding clipping through trees
- taking off the requirements on the pak43 and howitzers, fixing some help text
-fixes to the mortar,command tank and officer ... normal mortar can now be deployed when you get the 120mm mortar and now i limited the commander tank and officer to one on the battlefield
- chainging cost of 120mm mortar team from 480 to 360 from free
- Transfer Orders now has hotkey
- M07 fixes from E3 reviews
- updating help text for non-winter maps
- increase timing on driver abandon
- clean up maps that have the old trench wall
- Tracer added to rear MG
- sniper tracer fire is not very visible if shooting offscreen
- trench area detail added
- replaced trenches
- updated tutorial order
- Shock Troops have "Fire Superiority" tool tip for Vetrancy 1, instead of "Trip Wire Flares"
- fixed the tooltip on the ability, it requires 6 command points (It was saying that it required 2 before)

Last Edited On: Jun 10 2013 06:13 PM UTC (22 days ago)

Updates for June 11th, 2013

- made compatibility mode check more apparent
- adjusted security settings


Last Edited On: Jun 11 2013 11:33 PM UTC (21 days ago)

Updates for June 12th, 2013

- Fixed crash on startup when in compatibility mode

Updates for June 13th, 2013

Game Updates

- Twitch fully unlocked for players
- Single Player E3 Demo Mission unlocked
- Tutorial Mission unlocked
- Stability fixes
- Compatibility fixes


Balance Changes

Anti-Tank grenades and Panzerfaust:
- Range reduced from 20 to 15.

Veterancy Change:
- Rates changed from 50%/50% (Damage applied / received damage) to 75%/25%.

Upkeep:
- Rate changed from 4 upkeep per pop to 1.5.
- Upkeep thresholds removed.
Riegel 43 Anti-tank Mine

- Reduced the time to plant the mine from 12 to 6 seconds
- Changed the ability to allow it to be targeted in the fog of war.
- Removed the cooldown.

Brummbar:
- Cost from 520mp/140fuel to 520mp/170fuel
- Max distance scatter from 10 to 4.55
- Reload time from 9.75s to 8.25s
- AOE from 6m to 5m.
- Health from 1280 to 800
- Front armor from 175 to 200
- Acceleration from 1.5 to 2
- Target Size decreased from 24 to 22
- Max speed from 4.5 to 4.8
- 50% of the shells damage is applied on non-penetrating rounds against enemy armor.
- Added a 1 in 3 chance of 5s crew shocked critical on target deflections

Elefant:
- Price from 520mp/220 fuel to 640mp/260 fuel
- Front Armor from 270 to 400
- Pop cost from 13 to 16.
250 Halftrack:
- Front armor from 25 to 11 and Rear armor from 15 to 5.5
- Health from 300 to 240
222 20mm Autocannon:
- Increased AOE from 0.5 to 1 making this weapon a bit more effective against infantry.

Opel Blitz Truck:
- Health decreased from 300 to 160
- Armor reduced from 25/15 to 7/5
German 10.5cm Howitzer:
- AOE Radius reduced from 9 to 7.5

Ostwind:
- Price from 400mp/100fuel to 320mp/115 fuel
- Build time from 40 to 50.
- Pop cost from 10 to 8.
- Scatter from 5 to 1.98 increases its accuracy.

Panzerwerfer:
- Increased ice damage from 55 to 75
- Acceleration from 3 to 3.75
- Max speed from 5.5 to 6

Panther:
- Price from 560mp/150fuel to 440mp/165fuel
- Pop from 14 to 11.
- Health from 1280 to 960
- Rear Armor from 135 to 112.5
- Acceleration from 1.9 to 2.3
- Max speed from 5.2 to 5.5
- Range from 60m to 50m
- Reduced the rotation rate from 30 to 27.

