Company of Heroes 3 - Available now

[Destraex]

I am never a fan of games that try to do many platforms especially from games that are traditionally hard to play on consoles, in this case an RTS.
I am absolutely sure PC gamers miss out on would be features just from the fact that studios know they will be releasing on console at a similar time and not just as an afterthought that may or may not be possible later.

The FAQ so you guys can assess the damage and wasted time that will no doubt happen as a result of the natural and necessary collaboration with SEGAs console teams by Relic.

Still it is good to get the word out for the franchise I guess. Perhaps COH has reached it's peak and it's time to let it slide in favour of more PC niche games like WARNO.

I was silly enough to pre-order this, have it delayed and now have a console version announced. I loved the alpha, fingers crossed hey.

The console FAQ focuses heavily on the company line that the console version has not affected the PC version.
https://community.companyofheroes.com/coh-franchise-home/company-of-heroes-3/blogs/30-company-of-heroes-3-console-edition-faq

[al_infierno]

Bummer.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts though.  Thanks for taking one for the team 

[Victor]

If you're burned on the Company of Heroes series, I can heartily recommend Men of War series instead. It's the same general concept but more geared towards grogs (or maybe I should've said micromanagers...). Not only can you directly control every soldier, gun and vehicle, but carrying over between battles is good.

The community is currently split between Men of War: Assault Squad 2 (original devs) and Call to Arms: Gates of Hell (3rd party devs). Try those if you want the multiplayer experience but if you're interested in singleplayer (and I think you are...) you can pick up Men of War: Assault Squad for around $5 right now and it'll run on anything.

Download the Dynamic Campaign Generator mod (they also have it for AS 2 and the original Men of War but those versions have issues) and enjoy the war. I've only ever finished one full campaign as a UK unit going from 1940 to 1953 (you can carry your unit over from campaign to campaign all the way to Korea) and it's without a doubt the best WW2 RTS experience I've had.

The attention to detail in terms of the campaigns, a mix of historical and random, the factions, vehicles and equipment is intense. Fun fact, if you play as the USSR you can buy squads in the early war that are horribly underequipped and are called something like 'raw meat', but since you can loot if you win a battle, you can equip your guys as you like and experiment. All SMG squads, put a sniper rifle in every squad, give everyone only pistols, etc.

I don't know if it's the vanilla game or the mod itself, but you can even remove and add crew served weapons on some of the vehicles. Capture a German halftrack, take off the MG42's and put 2 M1919's on it and so forth.

[CaptainKoloth]

If you're burned on the Company of Heroes series, I can heartily recommend Men of War series instead. It's the same general concept but more geared towards grogs (or maybe I should've said micromanagers...). Not only can you directly control every soldier, gun and vehicle, but carrying over between battles is good.

The community is currently split between Men of War: Assault Squad 2 (original devs) and Call to Arms: Gates of Hell (3rd party devs). Try those if you want the multiplayer experience but if you're interested in singleplayer (and I think you are...) you can pick up Men of War: Assault Squad for around $5 right now and it'll run on anything.

Download the Dynamic Campaign Generator mod (they also have it for AS 2 and the original Men of War but those versions have issues) and enjoy the war. I've only ever finished one full campaign as a UK unit going from 1940 to 1953 (you can carry your unit over from campaign to campaign all the way to Korea) and it's without a doubt the best WW2 RTS experience I've had.

The attention to detail in terms of the campaigns, a mix of historical and random, the factions, vehicles and equipment is intense. Fun fact, if you play as the USSR you can buy squads in the early war that are horribly underequipped and are called something like 'raw meat', but since you can loot if you win a battle, you can equip your guys as you like and experiment. All SMG squads, put a sniper rifle in every squad, give everyone only pistols, etc.

I don't know if it's the vanilla game or the mod itself, but you can even remove and add crew served weapons on some of the vehicles. Capture a German halftrack, take off the MG42's and put 2 M1919's on it and so forth.

I've always been totally baffled by the universe of mods availabe for MOWAS, probably in large part because many or most of them are primarily in Russian. Is there any kind of a roadmap to better understand them?

[Victor]

I've always been totally baffled by the universe of mods availabe for MOWAS, probably in large part because many or most of them are primarily in Russian. Is there any kind of a roadmap to better understand them?

I can suggest Moddb as a good starting point for Assault Squad specifically, the newer ones in the series all work off of Steam workshop more or less.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/dynamic-campaign-generator-dcg/downloads/dcg-v40-for-assault-squad-full

Is the one I was referring to, but like you said, there's quite a list for everything from Revolutionary War to HALO conversions too.

https://www.moddb.com/games/men-of-war-assault-squad/downloads

[CaptainKoloth]

I've always been totally baffled by the universe of mods availabe for MOWAS, probably in large part because many or most of them are primarily in Russian. Is there any kind of a roadmap to better understand them?

