CoH 3: Hammer & Shield Expansion Pack

I think this is just kind of a "filler expansion" in order to keep the promise that all premium edition customers get the 1st expansion.
With the bigger (actual) expansions coming next year

Or, more likely, never.

Italian Partisans BG or no? That's what I care about. If not:

Yes... things seem to be really lousy for Relic. Give in a year what was already created before the release. Italian Coastal Defense Soldiers were announced via screenshot somewhere around the release date.

I think this is just kind of a "filler expansion" in order to keep the promise that all premium edition customers get the 1st expansion.
With the bigger (actual) expansions coming next year

If that was the logic Relic used, it would be a huge no go. They are intentionally screwing over their most loyal customers. They would technically have delivered on their promise, but they are still cheating on the customers. Currently, the premium edition sells for 20 Euros. They sell their DLC for 17, leaving 3 Euros for the remaining "goodies", basically a hand full of skins. You're not getting a real "deal" for buying the premium edition. Where's the "thank you" for trusting Relic and handing them over and additional 20 Euros almost a year in advance? For not knowing what they will actually give you down the line? I don't see it.

The problem is that the other option is not a great outlook either: They're not intentionally shrinking the DLC, but this is literally the best they can do with their current resources. Which would mean that not many people are working on CoH3 anymore, otherwise there would be way more content.

CoH2 had the "saving grace" march deployment patch 9 months post release. That's exactly where we are now in CoH3's cycle, and what do we get? A mediocre DLC and a patch that is neither big nor ambitious. It's simply not enough to make CoH3 a good and healthy game.
I guess that ship has sadly sailed. Christmas season will pass and CoH3 will not be on the front page, CoH3 is still not the game that makes you "wow" when you PanzerIV explodes and your infantry gets bombed. The holidays will mean no work being done for half of December, so the next "big" patch realistically will be in February, one year after CoH3's release. It's just too late. Relic has missed their opportunity. They lost half a year after release fixing nothing until SEGA nuked their management. Now they are on the right track, but staff has been pulled and there's not enough people anymore to fix what they left behind.

There will be no march deployment patch for CoH3, as much as I would like to see it. CoH2 has 250 recent reviews on Steam, CoH3 has 200. CoH3 has its own stable player base now, it is and will be an okay game, but I don't think Relic will do more than necessary to avoid the worst PR clash.

The problem is that the other option is not a great outlook either: They're not intentionally shrinking the DLC, but this is literally the best they can do with their current resources. Which would mean that not many people are working on CoH3 anymore, otherwise there would be way more content.

Or it means that their entire focus for this patch was (still) on "fix the game" rather than "add new content". I'm sure that Relic's resources are now much tighter compared to pre-launch, but it doesn't mean that their team is too small now to save CoH3

CoH2 had the "saving grace" march deployment patch 9 months post release.

Help me out here, what exactly was the great march 2014 update? I could have sworn that was the patch where they just released two new doctrines with Wehr Puma and Soviet M4C Sherman in order to promote the upcoming WFA DLC. And at that point CoH2 multiplayer was in a pretty "hated" & unpopular state because of the blatant pay2win crap going on

Or it means that their entire focus for this patch was (still) on "fix the game" rather than "add new content". I'm sure that Relic's resources are now much tighter compared to pre-launch, but it doesn't mean that their team is too small now to save CoH3



Help me out here, what exactly was the great march 2014 update? I could have sworn that was the patch where they just released two new doctrines with Wehr Puma and Soviet M4C Sherman in order to promote the upcoming WFA DLC. And at that point CoH2 multiplayer was in a pretty "hated" & unpopular state because of the blatant pay2win crap going on

You forget that this game is positioned as a live service. And now, almost a year later, content was given that was ready before the release (screenshots of the Italian Coastal Defense were shown around the release date). If this was given in 3 months, and similar content was released with a regularity of 3 months, well, it can be called a live service. But now, at this rate of development, if SEGA allows it, then CoH3 will arrive in some kind of playable and content-filled state in another two years.

As a live service game, the game has already failed.

Help me out here, what exactly was the great march 2014 update? I could have sworn that was the patch where they just released two new doctrines with Wehr Puma and Soviet M4C Sherman in order to promote the upcoming WFA DLC. And at that point CoH2 multiplayer was in a pretty "hated" & unpopular state because of the blatant pay2win crap going on

Rework of all infantry weapon profiles. By far the most important step in saving CoH2.