Panzer IV Command Tank:
- Price from 560mp/140 fuel to 360mp/125 fuel
- Pop from 14 to 9.
- Damage from 60 to 80
- Penetration from 50 to 55
- [Bug Fix] Range from 45 to 40
- Scatter from 5 to 5.6

Panzer IV:
- Price from 480mp/120 fuel to 320mp/115 fuel
- Pop from 12 to 8.
- Reload time from 4.75s to 5.75s
- Damage from 80 to 160
- Scatter from 7m to 6m
- Acceleration from 2.8 to 2.4
- Max speed from 5.3 to 5.2

Stug:
- Price from 400mp/85 fuel to 280mp/95 fuel
- Scatter from 10m to 6.5m
- Health from 640 to 480
- Target Size from 20 to 14
- Increased rotation from 20 to 22
- Area of Effect from .5m to 1.5m
- Damage all in hold set to TRUE, similar to other AOE heavy weapons. This will allow the weapons Area of Effect damage to apply to targets inside a halftrack or scout car.
- Main gun range from 60m to 50m
- Reload time from 3s to 4s
- Main gun penetration from 110 to 140.

Tiger:
- Price from 520mp/210 fuel to 600mp/250 fuel
- Reload from 8.75s to 6.25s
- Scatter from 10m to 6.8m
- Area of Effect From 3.75m to 2.5m
- Armor from 400 front/200 rear to 350 front/250 rear
- Acceleration reduced from 1.5 to 1.25
- Max speed increased from 4.5 to 4.7
- Added a 1 in 5 chance for a 5 second crew shocked critical on target deflections
- Main gun rotation from 19 to 17

KV-8:
- Health increased from 640 to 960
- Armor decreased from 360 front/225 rear to 240 front/120 rear
- Cost from 440mp/120 fuel to 360mp/135 fuel

IS-2:
- Armor from 400 front/200 rear to 375 front/225 rear
- Pop from 14 to 16
- Health from 1280 to 960
- Price from 560mp/210fuel to 680mp/300fuel
- Reload time from 8.25s to 9s
- Scatter from 10m to 7.5m
- Acceleration increased from 1.5 to 2
- Rotation rate increased from 25 to 30
- 1 in 6 chance of 5 second crew shocked critical on target deflections
- Penetration increased from 110 to 140
- 25% of the shells damage is applied on non-penetrating rounds against enemy armor.

ISU-152:
- Price from 520mp/215 fuel to 680mp/290 fuel
- Pop from 13 to 17.
- Armor from 120 front/60 rear to 200 front/100 rear
- Health from 1280 to 960
- AOE from 5m to 6m
- Damage from 160 to 240
- Scatter from 10m to 13.2m
- Reload from 6.125s to 10s
- Penetration from 170 to 150
- Target Size from 24 to 26
- Acceleration from 1.5 to 2
- Max Speed from 4 to 3.8
- 33% of the shells damage is applied on non-penetrating rounds against enemy armor.
- Added a 1 in 3 chance of crew shocked critical on deflections
- Reduced main gun tracking speed from 25 to 12
- G-530 Concrete Piercing Round ability penetration increased to 1000

SU-76:
- Price from 200mp/45 fuel to 160mp/55 fuel
- Pop from 5 to 4
- Reload from 3.875s to 2.375s
- Penetration from 75 to 93

SU-85:
- Price from 440mp/90 fuel to 320mp/115 fuel
- Pop from 11 to 8
- Front armor from 160 to 180
- Increased acceleration and max speed from 2 to 2.4 and from 5 to 5.3
- Increased Area of Effect from 0.5m to 1m

T34/76:
- Price from 280mp/75 fuel to 240mp/95 fuel
- Pop from 7 to 6
- Acceleration from 2.5 to 2.8
- Rotation rate from 30 to 36
- Max speed from 5.6 to 5.8
- Rear armor from 57.5 to 70.
- Main gun scatter from 7m to 5.1m

T34/85:
- Price from 360mp/100 fuel to 360mp/130 fuel
- Health from 640 to 800
- Armor from 115 front to 124 front
- Acceleration from 1.9 to 2.3
- Main gun scatter from 5m to 3.4m

T70:
- Price from 200mp/55 fuel to 160mp/55 fuel
- Main gun scatter from 5m to 1.84m
- Penetration from 50 to 45
- Reduced target size from 20 to 14
Dshk Tank and Bunker starting positions:
- Increased penetration on DShk from 1 to 2.

