Observer Mode - Coming Soon™

The majority of people who played vCoH never played against other people. They either played compstomp or campaign. We don't have info for CoH2, but it's safe to assume that trend hasn't changed.

Everything Relic has done so far has been targeted at that group of players. Until we see otherwise, I think it's safe to assume that those players are their first priority.

just to be sure... the competetive players do not want relic to shut out or ignore the single players/compstompers/whatever. even the decision to cater to their needs and demands first would have been acceptable. but the decision to not only NOT support the "competetive" side of the game, but also to disregard the "casual" gamers (lobbies etc.) has caused a rift between the devs and the players that is pretty deep.

don't get me wrong, it IS possible to satisfy the needs and demands of both groups (casual and competetive gamers). Relic (so far) has chosen to satisfy neither group of players.

imho, the main rift between players that "don't like" and players that "like" the game, is that the players that don't like it are not content with the core gameplay and the amount of options it offers. i have to reiterate that balance is NOT one of the main concerns (remember vCoH 2.601 airborne? yes, strafe was OP, but a simple balance patch can fix an imbalance like that... but a patch would not be able to remove brits from the game for example), but that the core gameplay is one of the main "turn offs" for the competetive gamers, since it is actually a step back from the (already pretty simple) vCoH system of 3 fixed commanders per faction.

mind you that if you don't own the (alleged) P2W commanders, there is no way for you to find out how strong those commanders are (apart from reverse engineering the game files) other than to buy them and try them out. You COULD of course just play multiplayer and hope that you get an opponent with that commander, but then again, his skill level might be vastly inferior/superior for all that you know, so unless you're really lucky you might misinterpret the "real" strength of this commander for a quite a while. THAT is not what one would consider "competetive".

It's important to clarify that this is a potential new feature, not a promise for a new feature.

Edit: I'm not saying either way, I just want to avoid a situation where 9 months from now people are linking to this thread saying we lied.

LoL! Nice buzz kill...

LoL! Nice buzz kill...

given that he will be and is expected to be held accountable for not only what he says and does; but also what the company says and does.

tldr: a nasty catch 22

It's certainly a much requested feature here. It's not a priority for every user though.

Noun,

With all do respect, and I know that Relic and you never said that you want COH to be like SC2 or other popular strategy esport game (I'm not sure why that's not your goal because it's good for the community and it's good for $$$ but that's another topic), but if you would remove the ladder system and observer mode from SC2, believe me, 90% of the players would be complaining. It's normal that not a lot of people are asking for this feature, because by not having it, the type of players who do want proper ladders and observe mode and other features that are lacking (up-to-date replay system) those players decided not to play or buy COH2. There is no reason right not for competitive players to be attracted by COH2, not only because of it's lack of competitive features but also because of the DLC commanders, so how can their be demand for such features.

The famous question, what came first ? the chicken or the egg ? but in this example, people need to pay in order to have the chicken and it doesn't even lay any eggs.

given that he will be and is expected to be held accountable for what he says do you really blame him. he also represents the company, which means his reputation is directly tied to the company.

Well, Quinn wrote in an interview that CoH2 is not aiming to be "E-Sports"
Noun, has this changed? I'd like to know.

Well, Quinn wrote in an interview that CoH2 is not aiming to be "E-Sports"
Noun, has this changed? I'd like to know.

i don't know about you but i don't' want coh2 to ever become an "Esports" for 1 reason esports are really all at the heart and soul about one thing. that being MONEY!!! imagine not being able to host an amateur tourney without a licensee ala starcraft.

having esports scene is nice in alot of ways but in the same way dlc often restricts modding so does esports restrict its equivelent.

as for what cata replied to (my post) i edited it for hopefully clearer understanding.

Noun,

With all do respect, and I know that Relic and you never said that you want COH to be like SC2 or other popular strategy esport game (I'm not sure why that's not your goal because it's good for the community and it's good for $$$ but that's another topic), but if you would remove the ladder system and observer mode from SC2, believe me, 90% of the players would be complaining. It's normal that not a lot of people are asking for this feature, because by not having it, the type of players who do want proper ladders and observe mode and other features that are lacking (up-to-date replay system) those players decided not to play or buy COH2. There is no reason right not for competitive players to be attracted by COH2, not only because of it's lack of competitive features but also because of the DLC commanders, so how can their be demand for such features.

+1

Potential explanation:

Last year there was a huge fight between the data collectors and the gameplay designers about which direction to go with the automatching/lobby system. The data collectors said "look who plays the game and what they play." The dudes who like 1v1 and want to bear Sepha's children said "no, we need to encourage competitive play and it'll be better if people aren't team stacking their pub 4v4 games. We've got this cool ELO system all worked out."

And a compromise was reached, and like all good compromises, it pleased no one. People could play with friends in automatch, but there would be no lobbies or public games. And like most compromises, it ended up having questionable long-term results.

On the whole I personally feel it's a good system. If I get a good team together, and we have enough ELO points put together, we get pretty good opponents if any are available. But it limits the game modes, your ability to play the map YOU want, etc. Relic made a poor decision to not give the customer what they want, even if what the customer wants is, in fact, pretty stupid (annihilation, Scheldt) and doesn't give rise to good competitive games, etc.

Potential explanation:

Last year there was a huge fight between the data collectors and the gameplay designers about which direction to go with the automatching/lobby system. The data collectors said "look who plays the game and what they play." The dudes who like 1v1 and want to bear Sepha's children said "no, we need to encourage competitive play and it'll be better if people aren't team stacking their pub 4v4 games. We've got this cool ELO system all worked out."

And a compromise was reached, and like all good compromises, it pleased no one. People could play with friends in automatch, but there would be no lobbies or public games. And like most compromises, it ended up having questionable long-term results.

On the whole I personally feel it's a good system. If I get a good team together, and we have enough ELO points put together, we get pretty good opponents if any are available. But it limits the game modes, your ability to play the map YOU want, etc. Relic made a poor decision to not give the customer what they want, even if what the customer wants is, in fact, pretty stupid (annihilation, Scheldt) and doesn't give rise to good competitive games, etc.

Funny thing is when I pressed Noun/Relic about custom game lobby, their explanation was that people were complaining about teamstacking, smurfing and they wanted to avoid that.

Exact thing they achieved is teamstacking and smurfing en-mass without any way for a player to avoid that other than becoming teamstacker himself.

Hence those guys who were teamstacking and smurfing in VCOH are having a blast and enjoying themselves trolling unsuspecting (more or less) random noobs.

Guys who always tried to make the games even when they played 3v3's and 4v4's (like myself) have either given up and uninstalled their copy of COH2 or are still here playing 1v1's and 2v2's and bitching about core game design.

P.S. There is no reason to try to play competitive 1v1 for 4v4 player since everyone thinks they are excellent players. They cannot join the game with 7 good players and realize that they are infact pretty average.
Thats how you start playing 1v1 from team games. To improve your skill

i don't know about you but i don't' want coh2 to ever become an "Esports" for 1 reason esports are really all at the heart and soul about one thing. that being MONEY!!! imagine not being able to host an amateur tourney without a licensee ala starcraft.

having esports scene is nice in alot of ways but in the same way dlc often restricts modding so does esports restrict its equivelent.

as for what cata replied to (my post) i edited it for hopefully clearer understanding.

*cough*

esports is bad because it's "all about money"? but DLC isn't i guess?
and esports does not restrict modding... to the contrary actually, just look at sc2 arcade mode (which is both free2play AND the most played mode anyway).

btw, i doubt that a torunament with more than $10k prize money could be considered "amateur" (that is the cutoff for sc2 tournament licenses... less than $10k prize money = no license needed).