Or it means that their entire focus for this patch was (still) on "fix the game" rather than "add new content". I'm sure that Relic's resources are now much tighter compared to pre-launch, but it doesn't mean that their team is too small now to save CoH3

I can only judge on what they show. There's nothing wrong with the patch, but it just feels like "just another one" as the ones before it. They try to tackle some frequently criticised issues, but is it enough to draw in players long-term? I'd doubt it. Some points on the list are very vague. They could be major reworks or just polishing. We don't know, but given Relic's record since launch and tendency to oversell their patches, I guess they are not extensive.

Help me out here, what exactly was the great march 2014 update? I could have sworn that was the patch where they just released two new doctrines with Wehr Puma and Soviet M4C Sherman in order to promote the upcoming WFA DLC. And at that point CoH2 multiplayer was in a pretty "hated" & unpopular state because of the blatant pay2win crap going on

A complete rework of infantry interaction coupled with a decently sized patch. You're right if you want to take the point literally: This one patch did not single-handedly save CoH2. There was a series of updates in 2014 up to 2015 that lead to a steady increase in the player base. The multiplayer before might have been unpopular, but yet CoH2 back then was despite all its problems still more popular than CoH3 currently is.
But I meant it figuratively: The march deployment patch is seen as a major turn-around for CoH2.
Relic needs some ambitious patches if they want the player base back. The best fitting explanation for the current speed and ambition of the patches is that the CoH3 team has been shrunk considerably. They don't have the capacity anymore to deliver larger patches without sacrificing frequency of updates. I believe they are doing the best they can. Relic has gotten a LOT better in understanding CoH3's problems and they finally try to address them unlike during their post-launch disaster. It's not a lack of talent, nor does the Coh3 team appear unmotivated. It's just literally the best they can do with a small team.
This small team is the result of losing so many players after launch and basically doing nothing in the first half year, which I assume lead to a management decision to reduce further investment into CoH3 and provide less support for the game than would be necessary.
Those small patches will likely not win back the large player base that this game actually has. How much time is left until the development of the main game will be stopped completely? Maybe one or two more years? That would be a normal cycle for a game, with increasingly dwindling resources over time.
If this patch + DLC doesn't permanently increase the player numbers and/or trickle back, that's another 2-3 months lost until the next patch is released. Even if they somehow manage afterwards, the player base won't be huge by the time they actually stop development.

The venerable PatFenis said this in the chatbox already but it would probably have counted for quite a lot if they just admitted that the game was no-where near finished and released it in 'Early Access' instead of pretending that they had even close to a finished product to sell to people.

Then again, the previous game was released in a dogshit state too and there was no early access then either, so I suppose it's not all that surprising, given their track record.

This is the most confusing thing about coh3 so far. They barely do anything for a year then push out a meh DLC??

And the DLC looks to possibly break Multiplayer???

And all the while for the last few months it actually looks like they have more than one person working on it. So the little stuff is finally getting attention.

The DLC makes it look like they are done with Coh3. They will not be working on it anymore. They made a half assed attempt to satisfy the the people who paid for the premium.

But the little fixes mean they are trying to fix up the mess they made. Which could indicate they are going to keep going. Or they are just trying to polish it up before they move on. If they are going to keep going, why is the DLC so meh?

Then you have to remember Coh2 took forever to git gud.

So you have two things pointing to Coh3 is dead and two things pointing to its still alive. Which is it???

I had hopes David Phan was the guy to get this game fixed up. And it is moving that way. So my guess is it will still limp along and slowly get better. Could be pure copium though.

lmao

>relic makes another sh1tty move

>as expected, people are complaining

>aerafield for the devs in any of such threads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctrgPD9s_yY&ab_channel=UncleSetsu

>relic makes another sh1tty move

>as expected, people are complaining

>aerafield for the devs in any of such threads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctrgPD9s_yY&ab_channel=UncleSetsu

OR maybe I know a little more about the stuff going on behind the scenes. Stay in your lane, expert And I guess by calling this a "filler expansion" I also commended Relic or what?

In the past I've made several posts already where I criticized Relic or CoH3's live service, not my fault you're oblivious

Show Spoiler