German MG42:
- Increased nearby suppression multiplier from .4 -> .55. This applies 55% of the weapons suppression to nearby squads.
- Increased nearby suppression radius rom 10 -> 12
- Decreased reload duration from 6 -> 5
- Increased reload frequency from 5 -> 7





Last Edited On: Jun 13 2013 08:22 PM UTC (19 days ago)

Updates for June 17th, 2013

- Fixed crash errors
- Improved collection of diagnostic information
- Twitch sdk update (pending loalization changes)
- tooltips
-Cursor size and trails fix
- Autodetect settings fix
-Added button to driver popup for warning delay


Last Edited On: Jun 18 2013 03:30 PM UTC (14 days ago)

Updates for June 18th, 2013

Maps

- New Maps Added to Bring The MP Map List To

(4-6) Rzhev Winter
(2-4) Kholodny Ferma Winter Battlefield
(2-4) Prypiat River
(2-4) Minsk Pocket
(4) Moscow Outskirts Winter
(4-6) Oka River Winter
(6-8) Steppes
(6-8) City 17
(6-8) City 17 Winter Battlefield
(2-4) Kholodny Ferma
(2-4) Prypiat River Winter Battlefield
(4) Moscow Outskirts
(4-6) Rzhev

Balance Changes

Flame Halftrack 251:
- Burst duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.
- Reload duration increased from 0.5 to 3 seconds.

Reload Times:
- German howitzer barrage reduced from 90 to 85 seconds.
- Panzerwerfer barrage reduced from 60 to 48 seconds.
- Soviet howitzer barrage increased from 90 to 120 seconds.
- SU-76 Barrage increased from 60 to 80 seconds.
- Sector artillery increased from 60 to 136.


SU-76 Barrage weapon:
- Damage decreased from 120 to 80.


Other

- Fixed some localization text
- Unlocked progression, Commanders, Intel Bulletins and Skins for all levels

Last Edited On: Jun 19 2013 07:12 PM UTC (13 days ago)

Update for June 19th, 2013

Update

- Frame buffer optimization

Last Edited On: Jun 19 2013 07:12 PM UTC (13 days ago)

Updates for June 20th, 2013



Gameplay

- Getting a squad weapon while using an accessory weapon will now switch to the squad weapon when finished
- Dispatch not counting as 'building' a unit for intel bulletins
- Fixed squad inside a building doesn't obey attack order to attack a specific enemy squad
- User can now use mini map to dispatch units from the Commander Bar
- Shock Troops no longer lose any Picked up Weapons when the Squad is upgrade with PPSh-41 Sub Machine Guns
- The player now has to build the SU76 as well as all other tank types in order to gain the "[filtered]e of life" achievement
- Fixed german flame saturation ability
- Concrete Piercing Round Hotkeychanged
- Removing team weapon crew sight radius when abandoning the team weapon
- Adding Tool Tip for pop costs to the dispatch units
- Fixed a selection issue with resource and victory points in the world. They are smaller now and it's easier to move troops around the points
- Fixing t-70's self repair ability


Skirmish AI

- AIObjectives properly check current leash length before updating leash lengths and forcing a replan
- AIConstruction tasks give up when squads reach 51% health instead of 30% health
- AI now properly checks if a point is valid for capture and doesn't ignore points it owns that are being reverted
- Removed task targets from AI tasks because nothing used them
- When AI is looking for enemy squad clumps to attack, it will now fallback to clumps near squad if there are no clumps in the objective area
- When targeting clumps of squads, the AI now only targets clumps containing at least one stationary squad, and it targets the squad closest the centre instead of the clump centre
- Squads wanting to fallback due to cold will no longer count toward objective fallback
- AI stats system updates military points on the same frame it adds them so we no longer have new military points being invalid for one frame
- AI properly detects observation posts as valid military points
- Switch almost all AI code to use average combat ratings instead of instantaneous combat ratings to improve stability
- When searching for heat sources squads will now also check for heat sources nearby if they cannot find any nearby heat sources within combat range of their targets
- Cleaned up code for determining if AI squads have good targets so we can check if they currently have a good target or are assigned a good target
- Skirmish AI properly reserves resources and no longer accidentally buys cheap things.
- Skirmish AI builds less observation posts
- Skirmish AI no longer counts team weapon squads when determining if it needs more squads for capturing.
- Skirmish AI now tries to clump its squads together to attack the same target, and prefers to keep squads attacking targets near each other in general
- Skirmish AI now tries harder to prevent reassigning squads to different objectives
- Skirmish AI now scores objective targets based on how close the squads it needs are to the target
- Skirmish AI will now depending on AI difficulty level evaluate multiple objective targets for the best score before picking one