I can suggest Moddb as a good starting point for Assault Squad specifically, the newer ones in the series all work off of Steam workshop more or less.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/dynamic-campaign-generator-dcg/downloads/dcg-v40-for-assault-squad-full

Is the one I was referring to, but like you said, there's quite a list for everything from Revolutionary War to HALO conversions too.

https://www.moddb.com/games/men-of-war-assault-squad/downloads

I can find and install them, the issue I have is parsing them. With most games you can get a pretty solid idea of what mods are good and how they all fit together. With MOWAS it's this endless list of stuff, most of which is half in Russian. Are they good? Are they realistic? Are they even finished? I for the most part can't make heads or tails of it, and have looked for some kind of primer or guide to them without success.

[Jarhead0331]

The first step is to determine what you're looking for in a mod. Total conversion? New OOBs? Overhaul on realism? There are so many great ones in all categories. If you search MOWAS and Call to Arms, you'll find a bunch of threads. Over time I've posted about some of my favorite mods.

[Destraex]

Company of Heroes 3 January 11th - Multiplayer Tech Test.

[Jarhead0331]

If you buy now, do you get access to a current build, or is it only during designated test periods?

[Destraex]

No. No access to the current build.
I would not be surprised though that if you have not pre-ordered you no longer get access to their limited play tests when they are scheduled.

[Destraex]

Looks like the sign up for the multiplayer playtest is free for everybody.

You just have to press request access in steam then wait until the 11th I guess.

[Destraex]

ok. Gameplay is not bad but I am really not impressed with what they have done with the coh3 graphics. Even at the best settings they look much worse than the previous preview game.

Hurts my eyes to try to see the low detail models when zoomed out and zoomed in the men just look like somebody painted on effects with a digital art pad brush.
Suspect performance had to be had for consoles later on or for the MP test. So close to release I don't know what they would be thinking trying this unless they could not knuckle down performance this late in the piece.

It just looks worse than coh2. It's probably hard to describe in screenshots. By the way people are already digging into the files and turning the graphics back up manually it seems.



















Disclaimer on this last one. This is how the tutorial showed up before I got to the main menu at all on first load. This did allow me to change graphics but they were all already on top... but obviously not for the tutorial. But you can see the method to how the models are drawn here and how they are simplified. I assume the LOD is changing like this (total war style which I hate) as I zoom out or is just blurred so much it blends into the terrain. The terrain is the worst part btw. The floor especially is horrible.

[Grim.Reaper]

I played the beta a little bit, just the single player mode.  I don't really care to much about whether the graphics are great or not, more about the game play.  And from what I can tell with my limited time so far, not sure this is a game I'll buy or not since it seems basically the same RTS game from the past.  I am sure there are some changes in there somewhere, but I was probably hoping unrealistically it might have become more strategic and less hectic for my tastes.  Not at all bashing the game for those people who enjoy this type of stuff, just not my cup of tea.  I am sure my curiosity will get the best of me some day to purchase it regardless.

[Destraex]

I know what you mean Grim. Company of Heroes is a sequel and thus it will be more of the same. Thus it follows COH3 will be as hectic as it's predescessors. It's for adreneline junkies that want the dopamine rush of combat rather than the cool hand luke that wants time to analyse everything. Like Tom Cruise said, if you think, you're dead.

It also follows that you need good clean graphics to be able to react fast enough and you want that hollywood visceral picture rather than icons on a board to feel that you are there and get that rush. That excitement. It's almost like a first person shooter but with a few more squads done from above. You are the troops on the ground as well as the company commander simultaneously. Animations as well are something that needs to be very well articulated so you can see what is going on, I like to see my men taking cover and then how they respond to the enemy, what effect it is having on them. The better the graphics the better I can tell what's going on while enjoying the cinematic experience.

I am enjoying it but I am finding a tonne of really simple mistakes in the UI. Same thing went for AOEIV.
For instance selecting a target for my squads rifle grenade deslects my squad forcing me to reselect it after firing. In an RTS like this you do not have time for those little inefficiencies. These sorts of things were not a problem in coh1 or 2. It's like they did not even play thier own games. Reminds me of the hollywood movie director that says he loves the source material for a movie but really just skimmed it and did his own thing and thus made a slew of mistakes.

[al_infierno]

Anyone gonna check this one out?  Steam reviews are mixed as it's apparently fairly buggy.