AI Updates

- AI coordinated move phase now uses setup locations as destinations instead of objective target like coordinated attack arrival phase to prevent path finding oscillations when switching between the two phases
- AI attack objective now properly recognizes squads capturing a point as not being idle and triggers the switch from the move stage to the engaged stage
- AI leader task no longer overrides the destinations of the follower tasks screwing up the coordinated attack arrival phase of objectives
- AI leader and follower tasks now have internal timers to reduce oscillation between move and idle states
- Tweaked AI difficulty settings
- Expert AI now gets more resource bonus.
- Easy and Standard AI now captures less of the map

Balance

Anti-tank Mine
- Reduced the time to plant the mine from 12 to 6 seconds
- Changed the ability to allow it to be targeted in the fog of war
- Removed the cooldown

Veterancy Change:
- Rates changed from 50%/50% (Damage applied / received damage) to 75%/25%
Anti-Tank grenades and Panzerfaust:
- Range reduced from 20 to 15


Twitch.tv


- Fixed ghosting in Twitch capturing
- Added default cursor to Twitch
- Added dynamic cursors to Twitch
- Truncate twitch stream title if too long
- Fixed access of deconstructed stack variable
- Fixed garbled Twitch video capturing on AMD machines
- Log Twitch chat errors to the chat log
- Fixed spelling mistake on Rzhed (Spring) description
- Fixed translation issues in non-English languages



Other

- Connectivity fixes
- Change multicore check to be non-fatal. Force number of created threads to minimum of 2
- Dedreased sync errors
- Improved server connectivity
- Improved error messaging for steam connection issues
- Crash fixes
- Fix autodetect for the first time always giving out low settings
- Fix autodetect giving high settings always if the performance test fails
- Made cursors in vista larger (48x48 which is the maximum supported by vista)
- Addressed some audio and video bugs
- Added cancel button to compatiblity mode dialog, remode time delayed warning for compatibility mode and make it always warn the user
- Turn off mouse cursor trails and shadows in fullscreen mode to avoid invisible cursors in some systems
- Gramatically better error message for compatibility mode
- Updated some localization


Last Edited On: Jun 20 2013 08:11 PM UTC (12 days ago)

Updates for June 25th, 2013

Gameplay
• Fixed Commanders not being available in ToW missions


Presentation
• Order 227 cinematic audio fix
• [Oka River Winter] - Removed 2 Neutral Combat Engineers near the West Fuel Point


Balance
• Balance changes from last week that didnt make it into Day Zero:

Reload Times:
- German howitzer barrage reduced from 90 to 85 seconds.
- Panzerwerfer barrage reduced from 60 to 48 seconds.
- Soviet howitzer barrage increased from 90 to 120 seconds.
- SU-76 Barrage increased from 60 to 80 seconds.
- Sector artillery increased from 60 to 136.

Flame Halftrack 251:
- Burst duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
- Reload duration increased from 0.5 to 3 seconds

SU-76 Barrage weapon:
- Damage decreased from 120 to 80

Updates for June 26th, 2013

General

• Improved campaign stability
• Fixed bug causing game to exit after playing any mission
• Addressed issue where people would download more than expected after disk install

Last Edited On: Jun 26 2013 11:07 PM UTC (6 days ago)
Game Updates

• Additional campaign crash fixes
• AI attack move improvements.
• Fixed an issue where players would become stuck on Post Game Stats if they lost connection to Relic servers.
• Fixed a Theater of War Coop crash.

Professor Shoemaker takes us on a historical adventure to the Ostfront where-OH GOD TANKS!

The animated awesomeness never stops. Whether it's a new game, a funny video or a talented artists' work, there's always something that looks better as a GIF. Let's gather some popular ones that surfaced and made the rounds this week. It's good to see that after all those years, HelixSnake is still making his awesome, glitchy Skate 3 compilations. Company of Heroes 2 and Deadpool came out this week. The soldiers in the former sometimes engage in rather suspicious activities. While the latter game is simply a gif paradise. Brandon Larish's clickers are a bit different from the ones in The Last of Us. Oh, actually there's a thumbs up version of the referee. That's very smart. Pedro M. Filho continues to make awesome gaming gifs every day. And finally... I swear it's not on purpose. This guy and the craziness around him just won't disappear from the internet. Made something yourself or bumped into a cool GIF during the week? Hit the comments right away and post them! To contact the author of this post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

It hasn't been easy to wait for with Company of Heroes 2. First, it's been seven years since the original was released and achieved instant-classic status. It was a sharp change from almost everything else in real-time strategy, and cemented developer Relic's reputation as one of the best strategy studios in PC gaming. An Eastern Front expansion or sequel seemed like a no-brainer, but Relic never got around to it, and Company of Heroes was set aside as Relic became a Warhammer 40K studio. With Relic finally returning to Company of Heroes in a sequel set against the bloody grandeur and brutality of the Eastern Front, greatness seemed preordained.

Which is probably why simple goodness feels slightly disappointing. Company of Heroes 2 just feels like More Company of Heroes. It's still a great design, but most of its sequel's innovations are fairly conservative, and along the way it's also borrowing some dubious features from modern mainstream shooters, like a grindy progression system filled with perks and unlocks. Even the Eastern Front never quite comes alive. RTS games are partly powered by how well they communicate their theme, how well they connect the game you're playing to the story it's telling, and Company of Heroes 2 sometimes seems a little more like an Eastern Front skin than a fresh take on an old design.

The first rule of war is to save more than the other guy. Kotaku's Luke Plunkett says you should play Company of Heroes 2, and I agree. On this, the day of its launch, you can pick up the strategy title for $48 at Gamefly using code GFDJUN20. Yes, it activates on Steam, and if you're a Gamefly subscriber you'll save even more. [Gamefly] Here's today's Moneysaver. Keep up with Shane Roberts on Kinja and Twitter. Check out Dealzmodo for more great tech deals, and Deals.Kinja.com for even more discounts. This is Moneysaver Day One, a segment covering the the deals for a given game on its launch day. Join us every weekday at 2:15pm ET for the full Moneysaver roundup, brought to you by the Commerce Team. We're here to bring Kotaku readers the best gaming deals available, and to be clear, we also make money if you buy. We want your feedback.

The wait for a new Company of Heroes game has been long and grim, with little else in the interim to satisfy the particular strategic itch that Relic’s WWII game scratched so well. Now that Company of Heroes 2 has arrived, a new trailer provides an overview of the new features and despite the silly names of things like ColdTech, I can’t help but be pleased by the fact that the inclusion of ‘vaulting’ warrants a slow motion closeup. For more information and oversight than even a thousand trailers could reveal, you could always check out Wot I Think, or simply scroll through the twenty-odd items of day-one DLC for a while. It is mostly cosmetic and I didn’t touch any of it.

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After navigating a troubled road alongside former owner and publisher THQ, developer Relic Entertainment has found a new home for its library of titles with Sega. Though shifting to a new company with different policies and directives could hurt a studio's progress, a recent mission playthrough at E3 tells us that Company of Heroes 2 has not suffered in the transition.

Last December, Relic previewed the seasonal combat on show in the multiplayer mode (which has been in open beta for most of June), its E3 demo for Company of Heroes 2 focused on a single-player mission, one based on the historic Battle of Leningrad between the Russians and Germans in World War 2. In addition to Relic's RTS design expertise in action, the mission had a new technology on display: a feature known as "TrueSight." Using this new system, darkened areas of a map only become visible based on the realistic line of sight a soldier has on the battlefield, with terrain and objects able to obstruct their views to the dangers that lie in wait.

It took seven years for Company of Heroes 2, the sequel to Relic's massively popular World War II-themed PC-exclusive strategy game, to hit the shelves. But was it worth the wait? Six reviews say yes. Even though CoH2 has its problems—a clunky interface, a problematic and at times suicidal AI, and a clichéd story—it builds upon the strong foundation laid down by its predecessor, and ultimately improves on it with its own additions. This is what six reviews had to say: Edge Magazine There’s a war raging in Company Of Heroes 2, and it’s not the one you’re thinking of. Entrenched on one side is developer Relic’s desire to tackle the hardships and tactics of WWII’s Eastern Front. On the other is a well-oiled war machine comprised of components taken from the best RTS of 2006, whose innovative technology and nuanced strategic options revitalised a then staid setting, and whose qualities continue to hold up seven years on. Across COH2’s three separate modes – a story-driven singleplayer campaign, the expansive multiplayer and the Theatre Of War challenges that draw ideas from both – the battle lines shift and reform. Metro GameCentral Although fatigue with Second World War games in general meant that the original Company Of Heroes never gained quite the success it deserved it was widely hailed as the most innovative and cinematic real-time strategy of its time. This sequel focuses on the Russian front and the appalling weather conditions under which the bloodiest battles of the war were fought. Even with games as simple as Command & Conquer many people worry that real-time strategies are too complicated or slow-paced, but Company Of Heroes 2 is neither. It goes to considerable effort to teach its systems and mechanics to new players and only gradually introduces elements such as resource management and building construction in later missions. PC Gamer The Soviet war effort hinged on the country’s ability to spit out prodigious amounts of young men and women to fight and die for their motherland. That quirk of population translates to game mechanics: as Soviet general-in-the-sky, I had a near-endless stream of people I could click on to send to their doom. In most missions, squads can be trained at your home base or brought into battle as conscripts. This second type of soldier gives Company of Heroes its Soviet tinge, and can sometimes make it unsatisfying to play. Squads are better trained, tougher and specialist in application. Encompassing groups as varied as mortar crews, snipers and shock troops armed with smoke and frag grenades, they formed the scaffolding of my armies on which I hung the meat of my forces: the conscripts. Conscripts can be brought in from the edges of the map every 30 seconds. At their lowest rank they’re weak against almost everything, but they’re quick to produce and essentially free, limited by just two of Company of Heroes 2’s four resources: manpower – which is almost comically quick to regenerate on medium difficulty – and the population cap. VideoGamer Once base building, resource management and multiple objectives come into play, so too does Company Of Heroes 2 as an RTS monster. Even though most campaign missions can feel more like complex puzzles than truly open-ended skirmishes (there’s online for that), there’s enough scope to try out all manner of tactical approaches. One memorable mission saw an incredibly brave team of gunners take over a Nazi half-track vehicle and plough through one of their camps single-handedly, just managing to survive long enough for a team of grunt reinforcements to arrive and move the hell out of the way before a German artillery strike destroyed everything in its wake. It’s breathtaking stuff; the kind of drama you’d expect to see in a Battlefield game, but with the scope of an RTS. GamesRadar Campaign play translates quite well to multiplayer, such that the strategies needed to carefully balance territory and positioning learned alone will often work against human opponents. Execution challenges like those found in some of today’s more popular strategy games and MOBAs aren’t as big here. Instead, victory will typically rely on your ability to out-think your opponents. That focus on strategy and tactics is refreshing and brings CoH 2 in line with games like Civilization, though with a clear emphasis on the brutality and despondent tone of that particular era of history. AusGamers While this point may ultimately prove to be a non-issue, there are a couple of odd glitches at play in an otherwise honed gameplay experience. Using hotkeys to jump between units consistently results in weird bouncing objects, and the Havok physics engine occasionally fails in hilarious ways. More disturbing though is the duality of save-game woes. You can’t save over old save games, meaning regular savers may have to think up new save-game names, while saving too frequently can really chew into the hard drive space because Company of Heroes 2 save files weigh in at around 30MB each. These gripes really do pale in comparison to the overall achievement of a sequel that is absolutely well worth the wait. Kotaku Company of Heroes 2 isn't the revolution its predecessor was. Too much remains the same (down to the battle UI), and too much of the Soviet faction, particularly its employment in singleplayer, is a disappointment. But you know what, that's OK. There are many, myself included, who would argue the basic design underpinning the original was almost perfect, and it's still there. Adding more stuff on top of that, some of it not so great, most of it (like Theater of War) excellent, is about what you'd expect from a video game sequel. In the end, then, think of Company of Heroes 2 as the embodiment of the thing it's trying to recreate, namely the Soviet's advance into Germany. Blunt, and wasteful in parts, but in the end an overwhelming success. Top image courtesy of Gergő Vas. Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.

Company of Heroes 2 is Now Available on Steam in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia!

Please check the game page to see release times for your region.

It is 1941 and the beginning of what will become the bloodiest conflict of World War II resulting in more than 14 million military casualties. In the worlds darkest hour you are a commander of the Soviet Red Army, entrenched in brutal frontline warfare to free Mother Russia from the Enemy invaders.

Witness the struggles of the Red Army from near defeat through their incredible triumph over Germany in the most challenging and costly theatre of the war, the Eastern Front.

Your military tactics hold the power to tip the very balance of this conflict. Engage in tactical combat that will define you as a military leader and wield the might of the Soviet Empire as you smash your way to Berlin.

The Motherland is Calling!

Company of Heroes was a game for true armchair generals. There was no resource collecting, no tank rushes, none of the hallmarks of other games that look like they're about a clash of armies but are really little but mouse-driven sprint races. Built around the concepts of cover and directional fire, suppression and morale, you had to use actual battlefield strategies if you wanted to succeed, and seven years on (the game was released in 2006), the formula is so perfect that it remains unchallenged, even by developer Relic's semi-related Dawn of War series. Seven years is a long time between wars, though, and now that we have a sequel, people are expecting a lot from this game, the first time Company of Heroes has ditched Western Europe for the Eastern Front. So what's new? The weather, for one. The Eastern Front was a brutal theatre of war, and the weather in this game wants to make sure it has more than a cosmetic effect. Snowstorms will slow your infantry and even kill them if they're out in the open too long, while frozen rivers can be blown open to block passage or sink enemy forces. The fact the Soviets are now playable is the main addition here, though, and also the most disappointing. CoH2's campaign does not live up the standards set by the original game and its expansions. It begins too slowly and, even worse, is drenched from beginning to end in an awkward veneer of moralising, as Relic attempt to justify the fact you're playing as an army "not as bad as the Germans because they're on our side" by putting you in the shoes of a dissident aghast at the Soviet's shocking brutality. It doesn't work. The cutscenes, rendered using crude 3D models (see above), are hammy like a bad 70s war movie, their grim tone is at odds with the ragdoll action in the missions and it's all dreadfully dull, making the campaign's story as insufferable as (sorry) a cold Russian winter. Another problem with the campaign is that it attempts to shoe-horn several new features into the game in the name of factional authenticity, like an endless supply of conscripts and NKVD officers who shoot retreating soldiers. These feel crudely implemented, as they do little but upset the balance of the game (the former, as you can brute force your way to victory) and simply add one more arbitrary meter to the screen you need to look out for (the latter). The campaign doesn't even make the most of the new weather conditions, with only a handful of missions making any significant use of frozen rivers and only a single one challenging you with troop-killing snow. It's only towards the end of the 14-mission campaign, when you get a fantastic small-scale partisan mission and a few good "proper" battles (where you're free to build a whole army and take over the map) that it finds its feet. Lucky, then, the campaign is a glorified tutorial that you'll soon forget once you get into the real meat of the game. That used to be CoH's excellent multiplayer (where you can also play as the Germans), which was as enjoyable with/against friends as it was skirmishing against the AI. That remains the case with the sequel, only now it's even better, the bad weather conditions so overlooked in the main game a blast in multiplayer, as the struggle to just keep your men alive, let alone fighting, turns many old strategies on their head. The real draw here, though, is a new, third game mode that combines singleplayer and multiplayer into something fresh for the series, something that - wait for it - you'll be familiar with if you've played Call of Duty recently. It's called Theater of War, and like CoD's Spec Ops mode, it presents the player with a number of scenarios they can tackle either alone or co-op with a friend, ranging from battles with specific conditions to focused objectives like holding a small base against waves of enemy attacks. Having ditched the narrative of the campaign and without the "blank canvas" of a multiplayer match it might sound like a middling stepchild, but in truth it's a mode that brings out the very best in the game. Free of the campaigns blunt story and yet providing a little more focus to multiplayer (or skirmish, as Relic refreshingly make AI battles a prominent option), it's easily the most fun I've had with a real-time strategy game in years. Outside the campaign is also where the Soviets are most enjoyable, as you're able to use some of their monstrously massive equipment when and how you want, instead of at the whims of the campaign. Before I wind this up, I want to point something out that you don't normally get to do in a strategy game review: this game is explosive. The sound in this game is incredible, more like something you'd get in a Hollywood war movie than a top-down strategy game, and it really adds to a feeling of immediacy with the battlefield that's already strong thanks to all the mud, dirt, bodies and debris that go flying around. Company of Heroes 2 isn't the revolution its predecessor was. Too much remains the same (down to the battle UI), and too much of the Soviet faction, particularly its employment in singleplayer, is a disappointment. But you know what, that's OK. There are many, myself included, who would argue the basic design underpinning the original was almost perfect, and it's still there. Adding more stuff on top of that, some of it not so great, most of it (like Theater of War) excellent, is about what you'd expect from a video game sequel. In the end, then, think of Company of Heroes 2 as the embodiment of the thing it's trying to recreate, namely the Soviet's advance into Germany. Blunt, and wasteful in parts, but in the end an overwhelming success.

The Western Front isn’t as quiet as you may have heard from other sources but the Eastern Front is almost certainly a great deal louder. That’s what Company of Heroes 2 would have you believe at any rate, with a flashy new engine and a great deal of clamour presenting its conflict. But does the long-awaited sequel add anything more than enormous flurries and drifts of snow? I donned my thermal underpants and went to war.

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The Company Of Heroes 2 open beta has been extended an extra weekend. This weekend, to be precise. And during it, they’re unlocking a bunch more stuff to explore before the game goes live on Tuesday. And doubling earned XP. And giving away free bunnies!

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The Company of Heroes 2 open beta, originally scheduled to conclude yesterday, has been extended through this Sunday, June 23, until midnight Pacific. In this latest phase of testing, beta recruits will have access to new multiplayer maps in the rotation. Players will also receive double XP this weekend in auto match multiplayer modes.

A general reminder that all that major wartime experience will transfer over to the full game if players pick up CoH 2 within 60 days of launch (and use the same steam account as the beta). Company of Heroes 2 storms the Stalingrad of retail next Tuesday, June 25.

There’s apparently a single-player demo of Company Of Heroes 2 out, but it must be obtained circuitously by installing the open beta via the Steam page. The demo mission will then be found on the main menu. It is reportedly “a mid-game mission called ‘The Land Bridge to Leningrad’ where the player will be asked to cross a frozen lake under heavy German fire.” What a thing to be asked! No thanks, I’m going to stay here and cook some sausages.

Company Of Heroes 2 currently has an open beta for multiplayer (obviously) and arrives in full on the 25th.

In open beta AS WE SPEAK, Company Of Heroes 2 doesn’t miss out on the Having A New Trailer That Doesn’t Show Much That’s New E3 Party. Even though it comes out in only 13 days.

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Company of Heroes 2 has begun its open beta, which will run through June 18. To sign up, head over to the game's Steam page.

Relic Entertainment's open beta for Company of Heroes 2 rolled out today on Steam and will last until June 18. The open beta features competitive and cooperative modes, as well as six of the game's map. Players can earn up to level 45 rank, and their progress will be retained into the final retail copy - if they purchase the full game within 60 days of launch.

"We have been working hard since the closed beta balancing and improving all areas of the game as well as adding new matchmaking servers," said Greg Wilson, the game's producer. "COH2 has had one of the most successful beta programs we've ever run at Relic and the support of the fans has been a critical factor in making the game more balanced and stable for launch."

Company of Heroes 2 will launch June 25, so that's two full weeks of open beta testing for field commander tactics.